Miss Danesbury, true to her word, came to fetch Hester down to tea.
They went down some broad carpetless stairs, along a wide stone hall,
and then paused for an instant at a half-open door from which a stream
of eager voices issued.
"I will introduce you to your school-fellows, and I hope your future
friends," said Miss Danesbury. "After tea you will come with me to see
Mrs Willis--she is never in the school-room at tea-time. Mdlle.
Perier or Miss Good usually superintends. Now, my dear, come along--
why, surely you are not frightened?"
"Oh, please, may I sit near you?" asked Hester.
"No, my love; I take care of the little ones, and they are at a table by
themselves. Now, come in at once--the moment you dread will soon be
over, and it is nothing, my love--really nothing."
Nothing! never, as long as Hester lived, did she forget the supreme
agony of terror and shyness which came over her as she entered that
long, low, brightly-lighted room. The forty pairs of curious eyes which
were raised inquisitively to her face became as torturing as forty
burning suns. She felt an almost uncontrollable desire to run away and
hide--she wondered if she could possibly keep from screaming aloud. In
the end she found herself, she scarcely knew how, seated beside a
gentle, sweet-mannered girl, and munching bread and butter which tasted
drier than sawdust, and occasionally trying to sip something very hot
and scalding which she vaguely understood went by the name of tea. The
buzzing voices all chattering eagerly in French, and the occasional
sharp, high-pitched reprimands coming in peremptory tones from the thin
lips of Mdlle. Perier, sounded far off and distant--her head was dizzy,
her eyes swam--the tired and shy child endured tortures.
In after-days, in long after-years when the memory of Lavender House was
to come back to Hetty Thornton as one of the sweetest, brightest
episodes in her existence--in the days when she was to know almost every
blade of grass in the gardens, and to be familiar with each corner of
the old house, with each face which now appeared so strange, she might
wonder at her feelings to-night, but never even then could she forget
them.
She sat at the table in a dream, trying to eat the tasteless bread and
butter. Suddenly and swiftly the thick and somewhat stale piece of
bread on her plate was exchanged for a thin, fresh, and delicately-cut
slice.
"Eat that," whispered a voice--"I know the other is horrid. It's a
shame of Perier to give such stuff to a stranger."
"Mdlle. Cecile, you are transgressing: you are talking English," came
in a torrent of rapid French from the head of the table. "You lose a
conduct mark, ma'amselle."
The young girl who sat next Hester inclined her head gently and
submissively, and Hester, venturing to glance at her, saw that a
delicate pink had spread itself over her pale face. She was a plain
girl; but even Hester, in this first moment of terror, could scarcely
have been afraid of her, so benign was her expression, so sweet the
glance from her soft, full brown eyes. Hester now further observed that
the thin bread and butter had been removed from Cecil's own plate. She
began to wonder why this girl was indulged with better food than the
rest of her comrades.
Hester was beginning to feel a little less shy, and was taking one or
two furtive glances at her companions, when she suddenly felt herself
turning crimson, and all her agony of shyness and dislike to her
school-life returning. She encountered the full, bright, quizzical gaze
of the girl who had made personal remarks about her in the porter's
room. The merry black eyes of this gipsy maiden fairly twinkled with
suppressed fun when they met hers, and the bright head even nodded
audaciously across the table to her.
Not for worlds would Hester return this friendly greeting--she still
held to her opinion that Miss Forest was one of the most ill-bred people
she had ever met, and, in addition to feeling a considerable amount of
fear of her, she quite made up her mind that she would never be on
friendly terms with so underbred a girl.
At this moment grace was repeated in sonorous tones by a stern-looking
person who sat at the foot of the long table, and whom Hester had not
before noticed. Instantly the girls rose from their seats, and began to
file in orderly procession out of the tea-room. Hester looked round in
terror for the friendly Miss Danesbury, but she could not catch sight of
her anywhere. At this moment, however, her companion of the tea-table
touched her arm.
"We may speak English now for half an hour," she said, "and most of us
are going to the play-room. We generally tell stories round the fire
upon these dark winter's nights. Would you like to come with me
to-night? Shall we be chums for this evening?"
"I don't know what `chums' are," said Hester; "but," she added, with the
dawning of a faint smile on her poor, sad little face, "I shall be very
glad to go with you."
"Come then," said Cecil Temple, and she pulled Hester's hand within her
arm, and walked with her across the wide stone hall, and into the
largest room Hester had ever seen.
Never, anywhere, could there have been a more delightful play-room than
this. It was so large that two great fires which burned at either end
were not at all too much to emit even tolerable warmth. The room was
bright with three or four lamps which were suspended from the ceiling,
the floor was covered with matting, and the walls were divided into
curious partitions, which gave the room a peculiar but very cosy effect.
These partitions consisted of large panels, and were divided by slender
rails the one from the other.
"This is my cosy corner," said Cecil, "and you shall sit with me in it
to-night. You see," she added, "each of us girls has her own partition,
and we can do exactly what we like in it. We can put our own
photographs, our own drawings, our own treasures on our panels. Under
each division is our own little work-table, and, in fact, our own
individual treasures lie round us in the enclosure of this dear little
rail. The centre of the room is common property, and you see what a
great space there is round each fire-place where we can chatter and
talk, and be on common ground. The fire-place at the end of the room
near the door is reserved especially for the little ones, but we elder
girls sit at the top. Of course you will belong to us. How old are
you?"
"Twelve," said Hester.
"Oh, well, you are so tall that you cannot possibly be put with the
little ones, so you must come in with us."
"And shall I have a railed-in division and a panel of my own?" asked
Hester. "It sounds a very nice arrangement. I hope my department will
be close to yours, Miss?"
"Temple is my name," said Cecil, "but you need not call me that. I am
Cecil to all my friends, and you are my friend this evening, for you are
my chum, you know. Oh, you were asking me about our departments--you
won't have any at first, for you have got to earn it, but I will invite
you to mine pretty often. Come now, let us go inside. Is not it just
like the darlingest little drawing-room? I am so sorry that I have only
one easy chair, but you shall have it to-night, and I will sit on this
three-legged stool. I am saving up my money to buy another armchair,
and Annie has promised to upholster it for me."
"Is Annie one of the maids?"
"Oh, dear, no!--she's dear old Annie Forest, the liveliest girl in the
school. Poor darling, she's seldom out of hot water; but we all love
her, we can't help it. Poor Annie, she hardly ever has the luxury of a
department to herself, so she is useful all round. She's the most
amusing and good-natured dear pet in Christendom."
"I don't like her at all," said Hester; "I did not know you were talking
of her--she is a most rude, uncouth girl." Cecil Temple, who had been
arranging a small dark green table-cloth with daffodils worked
artistically in each corner on her little table, stood up as the
newcomer uttered these words, and regarded her fixedly.
"It is a pity to draw hasty conclusions," she said. "There is no girl
more loved in the school than Annie Forest. Even the teachers, although
they are always punishing her, cannot help having a soft corner in their
hearts for her. What can she possibly have done to offend you?--but
oh!--hush--don't speak--she is coming into the room."
As Cecil finished her rather eager defence of her friend, and prevented
the indignant words which were bubbling to Hester's lips, a gay voice
was heard singing a comic song in the passage--the play-room door was
flung open with a bang, and Miss Forest entered the room with a small
girl seated on each of her shoulders.
"Hold on, Janny love; keep your arms well round me, Mabel. Now then,
here we go--twice up the room and down again. No more, as I'm alive.
I've got to attend to other matters than you."
She placed the little girls on the floor amid peals of laughter, and
shouts from several little ones to give them a ride too. The children
began to cling to her skirts and to drag her in all directions, and she
finally escaped from them with one dexterous bound which placed her in
that portion of the play-room where the little ones knew they were not
allowed to enter.
Until her arrival the different girls scattered about the large room had
been more or less orderly, chattering and laughing together, it is true,
but in a quiet manner. Now the whole place appeared suddenly in an
uproar.
"Annie, come here--Annie, darling, give me your opinion about this--
Annie, my precious, naughty creature, come and tell me about your last
scrape."
Annie Forest blew several kisses to her adorers, but did not attach
herself to any of them.
"The Temple requires me," she said, in her sauciest tones; "my beloved
friends, the Temple as usual is vouchsafing its sacred shelter to the
stranger."
In an instant Annie was kneeling inside the inclosure of Miss Temple's
rail and laughing immoderately.
"You dear stranger!" she exclaimed, turning round and gazing full into
Hester's shy face, "I do declare I have been punished for the intense
ardour with which I longed to embrace you. Has she told you, Cecil
darling, what I did in her behalf? How I ventured beyond the sacred
precincts of the baize door and hid inside the porter's room? Poor
dear, she jumped when she heard my friendly voice, and as I spoke Miss
Danesbury caught me in the very act. Poor old dear, she cried when she
complained of me, but duty is Danesbury's motto; she would go to the
stake for it, and I respect her immensely. I have got my twenty lines
of that horrible French poetry, to learn--the very thought almost
strangles me, and I foresee plainly that I shall do something terribly
naughty within the next few hours; I must, my love--I really must. I
have just come here to shake hands with Miss Thornton, and then I must
away to my penance. Ah, how little I shall learn, and how hard I shall
think! Welcome to Lavender House, Miss Thornton; look upon me as your
devoted ally, and if you have a spark of pity in your breast, feel for
the girl whom you got into a scrape the very moment you entered these
sacred walls."
"I don't understand you," said Hester, who would not hold out her hand,
and who was standing up in a very stiff, shy, and angular position. "I
think you were very rude to startle me, and make personal remarks the
very moment I came into the house."
"Oh, dear!--I only said you were tall, and looked rather sulky, love--
you did, you know, really."
"It was very rude of you," repeated Hester, turning crimson, and trying
to keep back her tears.
"Well, my dear, I meant no harm; shake hands, now, and let us make
friends."
But Hester felt either too shy or too miserable to yield to this
request--she half turned her back, and leaned against Miss Temple's
panel.
"Never mind her," whispered gentle Cecil Temple; but Annie Forest's
bright face had darkened ominously--the school favourite was not
accustomed to having her advances flung back in her face. She left the
room singing a defiant, naughty song, and several of the girls who had
overheard this scene whispered one to the other--
"She can't be at all nice--she would not even shake hands with Annie.
Fancy her turning against our Annie in that way!"