"Is there any message with the flowers?"
"Oh, no--only Annie Forest's love. They'll understand." She turned
half round as she spoke, and Hester saw that her eyes had filled with
tears. She felt touched in spite of herself. There was something in
Annie's face now which reminded her of her darling little Nan at home.
She had seen the same beseeching, sorrowful look in Nan's brown eyes
when she had wanted her friends to kiss her and take her to their hearts
and love her.
Hester would not allow herself, however, to feel any tenderness toward
Annie. Of course she was not really a bit like sweet little Nan, and it
was absurd to suppose that a great girl like Annie could want caressing
and petting and soothing; still, in spite of herself, Annie's look
haunted her, and she took great care of the little flower-offering, and
presented it with Annie's message instantly on her arrival to the little
old ladies.
Miss Jane and Miss Agnes were very much pleased with the early
primroses. They looked at one another and said--
"Poor dear little girl," in tender voices, and then they put the flowers
into one of their daintiest vases, and made much of them, and showed
them to any visitors who happened to call that afternoon.
Their little house looked something like a doll's house to Hester, who
had been accustomed all her life to large rooms and spacious passages;
but it was the sweetest, daintiest, and most charming little abode in
the world. It was not unlike a nest, and the Misses Bruce in certain
ways resembled bright little robin redbreasts, so small, so neat, so
chirrupy they were.
Hester enjoyed her afternoon immensely; the little ladies were right in
their prophecy, and she was no longer lonely at school. She enjoyed
talking about her school-fellows, about her new life, about her studies.
The Misses Bruce were decidedly fond of a gossip, but something which
she could not at all define in their manner prevented Hester from
retailing for their benefit any unkind news. They told her frankly at
last that they were only interested in the good things which went on in
the school, and that they found no pursuit so altogether delightful as
finding out the best points in all the people they came across. They
would not even laugh at sleepy, tiresome Susan Drummond; on the
contrary, they pitied her, and Miss Jane wondered if the girl could be
quite well, whereupon Miss Agnes shook her head, and said emphatically
that it was Hester's duty to rouse poor Susy, and to make her waking
life so interesting to her that she should no longer care to spend so
many hours in the world of dreams.
There is such a thing as being so kind-hearted, so gentle, so charitable
as to make the people who have not encouraged these virtues feel quite
uncomfortable. By the mere force of contrast they begin to see
themselves something as they really are. Since Hester had come to
Lavender House she had taken very little pains to please others rather
than herself, and she was now almost startled to see how she had allowed
selfishness to get the better of her. While the Misses Bruce were
speaking, old longings, which had slept since her mother's death, came
back to the young girl, and she began to wish that she could be kinder
to Susan Drummond, and that she could overcome her dislike to Annie
Forest. She longed to say something about Annie to the little ladies,
but they evidently did not wish to allude to the subject. When she was
going away, they gave her a small parcel.
"You will kindly give this to your schoolfellow, Miss Forest, Hester
dear," they both said, and then they kissed her, and said they hoped
they should see her again: and Hester got into the old-fashioned school
brougham, and held the brown-paper parcel in her hand.
As she was going into the chapel that night, Mary Bell came up to her
and whispered--
"We have not got to the bottom of that mystery about Annie Forest yet.
Mrs Willis can evidently make nothing of her, and I believe Mr Everard
is going to talk to her after prayers to-night."
As she was speaking, Annie herself pushed rather rudely past the two
girls; her face was flushed, and her hair was even more untidy than was
its wont.
"Here is a parcel for you, Miss Forest," said Hester, in a much more
gentle tone than she was wont to use when she addressed this
objectionable school-mate.
All the girls were now filing into the chapel, and Hester should
certainly not have presented the little parcel at that moment.
"Breaking the rules, Miss Thornton," said Annie; "all right, toss it
here." Then, as Hester failed to comply, she ran back, knocking her
school-fellows out of place, and, snatching the parcel from Hester's
hand, threw it high in the air. This was a piece of not only wilful
audacity and disobedience, but it even savoured of the profane, for
Annie's step was on the threshold of the chapel, and the parcel fell
with a noisy bang on the floor some feet inside the little building.
"Bring me that parcel, Annie Forest," whispered the stern voice of the
head-mistress.
Annie sullenly complied; but when she came up to Mrs Willis, her
governess took her hand, and pushed her down into a low seat a little
behind her.