Even Lucy enjoyed it when once it had begun, and the little performer at the piano played well, and kept excellent time. And by-and-by Lucy forgot herself, and could not help laughing when Rosamund seized her round the waist and whirled her round and round, and taught her to reverse, and instructed her in one or two other matters unknown to Lucy up to the present.
The dance lasted for over an hour; and just in the midst of it, when Lucy was really laughing in quite a heart-whole manner, she raised her eyes and saw no less a person than Mr. Merriman himself standing in the doorway. He was smiling, and his eyes were fixed on Rosamund"s face.
The moment Rosamund saw him she stopped at once, and said to Lucy, "Is that your father, the great professor?"
"Yes," said Lucy.
"Please introduce him to me."
Lucy longed to say, "It will tire him; I can"t do it." She longed to give any sort of excuse, but none would come to her lips. She was forced to take Rosamund up to Mr. Merriman.
"This is Rosamund Cunliffe," she said, "and she wants to know you, father."
"I am very much pleased to see you, Miss Cunliffe," said Mr. Merriman; and then Rosamund stood in the doorway and talked.
Lucy went back and tried to dance with another girl, and the dance music still went on. But she could not help straining her ears and trying to catch the subject of Rosamund"s conversation. Why, she was absolutely laughing, and the Professor, who was generally so grave and quiet, was laughing also. What did it all mean?
"Father, aren"t you tired?--Miss Cunliffe, you are tiring father," said Lucy at last, running up to the door and trying to speak calmly.
"No, my dear," said her father. "On the contrary, I am intensely interested.--You must tell me that story again, Miss Cunliffe. Would you like to come and see my library?"
The two went off together, and Lucy felt almost as though she must burst into tears. Phyllis"s eyes again met her face, and she had to restrain her feelings. The "I told you so" look was too maddening almost for endurance.
Rosamund"s love of power showed itself further in the arrangement of her bedroom. She took down the dividing curtain between herself and Jane Denton without asking any one"s permission; and she slept in the bed intended for Jane, and rearranged the drawers, putting them into another part of the room; and complained about the wardrobe, saying that she would like it put opposite the door instead of in its present position.
And whatever she wished was immediately done, and whatever she said was said so politely that no one took offense. And Lucy had to confess to herself that Phyllis was right, and that Rosamund would be a power--the leading power--in the school.
Early the next day the two teachers arrived. Mademoiselle Omont was very French in appearance, very dark, with sparkling black eyes and neatly arranged soft dark hair. She had a truly Parisian accent, and a pretty, graceful way about her. Miss Archer was a stolid-looking woman of about five-and-thirty years of age. She had a long talk, on her arrival, with Mrs. Merriman, and then she went to her room and stayed there for some little time, so that it was not until tea-time that the girls and the two resident governesses met.
Lucy looked with great approbation at Miss Archer when she took her seat opposite the tea-tray.
"She will bring order into this chaos," thought the girl. "She will force all these girls to behave properly. She will insist on order. I see it in her face."
But as the thought pa.s.sed through Lucy"s mind, Rosamund jumped suddenly up from her own place, requested Phyllis Flower to change with her, and sat down close to Miss Archer. During tea she talked to the English governess in a low tone, asking her a great many questions, and evidently impressing her very much in her favor.
"Oh, dear!" thought Lucy, "if this sort of thing goes on I shall lose my senses. If there is to be any order, if the whole scheme which mother has thought out so carefully, and father has approved of, means to establish a girl like Rosamund Cunliffe here as our leader, so that we are forced to do every single thing she wishes, I shall beg and implore of father and mother to let me go and live with Aunt Susan in the old Rectory at Dartford."
Lucy"s cheeks were flushed, and she could scarcely keep the tears back from her eyes. After tea, however, as she was walking about in front of the house, wondering if she should ever know a happy moment again, Miss Archer made her appearance. When she saw Lucy she called her at once to her side.
"What a nice girl Rosamund Cunliffe seems!" was her first remark.
"Oh! don"t begin by praising her," said Lucy. "I don"t think I can quite stand it."
"What is the matter, my dear? You are little Lucy Merriman, are you not--the daughter of Mrs. Merriman and the Professor?"
"I am."
"And this house has always been your home?"
"I was born here," said Lucy almost tearfully.
"Then, of course, you feel rather strange at first with all these girls scattered about the place. But when lessons really begin, and you get into working order, you will be different. You will have to take your place with the others in cla.s.s, and everything is to be conducted as though it were a real school."
"I will do anything you wish," said Lucy, and she turned a white face, almost of despair, towards Miss Archer. "I will do anything in all the world you wish if you will promise me one thing."
Miss Archer felt inclined to say, "What possible reason have you to expect that I should promise you anything?" but she knew human nature, and guessed that Lucy was troubled.
"Tell me what you wish," she said.
"I want you not to make a favorite of Rosamund Cunliffe. Already she has begun to upset everything--last night all the drawing-room arrangements, her own bedroom afterwards; then, to-day, the other girls have done nothing but obey her. If this goes on, how is order to be maintained?"
Miss Archer looked thoughtful.
"From the little I have seen of Rosamund, she seems to be a very amiable and clever girl," she said. "She evidently has a great deal of strength of character, and cannot help coming to the front. We must be patient with her, Lucy."
Lucy felt a greater ache than ever at her heart. She was certain that Miss Archer was already captivated by Rosamund"s charms. What was she to do? To whom was she to appeal? It would be quite useless to speak to her mother, for her mother had already fallen in love with Rosamund; and indeed she had with all the young girls who had arrived such a short time ago. Mrs. Merriman was one of the most affectionate people on earth. She had the power of taking an unlimited number of girls, and boys, too, into her capacious heart. She could be spent for them, and live for them, and never once give a thought to herself. Now, in addition to the pleasure of having so many young people in the house, she knew she was helping her husband and relieving his mind from weighty cares. The Professor could, therefore, go on with the writing of his great work on Greek anthology; even if the money for this unique treatise came in slowly, there would be enough to keep the little family from the products of the school. Yes, he should be uninterrupted, and should proceed at his leisure, and give up the articles which were simply wearing him into an early grave.
Lucy knew, therefore, that no sympathy could be expected from her mother. It is true that her father might possibly understand; but then, dared she worry him? He had been looking very pale of late. His health was seriously undermined, and the doctors had spoken gravely of his case. He must be relieved. He must have less tension, otherwise the results would be attended with danger. And Lucy loved him, as she also loved her mother, with all her heart and soul.
When Miss Archer left her, having nothing particular to do herself and being most anxious to avoid the strange girls, she went up the avenue, and pa.s.sing through a wicket-gate near the entrance, walked along by the side of a narrow stream where all sorts of wild flowers were always growing. Here might be seen the blue forget-me-not, the meadow-sweet, great branches of wild honeysuckle, dog-roses, and many other flowers too numerous to mention. As a rule, Lucy loved flowers, as most country girls do; but she had neither eyes nor ears for them to-day. She was thinking of her companions, and how she was to tolerate them. And as she walked she saw in a bend in the road, coming to meet her, a stout, elderly, very plainly dressed woman.
Lucy stood still for an instant, and then uttered a perfect shout of welcome, and ran into the arms of her aunt Susan.
Mrs. Susan Brett was the wife of a hard-working clergyman in a town about ten miles away. She had no children of her own, and devoted her whole time to helping her husband in his huge parish. She spent little or no money on dress, and was certainly a very plain woman. She had a large, pale face, somewhat flat, with wide nostrils, a long upper lip, small pale-blue eyes, and a somewhat bulgy forehead. Plain she undoubtedly was, but no one who knew her well ever gave her looks a thought, so genial was her smile, so hearty her hand-clasp, so sympathetic her words. She was beloved by her husband"s parishioners, and in especial she was loved by Lucy Merriman, who had a sort of fascination in watching her and in wondering at her.
From time to time Lucy had visited the Bretts in their small Rectory in the town of Dartford. n.o.body in all the world could be more welcome to the child in her present mood than her aunt Susan, and she ran forward with outstretched arms.
"Oh, Aunt Susy, I am glad to see you! But what has brought you to-day?"
"Why, this, my dear," said Mrs. Brett. "I just had three hours to spare while William was busy over his sermon for next Sunday. He is writing a new sermon--he hasn"t done that for quite six months--and he said he wanted the house to himself, and no excuse for any one to come in. And he just asked me if I"d like to have a peep into the country; that always means a visit to Sunnyside. So I said I"d look up the trains, and of course there was one just convenient, so I clapped on my hat--you don"t mind it being my oldest one--and here I am."
"Oh, I am so glad!" said Lucy. "I think I wanted you, Aunt Susan, more than any one else in all the world."
She tucked her hand through her aunt"s arm as she spoke, and they turned and walked slowly along by the riverside.
Mrs. Brett, if she had a plain face, had by no means a correspondingly plain soul. On the contrary, it was attuned to the best, the richest, the highest in G.o.d"s world. She could see the loveliness of trees, of river, of flowers. She could listen to the song of the wild birds, and thank her Maker that she was born into so good a world. Nothing rested her, as she expressed it, like a visit into the country. Nothing made the dreadful things she had often to encounter in town seem more endurable than the sweet-peas, the roses, the green trees, the green gra.s.s, the fragrance and perfume of the country; and when she saw her little niece--for she was very fond of Lucy--looking discontented and unhappy, Mrs. Brett at once perceived a reason for her unexpected visit to Sunnyside.
"We needn"t go too fast, need we?" she said. "If we go down this path, and note the flowers--aren"t the flowers lovely, Lucy?"----
"Yes," replied Lucy.
"We shall be in time for tea, shall we not? But tell me, how is your father, dear? I see you are in trouble of some sort. Is he worse?"
"No, Aunt Susy; I think he is better. He has had better nights of late, and mother is not so anxious about him."
"Then what is the worry, my love, for worry of some sort there doubtless is?"
"It is the girls, Aunt Susy."
"What girls, my love?"