"Now, if I were you, dear," said Jasper, "I would just up and tell him the whole story. I would tell him that I am here, and that I mean to stay, and that he has been living on me for some time now. I would tell him everything. He would rage and fume, but not more than he has raged and fumed. Things are past bearing, darling. Why, your pretty, young, and brave heart will be broken. I would not bear it. It is best for him too, dear; he must learn to know you, and if necessary to fear you. He cannot go on killing himself and every one else with impunity. It is past bearing, Sylvia, my love-past bearing."
"I know, Jasper-I know-but I dare not tell him. You cannot imagine what he is when he is really roused. He would turn you out."
"Well, darling, and you would come with me. Why should we not go out?"
"In the first place, Jasper, you have no money to support us both. Why, poor, dear old thing, you are using up all your little savings to keep me going! And in the next place, even if you could afford it, I promised mother that I would never leave him. I could not break my word to her.
Oh! it hurt much; but the pain is over. I will never leave him while he lives, Jasper."
"Dear, dear!" said Jasper, "what a power of love is wasted on worthless people! It is the most extraordinary fact on earth."
Sylvia half-smiled. She thought of Evelyn, who was also in her opinion more or less worthless, and how Jasper was wasting both substance and heart on her.
"Well," she said, "I can eat if I can do nothing else ; but the thought of father dying of cold does come between me and all peace."
She finished her dinner, and then went and stood by the window.
"It is a perfect miracle he has not found me out before," said Jasper; "and, by the same token," she added, "I heard footsteps in the attic up-stairs while I was preparing his fowl for dinner. My heart stood still. It must have been he; and I thought he would see the smoke curling up through that stack of chimneys just alongside of the attics.
What was he doing up stairs?"
"Oh, I know-I know!" said Sylvia; and her face turned very white, and her eyes seemed to start from her head. "He went to look in mother"s trunks; he thought that I had got my brown dress from there."
"And he will discover Evelyn"s trunks as sure as fate," said Jasper; "and what a state he will be in! That accounts for it, Sylvia. Well, darling, discovery is imminent now; and for my part the sooner it is over the better."
"I wonder if he did discover! Something has put him into a terrible rage," thought the girl.
She went out of the kitchen, and stole softly up-stairs to the attic where the trunks were kept. It was locked. Doubt was now, of course, at an end. Sylvia went back and told her discovery to Jasper.
CHAPTER XXV.-UNCLE EDWARD.
According to her promise, Jasper went that evening to meet Evelyn at the stile. Evelyn was there, and the news she had for her faithful nurse was the reverse of soothing.
"You cannot stand it," said Jasper; "you cannot demean yourself. I don"t know that I"d have done it-yes, perhaps I would-but having done it, you must stick to your guns."
"Yes," said Evelyn in a mournful tone; "I must run away. I have quite, quite, absolutely made up my mind."
"And when, darling?" said Jasper, trembling a good deal.
"The night before the week is up. I will come to you here, Jasper, and you must take me."
"Of course, love; you will come back with me to The Priory. I can hide you there as well as anywhere on earth-yes, love, as well as anywhere on earth."
"Oh, I"d be so frightened! It would be so close to them all!"
"The closer the better, dear. If you went into any village or any town near you would be discovered; but they"d never think of looking for you at The Priory. Why, darling, I have lived there unsuspected for some time now-weeks, I might say. Sylvia will not tell. You shall sleep in my bed, and I will keep you safe. Only you must bring some money, Evelyn, for mine is getting sadly short."
"Yes," said Evelyn. "I will ask Uncle Edward; he will not refuse me. He is very kind to me, and I love him better than any one on earth-better even than Jasper, because he is father"s very own brother, and because I am his heiress. He likes to talk to me about the place and what I am to do when it belongs to me. He is not angry with me when I am quite alone with him and I talk of these things; only he has taught me to say nothing about it in public. If I could be sorry for having got into this sc.r.a.pe it would be on his account; but there, I was not brought up with his thoughts, and I cannot think things wrong that he thinks wrong. Can you, Jasper?"
"No, my little wild honey-bird-not I. Well, dearie, I will meet you again to-morrow night; and now I must be going back."
Evelyn returned to the house. She went up to her room, changed her shoes, tidied her hair, and came down to the drawing-room. Lady Frances was leaning back in a chair, turning over the pages of a new magazine.
She called Evelyn to her side.
"How do you like school?" she said. Her tones were abrupt; the eyes she fixed on the child were hard.
Evelyn"s worst feelings were always awakened by Lady Frances"s manner to her.
"I do not like it at all," she said. "I wish to leave."
"Your wishes, I am afraid, are not to be considered; all the same, you may have to leave."
"Why?" asked Evelyn, turning white. She wondered if Lady Frances knew.
Her aunt"s eyes were fixed, as though they were gimlets, on her face.
"Sit down," said Lady Frances, "and tell me how you spend your day. What cla.s.s are you in? What lessons are you learning?"
"I am in a very low cla.s.s indeed?" said Evelyn. "Mothery always said I was clever."
"I do not suppose your mother knew."
"Why should she not know, she who was so very clever herself? She taught me all sorts of things, and so did poor Jasper."
"Ah! I am glad at least that I have removed that dreadful woman out of your path," said Lady Frances.
Evelyn smiled and lowered her eyes. Her manner irritated her aunt extremely.
"Well," she said, "go on; we will not discuss the fact of the form you ought to be in. What lessons do you do?"
"Oh, history, grammar; I suppose, the usual English subjects."
"Yes, yes; but history-that is interesting. English history?"
"Yes, Aunt Frances."
"What part of the history?"
"We are doing the reigns of the Edwards now."
"Ah! can you tell me anything with regard to the reign of Edward I.?"
Evelyn colored. Lady Frances watched her.
"I am certain she knows," thought the little girl. "But, oh, this is terrible! Has that awful Miss Henderson told her? What shall I do? I do not think I will wait until the week is up; I think I will run away at once."
"Answer my question, Evelyn," said her aunt.