"Who, who--Oh! it is you! What do you want?"
"Nothing. I saw you come out, and thought you would be cold. I brought you out my coat."
"I don"t want it; I am quite warm. I came here to be alone."
"I know; I"m not going to bother. Mrs Asplin thinks you are in your room, and I didn"t tell her that I"d seen you go out. But it"s damp.
If you catch cold, your mother will be sorry."
Peggy looked at him thoughtfully, and there was a glimmer of grat.i.tude in her poor tear-stained eyes.
"Yes; I p-p-romised to be careful. You are very kind, but I can"t think of anything to-night. I am too miserably wretched."
"I know; I"ve been through it. I was sent away to a boarding-school when I was a little kid of eight, and I howled myself to sleep every night for weeks. It is worse for you, because you are older, but you will be happy enough in this place when you get settled. Mrs Asplin is a brick, and we have no end of fun. It is ever so much better than being at school; and, I say, you mustn"t mind what Mellicent said the other night. She"s a little m.u.f.f, always saying the wrong thing. We were only chaffing when we said you were to be our f.a.g. We never really meant to bully you."
"You c-couldn"t if you t-tried," stammered Peggy brokenly, but with a flash of her old spirit which delighted her hearer.
"No; of course not. You can stand up for yourself; I know that very well. But look here: I"ll make a compact, if you will. Let us be friends. I"ll stick to you and help you when you need it, and you stick to me. The other girls have their brother to look after them, but if you want anything done, if anyone is cheeky to you, and you want him kicked, for instance, just come to me, and I"ll do it for you. It"s all nonsense about being a f.a.g, but there are lots of things you could do for me if you would, and I"d be awfully grateful. We might be partners, and help one another--"
Robert stopped in some embarra.s.sment, and Peggy stared fixedly at him, her pale face peeping out from the folds of the Inverness coat. She had stopped crying, though the tears still trembled on her eyelashes, and her chin quivered in uncertain fashion. Her eyes dwelt on the broad forehead, the overhanging brows, the square, ma.s.sive chin, and brightened with a flash of approval.
"You are a nice boy," she said slowly. "I like you! You don"t really need my help, but you thought it would cheer me to feel that I was wanted. Yes; I"ll be your partner, and I"ll be of real use to you yet.
You"ll find that out, Robert Darcy, before you have done with me."
"All right, so much the better. I hope you will; but you know you can"t expect to have your own way all the time. I"m the senior partner, and you will have to do what I tell you. Now I say it"s damp in this hole, and you ought to come back to the house at once. It"s enough to kill you to sit in this draught."
"I"d rather like to be killed. I"m tired of life. I shouldn"t mind dying a bit."
"Humph!" said Robert shortly. "Jolly cheerful news that would be for your poor mother when she arrived at the end of her journey! Don"t be so selfish. Now then, up you get! Come along to the house."
"I wo--" Peggy began, then suddenly softened, and glanced apologetically into his face. "Yes, I will, because you ask me. Smuggle me up to my room, Robert, and don"t, don"t, if you love me, let Mellicent come near me! I couldn"t stand her chatter to-night!"
"She will have to fight her way over my dead body," said Robert firmly; and Peggy"s sweet little laugh quavered out on the air.
"Nice boy!" she repeated heartily. "Nice boy; I do like you!"
CHAPTER SEVEN.
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Peggy looked very sad and wan after her mother"s departure, but her companions soon discovered that anything like outspoken sympathy was unwelcome. The redder her eyes, the more erect and dignified was her demeanour; if her lips trembled when she spoke, the more grandiose and formidable became her conversation, for Peggy"s love of long words and high-sounding expressions was fully recognised by this time, and caused much amus.e.m.e.nt in the family.
A few days after Mrs Saville sailed, a welcome diversion arrived in the shape of the promised camera. The Parcels Delivery van drove up to the door, and two large cases were delivered, one of which was found to contain the camera itself, the tripod and a portable dark room, while the other held such a collection of plates, printing-frames, and chemicals as delighted the eyes of the beholders. It was the gift of one who possessed not only a deep purse, but a most true and thoughtful kindness, for, when young people are concerned, two-thirds of the enjoyment of any present is derived from the possibility of being able to put it to immediate use. As it was a holiday afternoon, it was unanimously agreed to take two groups and develop them straightway.
"Professional photographers are so dilatory," said Peggy severely; "and indeed I have noticed that amateurs are even worse. I have twice been photographed by friends, and they have solemnly promised to send me a copy within a few days. I have waited, consumed by curiosity, and, my dears, it has been months before it has arrived! Now we will make a rule to finish off our groups at once, and not keep people waiting until all the interest has died away. There"s no excuse for such dilatory behaviour!"
"There is some work to do, remember, Peggy. You can"t get a photograph by simply taking off and putting on the cap; you must have a certain amount of time and fine weather. I haven"t had much experience, but I remember thinking that photographs were jolly cheap, considering all the trouble they cost, and wondering how the fellows could do them at the price. There"s the developing, and washing, and printing, and toning,-- half a dozen processes before you are finished."
Peggy smiled in a patient, forbearing manner.
"They don"t get any less, do they, by putting them off? Procrastination will never lighten labour. Come, put the camera up for us, like a good boy, and we"ll show you how to do it." She waved her hand towards the brown canvas bag, and the six young people immediately seized different portions of the tripod and camera, and set to work to put them together.
The girls tugged and pulled at the sliding legs, which were too new and stiff to work with ease; Maxwell turned the screws which moved the bellows, and tried in vain to understand their working; Robert peered through the lenses, and Oswald alternately raved, chided, and jeered at their efforts. With so many cooks at work, it took an unconscionable time to get ready, and even when the camera was perched securely on its spidery legs, it still remained to choose the site of the picture, and to pose the victims. After much wandering about the garden, it was finally decided that the schoolroom window would be an appropriate background for a first effort; but a heated argument followed before the second question could be decided.
"I vote that we stand in couples, arm-on-arm,--like this!" said Mellicent, sidling up to her beloved brother, and gazing into his face in a sentimental manner, which had the effect of making him stride away as fast as he could walk, muttering indignant protests beneath his breath.
Then Esther came forward with her suggestion.
"I"ll hold a book as if I were reading aloud, and you can all sit round in easy, natural positions, and look as if you were listening. I think that would make a charming picture."
"Idiotic, I call it! "Scene from the Goodchild family; mamma reading aloud to the little ones." Couldn"t possibly look easy and natural under the circ.u.mstances; should feel too miserable. Try again, my dear.
You must think of something better than that."
It was impossible to please those three fastidious boys. One suggestion after another was made, only to be waved aside with lordly contempt, until at last the girls gave up any say in the matter, and left Oswald to arrange the group in a manner highly satisfactory to himself and his two friends, however displeasing to the more artistic members of the party. Three girls in front, two boys behind, all standing stiff as pokers; with solemn faces, and hair ruffled by constant peepings beneath the black cloth. Peggy in the middle, with her eyebrows more peaked than ever, and an expression of resigned martyrdom on her small, pale face; Mellicent, large and placid, on the left; Esther on the right, scowling at nothing, and, over their shoulders, the two boys" heads, handsome Max and frowning Robert.
"There," cried Oswald, "that"s what I call a sensible arrangement! If you take a photograph, _take_ a photograph, and don"t try to do a pastoral play at the same time. Keep still a moment, and I will see if it is focused all right. I can see you pulling faces, Peggy! It"s not at all becoming. Now then, I"ll put in the plate--that"s the way!-- one--two--three--and I shall take you. Stea-dy?"
Instantly Mellicent burst into giggles of laughter, and threw up her hands to her face, to be roughly seized from behind and shaken into order.
"Be quiet, you silly thing! Didn"t you hear him say steady? What are you trying to do?"
"She has spoiled this plate, anyhow," said Oswald icily. "I"ll try the other, and if she can"t keep still this time she had better run away and laugh by herself at the other end of the garden. Baby!"
"Not a ba--" began Mellicent indignantly; but she was immediately punched into order, and stood with her mouth wide open, waiting to finish her protest so soon as the ordeal was over.
Peggy forestalled her, however, with an eager plea to be allowed to take the third picture herself.
"I want to have one of Oswald to send to mother, for we are not complete without him, and I know it would please her to think I had taken it myself," she urged; and permission was readily granted, as everyone felt that she had a special claim in the matter. Oswald therefore put in new plates, gave instructions as to how the shutters were to be worked, and retired to take up an elegant position in the centre of the group.
"Are you read-ee?" cried Peggy, in professional sing-song; then she put her head on one side and stared at the group with twinkling eyes. "Hee, hee! How silly you look! Everyone has a new expression for the occasion! Your own mothers would not recognise you! That"s better.
Keep that smile going for another moment, and--how long must I keep off the cap, did you say?"
Oswald hesitated.
"Well, it varies. You have to use your own judgment. It depends upon-- lots of things! You might try one second for the first, and two for the next, then one of them is bound to be right."
"And one a failure! If I were going to depend on my judgment, I"d have a better one than that!" cried Peggy scornfully. "Ready! A little more cheerful, if you please--Christmas is coming! That"s _one_. Be so good as to remain in your positions, ladies and gentlemen, and I"ll try another." The second shutter was pulled out, the cap removed, and the group broke up with sighs of relief, exhausted with the strain of cultivating company smiles for a whole two minutes on end. Max stayed to help the girls to fold up the camera, while Oswald darted into the house to prepare the dark room for the development of the plates.
When he came out, ten minutes later on, it was a pleasant surprise to discover Miss Mellicent holding a plate in her hand and taking sly peeps inside the shutter, just "to see how it looked." He stormed and raved, while Mellicent looked like a martyr, wished to know how a teeny little light like that could possibly hurt anything, and seemed incapable of understanding that if one flash of sunlight could make a picture, it could also destroy it with equal swiftness. Oswald was forced to comfort himself with the reflection that there were still three plates uninjured; and, when all was ready, the six operators squeezed themselves in the dark room, to watch the process of development, indulging the while in the most flowery expectations.
"If it is very good, let me send it to an ill.u.s.trated paper. Oh, do!"
said Mellicent, with a gush. "I have often seen groups of people in them. "The thing-a-me-bob touring company," and stupid old cricketers, and things like that. We should be far more interesting."
"It will make a nice present for mother, enlarged and mounted," said Peggy thoughtfully. "I shall keep an alb.u.m of my own, and mount every single picture we take. If there are any failures, I shall put them in too, for they will make it all the more amusing. Photograph alb.u.ms are horribly uninteresting as a rule, but mine shall be quite different.
There shall be nothing stiff and prim about it; the photographs shall be dotted about in all sorts of positions, and underneath each I shall put in--ah--conversational annotations." Her tongue lingered over the words with triumphant enjoyment. "Conversational annotations, describing the circ.u.mstances under which it was taken, and anything about it which is worth remembering... What are you going to do with those bottles?"
Oswald ruffled his hair in embarra.s.sment. To pose as an instructor in an art, when one is in doubt about its very rudiments, is a position which has its drawbacks.
"I don"t--quite--know. The stupid fellow has written instructions on all the other labels, and none on these except simply "Developer Number 1" and "Developer Number 2"; I think the only difference is that one is rather stronger than the other. I"ll put some of the Number 2 in a dish, and see what happens; I believe that"s the right way--in fact, I"m sure it is. You pour it over the plate and jog it about, and in two or three minutes the picture ought to begin to appear. Like this!"