"The Honourable Robert Darcy!" murmured a silvery voice from the other side of the fireplace. Robert turned his head sharply, but Peggy was gazing into the coals with an air of lamb-like innocence, and he subsided into himself with a grunt of displeasure.
The next day Mrs Saville came to lunch, and spent the afternoon at the vicarage. As Maxwell had said, she was a beautiful woman; tall, fair, and elegant, and looking a very fashionable lady when contrasted with Mrs Asplin in her well-worn serge, but her face was sad and anxious in expression. Esther noticed that her eyes filled with tears more than once as she looked round the table at the husband and wife and the three tall, well-grown children; and when the two ladies were alone in the drawing-room she broke into helpless sobbings.
"Oh, how happy you are! How I envy you! Husband, children,--all beside you. Oh, never, never let one of your girls marry a man who lives abroad. My heart is torn in two; I have no rest. I am always longing for the one who is not there. I must go back,--the major needs me; but my Peggy,--my own little girl! It is like death to leave her behind!"
Mrs Asplin put her arms round the tall figure, and rocked her gently to and fro.
"I know! I know!" she said brokenly. "I _ache_ for you, dear; but I understand! I have parted with a child of my own--not for a few years, but for ever, till we meet again in G.o.d"s heaven. I"ll help you every way I can. I"ll watch her night and day; I"ll coddle her when she"s ill; I"ll try to make her a good woman. I"ll _love_ her, dear, and she shall be my own special charge. I"ll be a second mother to her."
"You dear, good woman! G.o.d bless your kind heart!" said Mrs Saville brokenly. "I can"t help breaking down, but indeed I have much to be thankful for. I can"t tell you what a relief it is to feel that she is in this house. The princ.i.p.als of that school at Brighton were all that is good and excellent, but they did not understand my Peggy." The tears were still in her eyes, but she broke into a flickering smile at the last word. "My children have such spirits! I am afraid they really do give more trouble than other boys and girls, but they are not really naughty. They are truthful and generous, and wonderfully warm-hearted.
I never needed to punish Peg when she was a little girl; it was enough to show that she had grieved me. She never did the same thing again after that; but--oh, dear me!--the ingenuity of that child in finding fresh fields for mischief! Dear Mrs Asplin, I am afraid she will try your patience. You must be sure to keep a list of all the breakages and accidents, and charge them to our account. Peggy is an expensive little person. You know what Arthur was."
"Bless him--yes! I had hardly a tumbler left in the house," said Mrs Asplin, with gusto. "But I don"t grieve myself about a few breakages.
I have had too much to do with schoolboys for that!--And now give me all the directions you can about this precious little maid, while we have the room to ourselves."
For the next hour there the two ladies sat in conclave about Miss Peggy"s mental, moral, and physical welfare. Mrs Asplin had a book in her hand, in which from time to time she jotted down notes of a curious and inconsequent character. "Pay attention to private reading.
Gas-fire in her bedroom for chilly weather. See dentist in Christmas holidays. Query: gold plate over eye-tooth? Boots to order, Beavan and Company, Oxford Street. Cod-liver oil in winter. Careless about changing shoes. Damp brings on throat. Aconite and belladonna." So on, and so on. There seemed no end to the warnings and instructions of this anxious mother; but when all was settled as far as possible, the ladies adjourned into the schoolroom to join the young people at their tea, so that Mrs Saville might be able to picture her daughter"s surroundings when separated from her by those weary thousands of miles.
"What a bright, cheery room!" she said smilingly, as she took her seat at the table, and her eyes wandered round as if striving to print the scene in her memory. How many times, as she lay panting beneath the swing of the punkah, she would recall that cool English room, with its vista of garden through the windows, the long table in the centre, the little figure with the pale face and plaited hair, seated midway between the top and bottom! Oh! the moments of longing--of wild, unbearable longing--when she would feel that she must break loose from her prison-house and fly away,--that not the length of the earth itself could keep her back, that she would be willing to give up life itself just to hold Peggy in her arms for five minutes, to kiss the sweet lips, to meet the glance of the loving eyes--
But this would never do! Had she not vowed to be cheerful? The young folks were looking at her with troubled glances. She roused herself, and said briskly--
"I see you make this a playroom as well as a study. Somebody has been wood-carving over there, and you have one of those dwarf billiard-tables. I want to give a present to this room--something that will be a pleasure and occupation to you all; but I can"t make up my mind what would be best. Can you give me a few suggestions? Is there anything that you need, or that you have fancied you might like?"
"It"s very kind of you," said Esther warmly; and echoes of "Very kind!"
came from every side of the table, while boys and girls stared at each other in puzzled consideration. Maxwell longed to suggest a joiner"s bench, but refrained out of consideration for the girls" feelings.
Mellicent"s eager face, however, was too eloquent to escape attention, and Mrs Saville smiled at her in an encouraging manner.
"Well, dear, what is it? Don"t be afraid. I mean something really nice and handsome; not just a little thing. Tell me what you thought?"
"A--a new violin!" cried Mellicent eagerly. "Mine is so old and squeaky, and my teacher said I needed a new one badly. A new violin would be nicest of all."
Mrs Saville looked round the table, caught an expressive grimace going the round of three boyish faces, and raised her eyebrows inquiringly.
"Yes? Whatever you like best, of course. It is all the same to me.
But would the violin be a pleasure to all? What about the boys?"
"They would hear me play! The pieces would sound nicer. They would like to hear them."
"Ahem!" coughed Maxwell loudly; and at that there was a universal shriek of merriment. Peggy"s clear "Ho! ho!" rang out above the rest, and her mother looked at her with sparkling eyes. Yes, yes, yes; the child was happy! She had settled down already into the cheery, wholesome life of the vicarage, and was in her element among these merry boys and girls!
She hugged the thought to her heart, finding in it her truest comfort.
The laughter lasted several minutes, and broke out intermittently from time to time as that eloquent cough recurred to memory, but after all it was Mellicent who was the one to give the best suggestion.
"Well then, a--a what-do-you-call-it!" she cried. "A thing-um-me-bob!
One of those three-legged things for taking photographs! The boys look so silly sometimes, rolling about together in the garden, and we have often and often said, "Don"t you wish we could take their photographs?
They _would_ look such frights!" We could have ever so much fun with a what-do-you-call-it?"
"Ah, that"s something like!" "Good business." "Oh, wouldn"t it be sweet!" came the quick exclamations; and Mrs Saville looked most pleased and excited of all.
"A camera!" she cried. "What a charming idea! Then you would be able to take photographs of Peggy and the whole household, and send them out for me to see. How delightful! That is a happy thought, Mellicent. I am so grateful to you for thinking of it, dear. I"ll buy a really good large one, and all the necessary materials, and send them down at once.
Do any of you know how to set to work?"
"I do, Mrs Saville," Oswald said. "I had a small camera of my own, but it got smashed some years ago. I can show them how to begin, and we will take lots of photographs of Peggy for you, in groups and by herself. They mayn"t be very good at first, but you will be interested to see her in different positions. We will take her walking, and bicycling, and sitting in the garden, and every way we can think of--"
"And whenever she has a new dress or hat, so that you may know what they are like," added Mellicent anxiously. "Are her hats going to be the same as ours, or is she to choose them for herself?"
"She may choose them for herself, subject, of course, to your mother"s refraining influence. If she were to develop a fondness for scarlet feathers, for instance, I think Mrs Asplin should interfere; but Peggy has good taste. I don"t think she will go far wrong," said the girl"s mother, looking at her fondly; and the little white face quivered before it broke into its sunny, answering smile.
Three times that evening, after Mrs Saville had left, did her companions surprise the glitter of tears in Peggy"s eyes; but there was a dignified reserve about her manner which forbade outspoken sympathy.
Even when she was discovered to be quietly crying behind her book, when Maxwell flipped it mischievously out of her hands,--even then did Peggy preserve her wonderful self-possession. The tears were trickling down her cheeks, and her poor little nose was red and swollen, but she looked up at Maxwell without a quiver, and it was he who stood gaping before her, aghast and miserable.
"Oh, I say! I"m fearfully sorry!"
"So am I," said Peggy severely. "It was rude, and not at all funny.
And it injures the book. I have always been taught to reverence books, and treat them as dear and valued companions. Pick it up, please.
Thank you. Don"t do it again." She hitched herself round in her chair, and settled down once more to her reading, while Maxwell slunk back to his seat. When Peggy was offended she invariably fell back upon Mariquita"s grandiose manner, and the sting of her sharp little tongue left her victims dumb and smarting.
CHAPTER SIX.
A NEW FRIENDSHIP.
A week after this, Mrs Saville came to pay her farewell visit before sailing for India. Mother and daughter went out for a walk in the morning, and retired to the drawing-room together for the afternoon.
There was much that they wanted to say to each other, yet for the most part they were silent, Peggy sitting with her head on her mother"s shoulder, and Mrs Saville"s arms clasped tightly round her. Every now and then she stroked the smooth brown head, and sometimes Peggy raised her lips and kissed the cheek which leant against her own, but the sentences came at long intervals.
"If I were ill, mother--a long illness--would you come?"
"On wings, darling! As fast as boat and train could bring me."
"And if you were ill?"
"I should send for you, if it were within the bounds of possibility--I promise that! You must write often, Peggy--long, long letters. Tell me all you do, and feel, and think. You will be almost a woman when we meet again. Don"t grow up a stranger to me, darling."
"Every week, mother! I"ll write something each day, and then it will be like a diary. I"ll tell you every bit of my life..."
"Be a good girl, Peggy. Do all you can for Mrs Asplin, who is so kind to you. She will give you what money you need, and if at any time you should want more than your ordinary allowance, for presents or any special purpose, just tell her about it, and she will understand. You can have anything in reason; I want you to be happy. Don"t fret, dearie. I shall be with father, and the time will pa.s.s. In three years I shall be back again, and then, Peg, then, how happy we shall be! Only three years."
Peggy shivered, and was silent. Three years seem an endless s.p.a.ce when one is young. She shut her eyes, and pondered drearily upon all that would happen before the time of separation was pa.s.sed. She would be seventeen, nearly eighteen--a young lady who wore dresses down at her ankles, and did up her hair. This was the last time, the very, very last time when she would be a child in her mother"s arms. The new relationship might be nearer, sweeter, but it could never be the same, and the very sound of the words "the last time" sends a pang to the heart.
Half an hour later the carriage drove up to the door. Mr and Mrs Asplin came into the room to say a few words of farewell, and then left Peggy to see her mother off. There were no words spoken on the way, and so quietly did they move that Robert had no suspicion that anyone was near, as he took off his shoes in the cloak-room opening off the hall.
He tossed his cap on to a nail, picked up his book, and was just about to sally forth, when the sound of a woman"s voice sent a chill through his veins. The tone of the voice was low, almost a whisper, yet he had never in his life heard anything so thrilling as its intense and yearning tenderness. "Oh, my Peggy!" it said. "My little Peggy!" And then, as in reply, came a low moaning sound, a feeble bleat like that of a little lamb torn from its mother"s side. Robert charged back into the cloak-room, and kicked savagely at the boots and shoes which were scattered about the floor, his lips pressed together, and his brows meeting in a straight black line across his forehead. Another minute, and the carriage rolled away. He peeped out of the door in time to see a little figure fly out into the rain, and walking slowly towards the schoolroom came face to face with Mrs Asplin.
"Gone?" she inquired sadly. "Well, I"m thankful it is over. Poor little dear, where is she? Flown up to her room, I suppose. We"ll leave her alone until tea-time. It will be the truest kindness."
"Yes," said Robert vaguely. He was afraid that the good lady would not be so willing to leave Peggy undisturbed if she knew her real whereabouts, and was determined to say nothing to undeceive her. He felt sure that the girl had hidden herself in the summer-house at the bottom of the garden, and a nice, damp, mouldy retreat it would be this afternoon, with the rain driving in through the open window, and the creepers dripping on the walls. Just the place in which to sit and break your heart, and catch rheumatic fever with the greatest possible ease. And yet Robert said no word of warning to Mrs Asplin. He had an inward conviction that if anyone were to go to the rescue, that person should be himself, and that he, more than anyone else, would be able to comfort Peggy in her affliction. He sauntered up and down the hall until the coast was clear, then dashed once more into the cloak-room, took an Inverness coat from a nail, a pair of goloshes from the floor, and sped rapidly down the garden-path. In less than two minutes he had reached the summer-house, and was peeping cautiously in at the door.
Yes; he was right. There sat Peggy, with her arms stretched out before her on the rickety table, her shoulders heaving with long, gasping sobs.
Her fingers clenched and unclenched themselves spasmodically, and the smooth little head rolled to and fro in an abandonment of grief. Robert stood looking on in silent misery. He had a boy"s natural hatred of tears, and his first impulse was to turn tail, go back to the house, and send someone to take his place; but even as he hesitated he shivered in the chilly damp, and remembered the princ.i.p.al reason of his coming. He stepped forward and dropped the cloak over the bent shoulders, whereupon Peggy started up and turned a scared white face upon him.