"But it is you, Peggy--it really is!" Mellicent declared. "There was no smell at all before you came into the room. I noticed it as soon as the door was opened, and when you came and sat down beside us--whew!
simply fearful!"
"I have taken _no_ medicine to-day," repeated Peggy firmly. Then she started, as if with a sudden thought, lifted a lock of hair, sniffed at it daintily, and dropped it again with an air of conviction. "Ah, I comprehend! There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding. I have mistaken the bottles. I imagined that I was using the mixture you gave me, but--"
"She has washed her hair in cough-mixture! Oh, oh, oh! She has mixed paregoric and treacle with the water! Oh, what will I do! what will I do! This child will be the death of me!" Mrs Asplin put her hand to her side, and laughed until the tears ran down her cheeks, while Mellicent rolled about on the floor, and Esther"s quiet "He, he, he!"
filled up the intervals between the bursts of merriment.
Peggy was marched off to have her hair re-washed and rinsed, and came back ten minutes later, proudly complacent, to seat herself in the most comfortable stool and eat roast apple with elegant enjoyment. She was evidently quite ready to enlarge upon her latest feat, but the sisters had exhausted the subject during her absence, and had, moreover, a piece of news to communicate which was of even greater interest.
"Oh, Peggy, what y"think?" cried Mellicent, running her words into each other in breathless fashion, as her habit was when excited; "I"ve got something beautiful to tell you. S"afternoon Bob got a letter from his mother to say that they were all coming down next week to stay at the Larches for the winter. They come almost every year, and have shooting-parties, and come to church and sit in the big square pew, where you can just see their heads over the side. They look so funny, sitting in a row without their bodies. Last year there was a young lady with them who wore a big grey hat--the loveliest hat you ever saw--with roses under the brim, and stick-up things all glittering with jewels, and she got married at Christmas. I saw her photograph in a magazine, and knew her again in a moment. I used to stare at her, and once she smiled back at me. She looked sweet when she smiled. Lady Darcy always comes to call on mother, and she and father go there to dinner ever so many times, and we are asked to play with Rosalind--the Honourable Rosalind. I expect they will ask you to go too. Isn"t it exciting?"
"I can bear it," said Peggy coldly. "If I try very hard, I think I can support the strain."
The Larches, the country house of Lord Darcy, had already been pointed out to her notice; but the information that the family was coming down for the yearly visit was unwelcome to her, for a double reason. She feared, in the first place, lest it should mean a separation from Bob, who was her faithful companion, and fulfilled his promise of friendship in a silent, undemonstrative fashion, much to her fancy. In the second place, she was conscious of a rankling feeling of jealousy towards the young lady who was distinguished by the name of the Honourable Rosalind, and who seemed to occupy an exalted position in the estimation of the vicar"s daughters. Her name was frequently introduced into conversation, and always in the most laudatory fashion. When a heroine was of a superlatively fascinating description, she was "Just like Rosalind"; when an article of dress was unusually fine and dainty, it would "do for Rosalind." Rosalind was spoken of with bated breath, as if she were a princess in a fairy tale, rather than an ordinary flesh-and-blood damsel. And Peggy did not like it; she did not like it at all, for, in her own quiet way, she was accustomed to queen it among her a.s.sociates, and could ill brook the idea of a rival. She had not been happy at school, but she had been complacently conscious that of all the thirty girls she was the most discussed, the most observed, and also, among the pupils themselves, the most beloved. At the vicarage she was an easy first. When the three girls went out walking, she was always in the middle, with Esther and Mellicent hanging on an arm at either side. Robert was her sworn va.s.sal, and Max and Oswald her respectful and, on the whole, obedient servants. Altogether, the prospect of playing second fiddle to this strange girl was by no means pleasant. Peggy tilted her chin, and spoke in a cool, cynical tone.
"What is she like, this wonderful Rosalind? Bob does not seem to think her extraordinary. I cannot imagine a "Miss Robert" being very beautiful, and as she is his sister, I suppose they are alike."
Instantly there arose a duet of protests.
"Not in the least. Not a single bit. Rosalind is lovely! Blue eyes, golden hair--"
"Down past her waist--"
"The sweetest little hands--"
"A real diamond ring--"
"Pink cheeks--"
"Drives a pony-carriage, with long-tailed ponies--"
"Speaks French all day long with her governess--jabber, jabber, jabber, as quick as that--just like a native--"
"Plays the violin--"
"Has a lovely little sitting-room of her own, simply crammed with the most exquisite presents and books, and goes travelling abroad to France and Italy and hot places in winter. Lord and Lady Darcy simply worship her, and so does everyone, for she is as beautiful as a picture. Don"t you think it would be lovely to have a lord and lady for your father and mother?"
Peggy sniffed the air in scornful superiority.
"I am very glad I"ve not! t.i.tles are so ostentatious! Vulgar, I call them! The very best families will have nothing to do with them. My father"s people were all at the Crusades, and the Wars of the Roses, and the Field of the Cloth of Gold. There is no older family in England, and they are called "Fighting Savilles," because they are always in the front of every battle, winning honours and distinctions. I expect they have been offered t.i.tles over and over again, but they would not have them. They refused them with scorn, and so would I if one were offered to me. Nothing would induce me to accept it!"
Esther rolled her eyes in a comical, sideway fashion, and gave a little chuckle of unbelief; but Mellicent looked quite depressed by this reception of her grand news, and said anxiously--
"But, Peggy, think of it! The Honourable Mariquita! It would be too lovely! Wouldn"t you feel proud writing it in visitors" books, and seeing it printed in newspapers when you grow up? "The Honourable Mariquita wore a robe of white satin, trimmed with gold!""
"Peggy Saville is good enough for me, thank you," said that young lady, with a sudden access of humility. "I have no wish to have my clothes discussed in the public prints. But if you are invited to the Larches to play with your Rosalind, pray don"t consider me! I can stay at home alone. I don"t mind being dull. I can turn my time to good account.
Not for the world would I interfere with your pleasure?"
"But P-P-Peggy, dar-ling Peggy, we would not leave you alone!"
Mellicent"s eyes were wide with horror, she stretched out entreating hands towards the unresponsive figure. To see Peggy cross and snappish like--any other ordinary mortal was an extraordinary event, and quite alarming to her placid mind. "They will ask you, too, dear! I am sure they will--we will all be asked together!" she cried; but Peggy tossed her head, refusing to be conciliated.
"I shall have a previous engagement. I am not at all sure that they are the sort of people I ought to know," she said. "My parents are so exclusive! They might not approve of the acquaintance!"
CHAPTER TEN.
AMBITIONS!
Although Fraulein had charge over the girls" education, Mr Asplin reserved to himself the right of superintending their studies and dictating their particular direction. He was so accustomed to training boys for a definite end that he had no patience with the ordinary aimless routine of a girl"s school course, and in the case of his daughters had carefully provided for their different abilities and tastes. Esther was a born student, a clear-headed, hard-thinking girl, who took a delight in wrestling with Latin verbs and in solving problems in Euclid, while she had little or no artistic faculty. He put her through much the same course as his own boys, gave her half an hour"s private lesson on unoccupied afternoons, and cut down the two hours"
practising on the piano to a bare thirty minutes. Esther had pleaded to give up music altogether, on the ground that she had neither love nor skill for this accomplishment, but to this the vicar would not agree.
"You have already spent much time over it, and have pa.s.sed the worst of the drudgery; it would be folly to lose all you have learnt," he said.
"You may not wish to perform in public, but there are many other ways in which your music may be useful. In time to come you would be sorry if you could not read an accompaniment to a song, play bright airs to amuse children, or hymn tunes to help in a service. Half an hour a day will keep up what you have learned, and so much time you must manage to spare."
With Mellicent the case was almost exactly opposite. It was a waste of time trying to teach her mathematics, she had not sufficient brain power to grasp them, and if she succeeded in learning a proposition by heart like a parrot, it was only to collapse into helpless tears and protestations when the letters were altered, and, as it seemed to her, the whole argument changed thereby.
Fraulein protested that it was impossible to teach Mellicent to reason; but the vicar was loath to give up his pet theory that girls should receive the same hard mental training as their brothers. He declared that if the girl were weak in this direction, it was all the more necessary that she should be trained, and volunteered to take her in hand for half an hour daily, to see what could be done. Fraulein accepted this offer with a chuckle of satisfaction, and the vicar went on with the lessons several weeks, patiently plodding over the same ground without making the least impression on poor Mellicent"s brain, until there came one happy never-to-be-forgotten morning when Algebra and Euclid went spinning up to the ceiling, and he jumped from the table with a roar of helpless laughter.
"Oh, baby! baby! this is past all bearing! We might try for a century, and never get any further. I cannot waste any more time." Then, seeing the large tears gathering, he framed the pretty face in his hands, and looked at it with a tender smile. "Never mind, darling! there are better things in this world than being clever and learned. You will be our little house-daughter; help mother with her work, and play and sing to father when he is tired in the evening. Work hard at your music, learn how to manage a house, to sew and mend and cook, and you will have nothing to regret. A woman who can make a home, has done more than many scholars."
So it came to pa.s.s that Mellicent added the violin to her accomplishments, and was despatched to her own room to practise exercises, while her elder sister wrestled with problems and equations.
When Peggy Saville arrived, here was a fresh problem, for Fraulein reported that the good child could not add five and six together without tapping them over on her finger; was as ignorant of geography as a little heathen, and had so little ear for music that she could not sing "Rule Britannia" without branching off into "G.o.d save the Queen." But when it came to poetry!--Fraulein held up her hands in admiration. It was absolutely no effort to that child to remember, her eyes seemed to flash down the page, and the lines were her own, and as she repeated them her face shone, and her voice thrilled with such pa.s.sionate delight that Esther and Mellicent had been known to shed tears at the sound of words which had fallen dead and lifeless from their own lips. And at composition, how original she was! What a relief it was to find so great a contrast to other children! When it was the life of a great man which should be written, Esther and Mellicent began their essays as ninety-nine out of a hundred schoolgirls would do, with a flat and obvious statement of birth, birthplace, and parentage; but Peggy disdained such commonplace methods, and dashed headlong into the heart of her subject with a high-flown sentiment, or a stirring a.s.sertion which at once arrested the reader"s interest. And it was the same with whatever she wrote; she had the power of investing the dullest subject with charm and brightness. Fraulein could not say too much of Peggy"s powers in this direction, and the vicar"s eye brightened as he listened.
He asked eagerly to be allowed to see the girl"s ma.n.u.script book, and summoned his wife from pastry-making in the kitchen to hear the three or four essays which it contained.
"What do you think of those for a girl of fourteen? There"s a pupil for you! If she were only a boy! Such dash--such spirit--such a gift of words! Do you notice her adjectives? Exaggerated, no doubt, and over-abundant, but so apt, so true, so strong! That child can write: she has the gift. She ought to turn out an author of no mean rank."
"Oh, dear me! I hope not. I hope she will marry a nice, kind man who will be good to her, and have too much to do looking after her children to waste her time writing stories," cried Mrs Asplin, who adored a good novel when she could get hold of one, but harboured a prejudice against all women-authors as strong-minded creatures, who lived in lodgings, and sported short hair, inky fingers, and a pen behind the ear. Mariquita Saville was surely destined for a happier fate. "When a woman can live her _own_ romance, why need she trouble her head about inventing others?"
Her husband looked at her with a quizzical smile.
"Even the happiest life is not all romance, dear. It sometimes seems unbearably prosaic, and then it is a relief to lose oneself in fiction.
You can"t deny that! I seem to have a remembrance of seeing someone I know seated in a big chair before this very fire devouring a novel and a Newton pippin together on more Sat.u.r.day afternoons than I could number."
"Tuts!" said his wife, and blushed a rosy red, which made her look ridiculously young and pretty. Sat.u.r.day afternoon was her holiday-time of the week, and she had not yet outgrown her schoolgirl love of eating apples as an accompaniment to an interesting book; but how aggravating to be reminded of her weakness just at this moment of all others! "What an inconvenient memory you have!" she said complainingly. "Can"t a poor body indulge in a little innocent recreation without having it brought up against her in argument ever afterwards? And I thought we were talking about Peggy! What is at the bottom of this excitement? I know you have some plan in your head."
"I mean to see that she reads good books, and only books that will help, and not hinder, her progress. The rest will come in time. She must learn before she can teach, have some experience of her own before she can imagine the experiences of others; but writing is Peggy"s gift, and she has been put in my charge. I must try to give her the right training."
From that time forward Mr Asplin studied Peggy with a special interest, and a few evenings later a conversation took place among the young people which confirmed him in his conclusion as to her possibilities.
Lessons were over for the day, and girls and boys were amusing themselves in the drawing-room, while Mr Asplin read the _Spectator_, and his wife knitted stockings by the fire. Mellicent was embroidering a prospective Christmas present, an occupation which engaged her leisure hours from March to December; Esther was reading, and Peggy was supposed to be writing a letter, but was, in reality, talking incessantly, with her elbows planted on the table, and her face supported on her clasped hands. She wore a bright pink frock, which gave a tinge of colour to the pale face, her hair was unbound from the tight pigtail and tied with a ribbon on the nape of her neck, from which it fell in smooth heavy waves to her waist. It was one of the moments when her companions realised with surprise that Peggy could look astonishingly pretty upon occasion; and Oswald, from the sofa, and Max and Bob, from the opposite side of the table, listened to her words with all the more attention on that account.
She was discussing the heroine of a book which they had been reading in turns, pointing out the inconsistencies in her behaviour, and expatiating on the superior manner in which she--Mariquita--would have behaved, had positions been reversed. Then the boys had described their own imaginary conduct under the trying circ.u.mstances, drawing forth peals of derisive laughter from the feminine audience; and the question had finally drifted from "What would you do?" to "What would you be?"
with the result that each one was eager to expatiate on his own pet schemes and ambitions.
"I should like to come out first in all England in the Local Examinations, get my degree of M.A., and be a teacher in a large High School," said Esther solemnly. "At Christmas and Easter I would come home and see my friends, and in summer-time I"d go abroad and travel, and rub up my languages. Of course, what I should like best would be to be headmistress of Girton, but I could not expect that to come for a good many years. I must be content to work my way up, and I shall be quite happy wherever I am, so long as I am teaching."
"Poor old Esther! and she will wear spectacles, and black alpaca dresses, and woollen mittens on her hands! Can"t I see her!" cried Max, throwing back his head with one of the cheery bursts of laughter which brought his mother"s eyes upon him with a flash of adoring pride. "Now there"s none of that overweening ambition about me. I could bear up if I never saw an improving book again. What _I_ would like would be for some benevolent old millionaire to take a fancy to me, and adopt me as his heir. I feel cut out to be a country gentleman, and march about in gaiters and knickerbockers, looking after the property, don"t you know, and interviewing my tenants. I"d be strict with them, but kind at the same time; look into all their grievances, and put them right whenever I could. I"d make it a model place before I"d done with it, and all the people would adore me. That"s my ambition, and a very good one it is too; I defy anyone to have a better."