"I don"t know! I"m hoping for inspiration at the last moment, and eating is a grand resource! Ply them well with m.u.f.fins till the ice is broken--"
At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the sound of an electric bell, upon hearing which Mrs Vanburgh uttered a sharp exclamation of dismay, and rushed for the hall. Her two a.s.sistants followed, but even they in their schoolgirl stage could not keep up with the pace at which she literally flew up the staircase. Her feet seemed hardly to touch the ground; she sprang up two steps at a time, crying continuously, "Quick, quick!" until, just as the head of the staircase was reached, cr-r-r-ur! Came the sounds of ripping seams, and a long dangle of silk flounce showed underneath her skirt.
"Just my luck!" she cried disconsolately. "It never seems as if I could get upstairs like anyone else. Now they"ll think I"m an untidy wretch, and it will all be spoiled. What"s the use of silk flounces anyway?
I"ll never have another--I vow I won"t! There! I"ll pin it up with a brooch till they"ve gone. We must be in the drawing-room ready to receive. Cynthia, sit over there, and pretend to be reading. Miss Trevor, you might be casually poking the fire. Whatever we do, we mustn"t alarm the poor dears by looking formal."
"I am a great deal more alarmed of the poor dears than they will be of me! My sister Jill pretended to swoon at the idea of a room full of governesses. She said it was more like a nightmare than a piece of real life."
"Hush!" whispered Mrs Vanburgh tragically. "They come!" for footsteps were heard ascending the staircase, and the a.s.sistants flew to their posts, while the hostess endeavoured to hum a tune in a light and jaunty manner.
Another moment and the door was thrown open to disclose--a servant, bearing a note upon a silver salver. It was not a governess after all!
The two girls came forward into the room, divided between relief and disappointment.
Mrs Vanburgh tossed the note impatiently aside, and said resignedly--
"Ah, well, it gives us all the longer to prepare! I"ll run into my room and mend this horrid dress, and you might arrange these books of photographs. They are really awfully interesting, and of almost every country you can imagine. Old Mr Vanburgh collected them on his travels, so you have only to find out which country interests your special governess most, and--there you are! It will save no end of exertion!"
She ran out of the room, and the two girls stood together, seized with a sudden shyness at finding themselves alone.
"I--I think we know each other very well by sight," said Cynthia, and Betty blushed and blinked, remembering the crowded schoolroom window and her own scathing criticisms.
"Yes--I"m afraid we have stared a great deal. We are so interested in our neighbours, but they are almost all old--you were the only young one like ourselves. We were frightfully anxious to know all about you."
Cynthia gave a pathetic little sigh.
"There"s so little to know! There"s just mother and me--and father at the other end of the world. It isn"t half so exciting as having brothers and sisters, and going to school, and having good times all together. I have envied you so!"
"Me!" cried Betty, aghast. "You envied _me_! How extraordinary! I"ve perfectly ached with envying you sometimes."
"Oh, why?" asked Cynthia; and as Betty looked into her wide earnest eyes she felt of a sudden shamed and silenced. How could she acknowledge that she had envied the greater luxury, the cosy fire in the bedroom, the pink evening dress, the monopoly of attention, she who was so rich in the dear human companionship which the other lacked!
"There are drawbacks to a large family, you know," she exclaimed. "We don"t _always_ have good times. Sometimes we all get cross together and quarrel like cats, and then it feels as if it would be so nice and peaceful to be the only one. You have no one to quarrel with."
"I have myself. I quarrel fearfully with myself," said Cynthia.
She perched herself on the arm of a high chair and stared at Betty with her grave grey eyes. She wore an enamel buckle on her belt, a gold bangle encircled her wrist, her shoes, her stockings, her ribbons were all in the perfection of taste. Betty felt another twinge of envy at the sight, and wondered what in the world such a lucky person could find to quarrel about! In manner Cynthia was as simple and direct as Pam herself. A Pet she might be, but there was nothing pampered or self- satisfied for the most carping critic to discover.
"I do get so bored with myself," she said plaintively. "My mother has stayed in England on purpose to look after me and my education, and it is always a case of "This would be good for Cynthia," "That would be bad for Cynthia," "What would be best for Cynthia?"--there is altogether too much Cynthia in my life, and I am sick of her. In a big family one would have so many people to think of that there would be no room for self."
"No--o!" said Betty doubtfully. Her conscience told her that despite father and mother, and Miles and Jack, and Jill and Pamela, Betty loomed very large on her own horizon, but she was ashamed to confess the fact in so many words, and it was a relief when Mrs Vanburgh came bustling back in her quick energetic fashion.
"There!" she cried. "I"ve put in a row of safety-pins. I couldn"t spare the time to sew it up just now. It"s half-past three, and they may be arriving any moment. I"ll talk to each one as she comes in, and artlessly find out how long she can stay, then I"ll hand her over to you to be treated accordingly. Tea and cake if it"s a call, photographs and light conversation if it"s a visit. Sister Anne, Sister Anne, do you see anyone coming?"
Cynthia looked round from the window and shook her head.
"Nary a governess! They wouldn"t like to come exactly at the hour you mention. Perhaps they are prowling round the Square, whiling away the time until it is polite to appear."
"Oh dear, I wish they wouldn"t! I like things to happen at once! I get fidgety and nervous if I have to wait," cried Mrs Vanburgh, poking the fire with such violence that the ashes were strewn all over the grate.
"Let"s pretend that you are the first-comers, and rehea.r.s.e the conversation! Now then, go out of the room and come in, and I"ll welcome you."
Cynthia and Betty dutifully retreated to the hall, whence came a sound of subdued giggling and whispering, lasting for several minutes, at the expiration of which the door was thrown open and "Miss Perks" announced in a voice shaken by laughter, whereupon Cynthia bounced into the room, transformed almost out of recognition by a few touches accomplished by Betty"s nimble fingers.
Her long mane of hair was twisted into an exaggerated "door-knocker," at the top of which, with all the appearance of a very fly-away toque, was perched one of the frilled pink shades which covered the electric lights; a piece of Eastern drapery was folded scarf-like round her shoulders. Perk by name and Perk by nature did she appear as she minced across the room, while hostess and maid alike looked on in helpless convulsions of laughter. No rehearsal was possible under the circ.u.mstances, though Cynthia persisted in acting her part, and sat on the edge of the sofa tossing her head, and delivering herself of staccato little sentences in reply to imaginary questions suitable to the occasion.
"Oh, really! No indeed! Unusually cold for the time of year. Most kind of you, I"m sure. Charming opportunity?"
"You impertinent girl; go and put back those things this minute! How dare you make fun of me and spoil the look of my hall!" cried Nan, wiping the tears from her eyes; then she turned towards the clock, and her face fell.
"Ten minutes to four! They ought to be coming! Why don"t they come?-- Now then, I _told_ you how it would be! There"s the bell, and everything upset!"
With a bound Miss Perks was in the middle of the floor, tearing the scarf from her shoulders, and shaking her hair loose from its fastenings. Betty jumped on a chair to put the shade back in its place, Nan threw the drapery over the easel, which being done, all three rushed to the head of the staircase, and peered curiously into the hall beneath.
Once more disappointment awaited them, for a brown-paper parcel was the nearest approach to a governess which met their gaze, and the return to the drawing-room was conducted in a much more leisurely and dignified manner than the exit. For the first time the awful possibility of failure seemed to dawn on the hostess"s heart.
"Suppose," she said blankly, "suppose n.o.body comes! It would be a terrible disappointment, but the worst of all would be Gervase--my husband! He laughed so at the preparations. I"ve provided enough for twenty. He would tease me to death if it were all left."
"It won"t be!" cried Betty stoutly. "If the worst comes to the worst, I shall be so ravenous with disappointment and nervous strain by six o"clock, that I shall be able to demolish enough for ten."
"And you can"t say you have had n.o.body. You have had Miss Perks," added Cynthia slyly; but Mrs Vanburgh refused to be comforted, and wandered disconsolately up and down the room, peering out of each of the three windows in succession, and watching the clock with anxious dismay.
"Half-past four, and not one here! What can it mean? Three big Homes I went to, and there must have been at least a score of inmates in each; it isn"t _possible_ that n.o.body will come!"
"In all the length and breadth of this great city, is there not _one_ governess who will take pity upon a hospitable lady!" quoted Cynthia mischievously. It was evident that she also knew the source from which had sprung the inspiration of these Sat.u.r.day gatherings; but though Nan laughed, it was with a somewhat uncertain sound, and her brown eyes looked suspiciously moist. The two girls were quick to realise that it was not a time for teasing, and hastened to give a safer turn to the conversation.
In truth, Nan"s heart was very deeply in her enterprise. Hers was one of those sweet, generous natures which expand, instead of shrivelling under the influence of prosperity. Just in proportion as her own life was beautiful and hedged round with all the sweet fences of love, so did she yearn more and more over her sisters whose lots were cast in such different places--which is the true spirit of Christ, who left the very heavens for our sakes. She had woven many happy dreams about these afternoon meetings, seeing the radiance of her own happiness lighting up dark places, and the power of love and sympathy cheering starved and lonely lives, and was it all to end like this--in a joke for her husband and these two girls? Would Gervase come home, and laugh his tender, happy laugh, and stroke her hair, and call her "Poor little pet!" as if she, and not the missing guests, was the real object of compa.s.sion?
Nan blinked the tears from her eyes, but they rose again and again-- tears of bitter disappointment; and then, just as the clock was about to strike the quarter, there came another quick whirr of the electric bell, and Cynthia, running out into the hall, came back aglow with excitement.
"It is! It _is_!" she hissed in an excited whisper. "I saw her. She"s coming upstairs. Quick! Quick! To your posts!"
Betty rushed to the fire, Nan stood in the middle of the floor radiant with expectation. The servant threw open the door, and announced in solemn tones--
"Miss Beveridge."
The first governess had arrived!
CHAPTER TWELVE.
MISS BEVERIDGE.
She was small and thin, with a bleached, joyless face, which seemed all of the same dull grey tint. Grey hair, grey eyes, grey complexion, a pinched-in mouth and deeply-furrowed forehead. She was dressed in black--shabby black, which is the shabbiest of all shabbies--and, looking at her, it seemed impossible to believe that there had ever been a time when she was young and happy, and had frisked and frolicked, and liked pretty things like any ordinary girl. Cynthia and Betty felt a chill of dismay, but Nan"s heart gave a throb of delight. This was one of the very starved, joyless lives which she longed to brighten; it would have been difficult to find a better type of the cla.s.s. She walked quickly forward, and held out a warm, welcoming hand.
"How do you do? I am so pleased you have come?"
Miss Beveridge looked at her coldly, then cast an inquiring glance around the room; at the luxurious hangings and furniture, at the glowing fire, at Betty slim and childish in her simple blue frock, at Cynthia with her flowing locks.