"Just the sort for young Jimbo," added the Colonel with decision.
"I trust so; she"s a little young, perhaps."
"Possibly, but one can"t get everything," said her husband, in his horse-and-dog voice. "A year with her should clean out that fanciful brain of his, and prepare him for school with other boys. He"ll be all right once he gets to school. My dear," he added, spreading out his right hand, fingers extended, "you"ve made a most wise selection. I congratulate you. I"m delighted."
"I"m so glad."
"Capital, I repeat, capital. You"re a clever little woman. I knew you"d find the right party, once I showed you how the land lay."
The Empty House, that stood in its neglected garden not far from the Park gates, was built on a point of land that entered wedgewise into the Colonel"s estate. Though something of an eyesore, therefore, he could do nothing with it.
To the children it had always been an object of peculiar, though not unwholesome, mystery. None of them cared to pa.s.s it on a stormy day--the wind made such odd noises in its empty corridors and rooms--and they refused point-blank to go within hailing distance of it after dark. But in Jimbo"s imagination it was especially haunted, and if he had ceased to reveal to the others what he _knew_ went on under its roof, it was only because they were unable to follow him, and were inclined to greet his extravagant recitals with "Now, Jimbo, you know _perfectly_ well you"re only making up."
The House had been empty for many years; but, to the children, it had been empty since the beginning of the world, since what they called the "_very_ beginning." They believed--well, each child believed according to his own mind and powers, but there was at least one belief they all held in common: for it was generally accepted as an article of faith that the Indians, encamped among the shrubberies on the back lawn, secretly buried their dead behind the crumbling walls of its weedy garden--the "dead" provided by the children"s battles, be it understood.
Wakeful ears in the night-nursery had heard strange sounds coming from that direction when the windows were open on hot summer nights; and the gardener, supreme authority on all that happened in the night (since they believed that he sat up to watch the vegetables and fruit-trees ripen, and never went to bed at all), was evidently of the same persuasion.
When appealed to for an explanation of the mournful wind-voices, he knew what was expected of him, and rose manfully to the occasion.
"It"s either them Redskins aburyin" wot you killed of "em yesterday,"
he declared, pointing towards the Empty House with a bit of broken flower-pot, "or else it"s the ones you killed last week, and who was always astealin" of my strorbriz." He looked very wise as he said this, and his wand of office--a dirty trowel--which he held in his hand, gave him tremendous dignity.
"That"s just what _we_ thought, and of course if you say so too, that settles it," said Nixie.
"It"s more"n likely, missie, leastways from wot you describes, which it is a hempty house all the same, though I can"t say as I"ve heard no sounds, not very distinct that is, myself."
The gardener may have been anxious to hedge a bit, for fear of a scolding from headquarters, but his cryptic remarks pleased the children greatly, because it showed, they thought, that they knew more than the gardener did.
Thus the Empty House remained an object of somewhat dreadful delight, lending a touch of wonderland to that part of the lane where it stood, and forming the background for many an enchanting story over the nursery fire in winter-time. It appealed vividly to their imaginations, especially to Jimbo"s. Its dark windows, without blinds, were sometimes full of faces that retreated the moment they were looked at. That tangled ivy did not grow over the roof so thickly for nothing; and those high elms on the western side had not been planted years ago in a semicircle without a reason. Thus, at least, the children argued, not knowing exactly what they meant, nor caring much, so long as they proved to their own satisfaction that the place was properly haunted, and therefore worthy of their attention.
It was natural they should lead Miss Lake in that direction on one of their first walks together, and it was natural, too, that she should at once discover from their manner that the place was of some importance to them.
"What a queer-looking old house," she remarked, when they turned the corner of the lane and it came into view. "Almost a ruin, isn"t it?"
The children exchanged glances. A "ruin" did not seem the right sort of word at all; and, besides, was a little disrespectful. Also, they were not sure whether the new governess ought to be told everything so soon.
She had not really won their confidence yet. After a slight pause--and a children"s pause is the most eloquent imaginable--Nixie, being the eldest, said in a stiff little voice: "It"s the Empty House, Miss Lake.
_We_ know it very well indeed."
"It looks empty," observed Miss Lake briskly.
"But it"s not a ruin, of course," added the child, with the cold dignity of chosen spokesman.
"Oh!" said the governess, quite missing the point. She was talking lightly on the surface of things, wholly ignorant of the depths beneath her feet, intuition with her having always been sternly repressed.
"It"s a gamekeeper"s cottage, or something like that, I suppose," she said.
"Oh, no; it isn"t a bit."
"Doesn"t it belong to your father, then?"
"No. It"s somebody else"s, you see."
"Then you can"t have it pulled down?"
"Rather not! Of course not!" exclaimed several indignant voices at once.
Miss Lake perceived for the first time that it held more than ordinary importance in their mind.
"Tell me about it," she said. "What is its history, and who used to live in it?"
There came another pause. The children looked into each others" faces.
They gazed at the blue sky overhead; then they stared at the dusty road at their feet. But no one volunteered an answer. Miss Lake, they felt, was approaching the subject in an offensive manner.
"Why are you all so mysterious about it?" she went on. "It"s only a tumble-down old place, and must be very draughty to live in, even for a gamekeeper."
Silence.
"Come, children, don"t you hear me? I"m asking you a question."
A couple of startled birds flew out of the ivy with a great whirring of wings. This was followed by a faint sound of rumbling, that seemed to come from the interior of the house. Outside all was still, and the hot sunshine lay over everything. The sound was repeated. The children looked at each other with large, expectant eyes. Something in the house was moving--was coming nearer.
"Have you _all_ lost your tongues?" asked the governess impatiently.
"But you see," Nixie said at length, "somebody _does_ live in it now."
"And who is he?"
"I didn"t say it was a _man_."
"Whoever it is--tell me about the person," persisted Miss Lake.
"There"s really nothing to tell," replied the child, without looking up.
"Oh, but there must be something," declared the logical young governess, "or you wouldn"t object so much to its being pulled down."
Nixie looked puzzled, but Jimbo came to the rescue at once.
"But _you_ wouldn"t understand if we did tell you," he said, in a slow, respectful voice. His tone held a touch of that indescribable scorn heard sometimes in a child"s tone--the utter contempt for the stupid grown-up creature. Miss Lake noticed, and felt annoyed. She recognised that she was not getting on well with the children, and it piqued her.
She remembered the Colonel"s words about "knocking the nonsense out" of James" head, and she saw that her first opportunity, in fact her first real test, was at hand.
"And why, pray, should I not understand?" she asked, with some sharpness. "Is the mystery so _very_ great?"
For some reason the duty of spokesman now devolved unmistakably upon Jimbo; and very seriously too, he accepted the task, standing with his feet firmly planted in the road and his hands in his trousers" pockets.
"You see, Miss Lake," he began gravely, "we know such a lot of Things in there, that they might not like us to tell you about them. They don"t know you yet. If they did it might be different. But--but--you see, it isn"t."
This was rather crushing to the aspiring educator, and the Colonel"s instructions gained additional point in the light of the boy"s explanation.