"No, you need not be afraid of any more sailors" language," said Angela. "They were as careful as possible on board. I overheard once, "Hold hard, Tom, Polly Pink is up there, and she"s a regular lady born!
Whereupon Polly indulged in a ridiculous chuckle, holding the banana cleverly in one foot, while Angela laughed and chattered more and more nervously, but only succeeded in disgusting the visitors by what Susan at least took for unbecoming flippancy.
"THAT Sister," said Susan, as they drove away, "does not seem to me at all the person to have the charge of Henry"s poor little girl!"
"I wish she had not thrust herself in," said Bessie, "to prevent me from getting on with the child over the c.o.c.katoo."
"She calls herself a Sister! I don"t understand it, for she seems to have been bent on marrying poor Henry."
"She never took any vows."
"Then why does she wear a ridiculous cap over all that hair?"
By and by they were met by Bernard Underwood striding along.
"Holloa! have you seen Angel and her darling? She is a perfect slave to the little thing, and one only gets fragments of her."
"She seems very fond of her," said Bessie.
"Just kept her alive, you see. Poor old Angel! She is all for one thing at a time! Are you going up to Clipstone?"
"I think we shall find Phyllis at Beechcroft."
"Yes, she is driving there to lunch, and Angel is to bring the little cornstalk over to make friends with our Lily! I trust the creature goes to sleep now, and I may get a word out of Angel!" Wherewith he dashed on, and the two ladies agreed that "those Underwoods seemed to be curiously impulsive."
They were, however, much better satisfied with the Ceylonese Lily, who was a very well trained civilised specimen, conversing very prettily over one of Aunt Jane"s picture books, which Bessie looked at with her, and showing herself fully able to read the t.i.tles beneath, a feat of which Lena was quite incapable, though she was less on the defensive than she had shown herself at the Goyle, and Angela was far more at her ease than when she was conscious that "Field"s" original love was watching the introduction to his sisters.
Besides, Bernard"s presence was sunshine to her, and the two expanded into bright reminiscences and merry comparisons of their two lives, absolutely delightful to themselves, and to Phyllis and her Aunt Jane, and which would have been the same to Elizabeth, if she had not been worried at Susan"s evident misunderstanding of--and displeasure at--the quips and cranks of the happy brother and sister; also she was bent on promoting an intercourse between Lily and Lena, over the doll she had brought for the former. She was a little hurt that Lena had not been accompanied by the blue-eyed article with preposterously long eyelashes that had been bestowed on her at the Goyle; but the little Australian had no opinion of dolls, and had let the one bought for her at Sydney be thrown overboard by the ship"s monkey.
"That was cruel!" said Lily, fondling her black-eyed specimen.
"She could not feel," reasoned Lena, with contempt.
"I don"t know," said Lily, knitting her brows. "It"s not ALL make believe! I do love my Rosamunda Rowena, and she loves me, and I shall tell her not to be jealous of this dear Betsinda. For, do you know, when Rosamunda was ill in the Red Sea, father carried her up and down on deck, and made her a dear little deck chair."
"But she is not alive. She COULDN"T be," sighed Lena. "I like my Ben and my kangaroo! Oh, I do want to go back to my kangaroo!"
"And does Lily want to go back to her riki-tiki?" asked Lily"s father, lifting a little girl on each knee, so that they might be vis-a-vis, when certainly his own had the advantage in beauty, as she answered, leaning against him, "Granny"s better than riki-tiki!"
For which pretty speech some of the ladies gave her much credit; but her father, with a tender arm round her, said, "Ah! you are a sentimental little p.u.s.s.y-cat! Is anything here as good as Carrigaboola? Eh, Lena?"
But Lena resolutely shook her carrots; but kept silence, while Bernard turned over the leaves of a great book of natural history, till as a page was displayed with a large kangaroo under a blue-gum tree, with a yellow wattle tree beside him, her lips quivered, her face puckered, and she burst into an uncontrollable fit of crying; "Oh! I want to go home, home! Sister, Sister, take me home!"
Angela was in a minute beside her, took her within loving arms, and carried her off.
CHAPTER XXIV--CRUEL LAWYERS
"Tender companions of our serious days, Who colour with your kisses, smiles and tears, Life"s worn web woven over wasted ways."
- LOWELL.
There was a good deal of worry and anxiety for some little time, while correspondence was going on about Henry Merrifield"s will, and in the meantime Angela decided to board with Miss Prescott, since her charge was certainly much better in health there; and besides, as Mrs. Bernard Merrifield was naturally at Clipstone, it became the head quarters of her husband, though he made many excursions to his own people, and on business affairs to Sir Ferdinand Travis Underwood in London.
And Clipstone suited him well for his holiday. Sir Jasper had, of course, a certain amount of intercourse with the garrison at Avoncester, and the officers stationed there at present had already some acquaintance with Bernard Underwood, who was known to be a champion in Ceylon in all athletic sports, especially polo and cricket. Tall and well made, he had been devoted to all such games in his youth, and they had kept up his health in his sedentary occupation. Now, in his leisure time, his prowess did much to efface the fame of the much younger and slighter Alexis White, and, so far as might be, Angela enjoyed the games with him, keeping well within bounds, but always feeling activity a wholesome outlet for her superfluous strength, and, above all, delighting in an interval of being a child again with her Bear of old times; and her superabundant life, energy, and fun amazed all, especially by the contrast with her poor little languid charge, who seemed, as Jane Mohun said, centuries older.
The Merrifield lads were also devoted to him. Even Fergus was somewhat distracted from his allegiance to Dolores and her experiments, and in the very few days that Christmas afforded for skating, could think of nothing else.
And as to Wilfred, his whole mind seemed to be set on sports, and marble works to be only an incident thrown in. Bernard, whom he followed a.s.siduously, and who took him to Avoncester, and introduced him to young officers, began to have doubts whether he had done wisely. Bernard had, in his time, vexed Felix"s soul by idleness and amus.e.m.e.nt, but he had been one betted upon, not himself given to betting. He loved football and cricket for their bodily excitement, not the fict.i.tious one of a looker on, or reader of papers, and it struck him that Wilfred knew a good deal too much about this more dangerous side of races and athletics.
He said so to Angela, and she answered, "Oh, nonsense! Young men are out of it if they don"t know the winning horse. Even Pur had to be up to the Derby."
And Angela had her own bitter trial in the decision of the lawyers.
Not only was the signature of the will unsatisfactory, from the confusion between Field and Merrifield, but the two witnesses failed to be traced, John Shepherd and George Jones were not to be identified, and though Brisbane might accept wills easily, an English court of law required more certainty. The little daughter being the only child and natural heiress, this was not felt to be doing her any injury; but the decision deprived her of the guardian her father had chosen, and Angela was in despair. She was ready to write to the Pursuivant, to the Bishop of Albertstown, to the Lord Chancellor, with an exposition of the wicked injustice and hardness of heart of lawyers, and the inexpedience of taking the poor child from her earliest motherly friend, expressly chosen by her father. All Bernard"s common sense and Magdalen"s soothing were needed to make her hold her peace, when correspondence made it plain that the guardianship being a.s.sumed by the uncles, Captain Merrifield would not hear for a moment of the scheme of taking the child out to Carrigaboola. In his opinion, and his sister Susan"s, the only fit thing to be done with her was to place her with the two aunts at Coalham to be educated. He came down to Rock Quay to inspect her.
It was a cold, raw day, with the moors wrapped in mist, and the poor little maid looked small, peaky and pinched. He was sure that the dry winds of the north were what she needed, wanted to carry her off immediately, and looked regardless of Angela"s opinion, though backed by Miss Prescott, that it would be highly dangerous to take the delicate child of a semi-tropical climate off in the depth of winter to a northerly town. Angela walked off to ask Dr. Dagger to inspect the child and give his opinion, while Captain Sam repaired to Clipstone to visit his relations and lunch with them.
He did not meet with all the sympathy he expected. Lady Merrifield said that Coalham had not agreed with her own son Harry, and that little Lena ought not to be taken there till after the cold winds of spring were over; and her daughters all chimed in with a declaration that Angela Underwood was perfectly devoted to the little one, and that no one else could make her happy.
"Petting her! spoiling her!" scoffed the Captain. "Why, Susan and Bessie were full of the contrast with your little girl."
"Health," began Phyllis.
"An Indian child too!" he went on. "Just showing what a little good sense in the training can do! No, indeed! Since I am to be her guardian, I have no notion of swerving from my duty, and letting poor Hal"s child be bred up to Sisterhoods and all that flummery."
"It will just break Angela"s heart," cried Valetta, with tears in her eyes, at which the Captain looked contemptuous.
"I must say," added Bernard, "that I should think it little short of murderous to take that unlucky child from the one woman who understands her up into the bleak north at this time of year."
"Decidedly!" added Sir Jasper. "Miss Underwood deserves every consideration in dealing with the child who has been always her sole charge."
Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley; but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had its effect, though there was a sense that he might be bia.s.sed by his son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake Mrs. Samuel Merrifield"s dislike to the very name of Sister or of anything not commonplace.
Angela obtained Dr. Dagger"s opinion to reinforce her own and Lady Merrifield"s, and the Captain was obliged to give way so far as to consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being allowed to remain at Arns...o...b.. till after Easter, when her aunts were to fetch her to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten.
After Angela"s period of raging against law and lawyers and all the Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to Captain Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than her friends had dared to hope. Lance had almost expected her to deport her charge, parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian liner, and had advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to be on his guard if she hinted at anything so preposterous; but Bernard shook his head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than her elders thought. "Waves and storms don"t go over us for nothing, I hope," he said.
And he found himself right on his return. Angela had bowed her head to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little charge for the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less petting. When Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her brother on his return, and the whine was set up, "Let me go, Sister,"
it was answered, "No, my dear, it is too far for you. You must stay and walk with Paula."
"I want to go with Sister."
"You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you. No, I can"t have any fretting. Paula will show you how to drive your hoop. Keep her moving fast, Paula, don"t let her fret and get cold."
And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into Paulina"s, and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping, though tears sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away, and, after running out and shutting the back gate after her, put her arm with a clinging gesture into Bernard"s.
"That"s right!" he said, pressing her hand.
"Cruel," she said, "but better by and by for her. Oh, Bear, if one could but learn to lie still and say, "Thou didst it," when it is human agency that takes away the desire of one"s eyes with a stroke."