She took my face between her hands, saying:
"Silly child, there are some faces with faultless features, which would receive nothing more than an indifferent glance while beside other faces which might have few if any pretensions to beauty. Yours is one of those last mentioned."
"But that does not say I am not ugly."
"No one would dream of calling you plain, let alone ugly; brilliant is the word which best describes you."
Uncle Julius had the upper part of his ponderous figure arrayed in a frock-coat. He did not take kindly to what he termed "those skittish sparrow-tailed affairs". Frock-coats suited him, but I am not partial to them on every one. They look well enough on a podgy, fat, or broad man, but on a skinny one they hang with such a forlorn, dying-duck expression, that they invariably make me laugh.
Julius John Bossier, better known as J. J. Bossier, and better still as Jay-Jay--big, fat, burly, broad, a jovial bachelor of forty, too fond of all the opposite s.e.x ever to have settled his affections on one in particular--was well known, respected, and liked from Wagga Wagga to Albury, Forbes to Dandaloo, Bourke to Hay, from Tumut to Monaro, and back again to Peak Hill, as a generous man, a straight goer in business matters, and a jolly good fellow all round.
I was very proud to call him uncle.
"So this is yourself, is it!" he exclaimed, giving me a tremendous hug.
"Oh, uncle," I expostulated, "wipe your old kisses off! Your breath smells horribly of whisky and tobacco."
"Gammon, that"s what makes my kisses so nice!" he answered; and, after holding me at arm"s-length for inspection, "By George, you"re a wonderful-looking girl! You"re surely not done growing yet, though! You are such a little nipper. I could put you in my pocket with ease. You aren"t a sc.r.a.p like your mother. I"ll give the next shearer who pa.s.ses a shilling to cut that hair off. It would kill a dog in the hot weather."
"Everard, this is my niece, Sybylla" (aunt Helen was introducing us).
"You will have to arrange yourselves--what relation you are, and how to address each other."
The admiration expressed in his clear sharp eyes gave me a sensation different to any I had ever experienced previously.
"I suppose I"m a kind of uncle and brother in one, and as either relationship ent.i.tles me to a kiss, I"m going to take one," he said in a very gallant manner.
"You may take one if you can," I said with mischievous defiance, springing off the veranda into the flower-garden. He accepted my challenge, and, being lithe as a cat, a tremendous scamper ensued. Round and round the flower-beds we ran. Uncle Jay-Jay"s beard opened in a broad smile, which ended in a loud laugh. Everard Grey"s coat-tails flew in the breeze he made, and his collar was too high for athletic purposes. I laughed too, and was lost, and we returned to the veranda--Everard in triumph, and I feeling very red and uncomfortable.
Grannie had arrived upon the scene, looking the essence of brisk respectability in a black silk gown and a white lace cap. She cast on me a glance of severe disapproval, and denounced my conduct as shameful; but uncle Jay-Jay"s eyes twinkled as he dexterously turned the subject.
"Gammon, mother! I bet you were often kissed when that youngster"s age.
I bet my boots now that you can"t count the times you did the same thing yourself. Now, confess."
Grannie"s face melted in a smile as she commenced a little anecdote, with that pathetic beginning, "When I was young."
Aunt Helen sent me inside lest I should catch cold, and I stationed myself immediately inside the window so that I should not miss the conversation. "I should think your niece is very excitable," Mr Grey was saying to aunt Helen.
"Oh, very."
"Yes; I have never seen any but very highly strung temperaments have that transparent brilliance of expression."
"She is very variable--one moment all joy, and the next the reverse."
"She has a very striking face. I don"t know what it is that makes it so."
"It may be her complexion," said aunt Helen; "her skin is whiter than the fairest blonde, and her eyebrows and lashes very dark. Be very careful you do not say anything that would let her know you think her not nice looking. She broods over her appearance in such a morbid manner. It is a weak point with her, so be careful not to sting her sensitiveness in that respect."
"Plain-looking! Why, I think she has one of the most fascinating faces I"ve seen for some time, and her eyes are simply magnificent. What colour are they?"
"The gra.s.s is not bad about Sydney. I think I will send a truck of fat wethers away next week," said uncle Jay-Jay to grannie.
"It is getting quite dark. Let"s get in to dinner at once," said grannie.
During the meal I took an opportunity of studying the appearance of Everard Grey. He had a typically aristocratic English face, even to the cold rather heartless expression, which is as established a point of an English blue blood as an arched neck is of a thoroughbred horse.
A ringer, whose wife had been unexpectedly confined, came for grannie when dinner was over, and the rest of us had a delightful musical evening. Uncle Jay-Jay bawled "The Vicar of Bray" and "Drink, Puppy, Drink" in a stentorian ba.s.s voice, holding me on his knee, pinching, tickling, pulling my hair, and shaking me up and down between whiles. Mr Hawden favoured us by rendering "The Holy City". Everard Grey sang several new songs, which was a great treat, as he had a well-trained and musical baritone voice. He was a veritable carpet knight, and though not a fop, was exquisitely dressed in full evening costume, and showed his long pedigreed blood in every line of his clean-shaven face and tall slight figure. He was quite a champion on the piano, and played aunt Helen"s accompaniments while he made her sing song after song. When she was weary uncle Jay-Jay said to me, "Now it"s your turn, me fine lady.
We"ve all done something to keep things rolling but you. Can you sing?"
"No,"
"Can this youngster sing, Helen?"
"She sings very nicely to herself sometimes, but I do not know how she would manage before company. Will you try something, Sybylla?"
Uncle Jay-Jay waited to hear no more, but carrying me to the music-stool, and depositing me thereon, warned me not to attempt to leave it before singing something.
To get away to myself, where I was sure no one could bear me, and sing and sing till I made the echoes ring, was one of the chief joys of my existence, but I had never made a success in singing to company. Besides losing all nerve, I had a very queer voice, which every one remarked.
However, tonight I made an effort in my old favourite, "Three Fishers Went Sailing". The beauty of the full-toned Ronisch piano, and Everard"s clever and sympathetic accompanying, caused me to forget my audience, and sing as though to myself alone, forgetting that my voice was odd.
When the song ceased Mr Grey wheeled abruptly on the stool and said, "Do you know that you have one of the most wonderful natural voices I have heard. Why, there is a fortune in such a voice if it were, trained! Such chest-notes, such feeling, such rarity of tone!"
"Don"t be sarcastic, Mr Grey," I said shortly.
"Upon my word as a man, I mean every word I say," he returned enthusiastically.
Everard Grey"s opinion on artistic matters was considered worth having.
He dabbled in all the arts--writing, music, acting, and sketching, and went to every good concert and play in Sydney. Though he was clever at law, it was whispered by some that he would wind up on the stage, as he had a great leaning that way.
I walked away from the piano treading on air. Would I really make a singer? I with the voice which had often been ridiculed; I who had often blasphemously said that I would sell my soul to be able to sing just pa.s.sably. Everard Grey"s opinion gave me an intoxicated sensation of joy.
"Can you recite?" he inquired.
"Yes," I answered firmly.
"Give us something," said uncle Jay-Jay.
I recited Longfellow"s "The Slave"s Dream". Everard Grey was quite as enthusiastic over this as he had been about my singing.
"Such a voice! Such depth and width! Why, she could fill the Centennial Hall without an effort. All she requires is training."
"By George, she"s a regular dab! But I wish she would give us something not quite so glum," said uncle Jay-Jay.
I let myself go. Carried away by I don"t know what sort of a spirit, I exclaimed, "Very well, I will, if you will wait till I make up, and will help me."
I disappeared for a few minutes, and returned made up as a fat old Irish woman, with a smudge of dirt on my face. There was a general laugh.
Would Mr Hawden a.s.sist me? Of course he was only too delighted, and flattered that I had called upon him in preference to the others. What would he do?