"We will see to that," said Aunt Maria. "You are quite the naughtiest child I ever came across. Now then, Miss, if you don"t go patiently, and on your own feet, you shall be conveyed to your room in my arms. I am quite strong enough, so you can choose."
Polly"s eyes flashed.
"If you put it in that way, I don"t want to fuss," she said. "I"ll go there for the present, but you can"t keep me there, and you needn"t try."
Aunt Maria and Polly disappeared round the corner, and poor Helen stood leaning against the oak bal.u.s.trade, silently crying. In three or four minutes Aunt Maria returned, her face still red, and the key of the bedroom in her pocket.
"Now, Helen, what is the matter? Crying? Well, no wonder. Of course, you are ashamed of your sister. I never met such a naughty, impertinent girl. Can it be possible that Helen should have such a child? She must take entirely after her father. Now, Helen, stop crying, tears are most irritating to me, and do no good to any one. I am glad I arrived at this emergency. Matters have indeed come to a pretty crisis. In your father"s absence, I distinctly declare that I take the rule of my poor sister"s orphans, and I shall myself mete out the punishment for the glaring act of rebellion that I have just witnessed. Polly remains in her room, and has a bread and water diet until Monday. The other children have bread and water for breakfast in the morning, and go to bed two hours before their usual time to-morrow. The kitchen-maid I shall dismiss in the morning, giving her a month"s wages in lieu of notice. Now, Helen, come downstairs. Oh, there is just one thing more. You must find some other room to sleep in to-night. I forbid you to go near your sister. In fact, I shall not give you the key. You may share my bed, if you like."
"I cannot do that, Aunt Maria," said Helen. "I respect you, and will obey you as far as I can until father returns, and tells us what we really ought to do. But I cannot stay away from Polly to-night for any one. I know she has been very naughty. I am as shocked as you can be with all that has happened, but I know too, Aunt Maria, that harsh treatment will ruin Polly; she won"t stand it, she never would, and mother never tried it with her. She is different from the rest of us, Aunt Maria; she is wilder, and fiercer, and freer; but mother often said, oh, often and often, that no one might be n.o.bler than Polly, if only she was guided right. I know she is troublesome, I know she was impertinent to you, and I know well she did very wrong, but she is only fourteen, and she has high spirits. You can"t bend, nor drive Polly, Aunt Maria, but gentleness and love can always lead her. I _must_ sleep in my own bed to-night, Aunt Maria. Oh, don"t refuse me--please give me up the key."
"You are a queer girl," said Aunt Maria. "But I believe you are the best of them, and you certainly remind me of your mother when you speak in that earnest fashion. Here, take the key, then, but be sure you lock the door when you go in, and when you come out again in the morning. I trust to you that that little wild, impertinent sister of yours doesn"t escape--now, remember."
"While I am there she will not," answered Helen. "Thank you, auntie. You look very tired yourself, won"t you go to bed now?"
"I will, child. I"m fairly beat out. Such a scene is enough to disturb the strongest nerves. Only what about the other children? Are they still carousing in that wicked way in the garret?"
"No. I am sure they have gone to bed, thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
But I will go and see to them."
"One thing more, child. Before I go to bed I should like to fill in a telegraph form to Miss Grinsted. If she gets it the first thing in the morning she can reach here to-morrow night. Well, Helen, again objecting; you evidently mean to cross me in everything; now what is the matter? Why has your face such a piteous look upon it?"
"Only this, Aunt Maria. Until father returns I am quite willing to obey you, and I will do my best to make the others good and obedient. But I do think he would be vexed at your getting Miss Grinsted until you have spoken to him. Won"t you wait until Monday before you telegraph for her?"
"I"ll sleep on it, anyhow," replied Mrs. Cameron. "Good night, child.
You remind me very much of your mother--not in appearance, but in the curious way you come round a person, and insist upon having everything done exactly as you like. Now, my dear, good night. I consider you all the most demoralized household, but I won"t be here long before matters are on a very different footing."
The bedroom door really closed upon Aunt Maria, and Helen drew a long breath.
Oh, for Monday to arrive! Oh, for any light to guide the perplexed child in this crisis! But she had no time to think now. She flew to the garret, to find only the wreck of the feast and one or two candles flickering in their sockets. She put the candles out, and went next to the children"s bedrooms. Bob and Bunny, with flushed faces, were lying once more in their cribs, fast asleep. They were dreaming and tossing about, and Nurse stood over them with a perplexed and grave face.
"This means nightmare, and physic in the morning," said the worthy woman. "Now, don"t you fret and worry your dear head, Miss Helen, pet.
Oh, yes, I know all about it, and it _was_ a naughty thing to do, only children will be children. Your aunt needn"t expect that her old crabbed head and ways will fit on young shoulders. You might go to Miss Firefly, though, for a minute, Miss Helen, for she"s crying fit to break her heart."
Helen went off at once. Firefly was a very excitable and delicate child.
She found the little creature with her head buried under the clothes, her whole form shaken with sobs.
"Lucy, darling," said Helen.
The seldom-used name aroused the weeping child; she raised her head, and flung two thin arms so tightly round Helen"s neck that she felt half strangled.
"Oh, it"s so awful, Nell; what will she do to poor Polly! Oh, poor Polly! Will she half kill her, Nell?"
"No, Fly--how silly of you to take such an idea into your head. Fly, dear, stop crying at once--you know you have all been naughty, and Polly has hurt Aunt Maria, and hurt me, too. You none of you knew Aunt Maria was coming, but I did not think you would play such a trick on me, and when father was away, too."
"It wasn"t Polly"s fault," said Firefly, eagerly. "She was tempted, and we were the tempters. We all came round her, and we did coax, so hard, and Polly gave way, "cause she wanted to make us happy. She"s a darling, the dearest darling in all the world, and if Aunt Maria hurts her and she dies, I--I----"
The little face worked in a paroxysm of grief and agony.
"Don"t, Fly," said Helen. "You are much too tired and excited for me to talk calmly to you to-night. You have been naughty, darling, and so has Polly, and real naughtiness is always punished, always, somehow or another. But you need not be afraid that any real harm will happen to Polly. I am going to her in a moment or two, so you need not be in the least anxious. Now fold your hands, Fly, and say "Our Father." Say it slowly after me."
Firefly"s sobs had become much less. She now lay quiet, her little chest still heaving, but with her eyes open, and fixed with a pathetic longing on Helen"s face.
"You"re nearly as good as mother," she said. "And I love you. But Polly always, always must come first. Nell, I"ll say "Our Father," only not the part about forgiving, for I can"t forgive Aunt Maria."
"My dear child, you are talking in a very silly way. Aunt Maria has done nothing but her duty, nothing to make you really angry with her. Now, Fly, it is late, and Polly wants me. Say those dear words, for mother"s sake."
There was no child at Sleepy Hollow who would not have done anything for mother"s sake, so the prayer was whispered with some fresh gasps of pain and contrition, and before Helen left the room, little Lucy"s pretty dark eyes were closed, and her small, sallow, excitable face was tranquil.
CHAPTER XVI.
DR. MAYBRIGHT _versus_ SCORPION.
Dr. Maybright returned to his home on Monday evening in tolerably good spirits. He had gone up to London about a money matter which caused him some anxiety; his fears were, for the present at least, quite lulled to rest, and he had taken the opportunity of consulting one of the greatest oculists of the day with regard to his eyesight. The verdict was more hopeful than the good Doctor had dared to expect. With care, total blindness might be altogether avoided; at the worst it would not come for some time. A certain regimen was recommended, overwork was forbidden, all great anxiety was to be avoided, and then, and then--Well, at least the blessed light of day might be enjoyed by the Doctor for years to come.
"But you must not overwork," said the oculist, "and you must not worry.
You must read very little, and you must avoid chills; for should a cold attack your eyes now the consequences would be serious."
On the whole this verdict was favorable, and the Doctor returned to Sleepy Hollow with a considerable weight lifted from his mind. As the train bore him homeward through the mellow, ripened country with the autumn colors glorifying the landscape, and a rich sunlight casting a glow over everything, his heart felt peaceful. Even with the better part of him gone away for ever, he could look forward with pleasure to the greeting of his children, and find much consolation in the love of their young hearts.
"After all, there never were girls quite like Helen and Polly," he said to himself. "They both in their own way take after their mother. Helen has got that calm which was always so refreshing and restful in her mother; and that little scapegrace of a Polly inherits a good deal of her brilliancy. I wonder how the little puss has managed the housekeeping. By the way, her week is up to-day, and we return to Nell"s and Mrs. Power"s steadier regime. Poor Poll, it was shabby of me to desert the family during the end of Indigestion week, but doubtless matters have gone fairly well. Nurse has all her medicine bottles replenished, so that in case of need she knew what to do. Poor Poll, she really made an excellent cake for my supper the last evening I was at home."
The carriage rolled down the avenue, and the Doctor alighted on his own doorsteps; as he did so he looked round with a pleased and expectant smile on his face. It was six o"clock, and the evenings were drawing in quickly; the children might be indoors, but it seemed scarcely probable.
The little Maybrights were not addicted to indoor life, and as a rule their gay, shrill voices might have been heard echoing all over the old place long after sunset. Not so this evening; the place was almost too still; there was no rush of eager steps in the hall, and no clamor of gay little voices without.
Dr. Maybright felt a slight chill; he could not account for it. The carriage turned and rolled away, and he quickly entered the house.
"Polly, where are you? Nell, Firefly, Bunny," he shouted.
Still there was no response, unless, indeed, the rustling of a silk dress in the drawing-room, a somewhat subdued and half-nervous cough, and the unpleasant yelping of a small dog could have been construed into one.
"Have my entire family emigrated? And is Sleepy Hollow let to strangers?" murmured the Doctor.
He turned in the direction of the rustle, the cough, and the bark, and found himself suddenly in the voluminous embrace of his sister-in-law, Mrs. Cameron.
"My dear Andrew, I am pleased to see you. You have been in the deep waters of affliction, and if in my power I would have come to you sooner. I had rheumatism and a natural antipathy to solitude. Still I made the effort, although a damper or more lonely spot would be hard to find. I don"t wonder at my poor sister"s demise. I got your letter, Andrew, and it was really in reply to it that I am here. Down, Scorpion; the dog will be all right in a moment or two, my dear brother, he is only smelling your trousers."
"He has a very marked way of doing so," responded the Doctor, "as I distinctly feel his teeth. Allow me, Maria, to put this little animal outside the window--a dog"s bite given even in play is not the most desirable acquisition. Well, Maria, your visit astonishes me very much.
Welcome to Sleepy Hollow. Did you arrive to-day? How did you find the children?"
"I came here on Friday evening, Andrew. The children are as well as such poor neglected lambs could be expected to be."
Dr. Maybright raised his eyebrows very slightly.
"I was not aware they were neglected," he said. "I am sorry they strike you so. I also have a little natural antipathy to hearing children compared to sheep. But where are they? I have been away for four days, and am in the house five minutes, and not the voice of a child do I hear? Where is Helen--where is my pretty Poll? Don"t they know that their father has arrived?"