"Go "long!" she replied; but, she didn"t budge an inch when Jupp put his arm round her, and n.o.body knows what happened before Mr Vernon had composed himself and turned round again!
CHAPTER THREE.
AT THE VICARAGE.
Three little girls were flattening their respective little noses against the panes of gla.s.s as they stood by one of the low French windows of the old red brick house at the corner of the lane commanding the approach from the village; and three little pairs of eager eyes, now big with expectation, were peering anxiously across the snow-covered lawn through the gathering evening gloom towards the entrance gate beyond--the only gap in the thick and well-nigh impenetrable laurel hedge, some six feet high and evenly cropped all round at the top and square at the sides, which encircled the vicarage garden, shutting it in with a wall of greenery from the curious ken of all pa.s.sers-by without.
With eager attention the little girls were watching to see who would be the first of the trio to herald the return of the missing Master Teddy and those who had gone forth in search of him; but, really, seekers and sought alike had been so long absent that it seemed as if they were all lost together and never coming back!
The little girls were weary almost of waiting, and being thus kept in suspense with hope deferred.
Besides that, they were overcome with a sense of loneliness and desertion, everyone in the house but old Molly the cook and themselves having started off early in the afternoon in different directions in quest of the truant Teddy; so, as the time flew by and day drew to a close, without a sight or sound in the distance to cheer their drooping spirits, their little hearts grew heavy within them.
Presently, too, their whilom bright eyes got so dimmed with unshed tears which would well up, that they were unable to see clearly had there been anything or anyone for them to see; while their little putty noses, when they removed them occasionally from close contact with the gla.s.s, bore a suspiciously red appearance that was not entirely due to previous pressure against the window panes.
Nor were their surroundings of a sufficiently enlivening character to banish the little maidens" despondency, the fire in the drawing-room grate having died out long since from inattention, making them feel cold and comfortless, and it had got so dark within that they could not distinguish the various articles of furniture, even papa"s armchair in the chimney-corner; while, outside, in the gloaming, the snow-flakes were falling slowly and steadily from a leaden-hued sky overhead.
The only thing breaking the stillness of the murky air was the melancholy "Chirp, churp! chirp, churp" uttered at intervals by some belated sparrow who had not gone to bed in good time like all sensible bird-folk, and whose plaintive chirp was all the more aggravating from its monotonous repet.i.tion.
"I"m sore sumtin d"eadfill"s happened," whimpered little Cissy, the youngest of the three watchers, after a long silence between them. "Pa sood have been back hours and hours and hours ago."
"Nonsense, Cissy!" said Miss Conny, her elder sister, who by virtue of her seniority and the fact of her having reached the mature age of ten was rather p.r.o.ne to giving herself certain matronly airs of superiority over the others, which they put up with in all good faith, albeit they were most amusing to outside onlookers. "You are always imagining something terrible is going to befall everybody, instead of hoping for the best! Why don"t you learn to look on the bright side of things, child? Every cloud, you know, has its silver lining."
"But not dat one up dere!" retorted Cissy, unconvinced by the proverb, pointing to the sombre pall of vapour that now enveloped the whole sky overhead; when, struck more than ever with the utter dismalness of the scene, she drew out a tiny sort of doll"s handkerchief from as tiny a little pocket in her tiny pinafore-ap.r.o.n, and began wiping away the tears from her beady eyes and blowing her little red nose vigorously.
"It"s all black, and no light nowhere; and I"m sore poor pa and Teddy and all of dem are lost!"
With that, completely overcome by her own forebodings, the little thing all at once broke down, sobbing in such a heart-broken way that it was as much as Conny could do to comfort her; the elder sister drawing her to her side and hugging her affectionately, rocking her small person to and fro the while with a measured rhythm-like movement as if little Cissy were a baby and she her mother, hushing her to sleep!
At this moment, Liz, who occupied the middle step between the two, and was of a much more sedate and equable nature than either of her sisters, suddenly effected a diversion that did more to raise Cissy"s spirits than all Conny"s whispered consolation and kisses.
"I think I see a black speck moving in the lane," she exclaimed, removing her face a second from the gla.s.s to look round at the others as she spoke, and then hastily glueing it to the pane again. "Yes, somebody"s coming. There"s an arm waving about!"
Conny and Cissy were instantly on the alert; and before Liz had hardly got out the last words they had imitated her example, wedging their little noses once more against the window, looking down the lane, and trying somewhat vainly to pierce the haze obscuring the distance.
"No," said Conny, after a prolonged observation of the object Liz had pointed out; "it"s only a branch of the lilac tree blown about by the wind."
A minute later, however, and Liz began to clap her hands triumphantly, although still keeping her face fixed to the window.
"I was right, I was right!" she exclaimed in triumph. "The speck is getting nearer, and, see, there are two more behind."
"I believe you are right," said Conny, after another steady glance down the lane. "There are three people approaching the house, and--"
"Dat"s pa in front, I know," shouted out Cissy, interrupting her and clapping her hands like Liz, her whilom sad little face beaming with gladness. "I see him, I see him, and he"s dot Teddy in his arms!"
"So he has," said Conny, carried away by the excitement out of her ordinarily staid and decorous demeanour. "Let us all run down and meet him!"
Her suggestion was hailed with a shout of exclamation; and, the next moment, forgetful of the falling flakes and the risk of getting damp feet, which Conny the careful was ever warning the others against, the three had run out into the hall, opened the outside door of the porch, which the wind banged against the side of the pa.s.sage with a thump that shook the house, and were racing towards the entrance gate over the white expanse of lawn, now quite covered with some six inches of snow.
Just as the little girls reached the gate, all breathless in a batch, it was opened from without, and they were confronted by their father with Master Teddy on his shoulder, still holding the kitten in his arms; while, close behind, followed Jupp taking care of Mary the nurse.
"Oh, papa!" cried Conny, Cissy, and Liz in chorus, hanging on to their father"s coat-tails as if afraid he would get away from them again; and so, in a motley procession, Teddy apparently king of the situation and Jupp and Mary still bringing up the rear, they marched into the hall, where Molly the cook, having heard the door bang when the little girls rushed out, was waiting with a light to receive them.
"Take the porter to the kitchen, Molly," said Mr Vernon, "and give him, mind, a good cup of tea for bringing home Master Teddy. But for his kindness we might not perhaps have seen the little truant again--to- night, at all events."
"Lawks a mercy, sir!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Molly with open-mouth astonishment, curtseying and smiling: "you doant mean that?"
"Yes, I do," went on Mr Vernon. "Mind you take every care of him, for the porter is a right good fellow."
"Why, sir, I didn"t do nothing to speak of, sir," said Jupp, quite abashed at being made so much of. "The young gen"leman commed to me, and in course, seeing as how he were such a little chap and all alone out in the cold, I couldn"t do nothing else."
"Never mind that; I"m very much obliged to you, and so are all of us.
What you"ve got to do now is to go with Molly and have a good cup of tea, the same as we are going to have after that long tramp in the snow," said the vicar cordially, shaking hands with Jupp; while Teddy, who was still perched on his father"s shoulder, came out with a "tank oo, my dood man," which made everybody laugh.
Jupp hesitatingly attempted to decline the proffered hospitality, murmuring something about being wanted down at the station; but the vicar wouldn"t hear of his refusal, the more especially as Mary reminded him that he had asked in her hearing his fellow-porter to look after his work in his absence.
So, presently, in heart nothing loth in spite of his excuses, he was following Molly the cook down the pa.s.sage into her warm kitchen at the back of the house; while Mr Vernon, opening a door on the opposite side of the hall to the drawing-room, entered the parlour, where fortunately the fire, thanks to Molly"s care, had not been allowed to go out, but was dancing merrily in the grate-lighting up the bright-red curtains that were closely drawn across the windows, shutting out the gloomy prospect outside, and throwing flickering shadows against the walls of the apartment as the jets of flame rose and fell.
Nurse Mary at first wanted to march off Master Teddy to bed, on the plea that he must be wet through and tired out with all the exposure he had undergone during his erratic escapade; but the young gentleman protesting indignantly against his removal whilst there was a chance of his sitting up with the rest, and his clothes having been found on examination to be quite dry on the removal of the porter"s protecting jacket, he was allowed to remain, seated on the hearth-rug in state, and never once leaving hold of the tabby kitten that had indirectly led to his wandering away from home, with Conny and Liz and little Cissy grouped around him.
Here by the cosy fireside the reunited family had quite a festive little meal together, enlivened by the children"s chatter, Miss Conny pouring out the tea with great dignity as her father said laughingly, and Teddy, unchecked by the presence of his nurse, who was too p.r.o.ne to calling him to account for sundry little breaches of etiquette for him to be comfortable when she was close by.
While the happy little party were so engaged, Jupp was being regaled sumptuously in the kitchen with both Molly the cook and Mary to minister to his wants, the latter handmaiden having returned from the parlour after carrying in the tea-tray.
Jupp was in a state of supreme satisfaction ensconced between the two, munching away at the pile of nice hot b.u.t.tered toast which the cook had expressly made for his delectation, and recounting between the mouthfuls wonderful yarns connected with his seafaring experiences for Mary"s edification.
Joe the gardener, who had also come back to the house shortly after the others, with the report that he "couldn"t see nothing of Master Teddy nowheres," sat in the chimney-corner, gazing at the porter with envious admiration as he told of his hairbreadth scapes at sea and ash.o.r.e when serving in the navy. Joe wished that he had been a sailor too, as then perhaps, he thought, the nurse, for whom he had a sneaking sort of regard, might learn to smile and look upon him in the same admiring way, in which, as he could see with half an eye, she regarded the stalwart black-bearded Jupp.
Bye and bye, however, a tinkle of the parlour bell summoning the household to prayers brought the pleasant evening to a close, too soon so far as Jupp was concerned, although Joe the gardener did not regard the interruption with much regret; and while Mary took off the children to bed on the termination of the vicar"s heart-felt thanks to the Father above for the preservation of his little son, Mr Vernon wished him good-night, trying to press at the same time a little money present into his hand for his kind care of Teddy.
But this Jupp would not take, declining the douceur with so much natural dignity that the vicar honoured him the more for refusing a reward, for only doing his duty as he said.
Mr Vernon apologised to him for having hurt his feelings by offering it, adding, much to Jupp"s delight, that he would always be pleased to see him at the vicarage when he had an hour or so to spare if he liked to come; and, on the porter"s telling him in return that he was only free as a rule on Sundays, as then only one train pa.s.sed through the station early in the morning, between which and the mail express late at night he had nothing to do, and being a stranger in the place and without any relations the time somewhat hung on his hands, Mr Vernon asked him to come up to the house after church and have dinner with the servants, saying that he could go to the evening service in company with the family.
This invitation Jupp gladly accepted in the same spirit in which it was given; and then, with another hearty "good-night" from the vicar, to which he responded by touching his cap and giving a salute in regular blue-jacket fashion, he went on his way back to the little railway- station beyond the village where Master Teddy had first made his acquaintance--much to their mutual benefit as things now looked!
CHAPTER FOUR.
IN A Sc.r.a.pE AGAIN.
The winter was a long and severe one, covering the range of downs that encircle Endleigh with a fleecy mantle of white which utterly eclipsed the colour of the woolly coats of the sheep for which they were famous, and heaping the valleys with huge drifts that defied locomotion; so that Master Teddy, being unable to get out of doors much, was prevented from wandering away from home again, had he been in that way inclined.
It may be added, too, that beyond breaking one of his arms in a tumble downstairs through riding on the banisters in defiance of all commands to the contrary, he managed for the next few months to keep pretty free from sc.r.a.pes--something surprising in such a long interval.
During all this time Jupp had been a very regular Sunday visitor at the vicarage, coming up to the house after morning-service and being entertained at dinner in the kitchen, after which meal he served as a playfellow for the children until the evening, when he always accompanied the vicar to church.