"Who puts your things away at home?"
"Mamma," Beth answered laconically. "She says it"s less trouble to do things herself."
"Oh, but you must save your mother the trouble, dear," said Aunt Grace Mary in a shocked tone.
"Well, I will next time--if I remember," Beth rejoined. "Come and burn lavender."
For the next few days, which happened to be very fine, Beth revelled out of doors. Everything was a wonder and a joy to her in this fertile land, the trees especially, after the bleak, wild wastes to which she had been accustomed in the one stormy corner of Ireland she knew.
Leaves and blossoms were just bursting out, and one day, wandering alone in the grounds, she happened unawares upon an orchard in full bloom, and fairly gasped, utterly overcome by the first shock of its beauty. For a while she stood and gazed in silent awe at the white froth of flowers on the pear-trees, the tinted almond blossom, and the pink-tipped apple. She had never dreamed of such heavenly loveliness.
But enthusiasm succeeded to awe at last, and, in a wild burst of delight, she suddenly threw her arms around a gnarled tree-trunk and clasped it close.
There was a large piece of artificial water in the grounds, in which were three green islands covered with trees and shrubs. Beth was standing on the bank one morning in a contemplative mood, admiring the water, and yearning for a boat to get to the islands, when round one of them, unexpectedly, a white wonder of a swan came gliding towards her in the sunshine.
"Oh, oh! Mildred! Mildred! Oh, the beautiful, beautiful thing!" she cried. Mildred came running up.
"Why, Beth, you idiot," she exclaimed in derision, "it"s only a swan.
I really thought it _was_ something."
"Is that a swan?" Beth said slowly; then, after a moment, she added, in sorrowful reproach: "O Mildred! you had seen it and you never told me."
Alas, poor Mildred! she had not seen it, and never would see it, in Beth"s sense of the word.
On wet days, when they had to be indoors, Aunt Grace Mary waylaid Beth continually, and trotted her off somewhere out of Uncle James"s way.
She would take her to her own room sometimes, a large, bright apartment, spick-and-span like the rest of the house; and show her the pictures--pastels and water-colours chiefly--with which it was stiffly decorated.
"That was your uncle when he was a little boy," she said, pointing to a pretty pastel.
"Why, he was quite a nice little boy," Beth exclaimed.
"Yes, nice and plump," Aunt Grace Mary rattled off breathlessly. "And your grandmamma did those water-colours and those screens. That lovely printing too; can you guess how she did it? With a camel"s hair brush.
She did indeed. And she used to compose music. She was a very clever woman. You are very like her."
"But I am not very clever," said Beth.
"No, dear; no, dear," Aunt Grace Mary rejoined, pulling herself up hurriedly from this indiscretion. "But in the face. You are very like her in appearance. And you must try. You must try to improve yourself.
Your uncle is always trying to improve himself. He reads "Doctor Syntax" aloud to us. In the evening it is our custom to read aloud and converse."
An occasional phrase of Uncle James"s would flow from Aunt Grace Mary in this way, with incongruous effect.
"Do you try to improve yourself?" Beth asked.
"Yes, dear."
"How?"
"Oh, well--that reminds me. I must write a letter. You shall stay and see me if you like. But you mustn"t move or speak."
Beth, deeply interested, watched her aunt, who began by locking the door. Then she slipped a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, and put them on, after glancing round apprehensively as if she were going to do something wrong. Then she sat down at a small bureau, unlocked a drawer, and took out a little dictionary, unlocked another drawer and took out a sheet of notepaper, in which she inserted a page of black lines. Then she proceeded to write a letter in lead-pencil, stopping often to consult the dictionary. When she had done, she took out another sheet of a better quality, put the lines in it, and proceeded to copy the letter in ink. She blotted the first attempt, but the next she finished. She destroyed several envelopes also before she was satisfied. But at last the letter was folded and sealed, and then she carefully burnt every sc.r.a.p of paper she had spoiled.
"I was educated in a convent in France," she said to Beth. "If you were older you would know that by my handwriting. It is called an Italian hand, but I learnt it in France. I was there five years."
"What else did you learn?" said Beth.
"Oh--reading. No--I could read before I went. But music, you know, and French."
"Say some French," said Beth.
"Oh, I can"t," Aunt Grace Mary answered. "But I can read it a little, you know."
"I should like to hear you play," said Beth.
"But I don"t play," Aunt Grace Mary rejoined.
"I thought you said you learnt music."
"Oh yes. I had to learn music; and I practised for hours every day; but I never played."
Aunt Grace Mary smiled complacently as she spoke, took off her spectacles, and locked up her writing materials--Beth, the while, thoughtfully observing her. Aunt Grace Mary"s hair was a wonderful colour, neither red, yellow, brown, nor white, but a mixture of all four. It was parted straight in the middle, where it was thin, and brought down in two large rolls over her ears. She wore a black velvet band across her head like a coronet, which ended in a large black velvet bow at the back. Long heavy gold ear-rings pulled down the lobes of her ears. All her dresses were of rustling silk, and she had a variety of deep lace-collars, each one of which she fastened with a different brooch at the throat. She also wore a heavy gold watch-chain round her neck, the watch being concealed in her bosom; and jet bracelets by day, but gold ones in the evening.
Beth was deeply interested in her own family history, and intelligently pieced together such fragments of it as she could collect from the conversations of the people about her. She was sitting in one of the deep window-seats in the drawing-room looking out one day, concealed by a curtain, when her mother and Great-Aunt Victoria Bench came into the room, and settled themselves to chat and sew without observing her.
"Where is Grace Mary?" Aunt Victoria asked.
"Locked up in her own room writing a letter, I believe," Mrs. Caldwell replied, "a long and mysterious proceeding. We shall not see her again this morning, I suppose."
"Ah, well," said Aunt Victoria considerately, "she writes a very beautiful hand."
"James thought he was doing so well for himself, too!" Mrs. Caldwell interjected. "He"d better have married the mother."
"There was the making of a fine woman in Grace Mary if she had had a chance," Aunt Victoria answered, pursing up her mouth judicially. "It was the mother made the match. When he came across them in Switzerland, Lady Benyon got hold of him, and flattered him, made him believe Grace Mary was only thirty-eight, not too old for a son-and-heir, but much too old for a large family. She was really about fifty; but he never thought of looking up her age until after they were married. However, James got one thing he likes, and more than he deserved; for Grace Mary is amiable if she"s ignorant; and I should say had tact, though some people might call it cunning. But, at any rate, she"s the daughter of one baronet and the sister of another."
"What"s a baronet?" Beth demanded, tumbling off the window-seat on to the floor with a crash as she spoke, having lost her balance in peering round the curtain.
Both ladies jumped, quite contrary to their principles.
"You naughty child, how dare you?" Mrs. Caldwell began.
Beth picked herself up. "I want to know," she interrupted.
"You"ve been listening."
"No, I"ve not. I was here first, and you came and talked. But that doesn"t matter. I shan"t tell. What"s a baronet?"
Aunt Victoria explained, and then turned her out of the room. Uncle James was crossing the hall at the moment; he had a large bunch of keys in his hand, and went through the double-doors which led to the kitchen and offices. Beth followed him into the kitchen. The cook, an old servant, came forward curtseying. The remains of yesterday"s dinner, cold roast beef, tongue, chicken, and plum-pudding, were spread out on the table. Uncle James inspected everything.
"For luncheon," he said, "the beef can remain cold on the sideboard, also the tongue. The chicken you will grill for one hot dish, and do not forget to garnish with rolls of bacon. The pudding you can cut into slices, fry, and sprinkle with a little sifted sugar. Mind, I say a little; for, as the pudding is sweet enough already, the sugar is merely an ornament to make it agreeable to the eye. For the rest, as usual."