"Oh, everything."
"But you _must_ study. Now, won"t you try this evening. I"ll help you all I can."
"Oh, I wish I was with mamma. I shall just tell her that I hate school.
What"s the use of so much education anyhow? Girls get married."
Lilian felt that Mrs. Nevins was a very poor mother not to have taught her daughter a little common sense. Then she asked how old Alice was.
"I was fifteen last May."
"And I will be sixteen in June. I wasn"t quite fourteen when I was promoted to the High School, where I spent two years."
"Oh, but I"m not going to teach or anything. Mamma said she would be sure to send for me next vacation, but that is almost nine dreary months away," with a profound sigh.
"And you ought to learn a good deal in that time, so that you will not be cla.s.sed with the ignorant and conceited girls who think their money will cover everything. There are so many young people going abroad nowadays, college girls who have all the nice points of travel by heart?"
"Oh, dear, I just can"t study!" desperately.
"Oh, try. Now this evening I will help you. You see," smiling, "very little knowledge comes natural. It is true some acquire easier than others, but it is the continued effort after all."
"Oh, dear, I wish you had been my sister. Papa is always bemoaning that there are not more of us, but mamma says if there were I would have to go without many things. I"ve some lovely jewelry but papa would put it in the safe deposit, and he went and bought this cheap little watch for school. My nice one cost one hundred dollars. It"s a real beauty, and mamma has lots of diamonds. I have two, they were birthday rings. Don"t they have parties here when you dress up? I brought my pretty white silk, and I have a pink one with lots of lace, and my fur coat will be sent to me, it is being altered a little. It"s real seal, and mother has such a lovely Russian sable. Oh, I do like pretty clothes, but Mrs.
Barrington made out a list that seemed very plain for a high-up finishing school--don"t you think so?"
"I have not seen it. Most girls come to study and fit themselves for the station they are to occupy. Unless you are going in society I think there is little need of very fine clothes. Now let us talk a little about your studies. Miss Davis feels quite concerned about you."
Miss Nevins pouted a little. Lilian felt her nice walk was spoiled so she turned her attention to the ignorant girl who "just hated study."
What a foolish mother she must have, while it seemed that her father was far more sensible.
Mrs. Barrington stood on the porch as they returned. She detained Lilian with a wave of the hand. When Miss Nevins was out of hearing she said in an approving tone--
"I am glad to see you take an interest in that poor child. Miss Davis thinks her lamentably ignorant. I am really sorry I accepted her, but her father wrote such urgent, sensible letters. Her mother must be a very foolish body and the girl is extremely backward. It is asking a good deal of you to take a little pains with her, but I see that you have an attractive way with you. You will make an excellent teacher, and I hope to keep you a long while."
"Oh, thank you, I will try to do my best," Lilian returned, delighted with the praise.
Miss Arran always came in the study room, generally bringing a bit of embroidery for it was not expected that Miss Boyd should attend to the upper division with some girls older than herself. The other cla.s.s were quite at the lower end of the room, ranged around the table. Miss Boyd seated herself next to Miss Nevins and patiently explained, but it was very hard to keep the girl"s attention to the subject in hand. She thought she had never seen any one so utterly indifferent and with so little ambition. There had been stolid, slow-witted girls among the operatives in Laconia in the grammar school, but they really desired to learn.
Miss Davis paused the next day to say--
"Miss Boyd your good training does begin to take effect. Miss Nevins had such excellent recitations today that I was pleased beyond measure. You are way up in Mrs. Barrington"s good graces, I can tell you."
Lilian flushed at the commendation.
For the next hour the girls could have a social time in each others"
rooms or the library. There was a crowd of eager talkers with Miss Rosewald.
"Yes," she was saying. "I ran over the housekeeper just as she was coming out of Rinsey"s. Zay will be here by the 20th, and she"s coming right to school, for the Major and Mrs. Crawford are going to the Mediterranean. The German doctors and the baths did wonders for her and she can walk without crutches. A friend is to take them on his yacht and they"ll be home at Christmas, and there will be Vincent"s graduation.
Dear me! I hope I can go up to West Point. They say the b.a.l.l.s are splendid. The Crawford house is to be all done over, and no doubt there will be a big housewarming there."
"Oh, it will be just delightful to have Zay back again. I suppose that"s the reason Miss White was put in with b.u.t.tons and that room fixed up so nice. Mrs. Barrington has had word, of course. We just need her to round out, I was going to say, the atmosphere. It"s too studious. Those Kirkland girls are going to college, dearly loved cousins, quite sufficient for themselves, and there"s that granery, yallery, Grosvenor Gallery, one who writes poetry and is too lackadaisical for anything.
What we want is a rollicking, fun loving girl to start us."
"And something"s the matter with you, Phil. Have you been crossed in love?"
Phillipa Rosewald turned scarlet. "No," she answered, "it"s two of them and I can"t decide. One is rich and homely as a hedge fence and always says "drawring" and "reel," but has lots of money and a fair enough family back of him. The other is handsome and oh, my! gay as a lark, but he had about run through with a fortune, and I"m afraid he will flirt now that the restraint of my serious and imposing presence is removed."
"Serious, that"s good. Why didn"t you say severe?"
Phil"s love affairs were the entertainment of her coterie.
"Oh, girls, did you notice--well, I have a new name for them. "Beauty and the Beast." How devoted they were this evening!" broke in Louie Howe.
"Oh, you mean that Nevins girl? But _do_ you call Miss Boyd handsome?"
"Well--she has a fine complexion--"
Louie wrinkled up her nose.
--"and lots of beautiful hair, a good figure and regular features. Maybe she lacks a certain style to make her noticeable--or something--"
"Money and position. I don"t just see why a common sort of girl who has to earn her living should be above the average, and that Nevins girl"s father is one of the firm of bankers in New York and London, and she"s horrid!"
"Oh, girls," exclaimed May Gedney, "they kissed each other last night in the hall, a regular smack; I heard it. Fancy that pimply cheek being pressed against yours! and that lap-over tooth that sticks her lips out, and those pale gray-green eyes. Yes, Miss Boyd does look handsome by contrast."
There was a great giggle. "We must watch the course of this ardent love.
Perhaps _she_ understands the worth of contrast."
They went back to Zay Crawford, who was a general favorite. She and a brother nine years older than herself, a pa.s.sed midshipman had gone to Germany in the summer, where her mother had been taking treatment. The Major had accompanied her. Miss Crawford had taken over the young people.
It was true, to Lilian"s surprise, that Alice Nevins had clasped both arms around her and kissed her rapturously, exclaiming--"You are so sweet! Oh, I wish mother and father would adopt you! I"d just like to have you for a sister. I"ve never seen a girl before that I wanted."
Lilian freed herself and went to her room. She was not an effusive girl.
At Laconia she had made some friends, but she was too proud to aspire to the higher ranks or accept overtures from them. She felt _sorry_ for Alice Nevins but there was no real companionship. Yet was there not a duty? She seemed to occupy a peculiar position, and loved to listen to the fascinating bits of talk, places one and another had seen, music, operas, paintings, lectures, a knowledge of real things, not merely those gleamed from books.
Well, she must earn them herself. She used to dream of them at nights when the lights were put out. She was changing curiously, she felt it herself. It was not only in the added self-reliance, the nameless little ways of refinement and grace the intuitive knowledge of what we call good breeding, and the cordial smile of commendation from Mrs.
Barrington thrilled every pulse.
Mrs. Boyd was not vulgar but she was undeniably commonplace. High thoughts such as stirred Lilian in verse, never roused her. Yet the girl did feel indignant at times at the manner in which some of the girls addressed her mother when they were uniformly polite to Miss Arran.
She was quite undecided about her duty to Miss Nevins. The kiss had come so suddenly she had no time to evade it but she took good care to do so the next night. Lilian had never been an effusive girl. She had almost broken her mother"s heart in her little more than babyhood, when after a rapturous caress she had half pulled from the enclosing arms and said in a willful fashion--"Don"t kiss me so hard, I don"t liked to be kissed!"
And later on when her mother had always called her Lily, she had said emphatically--"Why don"t you call me Lilian! I"m too big a girl to be called by such a baby name as Lily and I don"t like it."
That began a sort of gulf between them that the mother never had the courage to bridge over. There was a curious dignity about her that even the obtuse Miss Nevins could not surmount.
One day the girl brought her two beautiful orchids.
"You"ve been so good about my lessons that I wanted to do something, and these were"--hesitatingly--
"Handsome and expensive," in a chilling tone. "They were the finest things the florist had, and mamma always sends me some money in her letters, while papa sends my allowance to Mrs. Barrington. So I feel that is clear gain," laughing. "Mrs. Barrington is rather strict about allowances, and she"s shut down on so much sweets and hot chocolates. Do you think it hurts one"s complexion?"