"Starved? Really, Belle-I mean Miss Acheson."
"You can call me Belle while you are here; it is shorter and more convenient. I could not possibly "Miss Colchester" you; the name is a great deal too long for everyday use. You shall be Anne, or Ann, while you are here. And now, pray, Ann, take this chair and let us get through our work."
They did so. Annie soon became interested. She had considerable intellectual power, and between them the girls worked out the problem with regard to Hippocleides. Belle, the first to recognize genius when she saw it, clapped her hands with pleasure.
"This is quite splendid," she said. "I never could get at the bottom of that stiff rendering before. I am delighted you are here. We can become the very closest friends. Some day, Annie, you shall come and live with me in my hostel. Mother does not yet know of my darling scheme. Poor mother herself must be excluded, and she will feel it, poor thing; but I shall have quite money enough of my own to pay the rent of the house for a couple of years after I leave college. Let me see; if you don"t mind, I"ll get the money-box now, and count my savings. I declare I am getting quite miserly over this matter."
Belle went to the other end of the drawing room, and from a desk, where her own special treasures were kept, took a square deal box. From her pocket she extracted a little key, fitted it into the box, and opened it.
"Is it safe to leave so much money about in that careless way?" said Annie, who thought of her own four shillings, and quite shivered as Belle lifted out three canvas bags.
"Safe. Of course it"s safe," answered Belle. "Do you think our servants would touch my money? Besides, they do not know it is here; even mother does not know what this box contains. She likes to dust the drawing room herself, and, a few days ago, she lifted the box and said: "Whatever is in here, Belle? It is so heavy?" I made no reply; and she said, "I suppose, love, you are collecting coins." I said, "Yes, mother; I am collecting coins." It was perfectly true, wasn"t it. Clever of me-eh?"
"Very clever," answered Annie, with the ghost of a smile.
"Well, now, let us count. You shall help me by and by with my dear hostel. How happy we shall be! The world quite out of sight, we delving in the riches of the past. Oh, happy, happy maidens! We will eschew marriage; we will be nuns in the true sense of the word. How silent you are; are you not glad?"
"I cannot quite realize it," said Annie.
"You will when you come to live with me. We won"t need much furniture, will we, dear? Just the plainest rooms. Any spare cash we have will go for books-first editions, original ma.n.u.scripts. Oh, lovely, lovely, bewitching, intoxicating! I see myself as I shall be during all the coming years on to the decline of life, absorbing more and more knowledge, living above the world; in it, but not of it."
"But you won"t be in it when you are in your hostel," said Annie, with a gleam of humor in her sad eyes; "you will be apart from it, and that is not according to Leslie Gilroy"s ideas."
"Dear, pretty Leslie!" said Belle with sudden enthusiasm. "But the cares of the world have her in their grip. I admire her more than any worldly girl I have ever come across; but the world has her in its grip. Some day she will see her folly. I hope to convert her to my views in the long run."
"That you never will," said Annie.
"Think so? Well, I don"t agree with you. Now, let us count."
The canvas bags were opened, and they did count, or rather, Belle did.
The money in the bags amounted to nearly ninety pounds.
"How glad I am I did not buy that new summer dress," said Belle; "my old serge does capitally." She held out the dusty, fusty garment as she spoke. "That economy added three pounds ten shillings to my h.o.a.rd. See, I will write down the exact amount."
She took a sheet of paper, scribbled the sum in rough writing, and thrust it into the box.
"Eighty-nine pounds, seven shillings, and tenpence," she said. "Even the pence are not to be despised. I shall be at St. Wode"s until next June.
During that time I hope to save, by the strictest economy, quite fifty pounds more. We can then start our hostel almost immediately."
"But what about food and furniture and all the rest of the things?"
"Well, each girl, of course, must bring her own share. Wherever we are we must live."
"Must we?" said Annie in a very pathetic voice.
"Why, of course; it is absolutely essential that each human being should have his or her modic.u.m of food. Now, don"t let us talk of anything so very elemental. Let us consider the charming picture which lies before us. A charming little cottage in the country-we shall get it for twenty pounds a year; the rest of the money will buy the furniture. There, Annie, you need not stay up any longer; you look as if you wished to sleep. Do sleep-enjoy it-look like an ordinary mortal to-morrow; for, if you don"t, mother will begin to take to you more than ever, and that will not suit my plans at all."
Annie went to her room. She was so weary that she could not even think any longer. The box which held her few possessions had arrived. She took out her nightdress and, soon afterward, got into bed. She slept heavily all night, but toward morning she began to have confused and troubled dreams with regard to Belle"s wooden box. She wished she had not been with Belle when she counted her money. The thought of that money became an oppression and a dreadful nightmare to her.
At seven o"clock the servant appeared with a daintily prepared tray containing tea.
"Mrs. Acheson hopes you are quite rested, miss. She says if you are at all tired she would like you to stay in bed for breakfast."
"Oh, no, I am quite refreshed. Tell her I thank her very much," said poor Annie.
The girl bustled about the room preparing Annie"s bath. She then left her to enjoy her tea.
Annie sat up and stirred the cream into the fragrant cup.
"How queer and dreamlike and wonderful all this is," she said to herself. "I enjoying tea at this hour in bed, and drinking it out of such delicate china; and, oh, what a sweet little silver spoon! How pretty the room is and everything belonging to it; and yet I possess only four shillings in the world. Mrs. Acheson is quite the sweetest woman I ever met. Oh, if my own mother had only lived. I should not be the miserable, hopeless creature I am to-day!"
At breakfast Belle was in the best of spirits. She also had dreamed about her hostel, and the thought of the money she had saved was reflected in her face. After breakfast she proposed to Annie that they should spend the morning at the British Museum.
"I can easily get you a day"s ticket for the reading room," she said.
"You shall sit near me, and we can have a good time."
"But perhaps Annie would rather not go to the Museum to-day," said Mrs.
Acheson. "She looks very tired, as if she had been overdoing it."
"I a.s.sure you, mother," said Belle, "that most of the St. Wode"s students have that sort of look; there is nothing whatever in it. The rosy cheek, the bright eye which sparkles with no soul beneath, the pouting lips full of rude health, do not belong to the earnest student.
Don"t be alarmed about either of us, pray; we like our life, and we mean to cling to it."
"Oh, I am not at all anxious about you, dear," said Mrs. Acheson. "You are always somewhat sallow, but you look well. Now, this poor child-how very thin she is!"
Belle prepared to leave the room.
"You will excuse me," she said, turning to Annie. "I have to get back to my work. Do you mean to come with me or not?"
"I should like to come," said Annie.
"Well, that is all right," said Belle, slightly mollified; "you meet me in the hall in half-an-hour."
She dashed away, and Mrs. Acheson began to ask Annie some impossible questions with regard to her health.
"If I could but tell her the truth," thought the poor girl. "If I could say: "Will you tell me how long four shillings-that means forty-eight pence-will keep any girl in food and raiment, I should be greatly obliged to you. If you can solve that problem you would indeed be my greatest friend on earth." But no, no," thought Annie, "I cannot confide in her; that would be quite the worst of all."
Presently Belle appeared, and the girls set off for the Museum. On their way home Belle went for a moment into a stationer"s.
"You need not come in," she said to Annie; "just walk slowly on and I"ll soon overtake you."
Annie had not gone a dozen yards before Rupert came up to her.
"I just thought I would meet you on the road home," he said. "I have made up my mind; I shall call on you at Mrs. Acheson"s this evening."
"Oh, Rupert, surely you wouldn"t dare?"
"Dare?" said Rupert; "why shouldn"t I dare? You are to introduce me to the Achesons as your brother. As to that girl you are staying with, anyone can take her in. I shall be at 30 Newbolt Square between eight and nine to-night. Look out for me, and don"t fail."
He nodded and walked away. The next instant Belle came up.