Geordie, big boy as he was, was very obedient. He got up, first catching hold of Denzil by his sailor collar, to make him hurry up.
He--George--must have been as puzzled as any one, for he had no idea of course what the letters contained. But he contented himself with a kind of rea.s.suring nod to Taisy as he left the room, and a sign to me as he gave a little gesture of the hand in her direction, as much as to say, "Be good to her, Ida."
Then Taisy broke down and fairly sobbed. Mamma got up and came round to her.
"My dearest child," she said, "what _is_ the matter? It has something to do with your grandmother"s letter, I can see. Do you dislike this boy--what is his name--oh yes, Rolf--Rolf Dacre--that she writes about?"
"Oh no, no, indeed. He is a very nice boy, as nice as he can be," Taisy replied, amidst her tears. "It isn"t that at all. It"s--it"s about the gypsy--the saying it like a prophecy--it wasn"t right. I--I shouldn"t have done it, but I thought it was no harm, only fun;" and she began sobbing again.
For a moment or two mamma and I stared at each other, as if we thought Taisy was losing her wits. Then gradually light began to break in upon us.
"_You_ shouldn"t have done it," you say, dear," mamma repeated. "Do you mean--can you mean----"
Taisy nodded.
"Yes," she said; "you have guessed it, I see. But please do not be angry with me. I meant no harm."
"Then _you_ were the gypsy," mamma exclaimed, as if she could scarcely believe it.
"And," I added, "the little boy was--oh, he was Esme, I suppose. That was why she was looking so queer at breakfast."
"Was she?" said Taisy, "I didn"t notice. Yes, she was the little boy. I did not mean to mix her up in it, but she came poking about when the boys were helping me to dress up, and we thought the best way to keep her quiet was for her to join in it. But, auntie--I was going to tell you all about it to-day--you believe me, don"t you?" and she lifted such an appealing, tear-stained face to mamma, that mamma could not help patting it rea.s.suringly and kissing her.
"It was very cleverly done--very," she said. "And I see no harm in a little trick of the kind if not carried too far. The only thing is--Why did you not unmask yourself at once? Perhaps--for Esme"s sake--it would have been better not to keep up the mystification so long."
"I know," said Taisy, calmer now, but speaking very humbly, "that is what I did wrong. It might have led to her telling what was untrue. Last night when you were pitying the child--who was _not_ my son or grandson"--and here Taisy"s sunny nature broke out again in one of her own merry laughs--"I could _scarcely_ keep it in."
"But why did you, then?" I asked.
"Oh, that is what I wanted to explain! I had a sort of wager with Geordie. He said I might take you both in _once_, but certainly not twice, and he dared me to try it. So I made a second plan. I was coming again to-day--quite differently--dressed like a rather old-maidish lady, who wanted to know if you would let her have rooms here, as the sea-air and pine-wood air would be so good for her. I meant to have made her very pertinacious, and very funny, and I wanted you to get quite cross with her, auntie dear," and Taisy could not help a little sigh of regret. "That was why the gypsy foretold that you were going to have another unexpected visitor. I wasn"t quite happy about it. When I woke in the night, I felt as if I was carrying the trick too far, as you say.
And then when I got Granny"s letter about another _real_ visitor, all of a sudden I felt so frightened--as if my joke had been turned into earnest as a punishment for my--my daring to predict anything."
"Yes, I understand," said mamma; "but do not get exaggerated about it."
Then she was silent for a moment or two and seemed to be thinking it over.
"Was Esme to have come again?" I asked.
Taisy shook her head.
"Oh no--it was on condition of her keeping quite out of the way the second time--for of course she would have begun giggling if she had seen me, and spoilt it all--that I let her act the gypsy boy."
"I think," said mamma, "that I must unconsciously have recognised something about her--that it was some feeling of that kind that made me so sorry for the boy. But about the whole affair--well, yes, Taisy dear.
Perhaps it was scarcely right--not _quite_ respectful to one so much older than you as I am to let it go on so long. And not quite a good thing for Esme."
"I know--I see," said Taisy very penitently.
"But," mamma continued, "don"t exaggerate it now. I will--and you will help me to do so--put it all right by a little explanation to Esme. And don"t get it into your head that the coincidence of a real visitor being proposed to us is in any way a "punishment" to you for your piece of fun, though I can understand your feeling startled."
"Oh!" exclaimed Taisy, "I shall never forget what I felt when I opened Granny"s letter and saw what it was about."
"Then," said mamma, "you had no sort of idea that the thing was the least possible?"
"Not the very slightest," Taisy replied. "You see it has happened unexpectedly to every one."
"Yes," said mamma, glancing again at her letter; "but you know Rolf?"
"I have not seen him for more than a year," said Taisy. "He spent one or two short holidays with us when his aunt, Miss Merry, was with Granny.
He is a very nice boy. I am sure George would like him, though he is two years or so older than Dods."
I was growing rather impatient by this time to hear all about the contents of the letters which had caused such a sensation.
"Do tell me about it, mamma," I said. "Is it some one else coming to stay with us? Where _could_ we put any one?"
Taisy began to laugh.
"That"s the fun of it," she said. "It"s another snail--some one who will bring his house with him!"
Mamma laughed too, but I could see that she was thinking over the new proposal, whatever it was, rather seriously. Then between them they told me all about it.
It appeared that Aunt Emmeline"s friend, Miss Merry, had a nephew, the son of a sister, much, much younger than herself, who had died some years ago. The boy"s father was in India, so he sometimes, though not always, spent his holidays with his aunt. And this spring something had happened--I forget what exactly--illness at his school, or his leaving school for some reason, sooner than had been expected--which left him with nowhere to go to for some time.
"As ill-luck would have it," Lady Emmeline wrote to mother, "just as Taisy had gone to you, and Bertha Merry and I were settled cosily together, down comes this thunderbolt in the shape of a great hobbledehoy of a boy, who would be utterly out of his element with two elderly ladies and sure to get into mischief. Not that he is not a nice fellow and a good boy--I know him to be both, otherwise I would certainly not propose what I am going to do."
And this was the proposal which she had written about--she or Miss Merry, or both perhaps--to Taisy too--that Rolf should come to us at the Hut, and join Geordie, if possible, in his lessons with Mr. Lloyd, and be just one of the family for the time. _He_ would be as happy as a boy could be; of that his aunt was sure, and would do anything in his power, like a big brother, to help mamma with the younger ones. But the fun of the thing was, that he would bring his room with him! There would be no difficulty about the expense of it. His father was rich and Rolf an only child, and his aunt was free to spend whatever she thought right upon him, and being a very energetic little woman, as I think many old maids are, she had already written to some place where such things were to be got, to get sizes and prices and everything required for a neat little iron room, fitted up as a bedroom; and if mamma was so very, very kind as to agree to take him in, Rolf would be ready to come the very next week.
Of course we talked it over a lot. It had to be considered if Hoskins and Margery could manage another guest, and we were almost surprised to find how pleased Hoskins was about it. "Miss Theresa," she said, "was such a help; there had not seemed half so much to do since she came. And the weather was getting so nice and mild, we would scarcely need fires at all soon, except perhaps "a little bit, of an evening in the drawing-room." And it would be such a good thing for Master George to have a companion a little older than himself before going to school, which mamma in her own mind had already thought the same about.
I never knew Hoskins quite so cheery about anything. I think the truth was, that she had thoroughly enjoyed the gypsy mystification which had been confided to her. And I believe, at the bottom of her heart, she thought that somehow or other Taisy had had a sudden gift of prediction, and that it would be very unlucky to refuse to receive the unlooked-for visitor.
Anyhow it ended in mamma"s writing to Aunt Emmeline and Miss Merry, consenting pleasantly to Rolf"s joining us, provided he promised, or they for him, to be content with our present very simple quarters and way of living.
"That I am sure he will be," said Taisy, who had quite recovered her spirits by the time, or rather long before, the letters were written.
"Any boy would be a goose who wasn"t delighted with the Hut, and Rolf is certainly not a goose."
The only person who did not seem quite pleased about it was George. At first I thought this very strange, as naturally you would have expected him to be very delighted at the idea of a companion of his own standing, so to say, which he had never had. But Dods was a queer boy in some respects. He is less so now on the whole, though he is just as dear and "old-fashioned," in nice ways, as ever, and I do think the _right_ ways in which he has changed are a good deal thanks to Rolf.
Perhaps Geordie was a little jealous of him before he came, without knowing it. It was not unnatural, considering everything. Poor old Dods, you see, had been left by papa in his own place, as the "man" of the party, and we had all got into the habit of looking to him and even asking his opinion as if he were much older than he really was. And then he was so devoted to Taisy; he looked upon himself as a sort of knight to her, I do believe, for down below his matter-of-factness and practicalness, I know now that there is a good deal of romance, and what I can only call poeticalness in dear Geordie, so that the idea of a big, handsome, rather dashing fellow coming to take place above him must have been rather trying.
I shall never forget the day Rolf arrived. I had been feeling sorry for Geordie, as I had begun to understand his rather disagreeable manner about Rolf, and yet provoked with him too. I did not see after all, I thought to myself, why he should mind Rolf"s coming, any more than I minded Taisy. For though Taisy was our own cousin and we loved her dearly, she could not but take a _little_ the place of eldest daughter with mamma, and if she had not been so sweet, it might have been uncomfortable.
And after all, Rolf was a stranger--and only to be with us a short time.
There was far less chance of his really interfering with Geordie"s own place.
These things however are not often set straight by reasoning about them.
It is the people themselves--their characters and ways and feelings--that put it all right if it is to be put right.
And just as Taisy"s brightness and unselfishness and simpleness--I can"t find a better word--kept away any possibility of jealousy of her on my own part, so it was with Rolf. He and she were no sort of relation to each other, and yet in some ways they were very alike. I never did know, and I am sure I never shall know, any one with such a thoroughly straightforward, unfanciful, and yet very loving and sympathising heart as Rolf. When I think--but no, I must not allude to that yet--I could scarcely bear to write of these past happy days if I did.