and she laid her hand on the pretty girl"s shoulder.
"Yes, I am Merry," replied Meredith Cardew in a voice which almost choked her.
"And you, of course, are Cicely," said Mrs. Ward. "In this house all the girls speak to each other by their Christian names; and you will be Cicely and Merry to me, as Molly and Isabel Tristram will be Molly and Isabel to me. You know Aneta, of course. She is hovering near, anxious to take possession of you. Go with her, dears. I think all my girls have now come.--Is it not so, Miss Talbot?"
"Yes, Mrs. Ward," replied Miss Talbot.
"Miss Talbot, may I introduce my four new pupils to you, Cicely and Merry Cardew, and Molly and Isabel Tristram?--You will have a good deal to do with Miss Talbot, girls, for she is our English teacher, and my very great friend."
Miss Talbot blushed slightly from pleasure. She said a gentle word to each girl, and a minute afterwards they had, so to speak, crossed the Rubicon, and were in the heart of Aylmer House; for Aneta had seized Merry"s hand, and Cicely followed immediately afterwards, while Molly and Belle found themselves one at each side of Maggie Howland.
"Oh, this is delightful!" said Maggie. "We have all met at last. Isn"t the day glorious? Isn"t the place perfect? Aren"t you in love with Mrs. Ward?"
"She seems very nice," said Molly in an almost timid voice.
"How nice Merry and Cicely look!" continued Maggie.
"You look nice, yourself, Maggie. Everything is wonderful," said Molly; "not a bit like the school in Hanover."
"Of course not. Who could compare it?" said Maggie.
Meanwhile Aneta, Cicely, and Merry had gone on in front. But as they were ascending the broad, low stairs, Merry turned and glanced at Maggie and smiled at her, and Maggie smiled back at Merry. Oh, that smile of Merry"s, how it caused her heart to leap! Aneta, try as she would, could not take Merry Cardew quite away from her.
Cicely and Merry had a bedroom together. Two little white beds stood side by side. The drugget on the floor was pale blue. The room was a study in pale blue and white. It was all exquisitely neat, fresh, airy, and the smell of the flowers in the window-boxes came in through the open windows.
"Why," said Cicely with a gasp, "we might almost be in the country!"
"This is one of the nicest rooms in the whole house," said Aneta. "But why should I say that," she continued, "when every room is, so to speak, perfect? I never saw Mrs. Ward, however, more particular than she was about your bedroom, girls. I think she is very much pleased at your coming to Aylmer House."
Cicely ran to the window and looked out.
"It is so nice to be in London," she said; "but somehow, I thought it would be much more noisy."
Aneta laughed.
"Aylmer House," she said, "stands in the midst of a great square. We don"t have huge traffic in the squares; and, really, at night it is as quiet as the country itself."
"But hark! hark!" said Merry, "there is a funny sound after all."
"What do you take it for?" asked Aneta.
"I don"t know," said Merry. "I could almost imagine that we were by the seaside, and that the sound was the roar of the breakers on the beach."
"It is the roar of human breakers," said Aneta. "One always hears that kind of sound even in the quietest parts of London. It is the great traffic in the thoroughfares not far away."
"It is delightful! wonderful!" said Merry. "Oh, I long to know all the girls! You will introduce us, won"t you, Aneta?"
"Of course; and you must be very quick remembering names. Let me see.
You two, and Molly and Isabel, and Maggie Howland, and I make six.
There are twenty girls in the house altogether, so you have to make the acquaintance of fourteen others."
"I never can possibly remember their names," said Merry.
"You will have to try. That"s the first thing expected of a schoolgirl--to know the names of her schoolfellows."
"Well, I will do my best."
"You had better do your best; it will be a good occupation for you during this first evening. Now, are you ready? And shall we go down?
We have tea in the refectory at four o"clock. Mademoiselle Laplage presides over the tea-table this week."
"Oh, but does she talk English?"
"Of course not--French. How can you learn French if you don"t talk it?"
"I shall never understand," said poor Merry.
"Well, I"ve no doubt she will let you off very easily during the first few days," said Aneta. "But afterwards she is just as particular as woman can be."
The girls went downstairs, where a group of other girls--most of them wearing pretty white dresses, for they were all still in full summer attire--met in the wide, pleasant hall. Aneta performed the ceremony of introduction.
"Henrietta and Mary Gibson, may I introduce my special friends and cousins, Cicely and Meredith--otherwise Merry--Cardew?"
Two tall, fair, lady-like girls responded to this introduction with a hearty shake of the hand and a hearty welcome to the new-comers.
"Here is Rosamond Dacre," continued Aneta, as a very dark, somewhat plain girl appeared in view.--"Rosamond, my friends and cousins, Cicely and Merry Cardew."
Rosamond shook hands, but stiffly and without any smile. The next minute a laughing, merry, handsome little girl, with dark-blue eyes, very dark curling eyelashes, and quant.i.ties of curling black hair, tumbled rather than walked into view.
"Ah Kathleen--Kitty, you"re just as incorrigible as ever!" cried Aneta:--"Girls, this is our Irish romp, as we always call her. Her name is Kathleen O"Donnell.--Now then, Kathleen, you must be good, you know, and not too terribly Irish. I have the honor to present to you, Kathleen, my cousins Cicely and Merry Cardew."
Kathleen did more than smile. She laughed outright. "I am delighted you have come," she said. "How are you? Isn"t school glorious? I do love it! I have come straight from Glengariff--the most beautiful part of the whole of Ireland. Do you know Ireland? Have you ever seen Bantry Bay? Oh, there is no country in all the world like it, and there is no scenery so magnificent."
"Come, Kitty, not quite so much chatter," said Aneta.--"Ah, there"s the tea-gong."
The girls now followed Aneta into a pleasant room which looked out on to a small garden. The garden, compared to the great, sweeping lawns and lovely parterres of Meredith Manor, was insignificant.
Nevertheless, with the French windows of the refectory wide open, and the beds full of hardy flowers--gay geraniums, late roses, innumerable asters, fuchsias, etc.--it appeared as a fresh surprise to the country girls.
"It isn"t like London," thought Merry.
At tea she found herself, greatly to her relief, at Maggie"s side.
There was also another piece of good fortune--at least so it seemed to the Cardews, whose conversational French was still almost _nil_--Mademoiselle Laplage was unexpectedly absent, the good lady being forced to remain in her room with a sudden, overpowering headache, and pleasant, good-natured Lucy--otherwise Miss Johnson--took her place.
"Perfect freedom to-day, girls," said Miss Johnson.
"Ah, good Lucy! thank you, Lucy!" exclaimed Kathleen.
"That"s right, Lucy! Hurrah for Lucy!" cried several other voices.
"No discipline at all to-day," continued Lucy. "School doesn"t begin until to-morrow."