"Mind telling us the occasion of such heartfelt joy?" he inquired. But Charlotte came up behind him, laid a warm velvet cheek against his for a moment, patted her uncle on the shoulder, cried, "Good night to you, gentlemen dear!" and ran away to bed.
CHAPTER VIII
Charlotte let little Ellen slide down from her lap, washed and brushed.
"Now, Ellen, be a good girl," she said as she set about picking up the various articles she had been using in the baby"s bath and dressing.
"Charlotte"s in a hurry."
The door-bell rang. Celia was in the kitchen, stirring up a pudding. It was April now, and Celia"s knee was so far mended that she could be about the house without her crutches, with certain restrictions as to standing, or using the knee in any way likely to strain it.
It was Charlotte who did the running about, and it was she who started for the door now, after casting one hasty look around the bath-room to make sure that the baby could do herself no harm.
Left to herself, Ellen investigated the resources of the bath-room and found them wanting. After she had thrown two towels, the soap and her own small tooth brush back into the tub from which she had lately emerged, and which Charlotte had not yet emptied, she found her means of entertainment at an end. The other toilet articles were all beyond her reach. She gazed out of the window; there was nothing moving to be seen but a row of Mrs. Fields"s dish-towels waving in the wind.
She turned to the door. Charlotte had meant to latch it, but it was a door with a peculiar trick of swinging slowly open an inch after it had apparently been closed, and it had not been latched. Ellen pushed one small hand into the crack and pulled it open.
Charlotte was nowhere to be seen or heard Across the hall was the door of her room, ajar; and since doors ajar have somehow a singular charm for babies, this one crossed to it and swung it wide.
Here was richness. This was Charlotte"s workshop. She slept in a smaller room adjoining, the baby in the crib by her side; and with that smaller room little Ellen was familiar, but not with this. The tiny feet travelled eagerly about, from one desirable object to another. And presently she remembered the big, porcelain-lined bath-tub, There was nothing Ellen liked so well as to throw things into that tub and see them splash.
Two books crossed the hall and made the plunge, one after the other, into the soapy water. Ellen gurgled with delight. Two more journeys deposited a shoe, a hair-brush and a small box, contents unknown, in the watery receptacle. Then Ellen made a discovery which filled her small soul with joy.
Just two days before, Charlotte had completed the set of colour drawings which delineated the wall decoration of four rooms--a "den," a dining-room and two bedrooms. They represented the work of the winter, pursued under the exceeding difficulties of managing a household, and, for the last three months, caring in part for a little child.
But Charlotte had toiled faithfully, with the ardour of one who, having only a small portion of time to give to a beloved pursuit, works at it all the more zealously. And she had gone on from one room to another, in her designing, with the hope that if in one she failed to please those upon whom her success depended, some one of the series might appeal to them, and give her the desired place in their interest.
It was her intention on this very day, after luncheon should be over and she should be free for a few hours, to make the much-dreaded, wholly-longed-for visit to the great manufacturing house where she was to show her wares.
The drawings lay in a pile upon Charlotte"s table, ready to be wrapped.
Baby Ellen, spying the pile of drawings, with an edge or two of brilliant colour showing, trotted gaily over to the table. She stood on tiptoe and pulled at the corner nearest her. The drawings fell from the table in a disordered heap on the floor.
The sight of them pleased Ellen immensely. She held one up and shook it in her small fists, slowly and carefully tore a corner off it, and cast the sheet down in favour of the next in order. This she tore cleanly in two in the middle. The paper was tough, to be sure, but the little fists were strong.
Then she remembered that seductive bath-tub. A patter of little feet, a laugh of pleasure--"Da!" cried Ellen, gleefully---and the first sheet was in.
Seven trips, pursued with vigour and growing hilarity, and Charlotte"s work had received its initial plunge into a new state of being. Four of the drawings had been torn in two. The bath-tub was a ma.s.s of softly blending colours.
Charlotte came running back up the stairs, her mind, which had been held captive by a young caller, reverting with some anxiety to the small person whom she had left, as she thought, shut up in the safe bath-room.
She expected to hear Ellen crying, as was likely to be the case when left alone without sufficient means of amus.e.m.e.nt; but the silence, as she flew up-stairs, alarmed her. Silence was almost sure to mean mischief.
The bath-room door was ajar. Charlotte pushed it open and looked in. One glance showed her he havoc which had been wrought. She stopped short, staring with wild eyes into the bath-tub; then she caught her treasures out of it, held them dripping before her for an instant, and let them drop on the floor. She turned and ran out of the room to look for Ellen.
The baby sat calmly on a rug, in the middle of Charlotte"s room, engaged in pulling the leaves, one by one, out of a small sketch-book which had been on the table with the drawings. She looked up, a most engaging and innocent expression on her round face, and smiled at Charlotte. But she met no smile in return.
"You little wretch!" breathed Charlotte, between her teeth, as she seized the sketch-book and whirled the baby to her feet. "_Oh!_ Is this the way you pay me for all I"ve done for you? You _wicked--cruel--heartless_----"
It was the explosion of a blind wrath which made the girl shake the tiny form until Baby Ellen roared l.u.s.tily. Charlotte set her upon the floor again, and stood looking down at her with blazing eyes. The small head was clasped in two little fists, as the child tore at her yellow curls, her infant soul stirred to indignation and fright at this most unexpected treatment. Suddenly Charlotte seized her again and bore her swiftly away to Captain Rayburn"s room.
"Take care of her for an hour? Surely. But what"s the matter?"
It was small wonder he asked, for Charlotte"s face was white, her eyes brilliant, and her lips quivering as she spoke:
"It"s nothing--only baby has spoiled something of mine, and I"m so angry I don"t dare trust myself with her."
She dropped little Ellen in his arms and fled, leaving her uncle to think what he might. He looked grave as he soothed the baby, whose small breast still heaved convulsively.
"Are you conscientiously trying to do your full share in developing our little second fiddle"s capacity to play first?" he asked the baby, with his face against hers. "Never mind, little one, never mind. Baby doesn"t know--but John Rayburn does--that this being a means of education to other people is a thankless task sometimes. Don"t cry. Aunty Charlotte will kiss her hard and fast by and by, to make up for losing her temper with the little maid. I suspect you were very, very trying, to make Aunty Charlotte look like that."
Charlotte came down-stairs after a time and attended to the luncheon, her lips pressed tight together, her eyes heavy--although not with tears. She would not let herself cry.
Celia had a headache and did not notice, being herself disinclined to talk, and Captain Rayburn forbore to look at Charlotte. But Jeff, when he came in, observed at once that something was amiss. As soon as the meal was over he drew Charlotte into a corner.
"You haven"t been to Murdock with the pictures and been--turned down?"
he asked.
"No."
"Going this afternoon, aren"t you?"
"No."
"Why not? Thought that was the plan."
Charlotte turned away, fighting hard for self-control. Jeff caught her arm.
"See here, Fiddle, you"ve got to tell me. You look like a ghost. No bad news--from New Mexico?"
"Oh, no--no! Please go away."
"I won"t till you tell me what"s up. You"re not sick?"
Charlotte ran off up-stairs, Jeff following. "Charlotte," he cried, as he pursued her into her room before she could turn and close the door, "what"s the use of acting like this? Something"s happened, and I"m going to know what it is."
Charlotte sat down in a despairing heap on the floor and hid her face in her hands. Jeff glanced helplessly from her to the table in the corner.
Then he observed that it was bare of the pile of drawings.
"Nothing"s happened to the wall-paper?" he asked, eagerly.
Charlotte nodded.
"What?"
"Go look up in the attic, if you must know."