When her father came in, he looked over at his wife. I am afraid he deliberately winked, though in the interests of morality I trust I may be mistaken. For how could a Justice of the Peace and a future Member of Parliament demean himself to wink?
"Jane," he said to Mrs. Carter, "what does Cissy like most of all for supper?"
"A little bit of chicken and bread-sauce done with broiled bacon--at least I think so, dear--why do you ask?"
He called the tablemaid.
"Walbridge," he said sternly, "take that disgraceful girl up the breast and both wings of a chicken, also three nice pieces of crisp bacon, four new potatoes with b.u.t.ter-sauce, some raspberrytart with thick cream and plenty of sugar--and a whole bottle of zoedone. But mind you, _nothing else_, as you value your place--not another bite for such a bold bad girl. This will teach her to go about the country thrashing boys two years older than herself!"
He looked over across the table at his son.
"Let this be a lesson to you, sir," he said, frowning sternly at him.
"Yes, sir," said Sammy meekly, winking in his turn very confidentially at a fly which was having a free wash and brush-up on the edge of the fingerbowl, after completing the round of the dishes on the dinner table.
CHAPTER XXIV.
CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME--AND ENDS THERE.
Now all this has nothing to do with the story, except to show what sort of a girl Cissy Carter was, and how she differed from Prissy Smith--who in these circ.u.mstances would certainly have gone home and prayed that G.o.d would in time make Wedgwood Baker a better boy, instead of tackling missionary work on the spot with her knuckles as Cissy Carter did.
It was several days later, and the flag of the Smoutchy boys still flew defiantly over the battlements of the castle. The great General was growing discouraged, for in little more than a week his father might return from London, and would doubtless take up the matter himself. Then, with the coming of policemen and the putting up of fences and notice-boards, all romance would be gone forever. Besides which, most of the town boys would have to go back to school, and the Carters" governess and their own would be returning to annoy them with lessons, and still more uncalled for aggravations as to manners.
Cissy Carter had given Sammy the slip, and started to come over by herself to Windy Standard. It was the afternoon, and she came past the gipsy encampment which Mr. Picton Smith had found on some unenclosed land on the other side of the Edam Water, and which, spite of the remonstrances of his brother-landlords, he had permitted to remain there.
The permanent Ishmaelitish establishment consisted of about a dozen small huts, some entirely constructed of rough stone, others of turf with only a stone interposed here and there; but all had mud chimneys, rough doorways, and windows glazed with the most extraordinary collection of old gla.s.s, rags, wisps of straw, and oiled cloth. Dogs barked hoa.r.s.ely and shrilly according to their kind, ragged clothes fluttered on extemporised lines, or made a parti-coloured patch-work on the gra.s.s and on the gorse bushes which grew all along the bank.
There were also a score of tents and caravans dotted here and there about the rough ground. Half-a-dozen swarthy lads rose silently and stared after Cissy as she pa.s.sed.
A tall limber youth sitting on a heap of stones examining a dog"s back, looked up and scowled as she came by. Cissy saw an unhealed wound and stopped.
"Let me look at him," she said, reaching out her hand for the white fox-terrier.
"Watch out, miss," said the lad, "he"s nasty with the sore. He"ll bite quick as mustard!"
"He won"t bite me," said Cissy, taking up the dog calmly, which after a doubtful sniff submitted to be handled without a murmur.
"This should be thoroughly washed, and have some boracic ointment put on it at once," said Cissy, with the quick emphasis of an expert.
"Ain"t got none o" the stuff," said the youth sullenly, "nor can"t afford to buy it. Besides, who"s to wash him first off, and him in a temper like that?"
"Come over with me to Oaklands and I"ll get you some ointment. I"ll wash him myself in a minute."
The boy whistled.
"That"s a good "un," he said, "likely thing me to go to Oaklands!"
"And why?" said Cissy; "it"s my father"s place. I"ve just come from there."
"Then your father"s a beak, and I ain"t going a foot--not if I know it," said the lad.
"A what--oh! you mean a magistrate--so he is. Well, then, if you feel like that about it I"ll run over by myself, and sneak some ointment from the stables."
And with a careless wave of the hand, a pat on the head and a "Poo"
fellow then" to the white fox-terrier, she was off.
The youth cast his voice over his shoulders to a dozen companions who were hiding in the broom behind. His face and tone were both full of surprise and admiration.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""LET ME LOOK AT HIM," SHE SAID."]
"Say, chaps, did you hear her? She said she"d "sneak" the ointment from the stables. I tell "ee what, she"ll be a rare good plucked one that. And her a beak"s daughter! Her mother mun ha" been a piece!"
It was half-an-hour before Cissy got back with the pot of boracic dressing and some lint.
"I had to wait till the coachman had gone to his tea," she explained, "and then send the stable boy with a message to the village to get him out of the way."
The youth on the stone heap secretly signalled his delight to the appreciative audience hiding in the broom bushes.
Then Cissy ordered him to get her some warm water, which he brought from one of the kettles swinging on the birchen tripods scattered here and there about the encampment.
Whereupon, taking the fox-terrier firmly on her knee and turning up the skirt of her dress, she washed away all the dirt and matted hair, cleansing the wound thoroughly.
The poor beast only made a faint whining sound at intervals. Then she applied the antiseptic dressing, and bound the lint tightly down with a cincture about the animal. She fitted his neck with a neat collar of her own invention, made out of the wicker covering of a Chianti wine flask which she brought with her from Oaklands.
"There," she said, "that will keep him from biting at it, and you must see that he doesn"t scratch off the bandage. I"ll be pa.s.sing to-morrow and will drop in. Here"s the pot of ointment. Put some more on in the morning and some again at night, and he will be all right in a day or two."
"Thank"ee, miss," said the lad, touching his cap with the natural courtesy which is inherent in the best blood of his race. "I don"t mean to forget, you be sure."
Cissy waved her hand to him gaily, as she went off towards Windy Standard. Then all at once she stopped.
"By the way, what is your name? Whom shall I ask for if you are not about to-morrow?"
"Billy Blythe," he said, after a moment"s pause to consider whether the daughter of a magistrate was to be trusted; "but I"ll be here to-morrow right enough!"
"Why did you tell the beak"s daughter your name, Bill, you blooming Johnny?" asked a companion. "You"ll get thirty days for that sure!"
"Shut up, Fish Lee," said the owner of the dog; "the girl is main right. D"ye think she"d ha" said "sneaked" if she wasn"t. G"way, Bacon-chump!"
Cissy Carter took the road to Windy Standard with a good conscience.
She was not troubled about the "sneaking," though she hoped that the coachman would not miss that pot of ointment.
At the foot of the avenue, just where it joined the dusty road to the town of Edam, she met Sir Toady Lion. He had his arms full of valuable sparkling jewellery, or what in the distance looked like it as the sun shone upon some winking yellow metal.
Toady Lion began talking twenty to the dozen as soon as ever he came within Cissy"s range.