"Really!" cried Ella angrily, "anyone would think poor George was a sort of barbarian, who couldn"t be expected to know anything, or trusted to do anything!"
"I"m sure I never _said_ so, Ella. But how clever of him to choose just the right things! And, Ella, do all the colours and things go well together? I always thought most men didn"t notice much about all that.
And are the new mantelpieces pretty? Oh, and where did he go for the papers and the carpets?"
"Flossie, I wish you wouldn"t tease so. Can"t you see I have a headache?
I can"t answer so many questions, and I won"t! Once for all, everything is just what I like. Do you understand, or shall I tell you again?--just, _just_ what I like!"
"Oh, all right," returned Flossie, with exasperating good-humour; "then there"s nothing to lose your temper about, darling, is there?"
And this was all that Ella had gained by her loyalty to George so far.
It was the morning after the Chapmans" visit. Ella had seen her mother and Flossie preparing to go out, but, owing to the friction between them, they neither invited her to accompany them, nor did she venture to ask where they were going. At luncheon, however, the unhappy girl divined from the expression of their faces how they had employed the forenoon. They had been inspecting the Campden Hill house! Her mother"s handsome face wore a look of frozen contempt. Imagine a strict Quaker"s feelings on seeing his son with a pair of black eyes--a Socialist"s at finding a peerage under his daughter"s pillow--a Positivist"s whose children have all joined the Salvation Army, and even then but a faint idea will be reached of Mrs. Hylton"s utter dismay and disgust.
Flossie, though angry, took a different view of Ella"s share in the business; she knew her better than her mother did, and consequently refused to believe that she was a Philistine at heart. It was her absurd infatuation for George that made her see with his eyes and bow down before the hideous household G.o.ds he had chosen to erect. On such weakness Flossie had no mercy.
"Well, Ella, dear," she began, "mother and I have seen your house.
George has quite surpa.s.sed our wildest expectations. Accept my compliments!"
"Flossie," said her mother severely, "will you kindly choose some other topic? I really feel too seriously annoyed about all this to bear to hear it spoken of just yet. I think you shall come with me to the Amberleys" garden-party this afternoon, and not Ella, as we are dining out this evening. You had better stay at home and rest, Ella."
In this, and countless other ways, was Ella made to feel that she was in disgrace.
Nor did Flossie spare her sister when they were alone. "Poor dear mother!" she said, "I quite thought that house would have broken her heart--oh, I"m not saying a word against it, Ella, I know _you_ like it, and I"m sure it looks very comfortable--everything so sensible and useful, and the kitchen really charming; mother and I liked it best of all the rooms. Such a horrid man let us in; he was at work there, and he would follow us all about, and tell mother his entire history. I don"t think he _could_ have been quite sober, he would insist on turning all the taps on everywhere. I suppose, Ella, it"s ever so much _cheaper_ to furnish as you and George have done; that"s the worst of pretty things, they do cost such a lot! I"d no idea you were so practical, though," and so on.
On Sunday George came to luncheon. He was delighted to hear from Flossie that they had been to the house, and gave a boisterously high-spirited account of his labours. "It _was_ a grind," he informed them, "and, as for those painter-fellows, I began to think they"d stay out the entire lease."
"Art is long, George," observed Flossie, wickedly.
"Oh yes, I know; but they promised faithfully to be out in ten days, and they were over three weeks!"
"But look at the result! George, how _did_ you find out that Ella liked grained doors?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, Flossie, that was a bit of a fluke. The man told me that graining was coming in again, and I said, "Grain "em, then"--_I_ didn"t know!"
In short, he was more provokingly dense than ever to-day, and Ella found herself growing more and more captious and irritable that afternoon; he could not understand why she was so disinclined to talk; even the dear little house of which she was so soon to be the mistress failed to interest her.
"You have told me twice already that you got the drawing-room carpet a great bargain, and only paid four pounds ten for the table in the dining-room," she broke out. "Can"t we take that for granted in future?"
"I forgot I"d told you; I thought it was the mater," he said; "and I say, Ella, how about pictures? Jessie"s promised to do us some water-colours--she"s been taking lessons lately, you know--but we shall want one or two prints for the dining-room, shan"t we? You can pick them up second-hand very cheap."
"Oh yes, yes; anything you please, George!... No, no; I"m not cross, I"m only tired, especially of talking about the house. It is quite finished, you know, so what _is_ there to discuss?"
During the days that followed, Flossie devised an ingenious method of tormenting Ella; she laid out her pocket-money, of which she had a good deal, on the most preposterous ornaments--a pair of dangling cut-gla.s.s l.u.s.tres, bead mats, a trophy of wax fruit under a gla.s.s shade, gaudy fire-screens and flowerpots, all of which she solemnly presented to her suffering sister. This was not pure mischief or unkindness on Flossie"s side, but part of a treatment she had hit upon for curing Ella of her folly. And at last the worm turned. Flossie came in one day with a cheap plush and terra-cotta panel of appalling ugliness.
"For the drawing-room, dear," she observed blandly, and Ella suddenly burst into a flood of tears.
"You are very, very unkind to me, Flossie!" she sobbed.
"I!" exclaimed Flossie, in a tone of the most innocent surprise. "Why, Ella, I thought you would be charmed with it. I"m sure _George_ will.
And, you know, it will go beautifully with the rest of your things!"
"You might understand ... you might see----"
"I might see what?"
"How _frightfully_ miserable I am!" said Ella, which was the very admission Miss Flossie had been seeking to provoke.
"Suppose I _do_ see," she said; "suppose I"ve been trying to get you to act sensibly, Ella?"
"Then it"s cruel of you!"
"No it"s not. It"s kind. How am I to help you unless you speak out? I"m younger than you, Ella, but I know this--_I_ would never mope and make myself miserable when a word would put everything right!"
"But it wouldn"t, Flossie; it is too late to speak now. I can"t tell him how I really feel--I can"t!"
"Ah, then you own there is something to tell?"
"What have I said? Flossie, forget what I said; it slipped out. I meant nothing."
"And you are perfectly happy and satisfied, are you? _Now_, I know how people look when they are perfectly happy and satisfied."
"It"s no use!" cried Ella, suddenly. "I"ve tried, and tried, and tried to bear it, but I can"t. I _must_ tell somebody ... it is making me ill.
I am getting cross and wicked, and unlike what I used to be. Flossie, I can"t go and live there--I dread the thought of it; I shrink from it more and more every day! It is all odious, impossible--and yet I must, I must!"
"No, you mustn"t; and, what"s more, you shan"t!"
"Flossie, you mean you will tell mother! You must not, do you hear? If you do, it will only make matters worse. Oh, why did I tell you?" cried Ella, in shame at this lapse from all her heroism. "Promise me you will say nothing to mother--it is too late now--promise!"
"Very well," said Flossie reluctantly; "then I promise. But, all the same, Ella, I think you"re a great goose!"
"I didn"t promise I wouldn"t say anything to _George_, though," she reflected; and so, on the very next occasion that she caught him alone, she availed herself of an innocent allusion of his to Ella"s low spirits to give him the benefit of her candid opinion, which was not tempered by any marked consideration for his feelings.
Ella was in the morning-room alone--she had taken to sitting alone lately, brooding over her trials. She was no heroine, after all; her mind, it is to be feared, was far from superior. She was finding out that she had undertaken too heavy a task; she could not console herself for her lost dream of a charmingly appointed house. She might endure to live in such a home as George had made for her; but to be expected to admire it, to let it be understood that it was her handiwork, that she had chosen or approved of it--this was the burden that was crushing her.
Suddenly the door opened and George stood before her. His expression was so altered that she scarcely recognised him; all the cheery buoyancy had vanished, and his stern, set face had a dignity and character in it now that were wanting before.
"I have just had a talk with Flossie," he began; "she has shown me what a--what a mistake I"ve been making."
Ella could not help feeling a certain relief, though she said, "It was very wrong of Flossie--she had no right to speak."
"She had every right," he said. "She might have done it more kindly, perhaps, but that"s nothing. Why didn"t you tell me yourself, Ella? You might have trusted me!"
"I couldn"t--it seemed so cruel, so ungrateful, after all you had done.
I hoped you would never know."
"It"s well for you, and for me too, that I know this while there"s still time. Ella, I"ve been a blind, blundering fool. I never had a suspicion of this till--till just now, or you don"t think I should have gone on with it a single minute. I came to tell you that you need not make yourself miserable any longer. I will put an end to this--whatever it costs me."
"Oh, George, I am so ashamed. I know it is weak and cowardly of me, but I can"t help it. And--and will it cost you so very much?"