The Third Cla.s.s at Miss Kaye"s.
by Angela Brazil.
CHAPTER I
A Wet-day Party
Drip, drip, drip! The rain came pouring down on a certain September afternoon, turning the tennis lawn to a swamp, dashing the bloom off the roses, spoiling the geraniums, and driving even the blackbirds and thrushes to seek shelter inside the summer house. It was that steady, settled, hopeless rain that does not hold out the slightest promise of ever stopping; there was not a patch of blue to be seen in the sky sufficient to make the traditional seaman"s jacket; several large black snails were crawling along the garden walk as if enjoying the bath; and the barometer in the hall, which started the day at "Set Fair", had now sunk below "Change", and showed no signs of intending to rise again.
Curled up in a large armchair placed in the bow window of a well-furnished morning-room, a little girl of about eleven years old sat peering out anxiously at the weather.
"It"s far too wet!" she remarked cheerfully. "It never means to clear to-day, and it"s four o"clock now. They can"t possibly come, so I shall just settle down and enjoy myself thoroughly."
She spoke aloud to herself, a habit often indulged in by solitary children, and, opening a copy of _Ivanhoe_, screwed herself round into an att.i.tude of still greater comfort, and set to work to read with that utter disregard of outer happenings which marks the true lover of books.
She was rather a pretty child; her features were good though the small face was pale and thin; her hair was fair and fluffy, and she had large hazel-grey eyes which looked so very dreamy sometimes that you could imagine their owner was apt to forget the commonplace surroundings of everyday life and live in a make-believe world that was all her own. Equally oblivious of the driving rain outside and the cosy scene within, Sylvia read on, so lost in her story that she did not even notice when the door opened and her mother entered the room.
"Why, here you are, darling! I thought I should find you in Father"s study. I"m so sorry it"s such a dreadful day for your party."
Sylvia put down her book with a slam, and dragging her mother into the big armchair, installed herself on her knee and administered a somewhat choking hug.
"Oh, Mother dear, I"m so glad!" she declared. "I didn"t want a party, and I"ve been watching the rain all the time and hoping it would go on pouring."
"Sylvia! I thought you would be terribly disappointed. Don"t you want to see your little friends?"
"Not very much."
"But why, sweetheart?"
Sylvia squeezed her mother"s hand in her own and sighed, as if she found it rather difficult to explain herself.
"Lots of reasons," she said briefly.
"Tell me what they are."
"Why, for one thing, I"ve just got to the middle of _Ivanhoe_, where Rowena is shut up in Front de Boeuf"s castle, and I want to see how she escapes. I"d much rather stay and read than go racing round the garden playing at "I spy!""
"But I thought you liked Effie and May and the Fergusson boys."
"I hate boys!" declared Sylvia dramatically. "At least, not Cousin Cuthbert and Ronald Hampson, but boys like the Fergusson boys. They do nothing but tear about and play tricks on one. They"re perfectly hateful! I didn"t enjoy my last party there one sc.r.a.p. They tease me most dreadfully every time I meet them."
"What about?"
"They call me "The Tragic Muse", because they got hold of one of my pieces of poetry. They made the most dreadful fun of it. And it wasn"t tragic at all. It was about the Waltons" baby, and its blue eyes and curls and dimples. I did put dimples, though they read it out pimples!
I don"t believe they know what tragic means, or a muse either, and I do, because I learnt them in Greek history last month. Mrs. Walton liked the poetry though. She said I must copy it into her alb.u.m and sign my name to it, and she thought I might be a poetess when I grew up, and she expected it was that which kept me so thin, and had you tried giving me cod-liver oil, because she was sure it would do me good. You"re not going to, are you? I took some once at Aunt Louisa"s, and it was the most disgusting stuff."
"I don"t think you need any more medicine just at present, so we will spare you the cod-liver oil," said Mrs. Lindsay, smiling. "Perhaps Roy and Donald would have forgotten about the poem by this afternoon."
"No, they wouldn"t. They never forgot anything if it"s possible to tease. I"d far rather they didn"t come. I don"t want the Waltons either, or the Carsons. It"s so nice and quiet in here, and Miss Holt"s out, and it"s such a wet day that there won"t be any callers, and I can have tea with you in the drawing-room, and Father said perhaps he would be back from the office by half-past five, and he promised the next time he was home early that he"d go through my museum and help me to label all the sh.e.l.ls, and that would be far nicer than a party."
"I thought you enjoyed playing with other children, dear," said Mrs.
Lindsay rather gravely.
"I don"t think I do," replied Sylvia. "It"s so hard to make them play properly. They never can imagine things. When I tell the Waltons there"s a witch in the cupboard, they look inside and say there isn"t anybody there. They can"t understand that you can pretend things until they seem quite real, and yet it"s only pretending. When I told Beatrice and Nora Jackson that I knew a dragon lived in their coal house, they went and told their governess, and she said she was afraid I was not a truthful child!"
"That was too bad!"
"Yes, wasn"t it? I"d rather not go to tea at the Jacksons". Mrs.
Jackson always says I don"t eat half enough. Beatrice and Nora have four thick slices of plain bread and b.u.t.ter before they begin with jam or honey, and great basins of bread-and-milk or soup plates full of porridge for breakfast. I think it"s rather rude of people to make remarks on what you eat when you go out to tea. Don"t you?"
"It just depends," said Mrs. Lindsay.
"Well, they don"t like it themselves," continued Sylvia. "The last time the Jacksons were here, when their nurse came to fetch them I told her I was sure they had enjoyed themselves, for Nora had eaten four buns and three sponge cakes, and Alfie had ten jam sandwiches and a piece of Madeira cake. I thought it would please her to hear they had had so much, when they scold me for eating so little, but she went quite red in the face and said they were not greedy children anyway."
"It was hardly a happy remark, I am afraid," said Mrs. Lindsay. "You will be wiser next time."
"People in books are so much nicer than real people," said Sylvia plaintively. "If I could have a party and invite Little Lord Fauntleroy, and Alice in Wonderland, and Rose out of _Eight Cousins_ and Rowena and Rebecca, and perhaps Queen Guinevere, and Hereward the Wake, then I should really enjoy myself."
"Can"t you pretend that your friends are heroes and heroines of romance?" said Mrs. Lindsay, pinching Sylvia"s pale cheeks. "You"re so fond of make-believe that it ought to be quite easy to imagine them princes and princesses."
"It"s not so easy as you"d think," replied Sylvia, shaking her head.
"I make up lovely stories about them sometimes, and they just go and spoil it all. I played one afternoon that Effie was an enchanted princess, shut up in a magic garden; but she kept on eating green apples instead of simply looking lovely among the flowers, and when I put a wreath of roses round her hair she said it had earwigs and spiders in it, and she pulled it off. I didn"t dare to tell her what I was playing, because she laughs so, but I began a piece of poetry about her, only it"s never got beyond the first verse. Then there"s that boy who lives in the house with the green railings down the road.
I don"t know his name, but he has blue eyes and very light curly hair.
Once I played for a whole week that he was Sir Galahad--he"s exactly like the picture Father showed me in that big book on the drawing-room table; but just when I"d made up my mind that he was starting off to find the Holy Grail, he threw a s...o...b..ll at me, and trod hard on La.s.sie"s tail on purpose. Somehow I never could manage to think of him as Sir Galahad after that. Now, Mother, don"t laugh!"
"It would be rather difficult, I own," said Mrs. Lindsay, trying to straighten her face. "I"m afraid you made an unfortunate choice in your knight."
"It"s just as bad," continued Sylvia, "if you pretend you"re somebody out of a book yourself. So much depends upon other people. I was Rowena in _Ivanhoe_ yesterday. I had to be rather haughty; because, you see, I was a Saxon princess, and everybody was accustomed to obey my slightest wish. But Miss Holt didn"t understand it in the least; she said if I spoke to her again like that she should send me out of the room. So I had to be Peter Pan instead, and Miss Holt asked me if I had taken leave of my senses. She was really quite angry with me."
"I don"t wonder. It doesn"t do to mix up pretending with your lessons.
Do you know, it isn"t raining nearly so fast now, and I certainly hear a cab coming up the drive. I believe some of your friends are arriving after all to have tea with you."
"Why, so they are!" exclaimed Sylvia, jumping up and running to the window which commanded a view of the front door and steps. "What a nuisance! It"s Effie and May, and they"ve brought the little Carsons with them. They"ll have to play in the schoolroom, and they always want my old dolls" house. I"ve put it away in the cupboard, and now I suppose I shall have to rummage it out again. It"s too bad! I thought they wouldn"t ask for it if we played in the garden. Don"t you think I might say I can"t get it?"
"Oh, no, dear! If it will give them pleasure you must certainly let them have it. Run along quickly, and open the hall door to welcome them. It is very kind of Mrs. Walton to send them in spite of the rain."
Sylvia went, but not too fast or too willingly. She was not at all pleased to see her guests, and would much have preferred the afternoon to herself.
"I never thought you"d come," she began, as the children sprang quickly from the cab and ran up the steps into the porch.
"We were so dreadfully disappointed," said Effie. "We"d been watching the weather all day. May nearly cried when it didn"t clear up, and Mother said it would be quite as disappointing for you, and she thought we could play indoors; so she telephoned for a cab, and we called for Bab and Daisy on our way, and brought them with us." So saying she led in the two little mites in question, who were beaming with smiles at their unexpected drive.
"Oh! our shoes!" cried May; "I"ve left them in the cab and the man"s driving away. Stop! Stop!" And she rushed out wildly into the rain.
The coachman drew up, and, dismounting from his box, gave her the parcel, and she hurried in before Mrs. Lindsay had finished saying good afternoon to the other children.