"Yes, a young lady," as Crystal moved away rather suddenly. "Ah! there is a footman; he seems in search of some one. I will ask him if he be looking for you," and Miss Merriman darted away.
Raby stood quietly waiting, but he little knew that the girl whom he had come to London to seek was standing a few yards from him, trying to see him through the tears that blinded her.
Many people turned to look after the tall, striking-looking man in clerical dress. The felt hat just shaded the pale, ma.s.sively cut features. He looked older, Crystal thought, and a little sadder, but the mouth was as beautiful as ever.
Once he looked up as hasty footsteps brushed him, as though he would move aside, but a girlish figure interposed between him and the loaded truck, and again the little hand guided him to safety.
"It is all right--the man says he is waiting for Mr. Ferrers,"
observed Miss Merriman briskly at this moment. "What horrid things those trucks are; I was afraid one would have knocked you, only the young lady led you away."
"What! a young lady?" asked Raby, quickly.
"Oh, only a tall young lady in brown, who seemed to notice you wanted help. She has gone now--probably a pa.s.senger for the down-train."
"I think all young ladies are good to me," returned Raby, with grave courtesy, holding out his hand. "I know I have met with a very kind fellow-pa.s.senger;" and then, as he took the footman"s arm and entered the carriage, Miss Merriman saw the tall young lady in brown walk quickly out of the station, and as she pa.s.sed her there were tears running down her cheeks.
CHAPTER XXVII.
FLUFF GOES TO SEE GRANDPAPA.
Thou, like a little curious fly That fusses through the air, Dost pry and pry With thy keen inquisitive eye.
And with many questions, ever Rippling like a restless river, Puzzling many an older brain Dost thou hour by hour increase thy store Of marvelous lore.
Thus a squirrel, darting deftly, Up and down autumnal trees, Sees its h.o.a.rd of chestnuts growing swiftly In a heap upon the leaf-strewn leas.
CLAUDE LAKE.
"And now, I look almost as smart as the Princess Dove herself."
"I really think you do, Fluff, though you remember her dress was a curious embroidery of rainbows and dew-drops sewn all over with peac.o.c.ks" eyes; but I a.s.sure you I like your white frock much better; and the new hat is very pretty."
"But Fern!--"
"But Fluff!--"
"If I were to be lost--really and truly lost, you know--would the funny old town-crier tell a long story about me as he did about the dog when we were down by the sea last summer?"
"Of course he would, and mother and I would stand and listen to him and try not to laugh. "Lost, stolen, or strayed, a little witch-girl in a clean white frock, rather too much starched; a frilled cape that crackles when she moves, and a pretty broad-brimmed hat." Well, Fluffy, what does that mysterious look mean? you are very rude to interrupt the old crier," and Fern tried to frown, while Fluff nodded her head sagaciously.
"It would not be stolen or lost, it would be strayed like the sheep in the turnip-field, when the shepherd turned them all out because they had no business there. Supposing I strayed on purpose, Fern, you must send a crier covered all over with gold lace to find me."
"Indeed! have you lost your senses, Fluff?"
"Never mind the senses; I saw them all five in china in Mrs. Watkins"s left hand corner-cupboard, china images she called them, and I thought them so pretty. Give me the fourpence half-penny for buns, Fern--one Bath, two plain, and a half-penny to the sweeper that takes me best over the crossing."
"Oh, Fluff, Fluff, do be careful, and mind you do not go too far; come back soon, like a good child."
"Of course I am good on my birthday. What did they do to Ananias and Sapphira, Fern?"
"Dear me, what an odd question, Fluffy!"
"Never mind that; in the Sunday-school the teacher always answers the children"s questions directly; she is a very nice teacher though she has red hair, but she can not help that."
"Oh, indeed! so I must tell you about Ananias and Sapphira. What is the matter? how pale you look, my pet. Well, they fell down dead because they had told a lie."
Fluff shifted her pence uneasily.
"That was the lie they told about the land and money that they wanted to keep themselves. I think they were greedy people; one Bath, two plain, and a half-penny for the sweeper. Here is the fourpence, Fern; I don"t think I shall be hungry until tea-time. Now, good-bye, I must go."
"Why, Fluff, what nonsense! here, Fluff;" but Fluff was scuttling down-stairs as fast as she could go, and Fern was only in time to see her little feet whisking through the shop door.
"I don"t believe there is such another child in the United Kingdom,"
she said to herself, laughing. "She is terribly young for her age, but so amusing; how dull it will be without her this afternoon, and poor Crystal so far away, I wish mother had not let her go, or that she were safe home again;" and Fern sighed as she looked round the empty room.
Now it so happened that Fluff had coaxed her mother to let her take a walk alone on her birthday; this was the treat she had selected for the occasion.
She was to wear her best frock and her new hat that Crystal had trimmed for her as a parting present; and she had promised to be very careful, and not go too far. The four-pence was to be expended in buns--so she and her mother had arranged, but Fluff had secretly intended to put it to another purpose, until her conscientious scruples had obliged her to leave it at home instead of paying the omnibus fare that was to save her poor little legs; they would get sorely tired before they reached their destination.
Fluff ran down several streets, till she was out of breath, and then she fell into a little trot; but first she gave the half-penny to a ragged boy, and begged him earnestly never to tell stories; and after that she asked him the way to Belgravia. Not getting a lucid answer from him, as he only told her that he had been a cripple from his birth and had sold lucifers ever since, which, being brimstone, was bad for the rheumatics, Fluff told him that she would have repeated the whole story of Ananias and Sapphira to him, only she had no time, and then she resumed her walk with much dignity.
And the method of it was this--if method it could be called which had, in its sidelong movements, the similitude of a crab. First she went into every baker"s shop she pa.s.sed, and, shaking her head sorrowfully at the fresh currant-buns on the counters, asked in a confidential whisper the quickest and shortest way to Belgravia; and when they wished to know what part, or asked her business, in a kindly way, she pursed up her mouth and said that was not the question, and would they please confine themselves to facts, or some such speech, in her odd abrupt way.
And she looked such a little lady as she spoke, and held her little head up so proudly, that most of them answered her with civility; and one big baker"s boy, just starting on his afternoon round, said he would see her past the dangerous crossing in the next street, and put her a little on her way. Fluff said she was very much obliged to him, and trotted confidingly by his side, adapting her conversation to her hearer as she thought best, for she enlarged in a rambling way on the Miracle of the Loaves, and told him what her teacher said on the subject of the fishes; and then she became confidential, and explained to him that she bore an innocent partiality for the moist peely bits of soft crusts that one could pare off a loaf without showing a sad deficiency, and how she always liked to take in the bread at Mrs.
Watkins"s for the purpose; and lastly, she told him in a weary little voice that she was going to see grandpapa, who lived in a big house in Belgravia, but that she was getting very tired, for she had a bone in her leg--two bones, she thought--and might she sit please on the top of his little cart to rest her poor legs when he went into the next house?
The baker"s boy was a good-natured fellow, but, as he expressed it afterward, he thought her the rummiest little lady he had ever met; indeed, he confided his suspicions to a grocer"s lad that she "was a bit cracky;" but he let her sit on his cart for all that, and trundled her the length of two or three streets; and further revived her drooping spirits by a dab of hot brown bread, scooped skillfully out of the side of a loaf which, as he said, would never show.
After that they got facetious, and admired a Punch and Judy show together, and parted with deep regret, when a policeman desired them to move on.
Fluff began to feel rather lonely after this. It was getting late, she was afraid, and those little legs of hers ached dreadfully; but she fell in at the park gates with a playful flower-girl, who ran a race with her, basket and all, and then stood and jeered in broad Irish because she was beaten, while Fluff sat down, sulky and exhausted, on a bench under the trees.
It was nearly tea-time now, she thought; in another hour or so Fern would be sending the old crier after her. She wondered how she was to get back. She was very thirsty, and felt half inclined to cry; and then it struck her that the large splendid-looking building opposite might be Belgrave House, and she ran up to a workman just pa.s.sing and asked him.
"No," he said, eying her wondering, "that was not Belgrave House, it was in the next square;" and when she heard that she clapped her hands joyfully, and went and drank out of a little iron bowl in company with a sweep. She asked him if she might drink first, and he said, "Oh, laws, yes! you ain"t near so s.m.u.tty as me," which speech Fluff took as a compliment. But she had fallen down twice, and her nice white frock had got unsightly patches of green on it.
But she felt as though her troubles were over when she stood in front of Belgrave House, its many windows shining like gold.
What a grand place it was--finer than the Crystal Ball Palace where Princess Dove and Prince Merrydew lived; and, oh dear, what joy, the door was open!
The footman had just run out to the pillar box, and another footman was fast asleep in a chair that looked like a baby"s cradle turned upside down.
Fluff ran up the steps and looked in.
There was a beautiful scent of flowers as she crept timidly into the hall, such sleepy warm flowers Fluff thought, only they made her head drowsy; and there was a great staircase with carved bal.u.s.trades and dark slippery stairs, and the doors were all shut, and there was not a sound in the whole house, except the singing of some birds. Fluff began to feel giddy.