"Bella was never here before; at least not with you.""No. But I did not exactly mean that. All that would not make the place so strange. But your mother seems altered to me. She used to be almost like my own mother.""I suppose she finds that you are a more formidable person as you grow older. It was all very well scolding you when you were a clerk in the bank, but it does not do to scold the manager. These are the penalties men pay for becoming great.""It is not my greatness that stands in my way, but--""Then I'm sure I cannot say what it is. But Patty will scold you if you do not mind the figure, though you were the whole Board of Directors packed into one. She won't respect you if you neglect your present work."When Bessy went to bed that night she began to feel that she had attempted too much. "Mamma," she said, "could I not make some excuse and go away to Aunt Mary?""What now?"
"Yes, mamma; now; to-morrow. I need not say that it will make me very unhappy to be away at such a time, but I begin to think that it will be better.""What will papa say?"
"You must tell him all."
"And Aunt Mary must be told also. You would not like that. Has he said anything?""No, nothing;--very little, that is. But Bella has spoken to me.
Oh, mamma, I think we have been very wrong in this. That is, I have been wrong. I feel as though I should disgrace myself, and turn the whole party here into a misfortune."It would be dreadful, that telling of the story to her father and to her aunt, and such a necessity must, if possible, be avoided.
Should such a necessity actually come, the former task would, no doubt, be done by her mother, but that would not lighten the load materially. After a fortnight she would again meet her father, and would be forced to discuss it. "I will remain if it be possible,"she said; "but, mamma, if I wish to go, you will not stop me?" Her mother promised that she would not stop her, but strongly advised her to stand her ground.
On the following morning, when she came down stairs before breakfast, she found Frank standing in the hall with his gun, of which he was trying the lock. "It is not loaded, is it, Frank?"said she.
"Oh dear, no; no one thinks of loading now-a-days till he has got out of the house. Directly after breakfast I am going across with Godfrey to the back of Greystock, to see after some moor-fowl. He asked me to go, and I couldn't well refuse.""Of course not. Why should you?"
"It will be deuced hard work to make up the time. I was to have been up at four this morning, but that alarum went off and never woke me. However, I shall be able to do something to-night.""Don't make a slavery of your holidays, Frank. What's the good of having a new gun if you're not to use it?""It's not the new gun. I'm not such a child as that comes to. But, you see, Godfrey is here, and one ought to be civil to him. I'll tell you what I want you girls to do, Bessy. You must come and meet us on our way home. Come over in the boat and along the path to the Patterdale road. We'll be there under the hill about five.""And if you are not, we are to wait in the snow?""Don't make difficulties, Bessy. I tell you we will be there. We are to go in the cart, and so shall have plenty of time.""And how do you know the other girls will go?""Why, to tell you the truth, Patty Coverdale has promised. As for Miss Holmes, if she won't, why you must leave her at home with mamma. But Kate and Patty can't come without you.""Your discretion has found that out, has it?""They say so. But you will come; won't you, Bessy? As for waiting, it's all nonsense. Of course you can walk on. But we'll be at the stile by five. I've got my watch, you know." And then Bessy promised him. What would she not have done for him that was in her power to do?
"Go! Of course I'll go," said Miss Holmes. "I'm up to anything.
I'd have gone with them this morning, and have taken a gun if they'd asked me. But, by-the-bye, I'd better not.""Why not?" said Patty, who was hardly yet without fear lest something should mar the expedition.
"What will three gentlemen do with four ladies?""Oh, I forgot," said Patty innocently.
"I'm sure I don't care," said Kate; "you may have Harry if you like.""Thank you for nothing," said Miss Holmes. "I want one for myself.
It's all very well for you to make the offer, but what should I do if Harry wouldn't have me? There are two sides, you know, to every bargain.""I'm sure he isn't anything to me," said Kate. "Why, he's not quite seventeen years old yet!""Poor boy! What a shame to dispose of him so soon. We'll let him off for a year or two; won't we, Miss Coverdale? But as there seems by acknowledgment to be one beau with unappropriated services--""I'm sure I have appropriated nobody," said Patty, "and didn't intend.""Godfrey, then, is the only knight whose services are claimed," said Miss Holmes, looking at Bessy. Bessy made no immediate answer with either her eyes or tongue; but when the Coverdales were gone, she took her new friend to task.
"How can you fill those young girls' heads with such nonsense?""Nature has done that, my dear."
"But nature should be trained; should it not? You will make them think that those foolish boys are in love with them.""The foolish boys, as you call them, will look after that themselves. It seems to me that the foolish boys know what they are about better than some of their elders." And then, after a moment's pause, she added, "As for my brother, I have no patience with him.""Pray do not discuss your brother," said Bessy. "And, Bella, unless you wish to drive me away, pray do not speak of him and me together as you did just now.""Are you so bad as that,--that the slightest commonplace joke upsets you? Would not his services be due to you as a matter of course?