The Two Sides of the Shield Read online

  'You set him on.'

  'No, indeed I never did! You know I promised.'

  'There are plenty of ways of getting out of a promise.'

  'Speak for yourself, Dolores.'

  There were ten minutes of offended silence, and then Gillian said, 'This is nonsense! You may believe me, I was sorry I laughed at the first verses you showed me, and mamma said I ought not. We never spoke of it, but Miss Hacket has been giving mamma all the poems, and Jasper must have got at them. Don't you see?'

  'Oh yes, you say so,' said Dolores, sulkily.

  'You don't believe me!'

  'You promised that your brothers should never hear of it.'

  'I promised for myself. I couldn't promise for what was put into a newspaper and trumpeted all over the place,' said Gillian, really angry now.

  Dolores could not deny this, but she was hurt by the word trumpeted; and besides, her own slippery behaviour was weakening her trust in other people's sincerity, and she only gave a kind of grunt; but Gillian, recovering herself a little, and remembering her mother's words, proceeded to argue. 'Besides, it was me whom Jasper meant to tease, not you.'

  'I don't care which it was. He is as bad as the rest of them!'

  Gillian attempted no more conciliation, and they arrived in silence at the Casement Cottages, where Constance was awaiting her friend in the greatest excitement; for she had despatched 'The Waif of the Moorland' to Mr. Flinders in the course of the week, and had received a letter from him in return, saying that a personal interview with the gifted authoress would be desirable.

  'And I do long to see him; don't you, darling?

  'It is very hard that he should be kept away from me,' said Dolores, trying to stir up some tender feelings.

  'That it is, my poor sweet! I thought whether he could come to me for a merely literary consultation without Mary's knowing anything further about it, and then we could contrive for you to come down and meet him; but there are so many horrid prejudices that I suppose it would not be safe.'

  'I don't see how I could come down here without the others. Aunt Lily won't let me come alone, and though it is holiday time, that is no good, for those horrid boys are always about, and I see that Jasper is going to be worse even than Wilfred.

  Various ways and means were discussed, but no excuse seemed available for either Constance's going to Darminster, or for Mr. Flinders coming to Silverton, without exciting suspicion.

  CHAPTER XI. SECRET EXPEDITION

  'The Christmas-tree! Oh, mamma, do let it be the Christmas-tree. It is quite well. We've been to look at it.'

  'Christmas-trees have got so stale, Val,' said Gillian.

  'Rot!' put in Jasper.

  'Oh, please, please, mamma,' implored Valetta, 'please let it be the dear old Christmas-tree! You said I should choose because it will be my birthday.'

  'There is no need to whine, Val; you shall have your tree.'

  'I'm so glad!' cried Mysie. 'The dear old tree is best of all. I could never get tired of it if I lived to be a hundred years old.'

  'Such are institutions,' said their mother. 'I never heard of a Christmas-tree till I was twice your age.'

  'Oh, mamma! How dreadful! What did you do?'

  'I suppose it is all very well for you kids,' said Jasper, loftily, putting his hands in his pockets.

  'Perhaps something may be found interesting eve: to the high and mighty elders,' observed Lady Merrifield.

  'Oh! What, mamma?'

  Mamma, of course, only looked mysterious.

  'And,' added Val, 'mayn't we all go on a secret expedition and buy things for it?'

  'We've all been saving up,' added Mysie; 'and everybody knows every single thing in all the shop at Silverton.'

  'Besides,' added Gillian, 'the sconces will none of them hold, and almost all the golden globes got smashed in coming from Dublin, and one of the birds has its head off, and another has lost its spun-glass tail, and another its legs.'

  'A bird of Paradise,' said Lady Merrifield, laughing; 'but wasn't there a tree at Malta decked with no apparatus at all?'

  'Yes, but Alley and Phyl can do anything!'

  'I think we must ask Aunt Jane--'

  There was a howl. 'Oh, please, mamma, don't let Aunt Jane get all the things! We do so want to choose.'

  'You impatient monsters! You haven't heard me out, and you don't deserve it.'

  'Oh, mamma, I beg your pardon!' 'Oh, mamma, please!' 'Oh, mamma, pray!' cried the most impatient howlers, dancing round her.

  'What I was about to observe, before the interruption by the honourable members, was, that we might perhaps ask Aunt Jane and Aunt Ada to receive at luncheon a party of caterers for this same tree.'

  'Oh! oh! oh!' 'How delicious!' 'Hooray!' 'That's what I call jolly fun!'

  'And, mamma,' added Gillian, 'perhaps we might let Miss Hacket join. I know she wants to get up something for a G.F.S. class; but mamma was attending to Primrose, and the brothers burst in.

  'There goes Gill, spoiling it all!' exclaimed Wilfred.

  'That's always the way,' said Jasper. 'Girls must puzzle everything up with some philanthropic Great Fuss Society dodge.'

  'I am sure, Jasper,' said Gillian, 'I don't see why it should spoil anything to make other people happy. I thought we were told to make feasts not only for our own friends-'

  'Gill's getting just like old Miss Hacket,' said Wilfred.

  'Or sweet Constance,' put in Jasper. 'She'll be writing poems next.'

  'Hush! hush! boys,' said Lady Merrifield. 'I do not mean to interfere with your pleasure, 'but I had rather our discussions were not entirely selfish. Suppose, Gillian, we walked down to Casement Cottages, and consulted Miss Hacket.'

  This was done, in the company of all the little girls, for Miss Hacket's cats, doves, and gingerbread were highly popular; moreover, Dolores was glad of a chance sight of Constance.

  'My dear,' said Lady Merrifield, as Gillian walked beside her, 'you must be satisfied with giving Miss Hacket the reversion of our tree, and you and Mysie can go and help her. It will not do to make these kind of works a nuisance to your brothers.'

  'I did not think Jasper would have been so selfish as to object,' said Gillian, almost tearfully.

  'Remember that boys have a very short time at home, and cannot be expected to care for these things like those who work in them,' said Lady Merrifield. 'It will not make them do so, to bore them, and take away their sense of home and liberty. At the same time, they must not expect to have everything sacrificed to them, and so I shall make Jasper understand.'

  'You won't scold him, mamma?'

  'Can't you, any of you, trust me, Gill?'

  'Oh! mamma! Only I didn't want him to think. I wouldn't do everything he liked, except that I don't want him to be unkind about those poor girls.'

  Miss Hacket was perfectly enraptured at the offer of the reversion of the Christmas-tree and its trapping. Valetta's birthday was on the 28th of December and the tree was to be lighted on the ensuing evening for G.F.S. Moreover, the party would go to Rockstone as soon as an appointment could be made with Miss Mohun, to make selections at a great German fancy shop, recently opened there, and in full glory; and the Hacket sisters were invited to join the party, starting at a quarter to eight, and returning at a few minutes after seven, the element of darkness at each end only adding to the charm in the eyes of the children, and Valetta, with a little leap, repeated that it would be a real secret expedition.

  'Very secret indeed,' said her mother, 'considering how many it is known to-'

  'Yes, but it is, mamma, for everybody has a secret from everybody.'

  The words made Constance and Dolores look round with a start from their colloquy under the shade of the window-curtains, but no one was thinking of them. Just as the plans were settled, Constance came forward, saying, 'Lady Merrifield, may I have dear Dolores to spend the day with me? We neithe of us wish to join your kind party to Rockstone, and we should so enjoy being together.'

  '
I had much rather stay,' added Dolores.

  'Very well,' said Lady Merrifield, reflecting that her sisters would be grateful for the diminution of the party, and that it would be easier to keep the peace without Dolores.

  The defection was hailed with joy by her cousins, though they were struck dumb at her extraordinary taste in not liking shopping.

  Jasper did look rather small when his mother assured him in private he might have trusted her to see that he was not to be incommoded with Gillian's girls, and he only observed, in excuse for his murmurs, that it made a man mad to see his sisters always off after some charity fad or other.

  "'Always' being a few hours once a week," she said.

  'Just when one wants her.'

  'Look here, my boy,' she said, 'you don't want your sisters to be selfish, useless, fine ladies-never doing any one any good. If they take up good works, they can't drop them entirely to wait on you. Gillian does give up a great deal, and it would be kinder to forbear a little, and not treat all she does as an injury to yourself.'

  'I only meant to get a rise out of her.'

  'You are quite welcome to do that, provided it is done in good nature. Gill is quite sound stuff enough to be laughed at! But, I say, my Japs, I should prefer your letting Dolores alone; she has not learned to be laughed at yet, and has not come even to the stage for being taught to bear it.'

  'She looks fit to turn the cream sour,' observed Jasper. 'I say, mamma, you don't want me to go on this shopping business, do you?'

  'Not by any means, sir.'

  Happily, the chance of a day's rabbit shooting presented itself at a warren some miles off, and Harry undertook the care of Wilfred, who gave his word of honour to obey implicitly and take no liberties with the guns. Fergus would gladly have gone with them, but he was still young enough to be sensible of the attractions of toy-shops. Only Primrose had to be left to the nursery, and there was no need to waste pity on her, for on such an occasion Mrs. Halfpenny would relax her mood, and lay herself out to be agreeable, when she had exhausted her forebodings about her leddyship making herself ill for a week gaun rampaging about with all the bairns, as if she was no better than one herself.

  'I shall let Miss Mohun do most of the rampaging, nurse; but, if it is fine, will you take Miss Primrose into the town and let her choose her own cards. I have given her a florin, and if you make the most of that for her, she will be as happy as going with us.'

  'That I will, my leddy. Bairns is easy content when ye ken how to sort 'em.'

  'And, nurse, I believe there will be a box from Sir Jasper at the station. It may come home in the waggonette that takes us. Will you and Macrae get it safe into the store-room, for I don't want the children to see it too soon?'

  There was nothing but satisfaction in the house on the morning of the expedition. The untimely candle-light breakfast was only a fresh element of delight, and so was the paling gas at the station, the round, red sun peeping out through a yellow break between grey sky and greyer woods; the meeting Miss Hacket in her fur cloak, the taking of the tickets, the coughing of the train, the tumbling into one of the many empty carriages, the triumphant start,-all seemed as fresh and delicious as if the young people had never taken a journey before in all their lives. The fog in the valleys, the sleepy villages, the half-roused stations, all gave rise to exclamations, and nothing was regretted but that the windows would get clouded over.

  Even the waiting at the junction had its charms, for it was enlivened by a supplementary breakfast on rolls and milk! and at a few minutes past eleven the train was drawing up at Rockstone, and Aunt Jane, sealskins and all, was beckoning from the platform, hurrying after the carriage as it swept past, and holding out a hand to jump the party from the door.

  There she was, ready to take them to the most charming and cheapest shops, where the coins burning in those five pockets would go the furthest. Go in a cab? No, I thank you, it is far more delightful to walk. So mamma and Miss Hacket were stowed away in the despised vehicle, to make the purchases that nobody cared about, or which were to be unseen and unknown till the great day; while Aunt Jane undertook to guide the young people through the town, for her house was at the other end of it securing the Christmas-cards on the way, if nothin' else. For, though all the cards and gifts to mamma, and a good many besides, were of domestic manufacture, some had to be purchased, and she knew, this wonderful woman, where to get cards of former seasons at reduced prices to suit their youthful finances.

  Considerable patience was requisite before all the choices were made, and the balance cast between cards and presents, and Miss Mohun got her quartette past all the shop windows, to the seaside villa, shut in by tamarisks, which Aunt Adeline believed to be the only place that suited her health. Mamma and Miss Hacket had already arrived, and filled the little vestibule with parcels and boxes.

  Then the early dinner! The aunts had anticipated their Christmas turkey for that goodly company to help them eat it, but afterwards there was only time for a mince pie all round; for more than half the work remained to be done by all except mamma, who would stay and rest with Aunt Ada, having finished all that could not be deputed.

  However, first she had a conference in private with Aunt Jane, who undertook therein to come to Silverton for Valetta's birthday, and add astonishment and mystery sufficient to satisfy such of the public as were weary of Christmas-trees. She added, however, 'You will think I am always at you. Lily, but did you know that Flinders is living at Darminster?'

  'No; but it is five and twenty miles off, and he has never troubled us.'

  'Don't be too secure. He is in connection with that low paper-the Politician-which methinks, is the place where those remarkable poems of Miss Constance's have appeared.'

  'Is it not the way of poetry of that calibre to see the light in county papers?'

  'This seems to me of a lower calibre than is likely to get in without private interest.'

  'But to my certain knowledge the child has neither written to, nor heard of the man all this time,'

  'You don't know what goes on with her bosom friend.'

  'I am certain Miss Hacket would connive at nothing underhand. Besides, I have never seen any thing sly or deceitful in poor Dolores. She will not make friends with us, that is all, and that may be our fault.'

  'I only say, look out, you unsuspicious dame!'

  'Now, Jenny, satisfy my curiosity as to how you know all this. I am sure I never showed you those effusions. We have had trouble enough about them, for the children cut them up in a way Dolores has never forgiven.'

  'Oh! Miss Hacket sent them to me, to ask if 'Mollsey to her Babe' and 'The Canary' might not be passed on to Friendly Leaves. And as to Flinders, when I went to the G.F.S. Conference at Darminster I met the man full in the street, and, of course, I inquired afterwards how he came there. So there's nothing preternatural about it.'

  'It is well you did not live two hundred years ago, or you would certainly have been burnt for a witch.'

  'See what a witch I shall make on the 28th! But I hear those unfortunate children dancing and prancing with impatience on the stairs. I must go, before they have driven Ada distracted.'

  What would the two aunts have said, could they have seen Dolores and Constance, at that moment partaking of the most elaborate meal the Darminster refreshment-room could supply, at a little round marble table, in company with Mr. Flinders! They had not been obliged to start nearly so early as the other party, as the journey was much shorter, and with no change of line, so they had quietly walked to the station by ten o'clock, arrived at Darminster at half-past eleven, and have been met by the personage whom Dolores recognized as Uncle Alfred. Constance was a little disappointed not to see something more distinguished, and less flashy in style, but he was so polite and complimentary, and made such touching allusions to his misfortunes and his dear sister, that she soon began to think him exceedingly interesting, and pitied him greatly when he said he could not take them to his lodgings-they were not fit for h
is niece or her friend, who had done him a kindness for which he could never be sufficiently grateful, in affording him a glimpse of his dear sister's child. It made Dolores wince, for she never could bear the mention of her mother, it was like touching a wound, and the old sensation of discomfort and dislike to her uncle's company began to grow over her again, now that she was not struggling against Mohun opposition to her meeting him. He lionized them about the town, but it was a foggy, drizzly day, one of those when the fringe of sea-coast often enjoys finer weather than inland places; the streets were very sloppy, and Dolores and Constance did not do much beyond purchasing a few cards and some presents at a fancy shop, as they had agreed to do, to serve as an excuse for their expedition in case it could not be kept a secret, and most of the visit was made in the waiting-room at the station, or walking up and down the platform. As to the grand point, Mr. Flinders told Constance that her tale was talented and striking, full of great excellence; she might hope for success equal to Ouida's-but that he had found it quite impossible to induce a publisher to accept a work by an unknown author, unless she advanced something. He could guarantee the return, but she must entrust him with thirty pounds. Poor Constance! it was a fatal blow; she had not thirty pounds in the world; she doubted if she could raise the sum, even by her sister's help. Then Mr. Flinders sighed, and thought that if he represented the circumstances, the firm might be content with twenty-nay, even fifteen. Constance cheered up a little. She did think she could make up fifteen, after the 21st, when certain moneys became due, which she shared with her sister. She would be left very bare all the spring-but what was that to the return she was promised? Only Mr. Flinders impressed on her the necessity of secrecy-even from her sister-since, he said, if he were once known to have obtained such terms for a young authoress, he should be besieged for ever!