Books: Modern Broods
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Charlotte Mary Yonge >> Modern Broods
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Moreover, they had enough of silly prejudice about them to feel
aggrieved at the sight of hash, nice as it was with fresh vegetables,
and they were not disposed to good temper when they sat down to their
meal. "They" perhaps properly means the middle pair, for Agatha had
more notion of manners and of respect, and Thekla had an endless
store of chatter about her discoveries.
The pony-carriage was brought round in due time, but just then
another vehicle of the same kind, only prettier and with two ponies,
was seen at the gate, too late for the barbarian instinct of rushing
away to hide from morning visitors to be carried out, before Lady
Merrifield and a daughter, were up the slope and on the levelled road
before the verandah.
"I think this is an old acquaintance," said Lady Merrifield as she
shook hands, "though perhaps Mysie is grown out of remembrance."
"Oh, yes," said an honest open-faced maiden, eagerly putting out her
hand. "Don't you remember, Miss Prescott, our all staying at Castle
Towers? I came with Phyllis Devereux, and she and I took poor Betty
Bernard out after blackberries, and she thought it was a mad bull
when it was a railway whistle, and ran into a cow-pond, and Cousin
Rotherwood came and Captain Grantley and got her out."
Magdalen was smiling and nodding recollection, and added, "It was
really one of the boys."
"Oh, yes."
"I thought it was a crazy bull
Firing a blunderbuss--"
She paused for recollection, and Magdalen went on -
"I thought it was a crazy bull
Firing a blunderbuss;
I looked again, and, lo, it was
A water polypus.
'Oh, guard my life,' I said, 'for she
Will make an awful fuss.'"
"Ah! do you remember that?" cried Mysie. "I have so often tried to
recollect what it really was when she looked again. Captain Grantley
made it, you know, when we were trying to comfort Betty."
"I remember you and Lady Phyllis said you would go and confess to
Mrs. Bernard and take all the blame, and Lord Rotherwood said he
would escort you!"
"Yes, and Betty said it was no good, for if her mother forgave her
ten times over, still that spiteful French maid would put her to bed
and say she had no robe convenable," went on Mysie. "But then you
took her to your own room, and washed her and mended her, so that she
came out all right at luncheon, and nobody knew anything, but she
thought that horrid woman guessed and tweaked her hair all the harder
for it."
"Poor child, she looked as if she were under a tyranny."
"Have you seen her since?"
"No; but Phyllis tells me she has burst forth into liberty, bicycles,
and wild doings that would drive her parents to distraction if she
dreamt of them."
"How is Lady Phyllis? Did I not hear that the family had gone abroad
for her health?"
"Oh yes, and I went with them. They all had influenza, and were
frightened, but it ended in our meeting with Franceska Vanderkist,
the very most charming looking being I ever did see; and Ivinghoe had
fallen in love with her when she was Miranda, and he married her like
a real old hero. Do you remember Ivinghoe?"
"No; I suppose he was one of an indistinguishable troop of
schoolboys."
"I remember Lord Rotherwood's good nature and fun when he met the
bedraggled party," said Magdalen, smiling.
"That is what every one remembers about him," said Lady Merrifield,
smiling. "You have imported a large party of youth, Miss Prescott."
"My young sisters," responded Magdalen; "but I shall soon part with
Agatha; she is going to Oxford."
"Indeed! To which College? I have a daughter at Oxford, and a niece
just leaving Cambridge. Such is our lot in these days. No, not this
one, but her elder sister Gillian is at Lady Catharine's."
"I am going to St. Robert's," said Agatha, abruptly.
"Close to Lady Catharine's! Gillian will be glad to tell her
anything she would like to ask about it. You had better come over to
tea some afternoon."
The time was fixed, and then Magdalen showed some of the
advertisements of tuition in art, music, languages, and everything
imaginable, which had begun to pour in upon her, and was very glad of
a little counsel on the reputation of each professor. Lady
Merrifield saying, however, that her experience was small, as her
young people in general were not musical, with the single exception
of her son Wilfred, who was at home, reading to go up for the Civil
Service, and recreating himself with the Choral Society and lessons
on the violin. "My youngest is fifteen," she said, "and we provide
for her lessons amongst us, except for the School of Art, and
calisthenics at the High School, which is under superior management
now, and very much improved."
Mysie echoed, "Oh, calisthenics are such fun!" and took the reins to
drive away.
"Oh! she is very nice," exclaimed Mysie, as they drove down the hill.
"Yes, there is something very charming about her. I wonder whether
Sam made a great mistake."
"Mamma, what do you mean?"
"Have I been meditating aloud? You said when you met her at Castle
Towers, she asked you whether you had a brother Harry."
"Yes, she did. I only said yes, but he was going to be a clergyman,
and when she heard his age, she said he was not the one she had
known; I did not speak of cousin Henry because you said we were not
to mention him. What was it, if I may know, mamma?"
"There is no reason that you should not, except that it is a painful
matter to mention to Bessie or any of the Stokesley cousins. Harry
was never like the rest, I believe, but I had never seen him since he
was almost a baby. He never would work, and was not fit for any
examination."
"Our Harry used to say that Bessie and David had carried off all the
brains of the family."
"The others have sense and principle, though. Well, they put their
Hal into a Bank at Filsted, and by and by they found he was in a
great scrape, with gambling debts; and I believe that but for the
forbearance of the partners, he might have been prosecuted for
embezzling a sum--or at least he was very near it; besides which he
had engaged himself to an attorney's daughter, very young, and with a
very disagreeable mother or stepmother. The Admiral came down in
great indignation, thought these Prescotts had inveigled poor Henry,
broke everything hastily off, and shipped him off to Canada to his
brothers, George and John. They found some employment for him, but
Susan and Bessie doubt whether they were very kind to him, and in a
few years more he was in fresh scrapes, and with worse stains and
questions of his integrity. It ended in his running away to the
States, and no trace has been found of him since. I am afraid he
took away money of his brothers."
"How long ago was it, mamma?"
"At least twenty years. It was while we were in Malta."
"Who would have thought of those dear Stokesley cousins having such a
skeleton in their cupboard?"
"Ah! my dear, no one knows the secrets of others' hearts."
"And you really think that this Miss Prescott was his love?"
"I know it was the same name, and Bessie told me that he used to talk
to her of his Magdalen, or Maidie; and when I heard of your meeting
her at Castle Towers I wondered if it were the same. And now I see
what she is, and what she is undertaking for these young sisters; I
have wondered whether your uncle was wise to insist on the utter
break, and whether she might not have been an anchor to hold him fast
to his moorings."
"Only," said Mysie, "if he had really cared, would he have let his
father break it off so entirely?"
"I think your uncle expected implicit obedience."
"But--," said Mysie, and left the rest unsaid, while both she and her
mother went off into meditations on different lines on the exigencies
of parental discipline and of the requirements of full-grown hearts.
And, on the whole, the younger one was the most for strict obedience,
the experienced parent in favour of liberty. But then Mysie was old-
fashioned and dutiful.
CHAPTER V--CLIPSTONE FRIENDS
"What idle progeny succeed
To chase the rolling circle's speed,
Or urge the flying ball."--GRAY.
The afternoon at Clipstone was a success. Gillian was at home, and
every one found congeners. Lady Merrifield's sister, Miss Mohun,
pounced upon Miss Prescott as a coadjutor in the alphabet of good
works needed in the neglected district of Arnscombe, where Mr. Earl
was wifeless, and the farm ladies heedless; but they were interrupted
by Mysie running up to claim Miss Prescott for a game at croquet.
"Uncle Redgie was so glad to see the hoops come into fashion again,"
and Vera and Paula hardly knew the game, they had always played at
lawn tennis; but they were delighted to learn, for Uncle Redgie
proved to be a very fine-looking retired General, and there was a lad
besides, grown to manly height; and one boy, at home for Easter, who,
caring not for croquet, went with Primrose to exhibit to Thekla the
tame menagerie, where a mungoose, called of course Raki raki, was the
last acquisition. She was also shown the kittens of the beloved
Begum, and presented with Phoebus, a tabby with a wise face and a
head marked like a Greek lyre, to be transplanted to the Goyle in due
time.
"If Sister will let me have it," said Thekla.
"Of course she will," said Primrose. "Mysie says she is so jolly."
"Dear me! all the girls at our school said she was a regular Old
Maid."
"What shocking bad form!" exclaimed Primrose. "Just like cads of
girls," muttered Fergus, unheard; for Thekla continued--"Why, they
said she must be our maiden aunt, instead of our sister."
"The best thing going!" said Fergus.
"Maiden aunts in books are always horrid," said Thekla.
"Then the books ought to be hung, drawn, and quartered, and
spifflicated besides," said Fergus.
"Fergus doesn't like anybody so well as Aunt Jane," said Primrose,
"because nobody else understands his machines."
Thekla made a grimace.
"Ah!" said Primrose. "I see it is just as mamma and Mysie said when
they came home, that Miss Prescott was very nice indeed, and it was
famous that she should make a home for you all, only they were afraid
you seemed as if--you might be--tiresome," ended Primrose, looking
for a word.
"Well, you know she wants to be our governess," said Thekla.
"Well?" repeated Primrose.
"And of course no one ever likes their governess."
This aphorism, so uttered by Thekla, provoked a yell from Primrose,
echoed by Fergus; and Primrose, getting her breath, declared that
dear Miss Winter was a great darling, and since she had gone away,
more's the pity, mamma was real governess to herself, Valetta, and
Mysie, and she always looked at their translations and heard their
reading if Gillian was not at home.
"And they are quite grown-up young ladies!"
"Mysie is; but I don't know about Val. Only I don't see why any one
should be silly and do nothing if one is grown up ever so much," said
Primrose.
"As the Eiffel Tower," put in Fergus.
"Nonsense!" said Primrose, bent on being improving. "Don't you know
what that old book of mamma's says, 'When will Miss Rosamond's
education be finished?' She answered 'Never.'"
Thekla gave a groan, whether of pity for Rosamond or for herself
might be doubted; and a lop-eared rabbit was a favourable diversion.
There was a triad who seemed to be of Rosamond's opinion regarding
education, for Agatha was eagerly availing herself of the counsel of
Gillian, and the books shown to her; with the further assistance of
the cousin, Dolores Mohun, now an accredited lecturer in technical
classes, though making her home and headquarters at Clipstone.
Thekla's views of young ladyhood were a good deal more fulfilled by
the lessons on cycling which were going on among the other young
people after the game of croquet had ended. Every size and variety
seemed to exist among the Clipstone population, under certain
regulations of not coasting down the hills, the girls not going out
alone, and never into the town, but always "putting up" at Aunt
Jane's.
Vera and Paulina were in ecstasy, and there was a continual mounting,
attempting and nearly falling, or turning anywhere but the right,
little screams, and much laughter, Jasper attending upon Vera, who,
in spite of her failures, looked remarkably pretty and graceful upon
Valetta's machine; while Paula, whom Mysie and Valetta were both
assisting, learnt more easily and steadily, but looked on with a few
qualms as to the entire crystal rock constancy that Vera had
professed, more especially when Jasper volunteered to come over to
the Goyle and give another lesson.
Magdalen, after her game at croquet, had spent a very pleasant time
with Lady Merrifield and her brother and sister, till they were
imperiously summoned by Primrose to come and give consent to the
transfer of Phoebus, or to choose between him and the Mufti, to whom
Thekla had begun to incline.
The whole party adjourned to the back settlements, where Magdalen was
edified by the antics of the mungoose, and admired the Begum and her
progeny with a heartiness that would have won Thekla's heart, save
that she remembered hearing Vera say, over the domestic cat in the
morning, that M.A.'s were always devoted to cats. But, on the whole,
the visit had done much to reconcile the young sisters to their new
surroundings; books, bicycles, and kitten had reconciled them even to
the intimacy with "swells."
The hired bicycle and tricycle had arrived in their absence, and the
moment breakfast was over the next morning, the three younger ones
all rushed off to the enjoyment, and, at ten minutes past the
appointed hour for the early reading and study, Agatha felt obliged
to go out and tell them that the M.A. was sitting like Patience on a
monument, waiting for them; on which three tongues said "Bother," and
"She ought to let us off till the proper end of the holidays."
"Then you should have propitiated her by asking leave after the
Scripture was done," said Agatha; "you might have known she would not
let you off that."
"Bother," said Vera again; "just like an M.A."
"I did forget," said Paula; "and you know it was only just going
through a lesson for form's sake, like the old superlative."
They had, in fact, read the day before; when Thekla had made such
frightful work of every unaccustomed word, and the elders by one or
two observations had betrayed so much ignorance alike of Samuel's
history and of the Gospel of St. Luke, that she had resolved to
endeavour at a thorough teaching of the Old and New Testaments for
the first hour on alternate days, giving one day in the week to
Catechism and Prayer Book.
She asked what they had done before.
"Mrs. Best always read something at prayers."
"Something?"
"Something out of the Bible."
"No, the Testament."
"I am sure it was the Bible, it was so fat."
"And Saul was in it, and we had him yesterday."
"That was St. Paul before he was converted," said Paula.
There their knowledge seemed to end, and it further appeared that
Mrs. Best heard the Catechism and Collect on Sundays from the
unconfirmed, and had tried to get the Gospel repeated by heart, but
had not succeeded.
"We did not think it fair," said Vera. "None of the other houses
did."
"Yes," said Agatha, "Miss Ferris's did."
"Oh, she is a regular old Prot," said Paula, "almost a Dissenter, and
it is not the Gospel either, only texts out of her own head."
"Polly!" said Agatha. "Texts out of her own head!"
"It is Bible, of course, only what she fancies; and they have to work
out the sermon, and if they can't do the sermon, a text. They might
as well be Dissenters at once!" said Paula.
"Janet M'Leod is," said Vera. "It was really Dissentish."
Magdalen could not help saying, "So you would not learn the Gospel
because Dissenters learnt pieces of Scripture! You seem to me like
the Roman Catholic child, who said there were five sacraments, there
ought to be seven, but the Protestants had got two of them."
She was sorry she had said it, for though Agatha laughed, the other
two drew into themselves, as if their feelings were hurt. "These are
the boarding-house habits," she said. "What is done at the High
School itself?"
"The Vicar comes when he has time, and gives a lecture on an
Epistle," said Agatha, "or a curate, if he doesn't; but I was working
for the exam., and didn't go this last term. What was it, Polly?"
"On the--on the Apollonians," answered Paulina, hesitating.
"My dear, where did he find it?"
"I know it was something about Apollo," said Vera.
"It was Corinthians," said Paula. "I ought to have recollected, but
the lectures are very dull and disjointed; you said so yourself, Nag,
and the Rector is very low church."
"So you could not learn from him!"
"Really, sister," said Agatha, "the lectures are not well managed,
they are in too many hands, and too uncertain, and it is not easy to
learn much from them."
"Well, that being the case, I think we had better begin at the
beginning. Suppose I ask you to say the first answer in the
Catechism."
On which Vera said they had all been confirmed except Thekla, and
passed it on to her.
However, the endeavours of that half-hour need not be recounted, and
the moment half-past ten chimed out the young ladies jumped up, and
would have been off to the bicycles, if Magdalen had not felt that
the time was come for asserting authority, and said, "Not yet, if you
please. We cannot waste whole days. You know Herr Gnadiger is
coming to-morrow, and it would be well to practise that sonata
beforehand; you ought each to practise it; Paula, you had better
begin, and Vera, you prepare this first scene of Marie Stuart to read
with me when Thekla's lessons are over. Change over when Paula has
done."
"It is of no use my doing anything while anyone is playing," said
Vera.
"Nonsense," Agatha muttered; but Magdalen said, "You can sit in the
drawing-room or your own room. Come, Tick-tick, where's your slate?
Come along."
"Don't sulk, Flapsy," said the elder sister, "it is of no use. The
M.A. means to be minded, and will be, and you know it is all for your
good."
"I hate my good," said naughty Vera.
"So does every one when it is against the grain," said Agatha; "but
remember it is a preparation for a free life of our own."
"It is our cross," said Paula, as she placed herself on the music
stool with a look of resignation almost comical.
Nor did her performance interfere with the equations which Agatha was
diligently working out; but Vera, though refusing to take refuge from
the piano, to which, in fact, she was perfectly inured, worried her
elder as much as she durst, by inquiries after the meaning of words,
or what horrid verb to look out in the dictionary; and it was a
pleasing change when Paula proceeded to work the same scene out for
herself without having recourse to explanations, so that Agatha was
undisturbed except by the careless notes, which almost equally
worried Magdalen in the more distant dining-room.
This was really the crisis of the battle of study. As the girls were
accustomed to it, and knew that they were of an age to be ground
down, they followed Agatha's advice, and submitted without further
open struggle, though there was a good deal of low murmur, and the
foreman's work was not essentially disagreeable, even while Vera
maintained, what she believed to be an axiom, that governesses were
detestable, and that the M.A. must incur the penalty of acting as
such.
Very soon after luncheon appeared three figures on bicycles. Wilfred
Merrifield, with Mysie and Valetta, come to give another lesson on
the "flying circle's speed."
Magdalen came out with her young people to enjoy their amusement, as
well as to watch over her own precious machine, as Vera said. It was
admired, as became connoisseurs in the article; and she soon saw that
Wilfred was to be trusted with the care of it, so she consented to
its being ridden in the practice, provided it was not taken out into
the lanes.
Mysie turned off from the practising, where she was not wanted, and
joined Miss Prescott in walking through the garden terraces, and
planning what would best adorn them, talking over favourite books,
and enjoying themselves very much; then going on to the quarry, where
Mysie looked about with a critical eye to see if it displayed any
fresh geological treasures to send Fergus in quest of. She began
eagerly to pour forth the sister's never-ending tale of her brother's
cleverness, and thus they came down the outside lane to the lower
gate, seeing beforehand the sparkle of bicycles in its immediate
proximity.
It was not open, but Vera might be seen standing with one hand on the
latch, the other on Magdalen's bicycle, her face lifted with
imploring, enticing smiles to Wilfred, who had fallen a little back,
while Paula had decidedly drawn away.
None of them had seen Magdalen and Mysie till they were round the low
stone wall and close upon them. There was a general start, and Vera
exclaimed, "We haven't been outside! No, we haven't! And it is not
the Rockquay Road either, sister! I only wanted a run down that lane
up above."
Wilfred laughed a little oddly. It was quite plain that he had been
withstanding the temptress, only how long would the resistance have
lasted?
Downright Mysie exclaimed, "It would have been a great shame if you
had, and I am glad Wilfred hindered you."
"Thank you," said Magdalen, smiling to him. "You know better than my
sisters what Devon lanes and pneumatic tyres are!"
Perhaps Wilfred was a little vexed, though he had resisted, for he
was ready to agree with Mysie that they could not stay and drink tea.
But he did not escape his sister's displeasure, for Mysie began at
once, "How lucky it was that we came in time. I do believe that
naughty little thing was just going to talk you over into doing what
her sister had forbidden."
"A savage, old, selfish bear. It was only the lane."
"Full of crystals as sharp as needles, enough to cut any tyre in
two," said Mysie.
"Like your tongue, eh, Mysie?"
"Well, you did not do it! That is a comfort. You would not let her
transgress, and ruin her sister's good bicycle."
"She is an uncommonly pretty little sprite, and the selfish hag of a
sister only left orders that I was to take care of the bike! I could
see where there was a stone as well as anybody else."
"Hag!" angrily cried Mysie, "she is the only nice one of the whole
lot. Vera is a nasty little thing, or she would never think of
meddling with what does not belong to her, or trying to persuade you
to allow it."
"I call it abominable selfishness, dog in the mangerish, to shut up
such a machine as that, and condemn her sisters to one great
lumbering one."
"That's one account," said Valetta. "Paula said it was only till
they had learnt to ride properly, and till the stones have a little
worn in."
"Yes," said Mysie, "I could see Vera is an exaggerating monkey, just
talking over and deluding Will, just as men like when they get a
silly fit."
By this time Wilfred had thought it expedient to put his bicycle to
greater speed, and indulge in a long whistle to show how contemptible
he thought his sisters as he went out of hearing.
"Paulina is nice and good," said Valetta, "she has heard all about
St. Kenelm's, and wants to go there. Yes, and she means to be a
Sister of Charity, only she is afraid her sister is narrow and low
church."
"That is stuff and nonsense," said Mysie. "I have had a great deal
of talk with Miss Prescott. She loves all the same books that we do.
She is going to have G. F. S. and Mothers' Union, and all at poor
Arnscombe, and she told me to call her Magdalen."
With which proofs of congeniality Valetta could not choose but be
impressed.
CHAPTER VI--THE FRESCOES OF ST. KENELM'S
Earn well the thrifty months, nor wed
Raw Haste, half-sister to Delay.--TENNYSON.
The deferred expedition to Rockquay also began, Magdalen driving Vera
and Thekla. She was pleased with her visitors, and hoped that the
girls would feel the same, but Vera began by declaring that THAT Miss
Merrifield was not pretty.
"Not exactly, but it is an honest, winning face."
"So broad, and such a wide mouth, and no style at all, as I should
have expected after all that about lords and ladies! An old blue
serge and sailor hat!"
"You don't expect people to drive about the country in silk attire?"
"Well, perhaps she is not out! Sister, do you know I am seventeen?"
"Yes, my dear, certainly."
"Oh, look, look, there's a dear little calf!" broke in Thekla, "and,
oh! what horns the cows have. I shall be afraid to go near them!
Was it only a sham mad bull when the little girl ran into the pond?"
"It was the railway whistle, and she had never heard it in the
fields. She rushed away in a great fright and ran into the pond,
full of horrible black mud. The gentlemen heard the scream and
dragged her out, and it would have all been fun and a good story if
she had not been so much afraid of the French lady's maid. It is
curious how the sight of those brown eyes brought the whole scene
back to me. We all grew so fond of Mysie Merrifield in the few days
we spent together, and she is very little altered."
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