CHAPTER SEVEN.
AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Peggy looked very sad and wan after her mother's departure, but hercompanions soon discovered that anything like outspoken sympathy wasunwelcome. The redder her eyes, the more erect and dignified was herdemeanour; if her lips trembled when she spoke, the more grandiose andformidable became her conversation, for Peggy's love of long words andhigh-sounding expressions was fully recognised by this time, and causedmuch amusement in the family.
A few days after Mrs Saville sailed, a welcome diversion arrived in theshape of the promised camera. The Parcels Delivery van drove up to thedoor, and two large cases were delivered, one of which was found tocontain the camera itself, the tripod and a portable dark room, whilethe other held such a collection of plates, printing-frames, andchemicals as delighted the eyes of the beholders. It was the gift ofone who possessed not only a deep purse, but a most true and thoughtfulkindness, for, when young people are concerned, two-thirds of theenjoyment of any present is derived from the possibility of being ableto put it to immediate use. As it was a holiday afternoon, it wasunanimously agreed to take two groups and develop them straightway.
"Professional photographers are so dilatory," said Peggy severely; "andindeed I have noticed that amateurs are even worse. I have twice beenphotographed by friends, and they have solemnly promised to send me acopy within a few days. I have waited, consumed by curiosity, and, mydears, it has been months before it has arrived! Now we will make arule to finish off our groups at once, and not keep people waiting untilall the interest has died away. There's no excuse for such dilatorybehaviour!"
"There is some work to do, remember, Peggy. You can't get a photographby simply taking off and putting on the cap; you must have a certainamount of time and fine weather. I haven't had much experience, but Iremember thinking that photographs were jolly cheap, considering all thetrouble they cost, and wondering how the fellows could do them at theprice. There's the developing, and washing, and printing, and toning,--half a dozen processes before you are finished."
Peggy smiled in a patient, forbearing manner.
"They don't get any less, do they, by putting them off? Procrastinationwill never lighten labour. Come, put the camera up for us, like a goodboy, and we'll show you how to do it." She waved her hand towards thebrown canvas bag, and the six young people immediately seized differentportions of the tripod and camera, and set to work to put them together.The girls tugged and pulled at the sliding legs, which were too new andstiff to work with ease; Maxwell turned the screws which moved thebellows, and tried in vain to understand their working; Robert peeredthrough the lenses, and Oswald alternately raved, chided, and jeered attheir efforts. With so many cooks at work, it took an unconscionabletime to get ready, and even when the camera was perched securely on itsspidery legs, it still remained to choose the site of the picture, andto pose the victims. After much wandering about the garden, it wasfinally decided that the schoolroom window would be an appropriatebackground for a first effort; but a heated argument followed before thesecond question could be decided.
"I vote that we stand in couples, arm-on-arm,--like this!" saidMellicent, sidling up to her beloved brother, and gazing into his facein a sentimental manner, which had the effect of making him stride awayas fast as he could walk, muttering indignant protests beneath hisbreath.
Then Esther came forward with her suggestion.
"I'll hold a book as if I were reading aloud, and you can all sit roundin easy, natural positions, and look as if you were listening. I thinkthat would make a charming picture."
"Idiotic, I call it! `Scene from the Goodchild family; mamma readingaloud to the little ones.' Couldn't possibly look easy and naturalunder the circumstances; should feel too miserable. Try again, my dear.You must think of something better than that."
It was impossible to please those three fastidious boys. One suggestionafter another was made, only to be waved aside with lordly contempt,until at last the girls gave up any say in the matter, and left Oswaldto arrange the group in a manner highly satisfactory to himself and histwo friends, however displeasing to the more artistic members of theparty. Three girls in front, two boys behind, all standing stiff aspokers; with solemn faces, and hair ruffled by constant peepings beneaththe black cloth. Peggy in the middle, with her eyebrows more peakedthan ever, and an expression of resigned martyrdom on her small, paleface; Mellicent, large and placid, on the left; Esther on the right,scowling at nothing, and, over their shoulders, the two boys' heads,handsome Max and frowning Robert.
"There," cried Oswald, "that's what I call a sensible arrangement! Ifyou take a photograph, _take_ a photograph, and don't try to do apastoral play at the same time. Keep still a moment, and I will see ifit is focused all right. I can see you pulling faces, Peggy! It's notat all becoming. Now then, I'll put in the plate--that's the way!--one--two--three--and I shall take you. Stea-dy?"
Instantly Mellicent burst into giggles of laughter, and threw up herhands to her face, to be roughly seized from behind and shaken intoorder.
"Be quiet, you silly thing! Didn't you hear him say steady? What areyou trying to do?"
"She has spoiled this plate, anyhow," said Oswald icily. "I'll try theother, and if she can't keep still this time she had better run away andlaugh by herself at the other end of the garden. Baby!"
"Not a ba--" began Mellicent indignantly; but she was immediatelypunched into order, and stood with her mouth wide open, waiting tofinish her protest so soon as the ordeal was over.
Peggy forestalled her, however, with an eager plea to be allowed to takethe third picture herself.
"I want to have one of Oswald to send to mother, for we are not completewithout him, and I know it would please her to think I had taken itmyself," she urged; and permission was readily granted, as everyone feltthat she had a special claim in the matter. Oswald therefore put in newplates, gave instructions as to how the shutters were to be worked, andretired to take up an elegant position in the centre of the group.
"Are you read-ee?" cried Peggy, in professional sing-song; then she puther head on one side and stared at the group with twinkling eyes. "Hee,hee! How silly you look! Everyone has a new expression for theoccasion! Your own mothers would not recognise you! That's better.Keep that smile going for another moment, and--how long must I keep offthe cap, did you say?"
Oswald hesitated.
"Well, it varies. You have to use your own judgment. It depends upon--lots of things! You might try one second for the first, and two for thenext, then one of them is bound to be right."
"And one a failure! If I were going to depend on my judgment, I'd havea better one than that!" cried Peggy scornfully. "Ready! A little morecheerful, if you please--Christmas is coming! That's _one_. Be so goodas to remain in your positions, ladies and gentlemen, and I'll tryanother." The second shutter was pulled out, the cap removed, and thegroup broke up with sighs of relief, exhausted with the strain ofcultivating company smiles for a whole two minutes on end. Max stayedto help the girls to fold up the camera, while Oswald darted into thehouse to prepare the dark room for the development of the plates.
When he came out, ten minutes later on, it was a pleasant surprise todiscover Miss Mellicent holding a plate in her hand and taking sly peepsinside the shutter, just "to see how it looked." He stormed and raved,while Mellicent looked like a martyr, wished to know how a teeny littlelight like that could possibly hurt anything, and seemed incapable ofunderstanding that if one flash of sunlight could make a picture, itcould also destroy it with equal swiftness. Oswald was forced tocomfort himself with the reflection that there were still three platesuninjured; and, when all was ready, the six operators squeezedthemselves in the dark room, to watch the process of development,indulging the while in the most flowery expectations.
"If it is very good, let me send it to an illustrated paper. Oh, do!"said Mellicent, with a gush. "I have often seen groups of people inthem. `The thing-
a-me-bob touring company,' and stupid old cricketers,and things like that. We should be far more interesting."
"It will make a nice present for mother, enlarged and mounted," saidPeggy thoughtfully. "I shall keep an album of my own, and mount everysingle picture we take. If there are any failures, I shall put them intoo, for they will make it all the more amusing. Photograph albums arehorribly uninteresting as a rule, but mine shall be quite different.There shall be nothing stiff and prim about it; the photographs shall bedotted about in all sorts of positions, and underneath each I shall putin--ah--conversational annotations." Her tongue lingered over the wordswith triumphant enjoyment. "Conversational annotations, describing thecircumstances under which it was taken, and anything about it which isworth remembering... What are you going to do with those bottles?"
Oswald ruffled his hair in embarrassment. To pose as an instructor inan art, when one is in doubt about its very rudiments, is a positionwhich has its drawbacks.
"I don't--quite--know. The stupid fellow has written instructions onall the other labels, and none on these except simply `Developer Number1' and `Developer Number 2'; I think the only difference is that one israther stronger than the other. I'll put some of the Number 2 in adish, and see what happens; I believe that's the right way--in fact, I'msure it is. You pour it over the plate and jog it about, and in two orthree minutes the picture ought to begin to appear. Like this!"
Five eager faces peered over his shoulders, rosy red in the light of thelamp; five pairs of lips uttered a simultaneous "Oh!" of surprise; fivecries of dismay followed in instant echo. It was the tragedy of asecond. Even as Oswald poured the fluid over the plate, a pictureflashed before their eyes, each one saw and recognised some fleetingfeature; and, in the very moment of triumph, lo, darkness, as of night,a sheet of useless, blackened glass!
"What about the conversational annotations?" asked Robert slily; but hewas interrupted by a storm of indignant queries, levied at the head ofthe poor operator, who tried in vain to carry off his mistake with ajaunty air. Now that he came to think of it, he believed you _did_ mixthe two developers together! Just at the moment he had forgotten theproportions, but he would go outside and look it up in the book; and hebeat a hasty retreat, glad to escape from the scene of his failure. Itwas rather a disconcerting beginning; but hope revived once more whenOswald returned, primed with information from the _Photographic Manual_,and Peggy's plates were taken from their case and put into the bath.This time the result was slow in coming. Five minutes went by, and nosigns of a picture--ten minutes, a quarter of an hour.
"It's a good thing to develop slowly; you get the details better," saidOswald, in so professional a manner that he was instantly reinstated inpublic confidence; but when twenty minutes had passed, he lookedperturbed, and thought he would use a little more of the hastener. Thebath was strengthened and strengthened, but still no signs of a picture.The plate was put away in disgust, and the second one tried with a likeresult. So far as it was possible to judge, there was nothing to bedeveloped on the plate.
"A nice photographer you are, I must say! What are you playing at now?"asked Max, in scornful impatience; and Oswald turned severely to Peggy--
"Which shutter did you draw out? The one nearest to yourself?"
"Yes, I did--of course I did!"
"You drew out the nearest to you, and the farthest away from the lens?"
"Precisely--I told you so!" and Peggy bridled with an air of virtue.
"Then no wonder nothing has come out! You have drawn out the wrongshutter each time, and the plates have never been exposed. They arewasted! That's fivepence simply _thrown_ away, to say nothing of thechemicals!"
His air of aggrieved virtue; Peggy's little face staring at him, aghastwith horror; the thought of four plates being used and leaving not avestige of a result, were all too funny to be resisted. Mellicent wentoff into irrepressible giggles; Max gave a loud "Ha, ha!" and once againa mischievous whisper sounded in Peggy's ear--
"Good for you, Mariquita! What about the `conversational annotations'?"