Alex!"
But Alex was really angry.
"I don't know anything about it," he said.
I had counted much on the impression that I should make on Alex with mydress. I thought he would be respectful and treat me as a lady. Ithought he would begin to see that even Dumps, with her hair neatlyarranged and in a pretty costume, could look nearly as nice as othergirls.
But if Alex failed me, Charley did not. Charley came in at that moment,and he was in raptures. On his heels came Von Marlo. And as to VonMarlo, he said quite openly that Miss Rachel was a most charminglypretty young lady.
"You shut up!" said Alex. "It isn't the custom here to praise girls totheir faces. Sit down, Von, or go away, but don't stand there lookinglike a foolish owl." Nothing could put Von Marlo out of countenance.He sank down on the nearest chair, hitched up his great, squareshoulders, and gazed at me from under his penthouse of inky-black hair.
"Very, very nice indeed," he said. "And where did you get the dress,Miss--Miss Dumps?"
I was inclined to be friendly with Von Marlo and with Charley, but Iwould be quite cold to Alex.
Just at that moment Hannah bustled in with the supper. I did think shemight have made a little struggle to have something appetising for meto-night; but no, there was the invariable cold mutton bone andpotatoes, boiled this time, and not too well boiled at that. There wasa dear little dish of something fried, which smelt very good, forfather.
Then the Professor came in without his glasses. He could never see muchwithout them. He called out to me, as though I had never left thehouse, "Go and hunt for my spectacles, Dumps."
Away I went, and of course I found them and brought them to him. He putthem on his nose, and his eyes fell on Von Marlo.
"Is that you, Von Marlo?" he said. "Sit down, my dear fellow, and havesome supper.--Alex, help Von Marlo to whatever there is."
He pulled the contents of the hot dish towards himself and began to eatravenously. There was not even a welcome for me. He had evidentlyquite forgotten that I had been away. After a time I said, "Father, Ihave come back."
"Eh?" said the Professor. "By-the-bye, Von Marlo, did you notice thegrand passage you and the other fellows were construing this afternoon?There was a fellow in the form inclined to mock at the magnificentwords, but that could not have been you."
"Oh no, sir," replied Von Marlo.
"Father, I have come back," I repeated. "I have come back from MissGrace Donnithorne's."
"Ah!" he said. The fact that I had come back did not move him, but thewords "Miss Grace Donnithorne" seemed to rouse him, for he got up, camestraight towards me, and put a hand on my right shoulder and a hand onmy left, and drew me towards him.
"How is Grace Donnithorne?" he said.
"She seems quite well, father."
"Then that is all right."
"Aren't you glad I am back?" I said.
The Professor returned to his seat. "Alex, I shall be obliged to stayup until the small hours. That paper for the Royal Society must befinished to-night. I shall send it to be typed the first thing in themorning. You must get up half-an-hour earlier than usual, and come tomy room for copy, and take it to the typewriting office in ChanceryLane."
Not a word about me. I felt a sense of pain at the back of my eyes.What was the good of having a learned Professor for a father when hehardly noticed you? I had been so hoping that my pretty dress would beseen and admired in the home circle.
I went to bed that night in my comfortless and hideous room. It was socold that I could not sleep for some time, and as I pressed and pressedthe bedclothes round me I could not help thinking of the jolly life somegirls had, and even a few tears rolled down my cheeks. To be very ugly,to be in no way endowed with any special talent, and to have a greatfather who simply forgot your existence, was not the most enviable lotin all the world for a girl.
"If only mother had lived!" I could not help saying to myself.
Then in my dreams mother seemed to come to me; she took me in her armsand kissed me and called me her little darling; and when she did this itseemed to me that looks mattered nothing and love mattered everything.I was her child; I was with her; she was all my own.
When I went down to breakfast I was surprised to find that the onlyperson in the parlour was father. He was not eating; he was standing onthe hearth-rug. His hair was ruffled up, but his face looked calmerthan usual. He was evidently in one of those moods in which he could beapproached. I had on, of course, my everyday school dress, and I muststart almost immediately for school. I went up to him and took one ofhis long hands.
"Father," I said, "may I ask you something?"
He looked down at me with quite a gentle expression.
"What is it my little Rachel wants?"
"Father, have you got anywhere a picture of my mother?"
He dropped my hands as though they hurt him.
"You want it?" he said.
"I should love to have it."
"You have missed your mother's care?"
"Yes."
"If I--" He stopped.
"Why do you stop?" I said. "You are just like Miss Donnithorne. Sheis always beginning sentences and stopping. But oh! please,"--for heseemed to be going off into one of his Demosthenes or Sophoclesmonologues--"please, if you have a picture of my mother, give it to me."
For answer he went out of the room. He was gone two or three minutes.When he returned he put a little case into my hand.
"You can keep it; it is yours now by every right. I treasured it.Understand that I have not forgotten her; but you can keep it. It isyours by every right." Before I could reply he had left the room. Iheard him bang the door, and I heard Hannah's step on the stairs. Icould not stand the thought of Hannah seeing the little case in myhands. She was the sort of woman who could be devoured by curiosity.This was more than I could bear. I flew to my room and put the dearlittle case into one of my drawers. I forbore to open it just then. Myheart was warm and full of bliss. I possessed it; I would look at itto-night. It should lie in my arms when I slept; I could kiss it in themorning. It was next best to having mother to have a picture of mother.I was happy.
A few minutes later I was on my way to school. There I met the Swangirls. They came up to me.
"Well, well," they said, "how are you? How do you like her?"
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Why, all the world knows that you have been staying with MissDonnithorne. Do tell us about her. We are dying with curiosity. It isno secret, you know."
"What is no secret?"
"Why, that you have been staying there," said Rita Swan, giving hersister a nudge at the moment.
"I don't want it to be a secret," I said. "I have had a very happytime. I'll tell you about her and her nice house later on."
"Oh dear! we are likely to know plenty of her in the near future," saidAgnes. "But there's the bell; we must go in. Come along, Dumps. Why,to be sure, you do look smartened up! But you will be twice as smart asthis in the future."
PART ONE, CHAPTER NINE.
THE PROFESSOR LEAVES HOME.
As I took my place in class I observed that all the girls stared at me;and after staring, one whispered to another, and then they stared again.It was really very confusing. After a time I did not like it. Ithought they were impertinent. I could have borne with the stares andall the nudges and the whispers if I had been wearing my dark-blue dresswith the grey fur, for I should have put down the curious behaviour ofmy schoolfellows to the fact of the dress: they were admiring the dress;they were jealous of the dress. But I had gone to school that morningjust the ordinary Dumps--Dumps in clothes she had grown out of, Dumpswith a somewhat untidy head, Dumps with her plain face. Why should thegirls look at me? It was not possible that the good food I had eatenand the happy life I had led at Miss Donnithorne's could have made sucha marvellous difference in so short a time--just about three days and ahalf.
But my lessons were more absorb
ing than usual, and I forgot the girls.In the playground I resolved to avoid the Swans, and in order to do thisI went up to Augusta Moore and slipped my hand through her arm.
"Do let us walk about," I said, "and let us be chums, if you don'tmind."
"Chums?" said Augusta, turning her dreamy, wonderful eyes upon my face.
"Yes," I said.
"But chums have tastes in common," was her next remark.
"Well, you are very fond of books, are you not?" I said.
"Fond of books!" cried Augusta. "Fond of books! I love them. But thatis not the right word: I reverence them; I have a passion for them."
She looked hurriedly round