CHAPTER IX.
A week or more had passed since the return of our friends from theirvacation in the more northern part of their loved native land, and Luluand Grace, who had at first missed their older brother sorely from thefamily circle, had now begun to feel somewhat accustomed to his absence,and were very merry and happy.
They had resumed their studies, reciting, as before, to their father,and took daily walks and rides on their ponies, varied by an occasionaldrive with the captain, Violet, and the little ones.
The Ion and Fairview families, too, had gone back to old pleasures andemployments; but so busy had all been, taking up familiar cares andduties, and making needed preparations for approaching winter, that onlyfew and short visits had as yet been exchanged between them.
It was in the sitting-room, and just after breakfast, that the captainhad read Max's letter aloud to his wife and children.
"Go to the schoolroom now, daughters, and look over your lessons for theday," he said, presently, addressing Lulu and Grace.
They obeyed instantly, and as they left the room a servant came in witha note from Violet's mother, which he handed to his mistress, saying oneof the Ion servants had just brought it.
"Mamma's handwriting," Violet remarked to her husband as she took thenote and glanced at the address upon it.
"Ah! I hope they are all well?" he returned half inquiringly.
"No, mamma herself is certainly not quite well," Violet answered with adisturbed look, after glancing hastily down the page; "she says as much,and that she wants me to come and spend a few days with her, bringingall the children if I choose; they will not disturb her. And you alsowill be most welcome. Dear, dear mamma! I shall go to her atonce--unless my husband objects," she added, looking up at him with arather sad sort of smile.
"As he certainly could not think of doing, my love," he replied, intender tones. "We must go, of course; you and the little ones, at least;we will consider about the older ones, and I shall spend my time betweenthe two places, not being willing to stay constantly away from you, yethaving some matters to attend to here, some things that ought not to bedelayed."
"But you will be with us a part of every day?" returned Violet, with awistful half-inquiring look up into his face.
"Yes, oh yes!" he hastened to say; "with my wife so near at hand I couldnot let a day go by without inflicting my presence upon her for somesmall part of it," he concluded in a half jesting tone, and with a fondlook down into the sweet, troubled face; for he was standing close ather side.
"I think it could not be harder for you than for me, my dear," shereturned, with a loving smile up at him. "I should like to take all thechildren," she went on, "but Alma is here to make up some dresses forLulu, and will need her at hand to try them on and make sure of thefit."
"And I should seriously object to allowing Lulu to drop her studiesagain just as she has made a fresh and fair start with them," said thecaptain; "so of course she will have to stay at home. Grace also, Ithink, as there would be the same objection to her absence from home--asregards the lessons I mean."
"But if you will allow it, I can hear her recite at Ion," Violet said."She could learn her lessons there and still have a good deal of time toplay with her little sister, who thinks no one else quite equal to herGracie,--as she calls her,--for a playfellow."
"Well, my dear, we will make that arrangement if you wish it,"responded the captain.
"And yet how Lulu will miss her," Violet said, a troubled look comingover her face. "I wish we could manage it so that she could go too, thedear child!"
"I should be glad to give her the pleasure," returned Captain Raymond;"but really think it will not do to have her studies so interfered withnow when she has but just well settled down to them. It will be a littlehard for her, but perhaps not a bad lesson in patience and self-denial."
"But a lesson I fear she will not enjoy," remarked Violet, with aregretful smile.
Going into the schoolroom presently the captain found his two littlegirls industriously busy with their tasks.
"Gracie, daughter," he said, "your mamma is going over to Ion for a fewdays, because Grandma Elsie is not very well and wants her companionship,and Mamma Vi wants you,--for little Elsie's sake,--having found you verysuccessful in entertaining her and baby Ned. We are all invited, indeed;but I must be here the greater part of the time, as I have various mattersto oversee, and Lulu cannot be spared from home as Alma is at work uponsome dresses for her, and I wish her to go on diligently with her studies."
"But don't I need to be attending to mine, papa?" queried Grace, lookingregretfully at her sister, over whose face had come a look of keendisappointment, succeeding one of pleased anticipation called out by thebeginning of her father's communication.
"Yes," he said, with a smile; "we are going to let you attend to themthere, Mamma Vi acting as governess."
"Isn't she willing to do the same for me too, papa?" asked Lulu, in aslightly hurt tone.
"I think so," he answered pleasantly; "but there is the dressmaking, andI couldn't think of such a thing as asking to have that carried on atIon."
Lulu seemed to have nothing more to say and Grace gave her a troubledlook; then, with a little hesitation, "Papa," she said, "I--I think I'drather stay at home with Lu, if I may."
"No, daughter," he answered, still speaking very pleasantly. "I have nottime to give my reasons just now; but I want you to go, and Lulu tostay. It will probably be for only a few days; and I think she may trusther father not to allow her to be very lonely in the meanwhile," headded, with a smile directed to Lulu, but which she did not seem to see,keeping her face down and her eyes fixed upon her book.
Then he left the room, saying to Grace as he went out, "Make haste,daughter, to gather up your books and whatever else you may wish totake with you. I have already ordered the carriage and there is no timeto waste. Lulu may help you if she will."
"Will you, Lu?" asked Grace, with a very sympathizing look at hersister. "Oh, I wish papa had said you were to go too! Whatever shall Ido without my dear, big sister!"
"Never mind, Gracie; I'm sure I don't want to go where I'm not wanted,"replied Lulu, in a hurt tone.
"I'm sure it isn't because they wouldn't like to have you there,"returned Grace, running to her sister and putting her arms about herneck.
"Why don't they ask me, then?" queried Lulu, a little angrily.
"May be they did. I'm most sure Grandma Elsie wouldn't forget to includeyou in her invitation; and, oh, yes! don't you remember papa did say wewere all invited? But you know there are the lessons, and I suppose papawould rather hear them himself."
"But he could hear them there."
"Yes; so he could if he wanted to. But then there's the dressmaking, youknow."
"That could be put off for a few days," returned Lulu, with a verygrown-up air. "There are plenty of ways when people want to do athing--plenty of excuses to be thought of when they don't. Alma hasnumerous customers and could sew for somebody else first, giving her mytime, and me hers after we get home."
"Oh, maybe it could be managed in that way!" exclaimed Grace joyously;"and I'd so much rather have you along. I think I'll ask papa."
"No, don't you do any such thing," returned Lulu, in a not particularlyamiable tone. "If I'm not wanted, I'm sure I don't wish to go. Butyou'll have to hurry, Gracie. You know papa is very particular about ourbeing prompt in obeying his orders."
"Yes," returned Grace, who was again at her desk, "but I have been busyall this time getting out the books and other things I must take along,and now I'll go upstairs and get dressed and put up the things therethat I want. Won't you go with me? You'll know so much better than Iwhat I need to take."
"Yes, Gracie, dear; I'll be glad to give you all the help I can. I'mglad papa said I might. Oh, but it will be lonely here without you! I dothink papa might have said I could go, too."
"I'd be ever so glad if he had, or would," said Grace, as hand in handthey left the room together, "but you
know, Lu dear, we always find outin the end that his way is the best."
"So we do, and I'll try to believe it now," returned Lulu, in a morecheerful tone than she had used since learning that the rest of thefamily were to go to Ion and she was to remain at home.
With her good help Grace was ready in a few minutes, and just then theyheard their father call to her to come at once, as the carriage was atthe door.
The sisters embraced each other hastily, Grace saying, "Oh, Lu, good-by,I do wish you were going along, for I can hardly bear to go withoutyou."
"Never mind, but just try to enjoy yourself as much as ever you can,"returned Lulu. "Go down now, dearie, for we should never keep papawaiting, you know. Here's Agnes to carry down your satchel. I hope youwon't stay long enough away from me to need many clothes, and if you doit will be easy enough to send them--the carriage going back and forthevery day."
Grace was half-way down the stairs before Lulu had finished.
"Ain't you a gwine down to see de folks off, Miss Lulu?" queried Agnes,as she took up the satchel.
"No," returned Lulu shortly; "I'm going back to the schoolroom to attendto my lessons."
Agnes gave her a look of surprise as she left the room, thinking she hadnever known Miss Lu fail to be at the door when any of the othermembers of the family were leaving for more than a short drive, and shestaying behind.
"Where is Lulu, Gracie?" asked Violet, as the captain handed the littlegirl into the carriage. "I hadn't time to hunt her up, and thought shewould be here at the door to say good-by to us all."
"She said she must hurry back to her lessons, mamma," answered Grace,blushing for her sister. "You see she stopped to help me get ready, andI suppose she's afraid she'll not know them well by the time papa wantsto hear her recite."
"It would have taken very little of her time," the captain remarked,with a grave and somewhat displeased look.
"Oh, well, you can bring her over to Ion, perhaps this afternoon orto-morrow, for a call, Levis," Violet hastened to say in a cheery tone.
"Possibly," he answered, and was about to step into the carriage when aservant came hurrying up to ask directions in regard to some work to bedone in the grounds.
"My dear," said the captain to Violet, "I think it would be better foryou and the children to drive on without waiting for me. I shallprobably follow you in another hour or two."
"Very well; please don't disappoint us if you can help it," returnedViolet, and the carriage drove on, while Captain Raymond walked away inthe opposite direction, to give the needed orders to his men.
"I think it's a shame that I should be left behind when all the rest ofthe family are going to Ion to have a good time," muttered Lulu angrily,as she seated herself at her desk again and opened a book. "Papa couldhear my lessons there just as well as here if he chose, and Mamma Vimight have arranged to have my dresses made a week or two later."
"Miss Lu," said Agnes, opening the door and putting in her head, "MissAlma tole me for to tell you she's 'bout ready fo' to try on yo' newdress."
"Tell her to take it to my room. I'll go up there to have it tried on,"replied Lulu, in a vexed, impatient tone.
Then, as Agnes withdrew her head and closed the door, "Horrid thing! whycouldn't she have come to me while I was up there? Here I am, hardlyfairly settled to my work, and I must drop it and go back again. I'dbetter take my book with me, for there's no knowing how long she maykeep me while she alters something that she has got wrong, for she'sgenerally too stupid to make a thing right at the first trial. Well,perhaps she'll get done by the time papa comes back and is ready to hearme recite."
So saying she went slowly from the school room and upstairs to her ownapartment.
There were a few minutes of waiting for Alma, which did not improveLulu's temper, and as the girl came in she received an angry glance,accompanied by the remark, in no very pleasant tones, that she had nobusiness to send for people till she was ready to attend to them.
At that Alma colored painfully. "I am sorry to have inconvenienced you,Miss Lu," she said, "but I'll try not to keep you so very long."
"If you don't, it will be about the first time that you haven't,"snapped Lulu. "I think you are just about the slowest, most blunderingdressmaker I ever did see."
At that unkind remark, Alma's eyes filled with tears, but she went onsilently with her work, making no rejoinder, while Lulu--the reproachesof conscience rendering her uneasy and irritable--fidgetted and fussed,thus greatly increasing the difficulty of the task.
"Miss Lu," Alma said at last, in a despairing tone, "if you can't keepstiller, it is not possible for me to make the dress to fit you right."
"Indeed!" returned Lulu scornfully, "I don't feel sure of your abilityto fit it right under any circumstances--such a stupid, awkward thing asyou are, and----"
Her sentence was left unfinished, for at that instant, to herastonishment and dismay, her father's voice called to her from hisdressing-room, in sterner accents than she had heard from him in a longwhile. "Lucilla, come here to me!" She had not known of his detention athome, but supposed he had gone with the others to Ion.
Jerking off the waist, which Alma had already unfastened,--snatching upa dressing-sack and putting it on as she went,--she appeared before him,blushing and shamefaced.
"I am both surprised and mortified by what I have just overheard," hesaid. "I had a better opinion of my dear, eldest daughter than tosuppose she would ever show herself so heartless. You surely must haveforgotten that poor Alma is a stranger, in a strange land, while you areat home, in your father's house. Go to her now, and apologize for yourrudeness."
Lulu made no movement to obey, but stood before him in sullen silenceand with downcast, scowling countenance.
He waited a moment; then said sternly, "Lucilla, you will yield instantobedience to my order, or go immediately to your own room, and notventure into my presence again until you can tell me you have obeyed."
At that she turned and left the room, more angry and rebellious than shehad ever been since that dreadful time at Ion when her indulgence in afit of passion had so nearly cost little Elsie's life.
"Papa will have a pretty time making me do it," she muttered angrily toherself, as she stood by a window in her bedroom looking out into thegrounds. "Ask Alma's pardon, indeed! She's not even a lady; she'snothing but a poor woman, who has to support herself with herneedle,--or rather with a sewing machine, and cutting and fitting,--andI think it's just outrageous for papa to tell me I must ask her pardon.I'll not do it, and papa needn't think he can make me, though----" sheadded, uneasily, the next minute, "to be sure, he always has made meobey him; but I'm older now; too old, I think, even he would say, to bewhipped into doing what I don't choose to do.
"But he forbade me to come into his presence till I obeyed, and--oh,dear, I can't live that way, because I love him so--better than any oneelse in all the wide world; and--and--it would just kill me to have togo without his love and his caresses; never to have him hug and kiss me,and call me his dear child, his darling. Oh, I couldn't bear it! I nevercould! it would just break my heart!" and her tears began to fall likerain.
She cried quite violently for a while; then began to think of Alma morekindly and pityingly than ever before, as an orphan and a stranger in astrange land.
"Oh, I am ashamed to have treated her so!" she exclaimed at length, "andI will ask her pardon; not only because papa has ordered me to do so,but because I am sorry for her, and really mortified to think of havingtreated her so badly."
Fortunately, just at that moment Alma's timid rap was heard at the doorand her voice saying, in a hesitating, deprecating way, "Miss Lu,please, I need to try the dress once more. I'm very sorry to disturb andtrouble you, but I know you want it to be a good fit."
"Yes, of course I do, Alma," returned Lulu gently, opening the door asshe spoke; "you are quite right to come back with it. I'm sorry andashamed of having been so rude and unkind to you when you were in herebefore," she added, holding out her
hand. "It was shameful treatment.Papa said I must ask your pardon, and I think I would do it now, even ifhe hadn't ordered me."
"It is too much, Miss Lu," Alma said, blushing, and with tears in hereyes. "I could never ask such a thing as that of a young lady like you."
"Indeed, my behavior has been very unladylike to-day," sighed Lulu; "andpapa is very, very much displeased with me."
"I am sorry, Miss," Alma responded, in a sympathizing tone. "But thecaptain will not stay angry; he is so very fond of his children."
"Yes; and so kind and indulgent that I ought to be the best girl in theworld. Oh, I wish I had not behaved so badly!"
"He will forgive you, Miss; he will not stay displeased, for his lovefor you is so very great," returned Alma. "There, Miss, the dress doesfit you now. See in the glass. Does it not?"
"Yes," Lulu replied, surveying herself in the mirror; "I could not ask abetter fit, Alma."
"It is lovely, Miss Lu; the stuff so fine and soft, and the colors sobeautiful!" remarked the girl, gazing upon it with admiring eyes. "It isgood, Miss Lu, to have a kind papa, rich enough to gif you all thingsneedful for a young lady to wear."
"Yes, and so generous and kind as mine is," sighed Lulu. "It is a verygreat shame that I ever do anything to displease him."
Alma went back to the sewing-room, and Lulu hastened to the door of theroom where her father had been when he called to her. But a glancewithin showed her that he was not there now. Then she ran downstairs andthrough library, parlors, halls,--everywhere,--looking for him.
"Oh, where is he?" she sighed. "I must find him and tell him how sorry Iam for my naughtiness. I can't have one minute of happiness till I havedone so and got a kiss of forgiveness."
Snatching a hat from the rack and putting it on as she went, she ran outand round the porches and the grounds; but nowhere was he to be seen.
"Miss Lu," called a servant, at length, "is you lookin' fo' de cap'n?He's done gone to Ion, I 'spects; kase dere's whar Miss Wi'let went inde kerridge."
"Did he say when he would come back?" asked Lulu, steadying her voicewith quite an effort.
"He gwine come back dis evenin' fo' suah, Miss Lu, to see 'bout de workon de plantation," was the reply, as the man turned to his employmentagain. And with a heavy sigh Lulu turned about and re-entered the house.
"Oh, it's so lonesome for me here all by myself!" she said half-aloud.
But there was no one near enough to hear her, and she went back to hertasks, trying to forget her troubles in study; an effort in which shewas for the time partially successful.