CHAPTER XVII
The Lavender Lady
It was Easter time when the Lavender Lady first rose upon the horizon ofLyngates. She came with the dog violets and the ground ivy and themeadow orchises, and several other lovely purple things, at least thatwas how her advent was always associated in Avelyn's mind. She took thefurnished bungalow near the church, lately vacated by the curate, and itwas rumoured in the village that she composed music and had publishedpoetry, and that she had come down into the country for a rest.
When Avelyn first saw her she was sitting in the flowery little gardenraised above the road. She wore a soft lavender dress and an old lacefichu, and she had dark eyes and eyebrows, and cheeks as pink as theChina roses, and fluffy grey-white hair that gleamed like a dove's wingas the sun shone on it. She looked such a picture as she sat there, allunconscious of spectators, against a background of golden wallflowersand violet aubrietias, that Avelyn was obliged just to stand still andgaze. In that thirty seconds she fell in love with the Lavender Lady.It was not a mere mild liking, but a sudden, romantic, absolute,headlong falling in love. It had come all in a minute and overwhelmedher. She crept away softly to dream dreams about the vision she had seenin the garden. At home there were some beautiful illustrated editions ofWilliam Morris's _Earthly Paradise_ and of Dante Gabriel Rossetti'spoems. She took them out and pored over them. The gorgeouspre-Raphaelite pictures had always appealed to her innate artisticsense, and set her nerves athrill with a something she could notanalyse. There was not one of them so beautiful as her Lavender Ladyamong the flowers.
"She's a little like 'The Blessed Damozel', who leaned out 'from thegold bar of heaven'," mused Avelyn. "And then again she's likeGainsborough's picture of 'The Duchess of Devonshire'. I wonder what hername is, and if I shall ever know her? I don't believe I'd dare to speakto her. I'd be too shy."
For a whole week Avelyn, terribly in love, lived in a mystic world inwhich the Lavender Lady, robed in the glory of the purple night andstars, was as the central sun, and she herself revolved like a planetround her orbit. The family could not understand why she insisted uponchoosing heliotrope for her new dress.
"It won't suit you, dear," demurred Mrs. Watson, bewildered by thefirmness of her daughter's sudden attitude.
They were sitting round the table, with three boxes of patterns fromwest-end London firms spread out temptingly before them.
"You of all people in helio, Ave!" objected Daphne. "It's the one colouryou ought never to wear--you're far too much of a brunette for anyviolet shades. You'd look nice in this biscuit, or this saxe blue. Ialways liked you in that blue dress you had a couple of years ago."
"There's a perfectly charming stripe here," recommended Mrs. Watson.
"I want the helio, please," said Avelyn doggedly.
"But _why_ should you want helio when you know it doesn't suit you?"stormed Daphne. "It's really only pig-headedness, because you'vehappened to say so. You can't see yourself in your own dress. If youcould you'd choose another colour."
"You know nothing about it," retorted Avelyn; and matters nearly grewwarm between the two girls.
"There's no need to send the patterns back to-day," interrupted Mrs.Watson, sweeping the whole consignment back into their boxes. "We'llbring them out to-morrow and talk about them."
As a matter of fact she sent for the biscuit shade without consultingAvelyn again, much to the disgust of that damsel, who consoled herselfby taking energetically to gardening, and replanting the round border inthe middle with wallflowers and purple aubrietias. It was the Easterholidays, so she had time to dream. She made up at least six romancesabout the Lavender Lady's past; some of them ended happily and someunhappily. She could not decide which was really the more artistic. Shewalked past the cottage every evening. Once she threw a bunch of violetsover the wall just to the place where the lady had been sitting. Thenshe ran away frightened at her own daring. Another evening as she passedshe heard the strains of a piano and the sound of a rich, sweetcontralto voice. She stood and listened spellbound. It was a song shehad never heard before--a lovely, crooning song, like a cradle lullaby.She would have liked to stay and listen to more, but the Vicar's wifeand daughters were coming down the road, and she fled. Somehow she didnot want to be talked to just at that moment.
On Sunday she chivied the family off to church at least ten minutes toosoon, and they sat in their pew in stately dignity while the rest of thecongregation trickled in. Avelyn, from a post of vantage near thepillar, eyed everyone that entered with increasing disappointment. Thenher heart gave a great thump. Her Lady was coming up the aisle--not inlavender this time, but in black and white, with a bunch of violets anda big picture-hat trimmed with silver ribbon, and a white ostrich boaand dainty white kid gloves. The verger was showing her to a seat infront, actually the next pew but one, and Avelyn felt thrills runningdown her spine. She was so glad the verger had selected a pew in front.If it had been behind, she would have been absolutely obliged todisgrace herself by turning round. After the service she managed to dropher book, and to fumble for it long enough to delay her family for afew moments and prevent them from leaving before the Lavender Lady. Theypassed her in the churchyard. She was actually speaking to the Vicar'seldest daughter. Avelyn decided that Barbara Holt had more than hershare of luck. At dinner-time, over the joint of roast beef, Mrs. Watsonremarked:
"That seems a sweet lady staying at the bungalow. Miss Carrington, Ihear, her name is. She comes from London, and Mrs. Holt says she's verymusical. I think I shall have to call."
Avelyn went on eating beef and potatoes with a jumping heart but outwardcomposure. It had not struck her that it was possible to pay socialcalls on Dante Gabriel Rossetti heroines. What if she were to meet theLavender Lady at close quarters? Even speak to her? The idea seemed toneed preparation.
Mrs. Watson had quite made up her mind.
"Daphne and I will go on Tuesday," she said.
It was of course appropriate that Daphne, being the eldest, should go,but Avelyn envied her all the same.
When the momentous afternoon arrived she enquired anxiously what hersister was going to wear. It seemed vitally important that the familyshould make a good impression.
"You'll put on your grey coat and skirt, won't you?" she saidbeseechingly.
"I don't think I will. I really don't want to go at all," yawnedDaphne.
Not want to go! Avelyn could hardly believe it. She stared at Daphneincredulously.
"Don't you feel well?" she asked.
"Oh yes! it isn't that, but I hate paying calls, and I promised the boysto walk to Fulverton. Captain Harper said he'd meet us and show us asquirrel's nest he's found. Suppose you go and call with Mother insteadof me?"
Avelyn gasped. Such unselfishness took away her breath.
"Do you really mean you'll let me go instead of you?"
"With all the pleasure in life, child, if you want to." Daphne's mannerwas airy and elder-sisterly. "Of course it's nothing to me whether wemeet Captain Harper or not, only he made rather a point about it, andperhaps it would seem--well, rude, if I let the boys go without me. He'sbeen very kind to David and Tony, and one doesn't like to hurt hisfeelings."
Two things swept across Avelyn's bewildered consciousness: first, thatDaphne was growing up--growing up most suddenly and unmistakably; andsecondly, that she had resigned her privilege, as elder daughter, tocall on the Lavender Lady. The first would have to be considered atleisure, in all its bearings and side issues; the second was for themoment uppermost.
"Go and ask Mother what you're to put on," said Daphne, as if the wholequestion of the exchange were settled.
It was an outwardly calm and self-possessed, but inwardly much-agitatedAvelyn who entered, in her mother's wake, into the little drawing-roomat the bungalow. One comprehensive glance took in the fact that the roomwas utterly different from what it had been during the curate'soccupation. There were books and flowers, and other pretty things about.The general tone had changed from commonp
lace to artistic. On thewindow-sill lay a half-finished sketch of the village. There was musicon the open piano. But these details faded into secondary consideration,for the Lavender Lady was entering, in the soft heliotrope gown, with asprig of wallflower pinned into the lace fichu.
Occasionally in our lives we meet with people whose whole electricatmosphere seems to merge and blend with our own. We feel we are not somuch making a new acquaintance as picking up the lost threads of someformer soul-friendship. Avelyn experienced thrills as she shook hands.She was far too shy to say much, but she sat and listened rapturouslywhile her mother and Miss Carrington did the talking. For the present itwas enough to be in the vicinity of her goddess. The maid brought intea. There were a dainty, open-hem-stitched Teneriffe cloth, Queen Annesilver teapot and Apostle teaspoons, and scones and honey. A bowl ofprimroses and forget-me-nots was on the table.
The half-hour's visit passed like a dream.
"You'll come and see me again, dear, won't you?" said Miss Carrington,as she held Avelyn's hand in good-bye.
The hot colour flooded the girl's face. Her eyes shone like stars.
"Oh, may I?" she cried impulsively.
That afternoon marked an epoch. Friendship is a matter more oftemperament than of years. That the Lavender Lady was middle-aged, andAvelyn barely sixteen, made not the slightest difference to either ofthem. Each character dove-tailed comfortably into the other. MissCarrington had a great sympathy for girls, and she seemed to understandAvelyn at once. As for the latter, she had utterly lost her heart. Butfor the fear of making herself a nuisance she would have nearly lived atthe bungalow. She went there very often by special invitation, and spentglorious, delightful afternoons sitting in the garden, talking about artand books and music, and the foreign places Miss Carrington had visited.It fascinated Avelyn to hear about Venice and Rome and Sicily and Egypt,and made her long to go and see them for herself.
"You shall, some day, when the war's over," said the Lavender Ladyconfidently.
Sometimes they would go for walks together, or Avelyn would wait with abook while Miss Carrington sketched, or--what she loved immensely--wouldsit in the twilight while her friend improvised soft dreamy music at thepiano. The little volume of poems, _Cameos_, by Lesbia Carrington, shealready knew almost by heart; the small, white-and-gold edition, withits signed autograph, was her greatest treasure. To Avelyn it was amost inspiring friendship, that roused dormant hopes and ideals in hernature which promised to make rapid growth afterwards. Her Lavender Ladyproved the most delightful of confidantes. It was possible to tell hereverything. She never laughed at Avelyn's secrets, though she was merryenough on occasion.
One evening she and Avelyn sat in the little garden, watching the redglow of the setting sun fade away behind the dark boughs of the yewtrees. The air was heavy with the scent of flowers; from the fields camethe caw of rooks, as long flights passed homeward to roost. Avelynsquatted on the grass, with her head against the Lavender Lady's knee,and held her hand tight.
"Next week I shall be back at Silverside," she whispered. "I just hatethe thought of it!"
"Poor little woman!"
"It isn't as nice there as it ought to be, somehow. Things seem alwaysat sixes and sevens, and it's so horrid."
"What's the trouble?"
"The old school and the new school won't mix. The Silversiders look downon the Hawthorners, and the Hawthorners resent it, of course, and justdetest the Silversiders. It's a constant bickering the whole time. Ithink it's almost worse since Annie and Gladys were made prefects. It'sperfectly wretched for me, because I'm between two stools."
"How's that?"
"Well, you see, in a way I'm a boarder, but then I'm the only weeklyboarder, so the others who stay there the whole term rub it into me thatI'm not quite one of themselves. They can't forget that I used once togo to The Hawthorns, even though it's a long time ago, and they keepbringing it up against me as if I were a sort of traitor in their midst.Then it's quite as awkward for me with the day girls. I like some ofthem very much; they used to be old chums of mine, and I'd like to go onbeing friends with them. But if I even speak to them in school, Laura orJanet are down on me like anything, and ask me if I've forgotten I'm amember of the Silverside League."
"What is the League, please?"
"It's a kind of blood-brotherhood among the boarders to keep upSilverside traditions. When the day girls heard of it, they started an'Old Hawthorners' League' in opposition."
"But surely you're all Silversiders now?"
"We are in name, but nothing else. We still feel two separate schools.The day girls wouldn't play hockey with us in the winter. They got up aclub of their own, and wore their old school colours. They won ever somany matches, and the Silverside Club did so badly. Adah was dreadfullysick about it. She thought them so mean to desert."
"Perhaps they felt they wouldn't be welcome."
"That's exactly the point. Instead of pulling together, it's alwaysboarders versus day girls; and as for poor little me, I'm neither fish,flesh, fowl, nor good red herring!"
The Lavender Lady smiled, and then looked thoughtful. She strokedAvelyn's hair.
"Poor little woman!" she said again.
"I feel like Mohammed's coffin, slung between earth and heaven."
"Can't something be done to bring these rival factions into harmony?You're one school now, and ought to work together for the common good."
"That's what Miss Thompson says, but it doesn't make any difference."
"Girls often won't listen to teachers. The movement must come fromwithin, not without. It seems to me, Ave, you're the one to set it inmotion."
"I?"
Avelyn turned up her face in the greatest amazement to meet the LavenderLady's calm eyes.
"Yes, _you_, darling! Don't you see you have an absolutely uniqueopportunity? You're the only girl in the school who is in touch withboth sides. You can get at both the boarders and the day girls. Thehockey season is over, and I suppose next term you'll be starting tennisand cricket?"
"Yes, so we shall."
"Well, suppose directly you get back to Harlingden you propose a UnitedLeague of all Silversiders to win credit for the school. You could setabout it very tactfully, and sound your principal parties first."
"_I?_ But they'd think it such cheek! A Fifth Form girl, and only aweekly boarder."
AVELYN AND THE LAVENDER LADY]
"And Gideon said, 'Wherewithal shall I save Israel? I am the least in myfather's house'," quoted Miss Carrington. "On the contrary, I think it'sthe chance of a lifetime. I believe you're the one girl to do it. Itwould be something worth accomplishing, wouldn't it, to unite theschool?"
"Rather!"
"Is there any public occasion when you could bring forward thesuggestion?"
"Yes; there's the School Council on the first Wednesday of term. Anybodyis allowed to put things to the meeting, and votes are taken."
"You couldn't have a better opportunity. Talk in private to the girlsfirst, and persuade a number of them from both sides to be ready to backyou up. Then state your proposal. By the by, what are the Silversidecolours?"
"Pale-blue and navy."
"And the old Hawthorn colours?"
"Navy and pink."
"If you're wise, you'll amalgamate them, and ask Miss Thompson to letyou have new badges of pale-blue, pink, and navy. I believe it mightjust make all the difference to the state of feeling."
"Perhaps you're right. But I still feel afraid--it's a big thing toattempt, and I don't know whether I can screw up the courage. Suppose Ifail? Suppose they only laugh at me, and tell me to mind my ownbusiness?"
"You won't fail! You mustn't _think_ failure! Make up your mindbeforehand that you're going to succeed, and that what you say willpersuade them. Oh, Ave darling, do try! It would be such a grand thing.There are those two great streams of girls, each running its own way.They only need a thin barrier removed to make them into one mightyriver. Some common purpose should unite them. Perhaps in their h
eart ofhearts they're all secretly longing for union. Who knows? Can't yourhands lead them together? You said once you'd do anything for my sake."
"So I did--and I mean it!"
"Then take up this crusade, and be a Red Cross Knight for the SchoolColours!"
"For the School Colours and for you, dear Lavender Lady!" said Avelyn,kissing the soft hand in token of her vow.