CHAPTER EIGHT.
SPECULATIONS.
"Well!" exclaimed Ruth, sinking back in armchair number one, at theright of the bedroom fireplace.
"Well!" exclaimed Mollie, sinking back in armchair number two, facingher sister. "Likewise, good sooth! By my halidom! Gadzooks! Of asurety these are great happenings, fair sis!"
"Don't be so tiresome, Mollie! You make a joke out of everything. Iwant to talk over the position seriously."
"So do I--just dying to. Go on! Where shall we begin?"
"With the time, of course. Three months! I never dreamt of more than afortnight, at most. Do you think we can possibly be spared?"
"I don't think at all--I know! If it was three years, with such aninterest at stake, the poor little mother would jump at it. Threemonths soon pass, and there will be two people less to feed and waitupon, and a room less to keep in order. Every little tells when peopleare as hard up as we are, and with the savings mother will be able topay Miss Carter to help with the mending. It will be good for Trix,too. The more you depend upon Trix the more she rises to the occasion.I have a shrewd suspicion that she is going to cut us out, and be theshow daughter of the family. Mother will be blissfully happy buildingcastles in the air; Trix will be blissfully happy playing eldestdaughter, and bossing the family. We shall be blissfully happy notpretending, but actually being, Berengaria and Lucille. It's all quitesmooth and easy!"
Ruth heaved a sigh, half convinced, half reluctant.
"That's what you always say! I see such crowds of objections. To beginwith, I hate the position; it's awkward and humiliating. To stay hereon approval, studied like specimens in a case; being on one's goodbehaviour, and `acting pretty' to try to get a fortune for oneself, awayfrom other people--bah! It makes me hot even to think of it. I shouldfeel a hypocrite!"
"Don't be high-flown, dear; it's quite unnecessary. You couldn't be ahypocrite if you tried; you are too ridiculously `proud,' I suppose youwould say. I call it quick-tempered! If Uncle Bernard snubs you, youwill flare out, fortune or no fortune, and if you feel mopey, mope youwill, if he disinherits you the next moment. I shall be honest, too,because I'm too lazy to be anything else; besides, you know, there isalways the pleasing reflection that he may _prefer_ us to be crotchety!Everything is possible where everything is vague. Imagine how maddeningit would be if we kept our tempers, and smiled sweetly from morning tillnight, and in the end he left everything to that cross Mr Melland,because he considered it necessary for the owner of wealth to have awill of his own!"
Ruth laughed involuntarily.
"You _are_ a goose! Not much chance of your being the chosen one, I amafraid. Uncle Bernard is not in the mood for appreciating nonsense; heis too sad and ill, poor old man! That's another hateful thing. Ishould love to nurse and coddle him, and read aloud, and be good to himgenerally; but if one does, it will seem-- Oh, you know-- youunderstand! It's a loathsome position!"
"If I feel affectionate, I shall act affectionate! He will probablyloathe it, so there's just as much chance of injuring one's chance as ofbettering it. In fact, if we are to get on at all, we had better try toforget the wretched money, and behave as if it did not exist. If anyonehad told us a month ago that we should be staying in a big house withtwo quite good-looking young men as fellow-guests, and carte blanche toenjoy ourselves as much as we pleased, we would have thought it tooimpossibly good to be true; but now that it has come true, we shall beidiots if we don't make the most of it. I hope Uncle Bernard keeps tohis idea of making us each master of the ceremonies in turn. Won't Imake the money fly when it comes to my turn! Picnics and luncheons byday, dances and theatricals by night--one giddy whirl of excitement thewhole time long. I'll take the old dear at his word, and give nothought to expense, and entertain the whole countryside until the nameof Mollie Farrell is immortalised for ever in grateful hearts. I havealways credited myself with a genius for social life; now for the firsttime you will behold me in the halls of the great, and gaze withsurprise at your sister reigning as queen over the assembled throngs?"
"In your one black dress?"
"Certainly not! I've thought of that, too. Suitable equipments must,of course, be part of the carte blanche."
"I am sure nothing was further from Uncle Bernard's thoughts. He looksto me like a man who would never notice clothes, or care what we lookedlike, so long, of course, as we were respectable. He has more importantthings on his mind."
"Humph!" Mollie tossed her saucy head. "If he doesn't notice of hisown accord, his eyes must be gently, but firmly opened. We stay at hisspecial request; at his special request we entertain and areentertained; it is only reasonable that he should bear the expense ofmaking our appearance do him credit. I'll tell him so, too, if hedoesn't see it for himself."
"Mollie, you won't! You shan't! You never could!"
"Couldn't I? You wait and see!"
"And if you did I would never touch a farthing. I warn you, once forall, that it is useless, so far as I am concerned."
Mollie looked at her sister's flushed, defiant face, and laughed herhappy, light-hearted laugh.
"Dear old High-falutin'! We won't argue about it. Half a dozeninvitations will show you the soundness of my position better than ahundred discussions. Meantime, I'm going to dress. I have a horribleconviction that that maid will return and offer to do `your hair,madam,' so I mean to be beforehand with her."
Ruth sat still in her chair, enjoying the unwonted luxury of idling,with no disturbing spasm of conscience to remind her that she ought tobe mending or patching, or giving Betty a music lesson, or helping Maryto hang clean curtains in the drawing-room. It was delightful to nestleback against the cushions and study one by one the dainty appointmentsof the room, and revel in the unaccustomed sense of space. Imagine justfor a moment--imagine possessing such a home of one's own! The house,with its treasures of beautiful and artistic furnishings, whichrepresented the lifelong gatherings of a man renowned for his taste; theextensive grounds, with gardens and vineries and forests of glass,providing an endless summer of blossom; the income, that in itself was afortune, and held such inexhaustible possibilities of good. What shecould do with it, if it were only hers! With one stroke of the pen shewould repay the poor old tired pater for all his goodness in the past,and lift the weight of care for the future from his shoulders. Shewould heap luxuries upon the dear little mother, who was still a childat heart; so pathetically easy to please that it seemed a sin that sheshould ever be sad. The girls should be sent to finishing schools, andthe boys given a thorough training to equip them for their fight inlife. Mollie, of course, should live at the Court, and share equally inall her possessions; and they would travel, and help the poor, and bekind to everyone, and never forget the day of small things! or growarrogant and purse-proud. Ruth dreamed on in a passion of longing tillMollie, standing before the dressing-table, with her white arms raisedto her head, caught sight of her face in the mirror, and uttered a sharpexclamation.
"Ruth! What is it, darling?"
Ruth started nervously and glanced upwards with guilty eyes, but therewas nothing alarming in the aspect of the figure which stood over her,white necked, white armed, with the loosened golden hair falling roundthe anxious face. She caught the outstretched hand, and gripped ittightly between her own.
"Oh, Mollie, I want it! I want it _dreadfully_! When I think of thepossibility I feel half wild. If I am disappointed, I believe I shalldie! I can't be unselfish, even for you. I want it for myself!"
She was on the verge of tears, but Mollie's matter-of-fact cheerinesshad the usual bracing effect. She seemed neither shocked nor surprised,but only anxious to soothe.
"Of course you do; so do we all!" she replied easily. "It's humbug topretend anything else, only I'm not going to die, in any case, but liveand make myself agreeable to the Chosen. If it's you, I shall sponge onyou for life, so don't imagine you will have all the fun to yourself.Now get dressed, and don't th
ink about it any more. We must look ourbest to awe those two superior young men. I am convinced that they lookupon us as country bumpkins, and it's most important to put them intheir proper position at once, so that we may start fair. If you aregoing to do your hair in skriggles it will take you an age, so dobegin!"
Ruth rose obediently. "Skriggles" was an inelegant but descriptivetitle for her most becoming coiffure, which she had already decided mustbe adopted for the first eventful evening at the Court. She set to workat once, and was half-way through her task when the maid appeared, asMollie had prophesied, paused upon the threshold for one horrifiedmoment, and then hurried forward with an "Allow me, miss!" which couldnot be gainsaid.
The girls grimaced at one another furtively, but in the end the value ofthe skilled hands was proved by a dainty finish to hair and toilettewhich sent them downstairs agreeably conscious of looking their best.