CHAPTER XIII
A Colonial Cousin
Violet, who was herself extremely fond of practical jokes, wasdetermined to turn the tables upon Diccon.
"I owe him one or two little things, for he often plays tricks on Rhodaand me at the Vicarage," she said to Mildred. "The difficulty is to hitupon anything really good. It won't be easy to take him in. I shall haveto think and think. Oh, I verily believe I've got it! Enid's the verygirl! She'd love it! Oh, it fits in capitally!"
"Who's Enid?"
"She's a distant relation from New Zealand--a kind of second cousin,once removed. She and her people are in England for a year, and we metthem in town last June. They're staying with the Harcourts at present,only twenty miles away, and I'll persuade Mother to let me invite Enidfor the day on Saturday. The car can fetch her and take her back. We'llask Diccon to come to make up a set at tennis, and then spring asurprise on him. Father and Mother were out in New Zealand five yearsago, and they brought home native costumes and all sorts of beads. Yes,I see my way splendidly! I believe he'll really swallow it whole.Mildred, can you keep your face absolutely, in an emergency, and notlaugh?"
"I'll do my best," returned Mildred.
Violet laid her plans carefully, and after Enid had accepted theinvitation for Saturday she sent a note to the Vicarage asking Diccon totennis. The members of the Somerville family often came to The Towers tomake up sets, and as Diccon was a better player than his brothers, itoccasioned no particular surprise that he should be invited alone. Hearrived therefore about three o'clock, quite unsuspiciously. Violet andMildred were waiting for him in the garden.
"I want to introduce you to a friend of ours," began Violet; "a thirdcousin, in fact. She only came this morning. She's over from NewZealand."
"I'd forgotten you had any colonial relations," observed Diccon.
"Oh, yes! A great-uncle of Mother's went out to Auckland years and yearsago, and married a native. I had just a peep at this cousin when we werein London. Of course she's very peculiar-looking, but we like her, don'twe, Mildred? I rather admire her dark complexion."
"She's absolutely ripping!" affirmed Mildred cordially.
"I thought I'd better prepare you for the fact that she's a real NewZealander," continued Violet. "Come along and see her. She's sitting inthe gun-room. She seems to like it better than anywhere else in thehouse."
"Queer taste for a girl," commented Diccon.
"She enjoys being amongst weapons," explained Violet. "I suppose it's asavage instinct. It takes a long time to eradicate the old Adam. Her NewZealand grandfather was a very warlike character."
"Swung a tomahawk, did he?"
"They're not called tomahawks in New Zealand. You're thinking ofFenimore Cooper's American Indians. But never mind, come and beintroduced to Rata."
"Is that her name?"
"Yes; don't you think it's pretty?"
"Oh, well enough! Look here, what am I to say? Does she speak English?"
"Quite decently. You'll have no difficulty in understanding her. I shalljust introduce you."
"And what then?"
"Why, you must shake hands. She'll expect it. She's given up rubbingnoses since she came to England."
"Oh, I say!" murmured Diccon faintly. "I don't think I feel quite well.My head aches."
But Violet ignored his plaintive excuse, and firmly led the way to thegun-room. Squatting on a low stool near the window, reading a NewZealand paper, was a decidedly queer-looking figure--odd, at any rate,to English eyes. The face and hands were very dark, and both cheeks andforehead were tattooed all over with an intricate pattern in red andblue. A magenta silk scarf was tied over the head, completely hiding thehair, and a huge pair of ear-rings drooped over the dusky neck. The girlwas dressed in a bright petticoat, with a striped rug flung round hershoulders; her wrists were loaded with native-looking bangles, and shewore slippers of plaited grass. She took no notice at all when the dooropened, but simply went on reading.
"I'm glad you warned me beforehand," whispered Diccon. "Isn't shepleased to see us?"
"Oh, yes! But she's not used yet to our customs. Remember, she has beenbrought up in New Zealand ways. Rata, here's a visitor to see you,"continued Violet aloud. "Won't you speak to him?"
At this direct appeal, the colonial cousin rose from her stool, andbowed with a certain stately dignity. She did not offer to shake hands,and Diccon, fearful that she might relapse into her old habit of rubbingnoses, kept cautiously in the background.
"You must be awfully glad to come to England," he stammered, for want ofanything else to say.
"It is a great pleasure for me to see my father's country," she repliedin a decidedly foreign accent, "and to meet the relations who are sokind to me. Lady Lorraine promises to take me everywhere. To-day I go totennis and to a dance."
Diccon looked hastily at Violet, who nodded in confirmation.
"The Tracys 'phoned asking us to go to tennis at The Chase thisafternoon, and wouldn't take a refusal. They said we must bring you andRata with us, and that we must all stay to supper, and they would have alittle dancing afterwards; just May's and Frank's friends."
"I believe I ought to show up at a Band of Hope meeting at six o'clock,"declared Diccon desperately.
"What rubbish! You certainly won't be needed there. We've told theTracys you're coming with us; they'll be offended if you don't. Fatherand Mother are getting ready now. We've ordered the car for half-pastthree. I wonder how the sets will be arranged this afternoon? You're agood player, Diccon, so you'd better take Rata. She hasn't had muchpractice in English courts, so you must look after her and teach her."
Diccon's face was a study.
"Wouldn't your cousin have learnt better on the lawn here?" he urgedeagerly.
"Oh, no! She'll enjoy going to the Tracys, and I'm sure you'll be ableto give her hints. By the by, we want her to have a nice time at thedance afterwards, and plenty of partners. Will you ask her for the firstwaltz? It's always well to fill up one's programme beforehand."
"I'm--I'm afraid really I shan't be able to stay for the dance,"stammered Diccon. "Shan't have any togs with me, you see."
"That's all right," returned the inexorable Violet. "We've sent Fletcherto the Vicarage to ask your mother to pack your bag with anything you'llneed. Rata, this is your partner for the first waltz. You won't forget?"
"No, no, I not forget," replied the soft foreign voice.
"Run and get ready now, dear! We mustn't be long. Mildred and I aregoing to put on our hats and coats. You'll wait here for us, Diccon,won't you?"
The girls walked away with their extraordinary foreign guest, and Dicconremained in the gun-room in a very dejected and disconsolate frame ofmind. He would have "done a bolt", but he did not care to risk offendingthe Lorraines. He was accustomed to Violet's autocratic ways, and knewthat she would not forgive him if he refused to fall in with her wishes.Yet his very hair rose on end at the idea of going out for the afternoonand evening in the company of this New Zealand damsel, to whom he wasexpected to pay so much attention.
"I don't know how the Lorraines can stand it," he thought. "If I hadsuch a cousin thrust on me, I'd die of shame."
So far from seeming ashamed of her outlandish relation, Violet evidentlyregarded her with the utmost complacency. Rata herself did not seem torealize that her appearance was singular; perhaps, indeed, sheconsidered it more pleasing than that of her European friends, and waslonging to suggest tattooing as an aid to beauty. Nevertheless, thatDiccon, a member of his school cricket team and the winner of threesilver cups, should be required to play tennis and to dance with thisindescribable savage was an outrage on his feelings. Why, he would be alaughing-stock! If anyone else would take the first turn with her, hewould not mind quite so much, but to make a start! Oh, it was sickening!He would have shammed illness if there had been the slightest chance ofbeing believed. If he did not look pale, he looked decidedly sulky asViolet came downstairs into the hall.
"Here we are!" she sa
id sweetly. "I'm afraid we've kept you waiting alittle. You see, it took rather a long time to change Rata's dress. Shedecided, after all, that she wouldn't go to the Tracys in Maoricostume."
Diccon turned, and could not restrain a gasp of surprise. Instead of theextraordinary native, Violet and Mildred were accompanied by a verypretty and elegantly-dressed girl of their own age, whose brown eyeswere gazing at him with politely restrained amusement. Not a trace oftattoo marks upon that white forehead or those rose-leaf cheeks. Theear-rings were gone, also the magenta scarf, and her brown hair was tiedat the back with a white ribbon.
"Good night!" exclaimed Diccon, subsiding weakly into a chair.
Then the three girls exploded, and laughed till they grew almosthysterical.
"It serves you right, Diccon!" gurgled Violet. "We've paid you out forthe trick you played on Mildred at the Keep. Oh, I never thought we'dtake you in so well. You believed every word, and looked so deliciouslydumbfounded."
"Well, I'd heard before that Lady Lorraine's uncle had married a NewZealander," retorted Diccon.
"So he did, but she was a settler, not a Maori. Aunt Margaret Fowler wasa daughter of General Berkeley, who distinguished himself very much inthe native wars, on the British side, please! Our cousins are Colonials,but they're as Anglo-Saxon as we are by birth. By the by, Rata is only apet name. I must introduce Enid properly--Miss Fowler!"
"I hope you liked my get-up?" enquired Enid, without a trace of theforeign accent. "It was rather elaborate, but we flatter ourselves itrepaid our trouble."
"How did you do it?"
"We evolved it amongst us. I rubbed my face and hands with glycerine,and then powdered them with cocoa. It gave just the right Maoricomplexion. As for the tattooing, Mildred painted it. She copied it froma picture of a Maori woman in this New Zealand magazine, and I told herwhat colours to use. She did it splendidly. I felt loath to wash it off.We tied on the ear-rings with silk thread, and a few shawls and scarvesand bangles did the rest."
"We might have had more fun out of it," said Violet regretfully. "Iwanted to ask you to lunch, and for Rata to come to table in Maoricostume. We'd planned that she was to talk about all sorts of old savagenative customs. I did so hope you'd ask if she were still a heathen! ButMother said she and Father would never keep their faces, and theservants would have fits, so she wouldn't let me try the experiment.Admit now, Diccon, that it's 'the biter bit', and that you were just asmuch taken in as Mildred was at Tiverton Keep. Here's the car! Don'tforget, by the by, that you've asked Enid for the first waltz."