the back attic.
"I don't know that I want to let it," said Mrs Dawson. "We're chockfull now and you and Mary Anne are worked off your legs."
"That we are, ma'am; but we don't mind if you should wish to fill theroom," answered the good-natured girl. "It's the season, and every oneshould have their innings. She seems an easy-satisfied sort of body--aFrenchy, I should take it, from her style of talk."
Here there came a clear, piercing voice at the very door of MrsDawson's private sitting-room. This sitting-room was the smallestapartment imaginable. It faced west too, and was hot at the presentmoment with the afternoon sun.
"_Pardonnez--pardonnez_" said the voice; "I do so want that_appartement_ that your _domestique_ did mention. I mind not the heat--oh, not in the very least. I am from _la belle France_, where the daysare hotter than your English days, and the sun more bright, and theworld more gay."
Here Mademoiselle boldly entered the room and came up to Mrs Dawson.
"I am a poor Frenchwoman, out for a little recreation. My funds are ofthe most _petits_, and I am satisfied with the very least that cancontent any mortal. May I see the _appartement_ so minute, and judgefor myself if it will suffice?"
Mrs Dawson eyed the visitor with scant favour. She disliked foreignerswith all an Englishwoman's prejudice, and wondered how Miss Price, andin particular Mrs Simpkins--who had the best rooms in the house, owingto the needs of her large family--would like to associate with the"Frenchy." She was, therefore, distinctly cold.
"I told my servant to tell you, Mademoiselle,"--Mrs Dawson's lipsquivered over the name; she had not pronounced it for many a longday--"that my house was full."
"But not replete," said Mademoiselle with avidity. "She did let out,that faithful one, that there was one _appartement triste_ in yourbeautiful villa. I feel that I should be at home here. It is wonderfulwhen we feel that drawing of the heart towards certain of ourfellow-creatures. I should love to be a member of your little family.I should make myself _tres-agreable_: I should converse in the brokenEnglish which makes your folk laugh. We of the French tongue neverlaugh at your mistakes when you try to copy us. But I mind not that. Ilike you to laugh. May I see the chamber and decide for myself?"
"Well, if you are satisfied," said Mrs Dawson, "I of course want tomake as much money as I can. The room is at the very top of the house,and I have stowed away one or two boxes just under the roof. I hardlyever let it because it faces due west and the slates get so hot peoplecomplain that they can't sleep in it of nights. It's next door, also,to a large attic where three young ladies and their governess sleep.You mayn't even find quiet in the little room."
"I mind not," said Mademoiselle, "I am accustomed to the vagaries of theyouthful. I am indeed a teacher from that most distinguished school,Hazlitt Chase. My dear pupil, Penelope Carlton, and I, came toMarshlands two nights ago, she to visit my dear and most beloved pupil,Miss Honora Beverley, and I to search for a meagre _appartement_ in thecheapest part of your gay and sparkling town. I find not what I want.I roam abroad to-day to seek for fresh quarters. I see your house socool, so chaste, so--if I may use the word--refined. I say to myself--here is a home, here is a rest: I mind not the hot attic, for by day, atleast, I shall be happy."
"Oh, if you know Miss Beverley, that makes all the difference," saidMrs Dawson. Her manner changed on the spot. "It is strange," shecontinued, "that you should come from the school where Miss Beverley isbeing educated, and it is still stranger that the sister of one of yourpupils should be at the present moment occupying the room next to thewest attic. She is an exceedingly pretty young lady, and remarkablywell off. She's a governess to three little pupils, and they're wellsupplied with not only the necessaries, but the luxuries of life. Evenjewellery of the best sort isn't denied them. But there--what achatterbox I am! Jane, take this lady up to the western attic, and lether decide whether she will be satisfied to sleep there." Jane and thevoluble Mademoiselle climbed the weary stairs up to the attic which, atthe present moment, must have registered ninety degrees in the shade.Even Mademoiselle gasped a trifle as she entered the tiny room; but shewas too glad to be in the same house with Brenda Carlton not to put upwith some personal discomforts. She, accordingly, decided to engage theapartment; told Jane that her luggage of the most modest would arrivewithin an hour and went down to interview Mrs Dawson.
"You do deprecate yourself, dear Madame," she said. "Your room you sodespise is to me a haven of rest. It is doubtless what might be calledhot, but what of that? It belongs to a home, and I _shall_--I feel it--be happy under your roof."
"My terms," said Mrs Dawson, "are--"
Mademoiselle puckered her brows with anxiety. "You would not be hard ona poor French governess," she said. "She would make herself_tres-agreable_: she would tell stories of the most witty at your dinnertable: she would make your visitors laugh and laugh again. She wouldinstruct you in that cooking of _la belle France_ which you English knowso little about. She would offer herself to market for you in the landof these broiling July days. You will not be hard on one at once sopoor and so useful."
"I charge the ladies in the front attic a guinea a week each," said MrsDawson.
"But that chamber is _magnifique_!" cried Mademoiselle. "I asked yourmost delightful Jane to show it to me, and I was struck by its size andthe beautiful draught that blew through it. Indeed, it is cheap--verycheap--to live in such a room in the very height of the season for sosmall a sum. But the western attic, Madame, you will not charge thepoor lonely foreigner as much for the western attic?"
After considerable chaffering on both sides, Mrs Dawson decided thatshe would give Mademoiselle the stifling western attic for eighteen andsixpence per week. This sum, of course, was to include her board. TheFrench teacher considered matters carefully for a minute, then said witha smile:
"Ah, well! I must perforce agree. It is large--it is ruinous! Butwhat shall I do? Where there is no choice, one must put up with theinevitable. I will do for you, Madame, all that I would have done hadyou taken this lonely one for twelve or fifteen shillings a week. Iwill still entertain your visitors, and teach you the recipes of my ownland, and go errands for you and make myself, in truth, your valuedfriend."
"Thank you, very much," said Mrs Dawson, "but it isn't my habit totrouble my visitors. Of course I always value a pleasant person attable, but otherwise I do my own housekeeping and I go my own messages."
"Ah--Madame! you know me not yet. You will yet esteem my services.What a delicious cool _appartement_ is your own!"
The room was steaming hot, and poor Mrs Dawson's face testified to thefact. Mademoiselle, however, was in the best of humours. She hurriedaway to fetch her luggage--that small packet which she had carried inone hand while she dragged Pauline Hungerford along the platform withthe other; and she had sat down and made herself quite one of the familyby the time supper was announced.
During supper, she caused the entire company to convulse with laughter.She told one funny story after another, entreating them to laugh theirhearts full and not to mind her poor English, which she would speakbetter if she knew how. In short, she was established as a mostagreeable addition to Number 9, Palliser Gardens by the time theBeverleys' wagonette drew up at the door with the three little Amberleysand Brenda Carlton ensconced within.
As the ladies had gone out to see Miss Carlton off, so did the ladiesonce more reassemble to witness Miss Carlton's return. She was certainthat she would feel to her dying day that she had achieved this, atleast, with flying colours. The very look of the coachman on the boxand of the footman as he flung open the door and helped the threeawkward girls to descend, had such a paralysing effect upon the membersof Mrs Dawson's boarding-house, that they were all silent for a moment.
"That will do," said Brenda, as she shook out her white skirts on thesteps.
Then the coachman turned homewards, and after that, all tongues wereloosened. Brenda was almost carried into the house by the otherboarders.
"Come straight into the drawing-room," said Miss Price, "and tell us allabout it. Oh, by the way, may I introduce you to a most charmingaddition to our circle, Mademoiselle d'Etienne. Mademoiselle arrivedto-day. Mademoiselle, this is Miss Brenda Carlton."
"I have the so great pleasure to know your sister," said Mademoiselle,in a small, distinct voice, fixing her black eyes on Brenda's face.
"You know Penelope?" cried Brenda.
"I have the so immense honour to educate that fascinating young lady inthat elegant tongue of my beloved France. She is an obedient pupil anddoes to me credit."
Brenda felt