the pleasure of hoping for ease and enjoyment taken away.
When she came down, she found her aunt--as she believed--warning her uncle against her being left to herself; and then came, 'If she should be too much for Emily, only send a note, and Bartley or I will come to fetch her home.'
'She wants him to think me a little wild beast!' thought Kate; but her uncle answered, 'Emily always knows how to deal with children. Good-bye.'
'To deal with children! What did that mean?' thought the Countess, as she stepped along by the side of her uncle, not venturing to speak, and feeling almost as shy and bewildered as when she was on the world alone.
He did not speak, but when they came to a crossing of a main street, he took her by the hand; and there was something protecting and comfortable in the feel, so that she did not let go; and presently, as she walked on, she felt the fingers close on hers with such a quick tight squeeze, that she looked up in a fright and met the dark eye turned on her quite soft and glistening. She did not guess how he was thinking of little clasping hands that had held there before; and he only said something rather hurriedly about avoiding some coals that were being taken in through a round hole in the pavement.
Soon they were at the hotel; and Mrs. Umfraville came out of her room with that greeting which Kate liked so much, helped her to take off her cloak and smooth her hair, and then set her down to breakfast.
It was a silent meal to Kate. Her uncle and aunt had letters to read, and things to consult about that she did not understand; but all the time there was a kind watch kept up that she had what she liked; and Aunt Emily's voice was so much like the deep notes of the wood-pigeons round Oldburgh, that she did not care how long she listened to it, even if it had been talking Hindostanee!
As soon as breakfast was over, the Colonel took up his hat and went out; and Mrs. Umfraville said, turning to Kate, 'Now, my dear, I have something for you to help me in; I want to unpack some things that I have brought home.'
'Oh, I shall like that!' said Kate, feeling as if a weight was gone with the grave uncle.
Mrs. Umfraville rang, and asked to have a certain box brought in. Such a box, all smelling of choice Indian wood; the very shavings that stuffed it were delightful! And what an unpacking! It was like nothing but the Indian stall at the Baker Street Bazaar! There were two beautiful large ivory work-boxes, inlaid with stripes and circles of tiny mosaic; and there were even more delicious little boxes of soft fragrant sandal wood, and a set of chessmen in ivory. The kings were riding on elephants, with canopies over their heads, and ladders to climb up by; and each elephant had a tiger in his trunk. Then the queens were not queens, but grand viziers, because the queen is nobody in the East: and each had a lesser elephant; the bishops were men riding on still smaller elephants; the castles had camels, the knights horses; and the pawns were little foot-soldiers, the white ones with guns, as being European troops, the red ones with bows and arrows. Kate was perfectly delighted with these men, and looked at and admired them one by one, longing to play a game with them. Then there was one of those wonderful clusters of Chinese ivory balls, all loose, one within the other, carved in different patterns of network, and there were shells spotted and pink-mouthed, card-cases, red shining boxes, queer Indian dolls; figures in all manner of costumes, in gorgeous colours, painted upon shining transparent talc or on soft rice-paper. There was no describing how charming the sight was, nor how Kate dwelt upon each article; and how pleasantly her aunt explained what it was intended for, and where it came from, answering all questions in the nicest, kindest way. When all the wool and shavings had been pinched, and the curled-up toes of the slippers explored, so as to make sure that no tiny shell nor ivory carving lurked unseen, the room looked like a museum; and Mrs. Umfraville said, 'Most of these things were meant for our home friends: there is an Indian scarf and a Cashmere shawl for your two aunts, and I believe the chessmen are for Lord de la Poer.'
'O Aunt Emily, I should so like to play one game with them before they go!'
'I will have one with you, if you can be very careful of their tender points,' said Mrs. Umfraville, without one of the objections that Kate had expected; 'but first I want you to help me about some of the other things. Your uncle meant one of the work-boxes for you!'
'O Aunt Emily, how delightful! I really will work, with such a dear beautiful box!' cried Kate, opening it, and again peeping into all its little holes and contrivances. 'Here is the very place for a dormouse to sleep in! And who is the other for?'
'For Fanny de la Poer, who is his godchild.'
'Oh, I am so glad! Fanny always has such nice pretty work about!'
'And now I want you to help me to choose the other presents. There; these,' pointing to a scarf and a muslin dress adorned with the wings of diamond beetles, 'are for some young cousins of my own; but you will be able best to choose what the other De la Poers and your cousins at Oldburgh would like best.'
'My cousins at Oldburgh!' cried Kate. 'May they have some of these pretty things?' And as her aunt answered 'We hope they will,' Kate flew at her, and hugged her quite tight round the throat; then, when Mrs. Umfraville undid the clasp, and returned the kiss, she went like an India-rubber ball with a backward bound, put her hands together over her head, and gasped out, 'Oh, thank you, thank you!'
'My dear, don't go quite mad. You will jump into that calabash, and then it won't be fit for anybody. Are you so very glad?'
'Oh! so glad! Pretty things do come so seldom to Oldburgh!'
'Well, we thought you might like to send Miss Wardour this shawl.'
It was a beautiful heavy shawl of the soft wool of the Cashmere goats; really of every kind of brilliant hue, but so dexterously blended together, that the whole looked dark and sober. But Kate did not look with favour on the shawl.
'A shawl is so stupid,' she said. 'If you please, I had rather Mary had the work-box.'
'But the work-box is for Lady Fanny.'
'Oh! but I meant my own,' said Kate earnestly. 'If you only knew what a pity it is to give nice things to me; they always get into such a mess. Now, Mary always has her things so nice; and she works so beautifully; she has never let Lily wear a stitch but of her setting; and she always wished for a box like this. One of her friends at school had a little one; and she used to say, when we played at roe's egg, that she wanted nothing but an ivory work-box; and she has nothing but an old blue one, with the steel turned black!'
'We must hear what your uncle says, for you must know that he meant the box for you.'
'It isn't that I don't care for it,' said Kate, with a sudden glistening in her eyes; 'it is because I do care for it so very much that I want Mary to have it.'
'I know it is, my dear;' and her aunt kissed her; 'but we must think about it a little. Perhaps Mary would not think an Indian shawl quite so stupid as you do.'
'Mary isn't a nasty vain conceited girl!' cried Kate indignantly. 'She always looks nice; but I heard Papa say her dress did not cost much more than Sylvia's and mine, because she never tore anything, and took such care!'
'Well, we will see,' said Mrs. Umfraville, perhaps not entirely convinced that the shawl would not be a greater prize to the thrifty girl than Kate perceived.
Kate meanwhile had sprung unmolested on a beautiful sandalwood case for Sylvia, and a set of rice-paper pictures for Lily; and the appropriating other treasures to the De la Poers, packing them up, and directing them, accompanied with explanations of their habits and tastes, lasted till so late, that after the litter was cleared away there was only time for one game at chess with the grand pieces; and in truth the honour of using them was greater than the pleasure. They covered up the board, so that there was no seeing the squares, and it was necessary to be most inconveniently cautious in lifting them. They were made to be looked at, not played with; and yet, wonderful to relate, Kate did not do one of the delicate things a mischief!
Was it that she was really grown more handy, or was it that with this gentle aunt she was quite at her ease, yet too much subdued to be careless and rough?
The luncheon came; and after it, she drove with her aunt first to a few shops, and then to take up the Colonel, who had been with his lawyer. Kate quaked a little inwardly, lest it should be about the Lord Chancellor, and tried to frame a question on the subject to her aunt; but even the most chattering little girls know what it is to have their lips sealed by an odd sort of reserve upon the very matters that make them most uneasy; and just because her wild imagination had been thinking that perhaps this was all a plot to waylay her into the Lord Chancellor's clutches, she could not utter a word on the matter, while they drove through the quiet squares where lawyers live.
Mrs. Umfraville, however, soon put that out of her head by talking to her about the Wardours, and setting open the flood gates of her eloquence about Sylvia. So delightful was it to have a listener, that Kate did not grow
