'Yes. We just ran over to see Mrs. Lucas, and as we were coming home, a poor woman besought us to buy two toasting-forks and a mouse- trap, by way of ornament to brandish in the streets. She looked so frightfully wretched, that mother let her follow, and is having it out with her at the door. So you are from Fordham, Cecil; I see and I smell. How are they?'
'Duke is rather brisk. I actually got him out shooting yesterday, but he didn't half like it, and was thankful when I let him go home again. See, Sydney said I was to tell you that passion-flower came from the plant she brought from Algiers.'
'The beauty! It must go into Mrs. Evelyn's Venice glass,' said Babie, bustling about to collect her vases.
Lina, with a cry of delight, clutched at a spray of butterfly-like mauve and white orchids, in spite of her sister's gentle 'No, no, Lina, you must not touch.'
Babie offered some China asters in its stead, Cecil muttered 'Let her have it;' but Esther was firm in making her relinquish it, and when she began to cry, led her away with pretty tender gestures of mingled comfort and reproof.
'Poor little thing,' said Babie, 'she is sadly fretful. Nobody but Essie can manage her.'
'I should think not!' said Cecil, looking after the vision, as if he did not know what he was saying. 'You never told me you had any one like _that_ in the family?'
'O yes; there are two of them, as much alike as two peas.'
'What! the Monk's sisters?'
'To be sure. They are a comely family; all but poor little Lina.'
'Will they be long here ?'
'That depends. That poor little mite is the youngest but one, and the nurse likes boys best. So she peaked and pined, and was bullied by Edmund above and Harry below, and was always in trouble. Nobody but Johnny and Essie ever had a good word for her. This autumn it came to a crisis. You know we had a great meeting of the two families at Walmer, and there, the shock of bathing nearly took out of her all the little life there was. I believe she would have gone into fits if mother had not heard her screams, and dashed on the nurse like a vindictive mermaid, and then made uncle Robert believe her. My aunt trusts the nurse, you must know, and lets her ride rough-shod over every one in the nursery. The poor little thing was always whining and fretting whenever she was not in Essie's arms or the Monk's, till the Monk declared she had a spine, and he and mother gave uncle and aunt no peace till they brought her here for advice, and sure enough her poor little spine is all wrong, and will never be good for anything without a regular course of watching and treatment. So we have her here with Essie to look after her for as long as Sir Edward Fane wants to keep her under him, and you can't think what a nice little mortal she turns out to be now she is rescued from nurse and those little ruffians of brothers.'
'That's first-rate,' remarked Cecil.
'The eucharis and maiden-hair, is it not? I must keep some sprays for our hairs to-night.'
'Is any one coming to-night?'
'The promiscuous herd. Oh, didn't you know? Our Johns told mother it would be no end of kindness to let them bring in a sprinkling of their fellow-students-poor lads that live poked up in lodgings, and never see a lady or any civilisation all through the term. So she took to having them on Thursday once a fortnight, and Dr. Medlicott was perfectly delighted, and said she could not do a better work; and it is such fun! We don't have them unmitigated, we get other people to enliven them. The Actons are coming, and I hope Mr. Esdale is coming to-night to show us his photographs of the lost cities in Central America. You'll stay, won't you?'
'If Mrs. Brownlow will let me. I hope your toasting-fork woman has not spirited her away?'
'Under the eyes of your horse and man.'
'Are you all at home? And has Allen finished his novel?'
Babie laughed, and said-
'Poor Ali! You see there comes a fresh blight whenever it begins to bud.'
'What has that wretched girl been doing now?'
'Oh, don't you know? The yacht had to be overhauled, so they went to Florence instead, and have been wandering about in all the resorts of rather shady people, where Lisette can cut a figure. Mr. Wakefield is terribly afraid that even poor Mr. Gould himself is taking to gambling for want of something to do. There are always reports coming of Elfie taking up with some count or baron. It was a Russian prince last time, and then Ali goes down into the very lowest depths, and can't do anything but smoke. You know that's good for blighted beings. I cure my plants by putting them into his room surreptitiously.'
'You are a hard-hearted little mortal, Babie. Ah, there's the bell!'
Mrs. Brownlow came in with the two Johns, who had joined her just as she had finished talking to the poor woman; Jock carried off his friend to dress, and Babie, after finishing her arrangements and making the most of every fragment of flower or leaf, repaired with a selection of delicate sprays, to the room where Esther, having put her little sister to bed, was dressing for dinner. She was eager to tell of her alarm at the invasion, and of Captain Evelyn's good nature when she had expected him to be proud and disagreeable.
'He wanted to be,' said Babie, 'but honest nature was too strong for him.'
'Johnny was so angry at the way he treated Jock.'
'O, we quite forget all that. Poor fellow! it was a mistaken reading of noblesse oblige, and he is very much ashamed of it. There, let me put this fern and fuchsia into your hair. I'll try to do it as well as Ellie would.'
She did so, and better, being more dainty-fingered, and having more taste. It really was an artistic pleasure to deal with such beautiful hair, and such a lovely lay figure as Esther's. With all her queenly beauty and grace, the girl had that simplicity and sedateness which often goes with regularity of feature, and was hardly conscious of the admiration she excited. Her good looks were those of the family, and Kenminster was used to them. This was her first evening of company, for on the only previous occasion her little sister had been unwell, sleepless and miserable in the strange house, and she had begged off. She was very shy now, and could not go down without Barbara's protection, so, at the last moment before dinner, the little brown fairy led in the tall, stately maiden, all in white, with the bright fuchsias and delicate fern in her dark hair, and a creamy rose, set off by a few more in her bosom.
Babie exulted in her work, and as her mother beheld Cecil's raptured glance and the incarnadine glow it called up, she guessed all that would follow in one rapid prevision, accompanied by a sharp pang for her son in Japan. It was not in her maternal heart not to hope almost against her will that some fibre had been touched by Bobus that would be irresponsive to others, but duty and loyalty alike forbade the slightest attempt to revive the thought of the poor absentee, and she must steel herself to see things take their course, and own it for the best.
Esther was a silent damsel. The clash of keen wits and exchange of family repartee were quite beyond her. She had often wondered whether her cousins were quarrelling, and had been only reassured by seeing them so merry and friendly, and her own brother bearing his part as naturally as the rest. She was more scandalised than ever to- day, for it absolutely seemed to her that they were all treating Captain Evelyn, long moustache and all, like a mere family butt, certainly worse than they would have treated one of her own brothers, for Rob would have sulked, and Joe, or any of the younger ones, might have been dangerous, whereas this distinguished-looking personage bore all as angelically as befitted one called by such a charming appellation as the Honourable Cecil Evelyn.
'How about the shooting, Cecil? Sydney said you had not very good sport.'
'Why-no, not till I joined Rainsforth's party.'
'Where was your moor?'
'In Lanarkshire,' rather unwillingly.
'Eh,' said Allen, in a peculiar soft languid tone, that meant diversion. 'Near L--?'
'Yes.'
Then Jock burst out into laughter inexplicable at first, but Allen made his voice gentler and graver, as he said, 'You don't mean Kilnaught?' and then he too joined Jock in laughter, as the latter cried-
'Another victim to McNab of Kilnaught! He certainly is the canniest of Scots.'
'He revenges the wrongs of Scotland on innocent young Guardsmen.'
'Well, I'm sure there could not be a more promising advertisement.'
'That's just it!' said Jock. 'Moor and moss. How many acres of heather?'
'How was I to expect a man of family to be a regular swindler?'
'Hush! hush, my dear fellow! Roderick Dhu was a man of family. It is the modern form.'
'But I saw his keeper.'
