'Perhaps, long before, we may be satisfied,' said Lance. 'For the present, I think nothing can be done but endeavour to ascertain the facts.'
'One comfort is,' said Gerald, 'I have gained a sister. I have walked with her to the corner of her place-the marble works, you know-and she really is a jolly little thing, quite innocent of all her mother's tricks, thinking Mrs. Henderson the first of human beings, except perhaps Flight, the aesthetic parson. I should not have selected him, you know, but between them they have kept her quite a white sheet-a Miranda any Ferdinand might be glad to find, and dreading nothing so much as falling into the hands of that awful brute. Caliban himself couldn't have been worse! I have promised her to do what I can to save her-buy her off-anything.'
'Poor child,' said Lance. 'But, Gerald, nothing of this must be said these next few days. We can't put ourselves out of condition for this same raree-show.'
'I'm sure it's a mere abomination to me,' said Gerald disconsolately. 'I can't think why we should be dragged into all this nuisance for what is not even our own concern.'
'I'm sure I thought you the rope that dragged me! At any rate much higher up on it.'
'Well, I never thought you would respond-you, who have enough on your hands at Bexley.'
'One stroke even on the outskirts is a stroke for all the cause.'
'The cause! I don't believe in the cause, whatever it is. What a concatenation now, that you and I should make fools of ourselves in order to stave off the establishment of national education, as if we could, or as if it was worth doing.'
'Then why did you undertake it?'
'Oh, ah! Why, one wants something to do down here, and the Merrifield lot are gone upon it; and I did want to go through the thing again, but now it seems all rot.'
'Nevertheless, having pledged ourselves to the performance, we cannot cry off, and the present duty is to pack dull care away, put all this out of our heads, and regard it as a mere mare's nest as long as possible, and above all not upset Cherry. Remember, let this turn out as it will, you are yourself still, and her own boy, beloved for your father's sake, the joy of our dear brother, and her great comforter. A wretched mistake can never change that.'
Lance's voice was quivering, and Gerald's face worked. Lance gave his hand a squeeze, and found voice to say-
''Hold thee still in the Lord, and abide patiently upon Him.' And meantime be a man over it. It can be done. I have often had to forget.'
CHAPTER XIX. SHOP-DRESSING
But I can't conceive, in this very hot weather, How I'm ever to bring all these people together. T. HOOD.
It was not a day when any one could afford to be upset. It was chiefly spent in welcoming arrivals or in rushing about: on the part of Lance and Gerald in freshly rehearsing each performer, in superintending their stage arrangements, reviewing the dresses, and preparing for one grand final rehearsal; and in the multifarious occupations and anxieties, and above all in the music, Gerald did really forget, or only now and then recollect, that a nightmare was hanging on him, and that his little Mona need not shrink from him in maidenly shyness, but that he might well return her pretty appealing look of confidence.
The only quiet place in the town apparently was Clement Underwood's room, for even Cherry had been whirled off, at first to arrange her own pictures and drawings; and then her wonderful touch made such a difference in the whole appearance of the stall, and her dainty devices were so graceful and effective, that Gillian and Mysie implored her to come and tell them what to do with theirs, where they were struggling with cushions, shawls, and bags, with the somewhat futile assistance of Mr. Armine Brownlow and Captain Armytage, whenever the latter could be spared from the theatrical arrangements, where, as he said, it was a case of parmi les borgnes-for his small experience with the Wills-of-the-Wisp made him valuable.
The stalls were each in what was supposed to represent by turns a Highland bothie or a cave. The art stall was a cave, that the back (really a tool-house) might serve the photographers, and the front was decorated with handsome bits of rock and spar, even ammonites. Poor Fergus could not recover his horror and contempt when his collection of specimens, named and arranged, was very nearly seized upon to fill up interstices, and he was infinitely indebted to Mrs. Grinstead for finding a place where their scientific merits could be appreciated without letting his dirty stones, as Valetta called them, disturb the general effect.
'And my fern-gardens! Oh, Mrs. Grinstead,' cried Mysie, 'please don't send them away to the flower place which Miss Simmonds and the gardeners are making like a nursery garden! They'll snub my poor dear pterises.'
'Certainly we'll make the most of your pterises. Look here. There's an elegant doll, let her lead the family party to survey them. That's right. Oh no, not that giantess! There's a dainty little Dutch lady.'
'Charming. Oh! and here's her boy in a sailor's dress.'
'He is big enough to be her husband, my dear. You had better observe proportions, and put that family nearer the eye.'
'Those dolls!' cried Valetta, 'they were our despair.'
'Make them tell a story, don't you see. Where's that fat red cushion?'
'Oh, that cushion! I put it out of sight because it is such a monster.'
'Yes; it is just like brick-dust enlivened by half-boiled cauliflowers! Never mind, it will be all the better background. Now, I saw a majestic lady reposing somewhere. There, let her sit against it. Oh, she mustn't flop over. Here, that match-box, is it? I pity the person deluded enough to use it! Prop her up with it. Now then, let us have a presentation of ladies-she's a governor's wife in the colonies, you see. Never mind costumes, they may be queer. All that will stand or kneel-that's right. Those that can only sit must hide behind, like poor Marie Antoinette's ladies on the giggling occasion.'
So she went on, full of fun, which made the work doubly delightful to the girls, who darted about while she put the finishing touches, transforming the draperies from the aspect of a rag-and-bone shop, as Jasper had called it, to a wonderful quaint and pretty fairy bower, backed by the Indian scenes sent by Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Underwood, and that other lovely one of Primrose's pasture. There the merry musical laugh of her youth was to be heard, as General Mohun came out with Lancelot to make a raid, order the whole party to come and eat luncheon at Beechcroft Cottage, and not let Mrs. Grinstead come out again.
'Oh, but I must finish up Bernard's clay costume figures. Look at the expression of that delightful dollie! I'm sure he is watching the khitmutgars.
'Above on tallest trees remote Green Ayahs perched alone; And all night long the Mussah moaned In melancholy tone.'
Oh, don't you know Lear's poem? Can't we illustrate it?'
'Cherry, Cherry, you'll be half dead to-morrow.'
'Well, if I am, this is the real fun. I shan't see the destruction.'
Lance had her arm in his grip to take her over the bridge over the wall, when up rushed Kitty Varley.
'Oh, if Mrs. Grinstead would come and look at our stall and set it right! Miss Vanderkist gave us hopes.'
'Perhaps-'
'Now, Cherry, don't you know that you are not to be knocked up! There are the Travises going to bring unlimited Vanderkists.'
'Oh yes, I know; but there's renovation in breaths from Vale Leston, and I really am of some use here.' Her voice really had a gay ring in it. 'It is such fun too! Where's Gerald?'
'Having a smoke with the buccaneer captain. Oh, Miss Mohun, here's my sister, so enamoured of the bazaar I could hardly get her in.'
'And oh! she is so clever and delightful. She has made our stall the most enchanting place,' cried Primrose, dancing round. 'Mamma, you must come and have it all explained to you.'
'The very sight is supposed to be worth a shilling extra,' said General Mohun, while Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, taking possession of her, hoped she was not tired; and Gillian, who had been wont to consider her as her private property, began to reprove her sisters for having engrossed her while she herself was occupied in helping the Hendersons with their art stall.
'The truth is,' said Lance, 'that this is my sister's first bazaar, and so dear is the work to the female mind, that
