A College Girl by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey (reading in the dark .TXT) đ
- Author: Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
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âSo likely!â sneered Clemence with a fine disdain. âGive up all the fun and excitement of the sea with the Vernons, to browse with Aunt Maria. So likely, to be sure!â
âPoor dear old love! She is deluded. Thinks it would be a pleasure and benefit, does she. I wouldnât take a thousand poundsââ
Thus Lavender. Darsie went a step farther in tragic declamation.
âIâd drown myself first! To sit thereâpanting, in hot rooms, on Bengerâs food, and know that all the others were bathing and running wild on the shoreâIâd burst! Iâd run away in an hourââ
âDears, itâs a beautiful old place. There are gardens, and lawns, and horses, and dogs. Cows, too! I am sure there are cowsâshe used to keep a herd of Jerseys. You could see them being milked.â
âWelsh cows are good enough for me. I donât need Jerseys. Or lawns! Give me the free, untrammelled countryside!
ââAnd to see it reflected in eyes that I love.ââ
Darsie paraphrased a line of the sweet old ballad, singing it in a clear, bell-like voice to a pantomime of clasped hands and rolling eyes. âIt would be bad enough in an ordinary year, but to rend us apart from the Vernonsâoh, no, itâs unthinkable!â
âYou have the Vernons near you all the year, dear. Aunt Maria only asks for eight weeks. There are occasions in life when it does not do to think only of our own pleasure.â
Silence. A note in the motherâs voice had startled her hearers into the conviction that the invitation must be regarded seriously, and not tossed aside as a joke. A lacerating suspicion that the authorities were in favour of an acceptance pierced like a dart.
âMother! What do you mean? You couldnât possibly be so cruelââ
âMother, you donât meanâ.â
âMother, what do you mean?â
âI mean that you ought to go, dears, which ever one of you is asked. Aunt Maria is an old lady, and she is lonely. Her doctor has ordered cheerful companionship. Moreover, she has been a kind friend to father in the past, and has a right to expect some consideration in return. If you went in the right spirit, you could be of real use and comfort, and would have the satisfaction of doing a kind deed.â
Darsie set her lips in a straight line, and tilted her chin in the air.
âCouldnât pretend to go in the right spirit! Iâd be in a tearing rage. Somebody else can have the âsatisfaction,â and Iâll go to the sea.â
âDarsie, dear, thatâs naughty!â
âI feel naughty, mother. âNaughtyâ is a mild word. Savage! I feel savage. Itâs too appalling. What does father say? Iâm sure he would neverââ
âFather feels as I do; very disappointed for our own sakes and for yours that our happy party should be disturbed, but he never shirks a disagreeable duty himself, and he expects his children to follow his example.â
Lavender instantly burst into tears.
âItâs always the wayâalways the way! It was too good to be true. We might have known that it was. Sheâll choose me, and Hannah will go without me. Weâd planned every dayâfishing, and bathing, and making hay, and I shall be mewed up in a close carriage, and have meals of nutsâand nânânobody to talk to. Oh, I canâtâI canât bear it! I wish I could die and be buriedâI cannot bear itââ
âYou wonât have to bear it. Sheâll choose me. Iâm the eldest, and the most of a companion.â Clemence spoke with the calmness of despair, her plump cheeks whitening visibly, her pale eyes showing a flush of red around the lids. âOf course, if itâs my duty, I must goâbut Iâd as soon be sent to prison! Iâm feeling very tired, and thought the holiday would set me up. Now, of course, I shall be worse. Eight weeks alone with Aunt Maria would try anybodyâs nerves. I shall be a wreck all winter, and have neuralgia till Iâm nearly mad.â
âNonsense, darling! If you are so tired, the rest and quiet of The Towers will be just what you need; and as we donât know yet which one of you Aunt Maria will wish as a companion, it is a pity for you all to make yourselves miserable at once. Why not try to forget, and hope for the best! Surely that would be the wiser plan.â
The three girls looked at each other in eloquent silence. Easy to talk. Forget, indeed. As if they could! Mother didnât really believe what she said. She was making the best of it, and there were occasions when making the best of it seemed just the most aggravating thing one could do.
It was a relief to the girls when Mrs Garnett was summoned from the room on household business, and they were left to themselves. A craving for sympathy was the predominant sensation, and prompted the suggestion, âLetâs wire to the Vernons,â which was followed by a stampede upstairs. The telegraph was a sufficiently new institution to appear a pleasure rather than a toil, even though a message thus dispatched was an infinitely longer and more laborious effort than a run round the terrace, so to-day a leaf was torn from the note-book, a dramatic announcement penned and placed in the hanging-bag, with its jingling bell of warning, and the three girls took it in turns to pull at the cord till the missive arrived at its destination. Attracted by the sound of the bell, Vie and plain Hannah stood at the window awaiting the communication, read over its contents, and stood silent and dismayed. The Garnetts, watching from afar, realised the dramatic nature of that pause, and thrilled in sympathy.
âOne of us is going to be sent to prison instead of to the country!â
âPrison!â Vie and plain Hannah wagged their heads over the cipher, hesitated long, pencil in hand, and, finally, in a frenzy of impatience, which refused to be curbed even by loyalty to the telegraph itself, dispatched an urgent summons to speechâ
âCome round and talk!â
The Garnetts flew. The Vernons, waiting upon the doorstep, escorted them upstairs to the scantily furnished room which had first been a nursery, then promoted to playroom, and, ultimately, when the more juvenile name wounded the susceptibilities of its inmates, had become definitely and proudly âthe study.â The bureau in the corner was Danâs special property, and might not be touched by so much as a finger-tip. The oak table with three sound legs and a halting fourth, supported by an ancient volume of Good Words, was Vieâs property; John and plain Hannah shared the dining-table, covered with the shabby green baize cloth, which stood in the centre of the room. There were a variety of uncomfortable chairs, an ink-splashed drugget, and red walls covered with pictures which had been banished from other rooms as they acquired the requisite stage of decrepitude and grime.
The five girls surged into the room, faced each other, and burst into eager speechâ
âWhoâs going to prison?â
âWe donât know. Wish we did!â
âWhat do you mean by prison?â
âAunt Mariaâs!â
âLady Mariaâs?â
âLady Mariaâs! One of us has to go and stay with her for eight weeks instead of going with you to the sea.â
Vie Vernon collapsed on to the nearest chair, and gasped for breath. âStu-pendous!â she murmured beneath her breath. Vie had a new word each season which she used to describe every situation, good and bad. The season before it had been âWeird!â this season it was âStupendous,â and she was thankful for the extra syllable in this moment of emotion. âItâs really true? You mean it in earnest? Why?â
âThinks it would be a pleasure to us, and that we should be cheery companions. So likely, isnât it?â
âButâbut surely your motherâ What does she say?â
âPreaches! Oughtnât to think of ourselves. Ought to show a right spirit and go.â
âStu-pendous!â cried Vie once again. Plain Hannah hoisted herself on to the corner of the table, and hunched herself in thought. She really was extraordinarily plain. Looking at her critically, it seemed that everything that should have been a line had turned into a curve, and everything that should have been a curve into a line; she was thick-set, clumsy, awkward in gait, her eyes were small, her mouth was large, she had a meagre wisp of putty-coloured hair, and preposterously thick eyebrows several shades darker in hue, and no eyelashes at all. Friends and relations lavished much pity on poor dear Hannahâs unfortunate looks, but never a sigh did Hannah breathe for herself. She was strong and healthy, her sturdy limbs stood her in good stead in the various games and sports in which she delighted, and she would not have exchanged her prowess therein for all the pink cheeks and golden locks in the world. Hannahâs manner, like her appearance, lacked grace and charm; it was abrupt, forceful, and to the point. She spoke now, chin sunk in her grey flannel blouse, arms wrapped round her kneesâ
âIs she coming to see you before she chooses, or will it be done by post?â
âSheâs coming! Two days next week. Isnât it too awful? We were so happyâthe telegraph up, and the weather jolly, and holidays nearly here. âAll unsuspecting of their doom the little victims played.â And thenâthis! Holidays with Aunt Maria! Even the third of a chance turns me cold with dismay. I couldnât bearââ
âYou wonât need to. She wonât have you. Sheâll choose Darsie.â
Darsie squealed in shrillest protestâ
âNo, no! Itâs not fair. She wonât! She canât! Itâs always the eldest or the youngest. Iâm the middleâthe insignificant middle. Why should she choose me?â
âYou are not so modest as a rule! You know perfectly well that strangers always do take more notice of you than any one else. You are always the one who is fussed over and praised.â
âBecause I want to be! This time I shanât. Iâll be just as sulky and horrid as I can for the whole blessed time.â
âYouâll be there anyway, and you canât alter your face.â
âMy fatal beauty!â wailed Darsie, and wrung her hands in impassioned fashion. Then she looked critically from one sister to another, and proceeded to candid criticisms of their charms.
âClemence is not pretty, but sheâs nice! If she did her hair better, and sat up, and had a colour, and didnât poke her chin, sheâd look quite decent. I should think it would be interesting to take some one who needed improving, and see what you could do. Lavenderâs gawky, of course, girls are gawky at her age, but I shouldnât wonder if she grew quite decent-looking in time. Rest and quiet would do wonders!â
âThank you, indeed! You are kind!â The sisters bridled and tossed their heads, by no means appeased by such prognostications of their future charms. âCertainly if she took you, she might teach you to be modest!â
âOh, dear, oh, dear, I donât want any of you to go!â Vie, the peacemaker, rushed to the rescue. She was just sixteen, younger than Clemence, older than Darsie, attached almost equally to the two. Lavender, of course, was quite too young for a companion, but then Lavender and Hannah paired together; if she were absent, Hannah at a loose end would demand entrance into those three-sided conferences which made the joy of life. The fear of such an incursion made Lavender at that moment seem even more precious than her sisters. Vie continued her lament with bitter emphasisâ
âToo badâtoo hardâstupendous! Spoil everything. Horrid interfering old thing! If I were your parents I wouldnâtânot for all the money in the world, I wouldnât sacrifice a child to an old ogre like that! Iâd keep my own children and let them be happy while they could, but, of course, if she talks of duty...! If thereâs one thing more stupendous than
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