“Blue – silk!” exclaimed all three.
“Silk, Brenda? But surely your money – I mean your salary, poor darling, doesn’t run to that!” cried Nina, who had a more caressing way than her sisters.
“Whether my salary runs to it or not, I mean to get it,” said Brenda – “a very pale shade and plenty of white lace with it, and a white lace scarf, such as is worn so much now, on my shoulders. Ah, your governess will look one of the prettiest girls at the fête, and won’t you be pleased, mes enfants?”
Brenda scarcely knew a word of French, but was fond of interlarding her conversation with a few simple sentences. These had an excellent effect as far as the Reverend Josiah was concerned, but the girls had no respect for them, being well aware of the shallowness of their darling Brenda’s pretensions with regard to the French tongue.
“Well,” said Nina – “and how are you going to get the dress?”
“I am going now – in a few minutes – to see your father, and will ask him to let us have the pony and trap. Then we can all drive to Rocheford, where there is a very good draper’s shop. There I will buy a silk and get Madame Declassé, in the High Street, to make it for me in time.”
“But father won’t know you in blue silk.”
“I don’t want him to. Do you suppose, for a minute, you little geese, that I am going to tell him it is on my account I want the pony and trap? Is it likely he would accede to the wishes of a poor little governess? Not I, mes enfants– not I. You three dear things are to be the innocent cause of our drive to Rocheford. Don’t you suppose that you want any cotton frocks for the seaside?”
“Oh, yes – yes!” said Nina, “we want frocks, but not cotton ones.”
“Muslins are quite as cheap,” said Brenda. “I shall call them cotton to your father, and will buy muslin dresses for you – a pale pink muslin each – how will they look, chéries?”
“Sweet, sweet!” said Josephine.
“Entrancing!” exclaimed Nina; while Fanchon smacked her lips in anticipation of her own appearance in pink muslin.
Now Brenda knew quite well that these sandy-haired young people with freckled faces and flat features would by no means look their best in pink, be it muslin or cotton, but as she meant them to be foils to herself, she decided to leave them in crass ignorance on this point. The very name, pink muslin, had a delicious sound, and, as there was little time to waste, she told the girls that she would excuse lessons that morning and go upstairs to the school-room to make some mental calculations. Then, having estimated the exact amount of money which the different dresses would cost, she would invade the Reverend Josiah at the hour named.
That good man was busy preparing his sermon when Brenda’s gentle but distinct knock was heard at the door.
“I am so sorry to disturb you, sir,” she said on entering, and she dropped the prettiest imaginable little curtsey. It was quite old-fashioned, and delighted the rector.
“Please don’t apologise, Miss Carlton,” he said. “You want to speak to me, and I am prepared to listen. What is it all about? I hope my dear girl is not dissatisfied in any way. I know your life here must be a little – a little – dull; but I trust that you are not thinking of leaving us.”
“Leaving you – my dear kind sir?” replied Brenda. “Far indeed are such ideas from my thoughts. I am nothing but a dependent, and lonely at that. Dear Mr Amberley, have I not heard you talk of your sweet children as orphans? Well, am I not an orphan, too?”
“Alas – that it should be the case!” said Mr Amberley.
“It is the case. My darling sister and I were left without parents when she was a very little child and I was a young girl. She has been fortunate enough to be admitted into one of the best schools anywhere in this part of England, or indeed, I may say in England at all. I allude to Hazlitt Chase. You must have heard of the name, sir.”
“Hazlitt Chase?” said Mr Amberley. “Of course I know the name. Lady Sophia L’Estrange has two daughters there – Mary and Juliet. Sweet young girls. Lady Sophia lives about four miles from here. I had not the slightest idea that you had a sister at such a distinguished school, Miss Carlton.”
“I have that privilege,” said Brenda, dropping her eyelids so that her long, curly, black eyelashes could rest in the most becoming manner against her peach-bloomy cheeks.
The rector looked at her with admiration.
“She certainly is a very sweet creature,” he thought.
“What is the name of your sister?” he asked, after a moment’s pause.
“She is called Penelope.”
“How quaint and old-fashioned!”
“She is about to take a somewhat old-fashioned part,” continued Brenda. “I don’t pretend to know the old stories as I ought to; you, sir, who are such a good Greek scholar, must have heard of the character of Helen of Troy.”
“Beautiful Helen!” whispered Mr Amberley, under his breath.
“My sister is to take part in some tableaux which Mrs Hazlitt is presenting of Tennyson’s ‘Dream of Fair Women.’ She wants me to see it, and I am anxious to go. I think that if I leave here by an early train, I can spend the greater part of the day at Hazlitt Chase and return here soon after midnight.”
“That will be a late hour to ask the servants to sit up.”
“But if you will entrust me with a latch-key – ”
“No, no, my dear girl: I will sit up for you myself with pleasure. Of course you shall go.”
“Thank you,” said Brenda: “you are more than kind.” She fidgeted a little, then continued: “It will be a very gay party, and people from many parts of England will assemble there to witness the different events of the day. Tennyson’s ‘Dream of Fair Women’ is, I believe, to take the most distinguished place in the day’s proceedings and, in short, sir – I want to be suitably dressed.”
“Of course – of course,” said Mr Amberley, looking a little confused, as he always was when the subject of money was even approached. “Eh – a neat cotton, eh?”
“Well, sir – it must be something rather better on this occasion; but if I might ask for my quarter’s salary, I have no doubt I can manage.”
“My poor, dear girl! have I forgotten it? How long is it due?”
“It won’t be due for a fortnight, sir; but I thought, under the circumstances, that you might – I mean that you would be so kind – ”
“You shall have a cheque immediately. Let me see – your salary is thirty pounds a year, that means seven pounds ten a quarter. I will write you a cheque for the amount; you can cash it at the bank. Get a pretty cool-looking cotton, my dear Miss Carlton – something with rosebuds on it: you are – so like a rosebud yourself.”
“One minute please, sir. I cannot get the sort of dress I want at Harroway. I must go to Rocheford to make my purchase and I think it would be a good opportunity to get the girls’ dresses for the seaside at the same time.”
“Oh dear, dear, dear!” said Mr Amberley. “Haven’t they got enough dresses from last year?”
“Oh, no!” said Brenda, shaking her head. “They are growing so quickly; you quite forget that.”
“I only know that my funds are very low and that there are a great many sick people in the parish,” said the rector.
“Still your children must be clothed,” said Brenda, putting on a severe air. “You have taken lodgings for them at the sea, and I can’t walk about with girls who are not presentable. I would rather, painful as it seems, resign my post – though of course I don’t really mean to do it, but – ”
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