A Bevy of Girls. Meade L. T.

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СКАЧАТЬ rumpus with the mother. Is she more cantankerous than ever?”

      “No, mother is quite nice, particularly nice,” said Ethel, who had often explained to the young Carters what a trial her mother was.

      “Well, then, come and have a game,” said Jim. “Come along, do, and forget all the worries. If it isn’t the mother it can’t be anything very serious.”

      “Yes, but it is, and I cannot tell you,” said Ethel.

      She looked so forlorn that everyone present pitied her. Her soft brown eyes filled with sudden tears and overflowed.

      “Oh, how my head is aching. I’ve been lying down all the afternoon. I just managed to come out to tell you, for I felt you must know.”

      “Is it as bad as that? Then we had best make ourselves scarce,” said Jim. “Come along, let us go away, we who are the unfavoured; we’ll leave the select few to listen to confidences.”

      A game of tennis was presently in active progress, Clara and Mabel, who both longed to join, did not feel too sympathetic.

      “Well,” said Clara, “whatever is it? Do tell all. If you won’t come to-night and you won’t play, why – ”

      “Oh, you mean me to go,” said Ethel. “It’s always like that – I might have expected it.”

      “Oh, no; don’t go,” said Mabel, who was more good-natured than her sister, “that is,” she corrected herself, “if we can do anything to help you.”

      “I must tell you – I won’t keep you more than a few minutes. You know Marcia – you have heard of her?”

      “Of your elder sister? Oh, how funny! There came a letter yesterday from Colonel St. Just to father, and he said that his sister, Mrs Silchester, is coming to spend the holidays with them, and that she had mentioned your sister, Miss Marcia Aldworth. She said what a splendid girl she was. Colonel St. Just told us to tell you – he thought you would be pleased.”

      “Oh, she is deceived in her,” said Ethel, her face getting redder than ever. “She is deceived in her. I wish she knew. Well, I’ll tell you all about it. You know Marcia isn’t our real sister – ”

      “Oh, my dear, of course, that is no news,” said Clara more crossly than ever.

      “But she is older – she is older than I am, and older than Molly. She is twenty.”

      This was said with effect, and a long pause followed. “She will be twenty-one before long. You can’t call that young, can you?”

      “Well, not as young as eighteen, of course.”

      “But it isn’t young at all,” said Ethel, in a fretful tone. “Now I am only seventeen, and dear Molly is only eighteen; we are quite young.”

      “And so are we, we are both eighteen, aren’t we, darling old Clay?” said Mabel, patting her sister on the face.

      “Yes, but don’t call me Clay – it does sound so earthy,” said Clara. “But do go on, Ethel. Out with this trouble.”

      “Well, it is this – father sent for Marcia.”

      “What, from that delightful school where Mrs Silchester adores her so much?”

      “Yes, why not? She is his child, and he sent for her, and she came, and Horace approved of the plan.”

      “I am always so frightened of that Horace of yours,” said Mabel. “But do hurry up.”

      “Well, she came. We feared she wouldn’t, for she is awfully selfish; but she did; she came, and we were so happy. It was, you know, liberation for us, for dear mother, poor darling, does take up such a lot of time. One of us has always to be with her, and sometimes two have to be with her, for father insists on her never being alone, and we are not rich like you, and cannot afford a hired nurse.”

      “And who would give a hired nurse to one’s mother?” said Mabel.

      “Well, anyhow, that is how it is; we wouldn’t, of course, and Marcia came. She came last night. She is very staid, you know, not a bit like us.”

      One of the boys shouted across to ask Clara when she would be finished and ready to make up a set.

      “I really cannot stay,” said Clara. “Oh, you aren’t a bit sympathising. I thought you would be; but I don’t suppose any one will be. Well, she came, and she absolutely refused to give more than a little bit of her time to mother. We’re to be tied as much as usual, and we cannot come to-night. You know Molly and I never do anything apart, and Molly won’t be free, for mother is never settled till between nine and ten o’clock, and it would be much, much too late. We’ll never be able to go anywhere. Marcia will manage that we’re to be tied and bound as much as ever we were, and Marcia will have all the honour and glory. Oh dear, we can only be young once. I think Marcia might have remembered that – Marcia, whose youth is quite over. I do think she might – I do!”

      “Poor Ethel,” said Clara, with more sympathy. “It does seem hard. Well, we’ll try and get some fun for you on your free days. After all she is your mother. Coming, Jim, coming. Sorry you can’t be here to-night, Ethel; but we’ll get up some fun again in a hurry. Now, cheer up, old girl, cheer up.”

      Chapter Six

      The Joy of her Life

      The next morning passed somehow. The girls had decided that they would send Marcia to Coventry. They had made up their minds in a solemn conclave late the night before.

      “We daren’t oppose her for the present,” said Ethel, who had thought of this daring plan, “but we’ll make her life so miserable that she just won’t be able to bear it.”

      “She used to be so affectionate; I remember that,” said Molly. “She was very good to me when I had the measles. She used to sit in the room and never think of herself at all.”

      “She caught them afterwards, don’t you remember, horrid things?” said Nesta.

      “And I don’t think I went to sit with her at all,” said Molly.

      “It was rather piggish of you, wasn’t it?” said Ethel.

      “Well, well; don’t rake up my old faults now. Am I not sad enough? Do you really think, Nesta and Ethel, that we had best send her to Coventry? Do you mean really to Coventry?”

      “Yes; don’t let’s speak to her. We’ll try the effect for a week. We’ll do our duty, of course. We’ll go into mother’s room in turn, and we’ll give up everything for our mother’s sake, and we’ll deny ourselves, and we’ll never speak to Marcia at all. When we are at meals, if she forces us to speak, we’ll say yes and no, but that’s all, unless Horace or father is present. We’ll leave her quite to herself; she shall have her free hours, and her time for writing, and we wish her joy of it.”

      This plan of action being determined on, the girls went to bed with a certain sense of consolation.

      It was Ethel’s turn to spend the morning with the invalid on the following day, and she determinedly went there without a word. The effect of the Coventry system seemed at first to be but small. During breakfast that morning Marcia was absorbed in some letters she СКАЧАТЬ