The Beth Book. Grand Sarah

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СКАЧАТЬ opposite. "Elizabeth," he repeated sharply. Beth made no sign.

      "Beth, answer your uncle directly," Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed.

      "He has not yet addressed me," Beth rejoined, in the manner of Uncle James.

      "Don't call your uncle 'he,' you naughty girl. You know your name is Elizabeth."

      "Yes, and I know I said I wouldn't answer to it, and I'm not going to break me oath."

      "Me oath!" Uncle James ejaculated.

      Beth looked disconcerted. It irked her horribly to be jeered at for making a mistake in speaking, and Uncle James, seeing she was hurt, rested satisfied for the moment, and arranged Mildred and Bernadine together in a group, leaving Beth huddled up on the piano-stool, frowning.

      When Lady Benyon's carriage stopped at the door, Uncle James stood bareheaded on the steps, ready to receive her.

      "So glad to see you, mamma," he lisped, as he handed her out. "Do take my arm."

      But the little old lady waved him aside unceremoniously, and hobbled in with the brisk stiffness of age.

      "Gracious!" she exclaimed when she saw the party arranged in the drawing-room. "You all look as if you were having your likeness taken – all except Puck there, on the piano-stool."

      When Uncle James had manœuvred Lady Benyon into the seat of honour he intended her to take in order to complete the picture, she frankly inspected each member of the group, ending with Beth.

      "And who may you be?" she asked.

      Beth smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

      "Why don't you speak?"

      Beth made another gesture.

      "Goodness!" Lady Benyon cried; "is the child an idiot?"

      "Beth, answer Lady Benyon directly," Mrs. Caldwell angrily commanded.

      "Uncle James requested mamma to request me not to speak when you were present," Beth explained suavely.

      The old lady burst out laughing. "Well, that's droll," she said – "requested mamma to request me – why, it's James Patten all over. And who may you be, you monkey?"

      "I am Elizabeth Caldwell, but I only answer to Beth. Papa called me Beth."

      "Good!" said the little old lady. "And what's Ireland like?"

      "Great dark mountains," Beth rattled off, with big eyes dilated and fixed on space, as if she saw what she described. "Long, long, long, black bogs; all the poor people starving; and the sea rough – just like hell, you know, but without the fire."

      "Oh, now, this is delightful!" the old lady chuckled. "I'm to enjoy myself to-day, it seems. You didn't prepare me for this treat, James Patten!"

      Uncle James simpered, as though taking to himself the credit of the whole entertainment.

      "So you hate Ireland?" said Lady Benyon.

      "No, I love it," said Beth. "It's me native country; and they don't give you little bits of cake there the size of sixpence. What they have you're welcome to. Long live Ireland!"

      "Good!" Lady Benyon ejaculated; then turned to Mildred. "And are you another naughty little patriot?" she asked.

      "No, I'm not naughty," Mildred answered piously.

      "Beth's naughty," said Bernadine.

      "I'm sure I don't know what Beth is not," the old lady declared, turning to Beth again.

      "Riley said I was one of the little girls the devil put out when he gave up housekeeping," Beth remarked casually.

      "Beth!" Mrs. Caldwell remonstrated.

      "He did, mamma. He said it the day that perjured villain Pat Murphy killed my magpie. And Riley's a good man. You said so yourself."

      "You can hear that the young lady has been in Ireland, I suppose, mamma," Uncle James observed.

      "I hear she can imitate the Irish," Lady Benyon rejoined bluntly; "and not the Irish only," she added with a chuckle.

      Beth was still sitting on the music-stool opposite the window, and presently she saw some one cross the lawn. "Oh, do look at the lovely lady," she cried enthusiastically. "She's just like the Princess Blue-eyes-and-golden-hair."

      Lady Benyon glanced over her shoulder. "Why, it's my maid," she said.

      Beth's countenance dropped, then cleared again. Even a maid might be a princess in disguise.

      Lady Benyon was going to stay all night, and at her special request Mildred and Beth were allowed to sit up to late dinner and prayers. She expected Beth to amuse her, but Beth was busy the whole time weaving a romance about the lovely lady's-maid, and scarcely spoke a word. When the servants came in to prayers, she sat and gazed at her heroine, and forgot to stand or kneel. She noticed, however, that Uncle James read the evening prayers with peculiar fervour.

      When Beth went to bed, she found Bernadine, who slept with her, fast asleep. Beth was not at all sleepy. Her intellect had been on the alert all day, and would not let her rest now; she must do something to keep up the excitement. She pulled the blind aside, and, looking out of the window, discovered an enchanted land, all soft shadow and silver sheen, and above it an exquisite moon, in an empty sky, floated serenely. "Oh, to be out in the moonlight!" she sighed to herself. "The fairy-folk – the fairy-folk." For a little her mind was a blank as she gazed; then words came tripping a measure —

         "The fairy-folk are calling me,

      Are calling me, are calling me;

      They come across the stormy sea,

      To play with me, to play with me."

      Beth's vague longing crisped itself into a resolution. She looked at the big four-post bed. The curtains were drawn on one side of it. Should she draw them on the other, on the chance of her mother not looking in? No, she must wait, because of Mildred. Mildred was undressing, and would say her prayers presently. Beth waited until she knelt down, then slipped her night-dress on over her clothes, and got into bed, without disturbing Bernadine. Now she must wait for her mother; but Mrs. Caldwell came up very soon, Uncle James having hurried every one off to bed unusually early that evening. Mrs. Caldwell was a long time undressing, as it seemed to Beth; but in the meantime Mildred had fallen asleep, and very soon after her mother got into bed she too began to breathe with reassuring regularity.

      Then Beth got up, opened the door very gently, and slipped out into the dark passage.

         "The fairy-folk are calling me,

      Are calling me, are calling me;

      They come across the stormy sea,

      To play with me, to play with me."

      The words set themselves to a merry tune, and carried Beth on with them.

      All was dark in the hall. The front door was locked and bolted, and the shutters were up in all the rooms; how was she to get out? She felt for the green baize double-door which shut off the kitchen from the other parts of the house, opened it, and groped her way down the passage. As she did so, she saw a faint glimmer of light at the far end – not candlelight, moonlight – and at the same moment СКАЧАТЬ