A Fluttered Dovecote Part 21

I kept it up till I was outside the room, and had given the door a smart bang, when I rushed upstairs, and past Mrs Blunt, who called to me in vain to stop, and then to my bedroom, where I locked myself in, and had such a cry, as I dashed down the wool-work, and threw myself upon the bed, to lie with my burning cheek upon my pillow, and water it with my tears.

Rage, vexation, disappointment, love--I'm sure they were all mingled together, and sending me half wild. Only to think of his turning out a deceiver!--to leave me and go and pay court to a woman of forty, with a yellow skin, scraggy neck, and a temper of the most shrewish! I was so pa.s.sionate then, that I jumped off the bed and ran to the gla.s.s, and if it too was not a deceiver, and did not tell me a story, I was handsome.

But I vowed that I would be revenged for it all; and I stamped up and down the room, thinking of what would be the best way; but, somehow, I could not think of a plan then, so I lay down once more, and had another good cry.

"Never mind," I said.

Then I raised myself upon my elbow, and just at that moment some one knocked.

"What is it?" I cried, after whoever it was had knocked four times, and would not go away.

"Mrs de Blount says that she requests you to descend directly," said one of the younger pupils.

"Tell her I have a very bad headache," I said, which really was a fact; and then I would not answer any more questions, for I was determined not to go down until all the marks of my crying had faded away, which I knew would not be for some time.

"Miss Furness won't make me afraid of her any more," I said to myself.

"I've mastered her secret; and Achille dare not tell of me, for fear of betraying himself. I'll serve them both out."

I lay nursing up my wrath, till I felt obliged to cry again; and then, when I had done crying, I again picked up my wrath and nursed it; and so on, backwards and forwards, till all at once I started up, for there was one of those hideous German bra.s.s bands. A set of towy-headed, sleepy-faced boys were blaring out "Partant pour la Syrie" in the most horribly discordant manner, till James was sent to order them out of the grounds, when, to get the dreadful discords out of my head, and my mind more in tune, I took advantage of a permission lately given me by Mrs Blunt, and slipped quietly down into the drawing-room, which was now empty. Sitting down to the piano, I rattled away at "La Pluie de Perles" until my fingers ached again, when I took up something of Talexy's, and I suppose it was all emotional, for I'm sure I never played so brilliantly before in my life--the notes seemed quite to sparkle under my fingers, and I kept on rattling away till I was tired, and dashed off the great finishing chords at the end.

Then I slammed down the piano, spun myself round upon the stool, and jumping up, I was about to make a pirouette, and what we girls, in happy, innocent, thoughtless days, used to call a cheese, when I gave a start, for Mrs Blunt was standing there with a lady in walking costume, who was smilingly inspecting me through a great gold eyegla.s.s, just as if I were some curiosity; and, of course, instead of the pirouette, I made one of the spun-out, graceful obeisances so popular at the Cedars.

"One of our pupils," said Mrs Blunt, in her most polite tones. "Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey--Miss Bozerne. Young and high-spirited, you see,"

she continued, smiling benignantly upon me, just in the way that she had done when mamma was with me, and never since. "Young, happy, and light-hearted. Just at that age when life has no cares,"--couldn't I have pinched her. "She adores melody--quite a daughter of the Muses."

"Charming gyirl," said the lady, smiling. "Sweetly featured--so gazelle-eyed. Most unaccountably like my Euphemia."

"Indeed!" said Mrs Blunt. "How singular! They will, no doubt, be like sisters."

"Charming for Euphemia, to be sure," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey. "It will make the change from home so pleasant, and she will not pine."

"No fear of that," said Mrs Blunt--"ours is too home-like an abode."

"No doubt," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey. "And then there is that other charming gyirl--the one with the sweet, high-spirited features--the one you just now showed me. Lady--Lady--Lady Somebody's daughter."

"Lady Fitzacre's," said Mrs Blunt.

"To be sure," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey. "Why, your establishment will be most enviable, Mrs Fortesquieu de Blount; for I'm sure that you will have the Three Graces within your walls."

"Oh, fie!" exclaimed Mrs Blunt, playfully; "you are bringing quite a blush to the face of our young friend."

My cheeks certainly were tingling, but it was only to hear them talk such twaddle; and I knew well enough now that they must have been looking on for some time, while Mrs Blunt only let me keep on strumming to show off before the visitor; for if it had been one of the girls who played badly, she would have been snubbed and sent off in a hurry for practising out of her turn.

For a moment, though, I felt a pang shoot through me--a jealous pang--as I thought that, if this new pupil came, she might bear off from me my Achille; while the next moment I was ready to laugh scornfully from the recollection that I had no Achille, that he was already another's, that men were all false and deceivers, and that I could now turn satirical, and sympathise with Clara.

However, I showed none of the painful emotions sweeping through my breast, but took all in good part, and allowed Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey to tap me with her eyegla.s.s, and kiss me on the cheek, which kiss was, after all, only a peck with her hooky nose; and then she must take what she called a fancy to me, and march me about with them all over the place, and call me "My love," and "My sweet child," and all that sort of stuff, when she was seeing me now for the first time; but, if I had been the most amiable of girls, but plain, like Grace Murray, instead of showy and dashing, she would not have taken the least mite of notice of me.

Yes: really, this is a dreadfully hypocritical world!

"My Euphemia will be charmed to know you, my love," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey, looking at me as if I were good to eat, and she were a cannibal's wife--"charmed, I'm sure."

"I sha'n't be charmed to know her," I said to myself, "if she is as insincere as you."

"I'm sure that you will soon be the best of friends. It will be so nice for her to have one to welcome her directly she leaves home, and, of course, we shall have the pleasure of seeing you on a visit at the Belfry during the vacation."

Of course I thanked her, and thought that if I liked Euphemia I should very likely go home with her for a while, since all places now seemed the same to me, and I should require some _dela.s.s.e.m.e.nt_.

"This is one of our cla.s.srooms, my dear madam," said Mrs Blunt, opening the door where all the girls were sitting, and just then Clara came across from the practice-room, with her music-book beneath her arm, for Mrs Blunt had taken care that Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey should not stand and hear her hammer away at the old ting-tang. Clara told me afterwards that she stopped as soon as the door opened. But then Clara never could play a bit, and I must say that she knew it, though, as I before said, her sketches were lovely.

"Charming, indeed," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey, inspecting the girls through her gla.s.s, just as if it were a lens, and they were all so many cheese-mites.

Just then I exchanged glances with Miss Furness, but I was not going to be stared down; for feeling, as I did, fierce and defiant, I just contemptuously lowered my lids. Next moment the door was closed, and we went into the dining-room, and then upstairs to the dormitories.

"What a charming little nest!" exclaimed Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey, when we entered our room at last, after inspecting, I think, every chamber in the place--for everything really was kept beautifully nice, and neat, and clean; and, though plain, the furniture and carpets were tasty and nice--"what a charming little nest! Three beds, too! And pray who sleeps here?"

"Let me see," said Mrs Blunt, affecting ignorance, "this is your room, is it not, my dear? Ah! yes, I remember; and you have Miss Fitzacre with you, and who else?"

"Miss Smith, ma'am," I said, quietly.

"Ah, to be sure, Miss Smith," said Mrs Blunt.

"Not a very aristocratic name," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey, smiling, and twirling her eyegla.s.s about. "Pity, now, that that bed is not at liberty; it would have been so charming for the three girls to have been together night and day. I suppose that you could not manage to change the present order, Mrs de Blount?"

"Shall I give up my bed, ma'am?" I said, quietly.

"Oh, dear me, no--by no means," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey. "I thought, perhaps, as I had seen Lady Fitzacre's daughter and yourself, and you seemed so much of an age, that it might have been possible for the young person of the name of--er--er--"

"Smith," suggested Mrs Blunt.

"Yes--er--for her to be exchanged into another room."

Mrs Blunt thought that perhaps if her young friend did not object to being separated she might possibly manage it. And really I hoped she would; for any one, even Celia Blang--little spy that she was--would have been better than poor Patty.

"But I really should not like to introduce my dear child here at the expense of doing violence to anybody's feelings," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey.

"Oh, no! I know you would not wish that," said Mrs Blunt; "and really, if Miss Smith objected at all to being removed, I don't think I could-- er--I should like to--to--"

"I see, perfectly," said Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey; "and I quite admire and appreciate your system, Mrs de Blount. But what does my young friend here say--would she object to such a change being made? Would she not miss her friend, the young person of the name of--er--Jones?"

"Smith," corrected Mrs Blunt; for somehow the vulgarity of the name seemed too much for Mrs Campanelle Bra.s.sey.

"I should be very glad to see the change," I said.

"And about Miss Fitzacre?" said Mrs Blunt, with such an air of hypocritical interest, looking all the while so innocent.

"Oh, I'm certain that she would be glad," I rejoined. "In fact, ma'am, I have heard her say so. Miss Smith is very young, ma'am," I said, modestly, "and has never been a companion or friend to us."

And then I felt very much afraid lest Patty should hear of what I had said, and repay me by telling all she knew.