A Very Naughty Girl Part 47

"Well, anyhow, dear, it was her wish, and you and I must submit."

"But you are sorry?"

"For some reasons, yes."

"And you would like me to help Jasper?"

"Certainly. Do you know where your nurse is now, Evelyn?"

"I do."

"Where?"

"I would rather not say; only, may I send her some money?"

"That seems reasonable enough," thought the Squire.

"How much do you want?" he asked.

"Would twenty pounds be too much?"

"I think not. It is a good deal, but she was a faithful servant. I will give you twenty pounds for her now."

The Squire rose and took out his check-book.

"Oh, please," said Evelyn, "I want it in gold."

"But how will you send it to her?"

"Never, never mind; I must have it in gold."

"Poor child! She is in earnest," thought the Squire. "Perhaps the woman will come to meet her somewhere. I really cannot see why she should be tabooed from having a short interview with her old nurse. Frances and I differ on this head. Yes, I will let her have the money; the child has a good deal of heart when all is said and done."

So the Squire put two little rolls, neatly made up in brown paper, into Evelyn's hands.

"There," he said; "it is a great deal of money to trust a little girl with, but you shall have it; only you must not ask me for any more."

"Oh, what a darling you are, Uncle Edward! I feel as if I must kiss you again. There! those kisses are full of love. Now I must go. But, oh, I say, _what_ a funny parcel!"

"What parcel, dear?"

"That long parcel on that table."

"It is a gun-case which I have not yet unpacked. Now run away."

"But that reminds me. You said I might go out some day to shoot with you."

"On some future day. I do not much care for girls using firearms; and you are so busy now with your school."

"You think, perhaps, that I cannot fire a gun, but I can aim well; I can kill a bird on the wing as neatly as any one. I told Audrey, and she would not believe me. Please-please show me your new gun.

"Not now; I have not looked at it myself yet."

"But you do believe that I can shoot?"

"Oh yes, dear-yes, I suppose so. All the same, I should be sorry to trust you; I do not approve of women carrying firearms. Now leave me, Evelyn; I have a good deal to attend to."

Evelyn went to bed to think over her uncle's words; her disgrace at school; the terrible _denouement_ which lay before her; the money, which seemed to her to be the only way out, and which would insure her comfort with Jasper wherever Jasper might like to take her; and finally, and by no means least, she meditated over the subject of her uncle's new gun.

On the ranch she had often carried a gun of her own; from her earliest days she had been accustomed to regard the women of her family as first-cla.s.s shots. Her mother had herself taught her how to aim, how to fire, how to make allowance in order to bring her bird down on the wing, and Evelyn had followed out her instructions many times. She felt now that her uncle did not believe her, and the fear that this was the case irritated her beyond words.

"I do not pretend to be learned," thought Evelyn, "and I do not pretend to be good, but there is one thing that I am, and that is a first-rate shot. Uncle Edward might show me his new gun. How little he guesses that I can manage it quite as well as he can himself!"

Two or three days pa.s.sed without anything special occurring. Evelyn was fairly good at school; it was not, she considered, worth her while any longer to shirk her lessons. She began in spite of herself, and quite against her declared inclination, to have a sort of liking for her books. History was the only lesson which she thoroughly detested. She could not be civil to Miss Thompson, whom she considered her enemy; but to her other teachers she was fairly agreeable, and had already to a certain extent won the hearts of more than one of the girls in her form.

She was bright and cheerful, and could say funny things; and as also she brought an unlimited supply of chocolates and other sweetmeats to school, these facts alone insured her being more or less of a favorite.

At home she avoided her aunt and Audrey, and evening after evening she went to the stile to have a chat with Jasper.

Jasper never failed to meet her little girl, as she called Evelyn, at their arranged rendezvous. Evelyn managed to slip out without, as she thought, any one noticing her; and the days went by until there was only one day left before Miss Henderson would proclaim to the entire school that Evelyn Wynford was the guilty person who had torn the precious volume of Ruskin.

"When you come for me to-morrow night, Jasper," said Evelyn, "I will go away with you. Are you quite sure that it is safe to take me back to The Priory?"

"Quite, quite safe, darling; hardly a soul knows that I am at The Priory, and certainly no one will suspect that you are there. Besides, the place is all undermined with cellars, and at the worst you and I could hide there together while the house was searched."

"What fun!" cried Evelyn, clapping her hands. "I declare, Jasper, it is almost as good as a fairy story."

"Quite as good, my little love."

"And you will be sure to have a very, very nice supper ready for me to-morrow night?"

"Oh yes, dear; just the supper you like best-chocolate and sweet cakes."

"And you will tuck me up in bed as you used to?"

"Darling, I have put a little white bed close to my own, where you shall sleep."

"Oh Jasper, it will be nice to be with you again! And you are positive Sylvia will not tell?"

"She is sad about you, Evelyn, but she will not tell. I have arranged that."

"And that terrible old man, her father, will he find out?"

"I think not, dear; he has not yet found out about me at any rate."

"Perhaps, Jasper, I had better go back now; it is later than usual."

"Be sure you bring the twenty pounds when you come to-morrow night,"

said Jasper; "for my funds, what with one thing and another, are getting low."

"Yes, I will bring the money," replied Evelyn.