About Peggy Saville Part 16

"Oh! oh!"

"In comparison, I mean. Of course I should have been glad to get it if it had come to me in an ordinary way, but I was not so wrapped up in the idea that I would not have been reasonable, if you had come to me quietly and explained that you had missed the post."

Peggy shook her head sagely. "You think so now, because the danger is over, and you are sure it can't happen. But I know better. I can tell you exactly what would have happened. You wouldn't have stormed or raged, it would have been better if you had, and sooner over; you would just have stood still, and--glared at me! When I'd finished speaking, you would have swallowed two or three times over, as if you were gulping down something which you dared not say, and then turned on your heel and marched out of the room. That's what you would have done, my dear and honourable sir, and you know it!"

Robert hung his head and looked self-conscious.

"Well, if I had! A fellow can't hide all he feels in the first moment of disappointment. But I should have got over it, and you know very well that I should never have brought it up against you. 'Glared!'

What if I _did_ glare? There is nothing very terrible in that, is there?"

"Yes, there is. I could not have borne it, when I had been trying so hard to help you. And it would not have been only the first few minutes. Every time when you were quiet and depressed, when you looked at your specimens through your little old gla.s.s and sighed, and pitched it away, as I've seen you do scores and scores of times, I should have felt that it was my fault, and been in the depths of misery. No, no, I'm sorry to the depths of my heart that I scared dear Mrs Asplin and the rest, but it is a matter of acute satisfaction to me to know that your chance has in no way been hindered by your confidence in me!" and Peggy put her head on one side, and coughed in a faint and ladylike manner, which brought the twinkle back into Robert's eyes.

"Good old Mariquita!" he cried, laughing. "'Acute satisfaction' is good, Mariquita--decidedly good! You will make your name yet in the world of letters. Well, as I said before, you are a jolly little brick, and the best partner a fellow ever had! Mind you, I tell you straight that I think you behaved badly in cutting off like that; but I'll stand by you to the others, and not let them sit upon you while I am there."

"Thanks!" said Peggy meekly. "But, oh, I beseech of you, don't bring up the subject if you can help it! I'm tired to death of it all! The kindest thing you can do is to talk hard about something else, and give them a fresh excitement to think about. Talk about--about--about Rosalind if you will; anything will do--only, for pity's sake, leave me alone, and pretend there is not such a thing in the world as a calendar!"

"Right you are!" said Robert, laughing. "I'll steer clear of the rocks!

And as it happens, I have got a piece of news that will put your doings into the background at one fell swoop. Rosalind is going to give a party! The Earl and Countess of Berkhampton are coming down to the Larches the week after next, and are going to bring their two girls with them. They are great lanky things, with about as much 'go' in the pair as in one of your little fingers; but this party is to be given in their honour. The mater has asked everyone of a right age within a dozen miles around, and the house will be crammed with visitors. Your card is coming to-morrow, and I hope you will give me the honour of the first round, and as many as possible after that."

"The first, with pleasure; I won't promise any more until I see how we get on. It doesn't seem appropriate to think of your dancing, Rob; there is something too heavy and serious in your demeanour. Oswald is different; he would make a charming dancing master. Oh, it will be an excitement! Mellicent will not be able to eat or sleep for thinking of it; and poor Mrs Asplin will be running up seams on the sewing-machine, and making up ribbon bows from this day to that. I'm glad I have a dress all ready, and shan't be bothered with any trying on! You don't know what it is to stand first on one leg and then on the other, to be turned and pulled about as if you were a dummy, and have pins stuck into you as if you were a pin-cushion! I adore pretty clothes, but every time I go to the dressmaker's I vow and declare that I shall take to sacks. Tell them at dinner, do, and they will talk about it for the rest of the evening!"

Peggy's prophecy came true, for the subject of Rosalind's party became a topic of such absorbing interest as left room for little else during the next few weeks. New dresses had to be bought and made for the girls, and Peggy superintended the operations of the village dressmaker with equal satisfaction to herself and her friends.

Rosalind appeared engrossed in preparations, and two or three times a week, as the girls trudged along the muddy roads, with Fraulein lagging in the rear, the jingle of bells would come to their ears, and Rosalind's two white long-tailed ponies would come dashing past, drawing the little open carriage in which their mistress sat, half-hidden among a pile of baskets and parcels. She was always beautiful and radiant, and as she pa.s.sed she would turn her head over her shoulders and look at the three mud-bespattered pedestrians with a smile of pitying condescension, which made Peggy set her teeth and draw her eyebrows together in an ominous frown.

One day she condescended to stop and speak a few words from her throne among the cushions.

"How de do? So sowwy not to have been to see you! Fwightfully busy, don't you know. We are decowating the wooms, and don't know how to finish in time. It's going to be quite charming!"

"We know! We know! Rob told us. I'm dying to see it. You should ask Peggy to help you, if you are in a hurry. She's s-imply splendid at decorations! Mother says she never knew anyone so good at it as Peggy!"

cried Mellicent, with an outburst of gushing praise, in acknowledgment of which she received a thunderous frown and such a sharp pinch on the arm as penetrated through all her thick winter wrappings.

Rosalind, however, only e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "Oh, weally!" in an uninterested manner, and whipped up her ponies without taking any further notice of the suggestion; but it had taken root in her mind all the same, and she did not forget to question her brother on the first opportunity.

Mellicent Asplin had said that Peggy Saville was clever at decoration.

Was it true, and would it be the least use asking her to come and help in the decorations?

Robert laughed, and wagged his head with an air of proud a.s.surance.

Clever! Peggy? She was a witch! She could work wonders! If you set her down in an empty room, and gave her two-and-sixpence to transform it into an Alhambra, he verily believed she could do it. The way in which she had rigged up the various characters for the Shakespeare reading was nothing short of miraculous. Yes, indeed, Peggy would be worth a dozen ordinary helpers. The question was, Would she come?

"Certainly she will come. I'll send down for her at once," said Rosalind promptly, and forthwith sat down and wrote a dainty little note, not to Peggy herself, but to Mrs Asplin, stating that she had heard great accounts of Peggy Saville's skill in the art of decoration, and begging that she might be allowed to come up to the Larches to help with the final arrangements, arriving as early as possible on the day of the party, and bringing her box with her, so as to be saved the fatigue of returning home to dress. It was a prettily worded letter, and Mrs Asplin was dismayed at the manner of its reception.

"No, Peggy Saville won't!" said that young person, pursing her lips and tossing her head in her most high and mighty manner. "She won't do anything of the sort! Why should I go? Let her ask some of her own friends! I'm not her friend! I should simply loathe to go!"

"My dear Peggy! When you are asked to help! When this entertainment is given for your pleasure, and you can be of real use--"

"I never asked her to give the party! I don't care whether I go or not!

She is simply making use of me for her own convenience!"

"It is not the first or only time that you have been asked, as you know well, Peggy. And sometimes you have enjoyed yourself very much. You said you would never forget the pink luncheon. In spite of all you say, you owe Rosalind thanks for some pleasant times; and now you can be of some service to her. Well, I'm not going to force you, dear. I hate unwilling workers, and if it's not in your heart to go, stay at home, and settle with your conscience as best you can."

Peggy groaned with sepulchral misery.

"Wish I hadn't got no conscience! Tiresome, presuming thing--always poking itself forward and making remarks when it isn't wanted. I suppose I shall have to go, and run about from morning till night, holding a pair of scissors, and nasty little b.a.l.l.s of string, for Rosalind's use! Genius indeed! What's the use of talking about genius?

I know very well I shall not be allowed to do anything but run about and wait upon her. It's no use staring at me, Mrs Asplin. I mean it all--every single word."

"No, you don't, Peggy! No, you don't, my little kind, warm-hearted Peggy! I know better than that! It's just that foolish tongue that is running away with you, dearie. In your heart you are pleased to do a service for a friend, and are going to put your whole strength into doing it as well and tastefully as it can be done."

"I'm not! I'm not! I'm not! I'm savage, and it's no use pretending--"

"Yes, you are! I know it! What is the good of having a special gift if one doesn't put it to good use? Ah, that's the face I like to see! I didn't recognise my Peggy with that ugly frown. I'll write and say you'll come with pleasure."

"It's to please you, then, not Rosalind!" said Peggy obstinately. But Mrs Asplin only laughed, dropped a kiss upon her cheek, and walked away to answer the invitation forthwith.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

AT THE LARCHES.

The next morning, immediately after breakfast, Peggy went up to her own room to pack for her visit to the Larches. The long dress-box, which had been stored away ever since its arrival, was brought out, and its contents displayed to an admiring audience, consisting of Mrs Asplin, Esther, Mellicent, and Mary the housemaid.

Everything was there that the heart of girl could desire, and a mother's forethought provide for her darling's use when she was far-away. A dress of cobweb Indian muslin embroidered in silk, a fan of curling feathers, a dear little satin pocket in which to keep the lace handkerchief, rolls of ribbons, dainty white shoes, with straggly silk stockings rolled into the toes.

Peggy displayed one article after another, while Mellicent groaned and gurgled with delight; Mary exclaimed, "My, Miss Peggy, but you will be smart!" and Mrs Asplin stifled a sigh at the thought of her own inferior preparations.

Punctually at ten o'clock the carriage drove up to the door, and off Peggy drove, not altogether unwillingly, now that it had come to the pinch, for after all it _is_ pleasant to be appreciated, and, when a great excitement is taking place in the neighbourhood, it is only human to wish to be in the thick of the fray.

Lady Darcy welcomed her guest with gracious kindness, and, as soon as she had taken off her hat and jacket in the dressing-room which was allotted to her use, she was taken straight away to the chief room, where the work of decoration was being carried briskly forward. The village joiner was fitting mirrors into the corners and hammering with deafening persistence, a couple of gardeners were arranging banks of flowers and palms, and Rosalind stood in the midst of a bower of greenery, covered from head to foot in a smock of blue linen, and with a pair of gardening gloves drawn over her hands.

She gave a little cry of relief and satisfaction as Peggy entered.

"Oh, Mawiquita, so glad you have come! Mother is so busy that she can't be with me at all, and these wretched bwanches pwick my fingers! Do look wound, and say how it looks! This is weally the servants' hall, you know, as we have not a pwoper ballroom, and it is so square and high that it is perfectly dweadful to decowate! A long, narrow woom is so much better!"

Peggy thought the arrangements tasteful and pretty; but she could not gush over the effect, which, in truth, was in no way original or striking. There seemed little to be done in the room itself, so she suggested an adjournment into the outer hall, which seemed to offer unique opportunities.

"That s.p.a.ce underneath the staircase!" she cried eagerly. "Oh, Rosalind, we could make it look perfectly sweet with all the beautiful Eastern things that you have brought home from your travels! Let us make a little harem, with cushions to sit on, and hanging lamps, and Oriental curtains for drapery. We could do it while the men are finishing this room, and be ready to come back to it after lunch."

"Oh, what a sweet idea! Mawiquita, you are quite too clever!" cried Rosalind, aglow with pleasure. "Let us begin at once. It will be ever so much more intewesting than hanging about here."

She thrust her hand through Peggy's arm as she spoke, and the two girls went off on a tour through the house to select the most suitable articles for their decoration of the "harem." There was no lack of choice, for the long suite of reception-rooms was full of treasures, and Peggy stopped every few minutes to point with a small forefinger and say, "That screen, please! That table! That stool!" to the servants who had been summoned in attendance. The smaller things, such as ornaments, table-cloths, and lamps she carried herself, while Rosalind murmured sweetly, "Oh, don't twouble! You mustn't, weally! Let me help you!" and stood with her arms hanging by her side, without showing the faintest sign of giving the offered help.

As the morning pa.s.sed away, Peggy found indeed that the Honourable Miss Darcy was a broken reed to lean upon in the way of a.s.sistance. She sat on a stool and looked on while the other workers hammered and pinned and st.i.tched--so that Peggy's prophecy as to her own subordinate position was exactly reversed, and the work of supervision was given entirely into her hands.

It took nearly two hours to complete the decorations of the "harem," but when all was finished the big ugly s.p.a.ce beneath the staircase was transformed into as charming a nook as it is possible to imagine.

Pieces of brilliant flag embroidery from Cairo draped the farther wall, a screen of carved work shut out the end of the pa.s.sage, gauzy curtains of gold and blue depended in festoons from the ascending staircase, and stopped just in time to leave a safe place for a hanging lamp of wrought iron and richly coloured gla.s.s. On the floor were spread valuable rugs and piles of bright silken cushions, while on an inlaid table stood a real Turkish hookah and a bra.s.s tray with the little egg-shaped cups out of which travellers in the East are accustomed to sip the strong black coffee of the natives.