Carette of Sark Part 11

"Permission?--To see Carette? No, madame--ma'm'zelle. I never dreamt of such a thing. Permission to see Carette! Ma fe!"

"Ah!" ... ("What a strangely innocent young man!--or is it impudent boldness?"--That was what was going on in her mind, I think, as she bored at me with the little gimlets. But she said--) "We make it an inflexible rule not to allow our young ladies to see any but their own relations, except, of course, with the special permission of their relatives or guardians."

"If I had known, I would have got a letter from Aunt Jeanne Falla, but such a thing never entered into my head for a moment."

"You know Madame Le Marchant--Miss Jeanne Falla that was?"

"Know Aunt Jeanne?--Well, I should--I mean, yes, madame,--I mean ma'm'zelle. She has known me from the day I was born."

"Ah!... And you think she would have accorded you permission to see mademoiselle?"

"Why, of course she would. She would never dream of me being in Peter Port without calling to see Carette."

She looked me through and through again, and said at last--

"If you will excuse me for a moment, I will consult with my sisters. It is a matter which concerns them also, and I should wish them to share the responsibility," and she dropped me another frigid little salute and backed out of the door.

And I felt very sorry for Carette, and did not wonder so much now at the little stiffnesses of manner I had noticed in her the last time we met.

And presently the door opened, and the little lady stole in again with the same little formal greeting, and, after looking at me till I felt cold about the neck, said, "You wish to see Mademoiselle Le Marchant?" And then I noticed that the little ormer sh.e.l.l curls about this little lady's face were not all gray, but mixed gray and brown, and that this little face was, if anything, still more frigidly ungracious than the last, a regular little martinet of a face, and I knew that it must be another of the Miss Maugers.

"Yes, ma'm'zelle, with your permission."

"My sister states that you are acquainted with Madame Le Marchant, of Beaumanoir, whom we used to know intimately--"

"I have known Aunt Jeanne from the day I was born," I said, perhaps a trifle vehemently, for the absurdity of all these precautions between myself and Carette began to ruffle me. In fact, I began to feel almost as though there must be some grounds for their doubts about me which I had never hitherto recognised in myself, and it made me more decided than ever to have my own way in the matter.

"My grandfather is Philip Carre, of Belfontaine," I said, with a touch of the ruffle in my voice, "and he is a great friend of Mr. Claude Gray--"

"The Quaker," she said, with a pinch of the thin little lips.

And then the door opened, and, with the usual curtsey, still another Miss Mauger joined us, and her little ormer sh.e.l.ls were all brown, and she wore no spectacles, and the corners of her mouth were on a level with the centre, and looked as if they might on occasion even go up instead of down.

She looked at me half mistrustfully, like a bird which doubts one's intentions towards its bit of plunder, and then, just like the bird, seemed to gauge my innocence of evil, and bent and whispered into her sister's gray and brown ormer sh.e.l.ls.

"My sister informs me that Mademoiselle Le Marchant has been apprised of your visit and has expressed a desire to see you, and so--"

"Under the circ.u.mstances," said the other.

"Under the circ.u.mstances, we will make an exception from our invariable rule and permit this interview."

"On the understanding--" began the other.

"On the understanding that it is not to form a precedent--"

"And also," said the younger sister hastily, "that one of us is present."

"Certainly, that one of us is present," said the elder.

"By all means," I said, "and I am very much obliged to you. I really do not mean to eat Carette, nor even to run away with her."

"We should certainly prevent any attempt of the kind," said the elder sister severely.

They whispered together for a moment, then she shook out her prim skirts and dropped me a curtsey, and went away to fetch Carette.

"You see we have to be very strict in such matters," said the younger Miss Mauger, settling herself very gracefully on a chair so that her skirts disposed themselves in nice straight lines. "With forty young ladies under one's charge one cannot be too careful."

"I am quite sure you are very careful of them, ma'm'zelle," I said, at which she actually smiled a very little bird-like smile. "I will tell Aunt Jeanne how very careful you are next time I see her, and she will laugh and say, 'Young maids and young calves thrive best under the eyes of their mistress.'"

"I do not know much about calves"--and then the door opened and Carette came in.

She ran up to me with both hands outstretched.

"Oh, Phil, I was so afraid I was not to see you! And you are going away?

How big you're getting! How long will you be away?"

This was very delightful, for I had been fearing that the little touch of stiffness, which I had experienced the last time I saw her, and which I now quite understood, might have grown out of knowledge.

"We are going first to the West Indies and then on to Canada. It may be a long time before I'm back, and I did want to see you once more before I went. I began to fear I was not going to."

"'Oh, we're very strict here, you know, and we have rules. Oh, heaps of rules! But I knew dear Miss Maddy would manage it when she knew how I wanted to see you;" and she ran up to Miss Maddy and kissed the little brown ormer sh.e.l.ls over her ears, and Miss Maddy patted them hastily lest the tiny kiss should have set them awry.

"And how did you leave them all in Sercq? And when did you see Aunt Jeanne last? And who's taking care of my boat? And--"

"Wait!" I laughed, "or I shall forget some of them. I saw Aunt Jeanne this morning just before I left. She thought we sailed at once. She would have sent you her love, and maybe some gache, if she had known--"

"Ah, ma fe! How I wish she had known!" sighed Carette longingly, for Aunt Jeanne Falla's gache had a name all over Sercq.

"And everybody is well except old Pere Guerin, and he is cutting a new tooth, they say, and it makes him sour in the temper."

"Why, he's over ninety!" exclaimed Carette.

"Ninety-two next January. That's why he's so annoyed about it. And your boat is safe in the top nook of Port du Moulin, all covered over with sailcloth and gorse. Krok and I did it, and he will soak it for ten days before you come home, and have it all ready for you."

"The dear old Krok!"

"Oh, we have taken very great care of it, I a.s.sure you. But maybe you will be too grown-up to care for it by the time you get back."

"Perhaps!" And oddly enough--though indeed it may have been only my own thought, and without reasonable foundation--thereupon there seemed to fall between us a slight veil of distance. So that, though we talked of Sercq and of our friends there, it seemed to me that we were not quite as we had been, and I could not for the life of me tell why, nor, indeed, for certain if it were so or not.

When I was leaving, however, Carette put both her hands in mine and gave me G.o.dspeed as heartily as I could wish, and I made my best bow to Miss Maddy, and went back to the _Hirondelle_ well pleased at having seen Carette and at her hearty greeting and farewell, but with a little wonder and doubt at my heart as to what the final effect of all this schooling might be.

CHAPTER XI

HOW WE GREW, AND GROWING, GREW APART