Etheldreda the Ready Part 6

"Let me look at your books, and see what you are doing! I didn't bring any books till I saw what you used. I expect they will be the same.

All school books are. I've got the ones Rowena used." She broke off, staring with dismay at the underlined questions which met her eye in one of Agnes's neatly written books:

"_Characterise the work of Praxiteles, comparing it with that of Phidias_."

"_Describe the Caryatids of the Erectheum_."

"_More_ Greeks! How awful! You seem saturated in Greece." She threw down the book impatiently and took up another. "Write a short essay on Chaucer (I know Chaucer!) and his times (When did he live? Ages ago, I know, for he couldn't spell), dwelling on (1) the state of society as shown by the att.i.tude of Wycliffe to the Pope, and the higher clergy; (2) the peasants' revolt"--Dreda looked round with horrified eyes.

"_What_ a thing! Do you often have essays like that? Your governess must be a man in disguise!"

"She is exceedingly clever and well read, and a most interesting and original teacher."

"Humph!--I prefer the old school! Our governess gives us essays on Spring, and Happiness, and quotations from poetry. They are far better, for if you don't know anything, you can make it up. You know the sort of thing. `One has often felt--' `Should we not all--' `At this season of the year our hearts overflow--' I a.s.sure you I have often sat down not knowing what on earth I was going to say, and have written _pages_!

That's far better for you than learning dull facts about people who were dead and buried hundreds of years ago, because it exercises your imagination and resource, and they are so useful for a woman. Now, just suppose you were married, and a lot of dull people were coming to dinner--it would help you awfully if you'd been trained to make conversation out of nothing! And supposing you suddenly found that there was nothing to eat, and you had to make a dinner out of sc.r.a.ps-- what would be most useful to you then, Greek history or a good, resourceful brain?"

Mary and Agnes stared aghast, but the sound of a sn.i.g.g.e.r came from the fireplace where Susan stood meekly in the background, and a moment later a ringing laugh drew all eyes to the doorway where stood a tall, bright- haired girl, whose white teeth gleamed pleasantly through her parted lips.

"Bravo!" she cried gaily. "Bravo, my new pupil! Very adroitly argued.

But suppose now that one of your dull diners happened to be an enthusiast about Greece, and that its glories were the only subject on which he was prepared to talk! Suppose he spoke of the `Caryatids,' for example, and you had no idea what the word meant--how would you keep up your share of the conversation?"

"Quite easily. I'd say--`Really! How very interesting! _Pray_ do go on!' Then he'd be charmed. People always are charmed to go on talking," declared Dreda smiling back with the utmost frankness into the face of this bright, friendly stranger.

So this was the English governess of whose cleverness and accomplishments she had heard so much! She looked quite young-- ridiculously young; not many years older than Rowena herself. Dreda had expected to see an elderly, spectacled dame, thin and spare, with scant locks dragged tightly back from her face. In the dark depression of her spirits she had thought it possible that she might even wear knitted mittens, and have cotton wool in her ears. Never for a moment had it occurred to her that an accomplished finishing governess could be young and pretty!

To judge from Miss Drake's expression she was experiencing very much the same pleasure in the sight of her new pupil, for her eyes brightened visibly as she looked Dreda up and down, down and up, with a keen, intent scrutiny. She laughed as she heard the girl's answer, and replied easily:

"That's quite true, Etheldreda. I am myself! That's one of the reasons which induced me to work--for unless one is contented to play the part of hearer through life, it really is worth the trouble to store up a little general knowledge, so that one may talk as interestingly as possible. Lessons may seem dull and unnecessary at the time, but they _are_ useful afterwards! Now, girls, take your places! Etheldreda shall sit here on my left, and I will read over the syllabus for this term's study, and draw out a timetable. As we come to each fresh subject I will show you our books, Etheldreda, and we will see if they are the same as those which you have been using, and how far you have progressed. I expect we shall be able to work along together, even if there is a little s.p.a.ce to be gulfed on either side."

"Please!" cried the new pupil earnestly, "don't call me Etheldreda.

n.o.body ever does except when I'm in disgrace, and it's so long and proper. I'm always Dreda at home."

"Dreda, then! It _is_ more get-at-able. Well, now, Dreda, take a pen and write down our syllabus in this book. I like my pupils to have a clear idea of the work ahead."

Dreda settled herself complacently to the task, but as she wrote her face grew ever longer and longer. What subjects were there which she was supposed to study? Political economy--she had not the vaguest idea of what it meant! Physiology--that was something horrid about one's body, which ought properly to be left to nurses and doctors! Zoology-- animals! She knew everything that she wanted to know about animals already; how to feed and tend them, and make them tame and friendly.

She could not love them half so much if she were obliged to worry herself learning stupid names half a yard long, which no ordinary human creature understood! Latin--Algebra--Astronomy. She glanced round the table and beheld Mary and Agnes and Susan scribbling away with unruffled composure. No sign of alarm could be traced on their calm, bun-like countenances, the longest words flowed from their pens as if such a thing as difficulty in spelling did not exist. Dreda looked for a moment over Mary's shoulder, and beheld her writing a diphthong without so much as turning a hair.

A chilly feeling crept up her spine; her heart seemed to stop beating, then at the next moment thudded violently against her side. She was not going to be at the top of the cla.s.s; she was to be at the bottom!

Instead of leading the van, and victoriously trailing the Currant Buns in her wake, the Currant Buns would have to trail her; and a heavy, unenlightened load she would be! A stormy prospect lay ahead; straits of difficulty; seas of depression; oceans of humiliation. Pride, and pride alone, prevented Dreda from laying down her head on the dingy brown tablecloth and bursting into tears. Alas, alas! for the happy, easy days of History, Geography, and Arithmetic, with the old-fashioned Spider. Alas for the finishing joys of Madame Clerc's select academy, where the young ladies were taken about to see the sights of Paris, with no other restriction on their pleasure seeking but that on one and all occasions they should amuse themselves in French!

It grew wearisome to make ever the same reply to Miss Drake's question.

"No, she had never studied that subject."

"No, she had never seen this book." Mary stared unblushingly with her little dark eyes. Agnes dropped her chin until it looked twice its natural length, Susan flicked over the pages of her exercises and appeared absorbed in their contents. Nancy smiled a furtive smile.

"No," cried Dreda desperately. "No, I know nothing about it! I--I have been educated on quite different lines--I think I had better go on as I have begun. I don't want to keep back the whole cla.s.s. Let the others go on as usual, and leave me out. I can join _in_ for the ordinary subjects."

"Nonsense, Dreda. Nothing of the sort. We take up each subject afresh at the beginning of the term, and if you work hard you will be able to manage quite well. It is better to make a little push to keep in this form than to go into a lower one with younger girls, and less interesting work. I am not unreasonable. I shall not expect miracles; do your best, and we'll help you on. I think you had better have a special coach to whom you can apply if you want help or explanation in your preparation. Now which of you girls would like to be Dreda's coach, and spare her a little time when it is needed?"

There was a simultaneous rustle of a.s.sent, but two voices spoke first, breaking the silence at identically the same moment.

"I!" cried Susan.

"Me!" cried Nancy.

Miss Drake smiled. "Oh, Nancy, Nancy!" she cried gaily; "a nice person _you_ would be to coach another! Better give a little more attention to your own grammar, my dear. Very well, Susan, that is settled. You shall be Dreda's coach!"

Dreda and Susan looked at each other across the table in silence. Susan saw flushed cheeks and eyes suspiciously bright. Dreda stared in amazement, asking herself how it could be that anyone so much like the two elder sisters could at the same time be so diametrically different.

Mary and Agnes were unusually plain, heavy-looking girls, but in Susan's face there was at this moment, a light of sympathy which made it strangely attractive. She possessed the family features, the family eyes, but Nature had evidently been prejudiced on her behalf and had given with a more generous hand. An extra shade of darkness on the eyebrows, an extra dip to the nose, a tiny curl to the lips, a tilt of the chin--these were trifles in themselves, but what an amazing improvement when taken in bulk! Dreda gazed and gazed, and as she did so there came to her one of those delightful experiences which most of us encounter once or twice as we go through life. As she met this strange girl's glance, a thrill of recognition ran through her veins; a voice in her heart cried, "_My Friend_!" and she knew just as surely as if she had been told _in_ words that at the same moment Susan's heart had sounded the same glad welcome.

She said: "Thank you, Susan," in a voice unusually subdued, and bit her lips to keep back the tears.

CHAPTER NINE.

At twelve o'clock work was laid aside and Miss Drake accompanied the girls for an hour's const.i.tutional. She claimed Dreda for her companion for the first part of the walk, for she had noticed the girl's humiliation, and was anxious to have a few words with her in private.

"I am sorry that you should have had such a disagreeable cross- questioning this morning, Dreda," she began brightly, "but I am sure you will realise that it was necessary. I was obliged to find out what you had been doing before I could make plans for the future. Now that is over, and we can move ahead. You will enjoy working with Susan. She is appreciative and thoughtful--a little slow in taking things in, perhaps, but for the present that will be a good thing, as it will make it all the easier for a quick girl like yourself to catch up to her in cla.s.s work." Dreda glanced up sharply.

"I! Quick! How do you know?"

Miss Drake smiled mischievously.

"Oh, very easily--very easily, indeed! I am accustomed to work among girls, and when I get a new pupil I know at once under which category she will fall. When I saw you I said to myself--`Quick, ambitious, versatile!' I have no fear that you will fail to do anything to which you persistently give your mind."

"Ah!" groaned Dreda tragically, "but that's just what I can never do.

For a little time--yes! I'm a _wonder_ to work when I first get a craze. But--it pa.s.ses! I get--_bored_! I've never stuck persistently to one thing in my life. The boys call me `Etheldreda the Ready,'

because I'm always bubbling over with enthusiasm at the beginning, and willing to promise any mortal thing you like--and then,"--she snapped her fingers in ill.u.s.tration--"Snap! the balloon bursts, and I collapse into nothing. It will be the same thing with lessons!"

Miss Drake held up her hand imperatively.

"Stop!" she cried clearly. "Stop! Never say that again, never _allow_ yourself to say it. You know your failing in your own heart, and that is enough! Every time that you put it into words, and talk about it to others, gives it added strength and power and makes it more difficult to fight. My dear girl, you are not a child--how feeble to take for granted that you are going to continue in your old baby failings! Take for granted instead that you are going to live them down, and trample them beneath your feet. You'll have to fight for it, and to fight hard, but it will do you more good than any lessons I can teach. That's the best education, isn't it, to achieve the mastery over ourselves?"

Now, if meek Miss Bruce had delivered herself of similar sentiments, Dreda would have tilted her chin and wriggled contemptuously in her chair, muttering concerning "preaching," and wishing to goodness that the tiresome old thing would stop talking and get on with her work, but Miss Drake wore such a young and gallant air, as she strode along the country lane with her head thrown back, and her uplifted hand waving aloft, that the girl's ardent nature took flame; she tilted her own head, waved her own arm, and felt a tingling of martial zeal. Yes, she would work! Yes, she would fight! She would tread her enemies under foot and emerge from the conflict victorious, untrammelled, a paragon of virtues. She turned a dazzling smile upon her companion and heaved an ardent sigh.

"How beautifully you talk! Our old governess was so different! She did not understand my nature. I have wonderful ambitions, but I am so sensitive that I can't work against difficulties. I need constant encouragement and appreciation. A sensitive plant--"

"Oh, Dreda, please spare me that worn-out simile! Not work against difficulties, indeed! What nonsense you talk! It is not work at all when everything is easy and smooth. Don't deceive yourself, my dear-- you are going to find plenty of difficulties, and to find them quickly, too. This very afternoon they will begin, when you tackle the new subjects and realise your own ignorance. You won't enjoy being behind your companions."

Dreda threw out her arms with a gesture of despair, but she made no further protest. Difficulties arising in the dim future she felt herself able to face resolutely enough, but the thought that they might begin that very afternoon dispelled her ardour. She listened to Miss Drake's further utterances with so quelled and dispirited an air that that quick-sighted lady felt that enough had been said for the moment, and calling her elder pupils to her side, set the two younger girls free to walk together.

It was the moment for which both had been longing, but a mutual shyness held them tongue-tied for the first hundred yards. Naturally it was Dreda who broke the silence.

"It was ripping of you to offer to coach me. I don't believe in learning all those things, but if I must, I must, and it would have been difficult all alone. I hope you don't mind."

"I want to," said Susan simply. "I've always wanted to do something for you, since the first time we met. It was at a Christmas party at the Rectory and you wore a black frock. I never thought then that you would come to school with us, but I wished you could be my friend. When I've made castles in the air they have always been about you, and something we could do together. I sat beside you at supper. Do you remember?"

No! Dreda had no recollection of the kind. She and her brothers and sisters had always cherished a secret contempt for the Webster sisters and had sedulously avoided them on every occasion. If Susan had been seated on one side at supper, it followed as a matter of course that Dreda herself had devoted her attention exclusively to whoever sat at the other side. She felt a faint p.r.i.c.king of conscience, and answered tentatively: "It is so long ago. I have a wretched memory. I remember we had lovely crackers at supper--but that's all. How did you come to notice me?"