Girls of the Forest Part 43

Pen's eyes danced. The children on the sands called out to her.

"Be quick, little girl, or we'll be cotched. If nurse comes out she won't let us go. We can go if we start at once."

"Well, I'm off. You must give me leave, Paulie. If you don't I will----"

"Don't!" said Pauline, backing away from her sister. She felt a sort of terror when Penelope taunted her with her superior knowledge and the cruel use she meant to put it to.

"Go if you like," she said, in a white heat of pa.s.sion. "You are the worry of my life."

Pen gave her a flashing, by no means good sort of glance, and then tore down the winding path which led to the sands. Pauline got up; she left her seat by the sh.o.r.e and went inland.

"I don't know how I am to bear it," she said to herself. "Pen has made me so wretched. I was hoping that nothing would be known. I was trying to forget, and I was making a lot of good resolves, and I am loving Aunt Sophy more and more each day. Why have I got such a dreadful little sister as Pen? She is like none of the rest. It seems almost incredible that I should be in the power of such a small child. Nevertheless I am in her power. I had no right to let her go to the White Bay; still, I told her to go, for I couldn't bear the agonies I should have to go through if I refused. Oh, I am wretched! Pen practically knows everything; so does Patty, and so does Briar. But they're safe enough; they won't betray me--they wouldn't for all the world. As to Pen, I don't know what she is made of. She will be a terrible woman by-and-by."

Pauline walked on until she heard Verena's voice. She then turned back.

"Aunt Sophy said we were to go up to the town to meet her," said Verena.

"She's doing some shopping. She wants to get a new autumn hat for you, and another for me. Come along, Paulie. We are to be at Murray's in the High Street at eleven o'clock."

Pauline turned and walked soberly by her sister's side.

"Are you as tired as ever this morning, Paulie?" asked Verena.

"I am not tired at all," replied Pauline.

Verena considered for a minute.

"Aunt Sophy is often anxious about you," she said. "I can't imagine why, but she is. She says that she doesn't think you are at all strong."

"Oh, I am!" interrupted Pauline. "I wish she wouldn't worry about me. I wish you'd tell her not to worry. I am really as strong as any girl could be. Do tell her not to fret about me any more."

"Where is Pen?" said Verena suddenly.

Pauline did not speak.

"I suppose she is down on the beach as usual," said Verena again in a careless tone. "She's always down there. She is such a queer little mite!"

"Don't let's talk about her," said Pauline almost crossly.

The girls turned their conversation to other matters, and when they joined Miss Tredgold at Murray's shop they had both forgotten the existence of their little sister Penelope.

Meanwhile that young person was having a good time. Having gained her wish, she was in excellent spirits, and was determined to make herself extremely agreeable to the Carvers. She thought them quite nice children.

They were different from the children at home. They had lived almost all their lives in London. They told Pen a good many stories about London. It was the only place worth living in, Harry Carver said. When you went out there you always turned your steps in the direction of the Zoo. Pen asked what the Zoo was. Harry Carver gave her a glance of amazement.

"Why, it's chock-full of wild beasts," he said.

Pen thought this a most exciting description. Her cheeks paled; her eyes grew big. She clasped hold of Harry's arm and said in a trembling voice:

"Are you joking, or do you mean real lions and bears and tigers?"

"I mean real lions and bears and tigers," said Harry. "Oh, if you only heard the lions roar! We see them fed, too. It is fun to hear them growling when they get their meat; and the way they lick it--oh, it's most exciting!"

"So it is," said Nellie Carver. "It's awful fun to go to the Zoo."

"You must be very courageous," said Pen, who did not know that the wild beasts were confined in cages.

Neither Eleanor nor Harry Carver thought it worth while to enlighten Pen with regard to this particular; on the contrary, they determined to keep it to themselves. It was nice to have a little girl like Pen looking at them with awe.

"It isn't everybody who can go to the Zoo," proceeded Harry. "There are people that the wild beasts don't ever care to touch. Nellie and I are that sort; we're made that way. We walk about amongst them; we stroke them and pet them. I often sit on the neck of a lion, and quite enjoy myself."

"My pet beast for a ride is a panther," said Nellie, her eyes sparkling with fun at her own delicious ideas; "but most children can never ride on lions and panthers."

"I don't believe you ride on them," said Pen. "You don't look half brave enough for that."

"Why don't you think us brave?" asked Harry. "You are not a nice girl when you talk in that way. You wouldn't even be brave enough to ride on the elephants. Oh, it's very jolly for the real brave people when they go to the Zoo."

"And is that the only place to go to in London?" asked Pen.

As she spoke she quickened her steps, for the children were now crossing the extreme end of the promontory round which was the celebrated White Bay.

"There are other places. There's the British Museum, full of books. There are miles and miles of books in London, and miles and miles of pictures."

"What an awful place!" said Pen, who had no love for either books or pictures. "Don't tell me any more about it. Go on ascribing the wild animals. Is there serpents at the Zoo?"

"Tons of 'em. When they have gorged a rabbit or a lamb or a girl whole, they lie down and sleep for about a week."

"They don't gorge girls!"

"They think nothing of it; that is, if the girl is the sort of child they don't like."

"I won't go," said Pen. "I am not the sort of child the wild beasts would love. I think maybe I might be crunched up by the lions. I shan't go."

"Well, no one asked you," said Harry. "You are quite certain to be eaten, so you had best stay away."

"Why do you say that?"

Harry glanced at his sister. Nellie laughed. Harry laughed also.

"Why do you talk in that way, you horrid boy?" said Pen, stamping her foot. "What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you, only you need not try to kill me with your eyes. The wild beasts only like good uns. You ain't good. The wild beasts would soon find that out."

For some extraordinary reason Pen found herself turning pale. She had a moment of actual fear. At this instant she would have resigned the thimble--the golden thimble, with its sapphire top and turquoise rim--to the safe keeping of Pauline. For if Pauline had the thimble Pen would have very little to say against her. As long as she possessed the thimble she felt that Pauline was in her power. She liked the sensation, and she was honest enough to own as much.

The conversation was now quickly turned. The children found plenty of sh.e.l.ls in the White Bay. Soon they were sitting on the sands picking them up and enjoying themselves as only children can.

"So," said Pen, pushing back her hat and fixing her eyes on Harry's face, "you comed here without leave?"

"Of course we did," said Harry. "Won't nurse be in a state when she finds we've gone! She will rush up and down in front of the house and cry, for father and mother have gone away for the whole day, and nurse is in sole charge. Oh, won't she be in a state! She went off to walk with her young man, and we thought we'd play a joke on her, for she's often told us not to come here. 'If you go near that White Bay,' she said, 'you will be drowned as sure as sure.' She daren't tell father and mother because of her young man. Isn't it fun?"