Kate's Ordeal Part 3

"About saying as few words as possible to the customers in the shop; Mrs. Maple told me she was most strict about it."

"Well, I suppose she is," said Marion, carelessly; "at least, just at first;" but they were joined at this moment by two young men, whom Kate instantly recognised as being frequent visitors at the shop.

She cast an inquiring glance at Marion, as one of them said, "This is the cousin you told me was coming to help you in the shop, I suppose?"

"I have been there all the week, and seen you several times, I think,"

said Kate quickly, at which they all burst into a loud laugh.

A few minutes afterwards they were joined by some more friends, who were likewise customers at the shop, as Kate's eyes instantly told her, and she wondered whether her cousin did keep the rule about friends and customers, as strictly as Mrs. Maple supposed.

Before the next week was over, she found that these friends of Marion's came in for buns or pastry when Mrs. Maple was sure to be out of the way, and a good deal of laughing and chatting went on between them.

"Of course I don't keep such a stupid rule as that, Kate, how can I?"

said her cousin afterwards, when they were talking about this. "It would not do to laugh and chat with the old lady in the way, but where is the harm I should like to know?"

Kate shook her head. "Of course I don't understand business," she said, "but I thought it was a strange rule, myself."

"A strange rule! It is the most stupid and absurd one that could be thought of. Some people come into the shop every day, and to think I am only to say 'yes' and 'no' to them is ridiculous."

"But all those young men you met on Sunday--surely you knew some of them in a different way than just coming into the shop?" said Kate.

"No, I don't," replied her cousin; "I never saw them until I came here," she added, laughing.

Kate looked a little disappointed. "I--I thought you knew them so well, they seemed so friendly--that they must be friends of your brothers--that your father knew their friends and all about them,"

stammered Kate.

"You little goose! what difference can it make to us, whether my father and grandfather knew theirs, or whether we met last week for the first time?" said Marion, laughing.

But Kate was not satisfied. "I wish I could talk to mother about it,"

she said, half aloud.

"For patience sake don't look so solemn and talk so seriously about a little thing like that, and as to telling your mother everything, why no sensible girl of any spirit would think of such nonsense, for she would know that her mother could not understand about things she had never seen or heard of. Now, don't be silly, Kate, and make your mother uncomfortable about you. We went to church last Sunday on purpose that you might tell her we had been, and after that she will be satisfied, unless you tell her something on purpose to make her anxious about you." And Marion went to serve another customer, feeling sure that Kate would not say anything about these acquaintances now.

Kate certainly did not want to say anything that would make her mother anxious. Only this morning she had received a letter from her mother saying she had lost almost all her fears concerning her welfare now, for Kate's letters had given such a faithful account of Mrs. Maple's strict ways, and the stringent rule about chance acquaintances, and her resolution to induce her cousins to go with her to a Bible-cla.s.s very soon, that Mrs. Haydon grew almost as hopeful as Kate about the future.

And Kate was quite sincere in her desire to induce her cousins to spend their Sundays differently, and she thought if she went with them to see the various sights of London just once or twice they would be willing to go with her afterwards. The following Sunday morning when they were dressing to go out Marion said, "Where do you think we are going to-day, Kate?"

"You said you would take me to Westminster Abbey or to St. Paul's,"

said Kate.

"Ah, yes, so I did; but a wet Sunday will do for those places, and they want us to go to Richmond or Greenwich Park. Which shall it be, Kate?"

said her cousin, brushing her hair more vigorously.

"Who wants us to go?" asked Kate.

"Oh, you know--the friends who met us in the Park last Sunday."

"The young men who came into the shop on Friday? Wouldn't they go with us to the Abbey or to St. Paul's instead?" said Kate.

Marion laughed. "I shouldn't like to ask them," she said; "and pray don't say anything about Sunday school before them."

"I am not ashamed of it, I can tell you," said Kate, in a half-offended tone.

"No, no, of course not; but then, you see, you are not in the country now," said Marion, "and things are different in London."

"I don't see why they should be; there are Sunday schools in London, I know, and I mean to find out a Bible-cla.s.s, and then you and Bella shall come and see how nice it is."

"Well, there's plenty of time for that when the fine weather is all over," said Marion a little impatiently. "Now, Kate, be quick and decide where we shall go, for I expect they will meet us as we go home, and we must tell them where to meet us this afternoon."

"Well, I would rather not go at all," said Kate slowly, for she knew her conscience would not let her enjoy the most pleasant trip that could be arranged.

"Oh, nonsense, but you must come, I have promised for you; they particularly want you to go," said Marion.

Kate could not help feeling pleased and flattered by her cousin's words, but she made another feeble protest.

"I would much rather go to St. Paul's," she said, "and if I go with you to-day you must promise to go to Bible-cla.s.s with me very soon."

"Oh, I promise," laughed Marion. "And now, Kate, once more, where shall we go, for I promised you should decide this? I am a great mind to be jealous of you, my little country cousin," she added; "Bella would be, I know."

"I don't see what you have got to be jealous about," said Kate, yet still feeling pleased and elated, in spite of her better sense.

"Now let me give you a few finishing touches before we go," said Marion, a few minutes afterwards, "and I will lend you my green brooch and a veil. You must let me alter your bonnet a little one night next week. There; now you don't look quite so dowdy," said Marion, as she pushed her cousin before the looking-gla.s.s after the "few touches" had been given to her bonnet and neck ribbon.

"Come, Kate, will you take this parasol of mine?" said her cousin.

"Oh, yes, and I must take some money, I suppose," said Kate, going to her box and unlocking it. She did not like her cousin to see what a small store of money she had, and so she put the purse into her pocket as it was, but not intending to spend more than a shilling, for the little sum her mother had given her was to last three months for her extra expenses.

CHAPTER IV.

THE LOST PURSE.

Sunday "outings," in the holiday-making sense, were not much to Kate's fancy, but she had exhausted all her excuses and objections, and found herself forced to yield to Marion's proposal. So the two girls went off and found their friends waiting for them a short distance from the shop. The bells of various churches were ringing for morning service, and Kate ventured to whisper to her cousin that she would like to go, but Marion shook her head so decidedly that she gave up the point at once, but she did not take much interest in the discussion that was going on about the rival attractions of Greenwich and Richmond, saying she knew nothing about either.

At last it was decided that they should spend the afternoon at Greenwich, going and returning by water. The young men walked with them almost as far as Marion's home, but left them at the corner of the street, and nothing was said to her father about these companions of their walk. When Isabel heard where they were going she declared she must have her bonnet altered, and Marion sat down to do this while her sister got the dinner ready.

As they were going out after dinner, Marion said, "Perhaps we shall stop out to tea, father. I want to go and see a friend to-day, and she is sure to ask us to stay to tea."

"Very well, my dear, I can manage to get tea for myself and the boys,"

said her father, carelessly. Marion always had been allowed to do very much as she pleased, and since her mother's death, and she had got a situation, she had taken the reins quite into her own hands, and seldom asked advice, and still more rarely accepted it when it was offered.

Kate felt rather uncomfortable at first, when she thought of this steamboat excursion, but she soon forgot this in the pleasure and novelty of the scene around her, and she stifled the voice of conscience, by whispering that this would not happen again--she had only come this once, that her cousin might go with her to the Bible-cla.s.s when the fine weather was over.

The steamboat was crowded, and there was a good deal of pushing and squeezing when they reached Greenwich Pier, where most of the pa.s.sengers were landed.

"All tickets ready! all tickets ready!" called the man at the end of the landing-board, while another took each pa.s.senger's sc.r.a.p of paper as they pa.s.sed out. Kate had put her ticket in her purse for safety; and now put her hand into her pocket to get it; but to her dismay she found her pocket empty. "Oh, stop a minute, wait for me, Marion, I must have dropped my purse!" and Kate began to elbow her way through the crowd back to where she had been sitting. The place was vacant now, and she hunted all round, but no purse could be seen. "Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do!" she exclaimed, bursting into tears.