Sisters Three Part 1

Sisters Three.

by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey.

CHAPTER ONE.

NEW YEAR'S DAY.

"I wish something would happen!" sighed Norah.

"If it were something _nice_," corrected Lettice. "Lots of things happen every day, but they are mostly disagreeable. Getting up, for instance, in the cold, dark mornings--and practising--and housework, and getting ready for stupid old cla.s.ses--I don't complain of having too little to do. I want to do less, and to be able to amuse myself more."

"We want a change, that is the truth," said Hilary, bending forward on her seat, and sending the poker into the heart of the fire with a vigorous shove. "Our lives jog-trot along in the same way year after year, and it grows monotonous. I declare, when I think that this is the first day of another January it makes me ill! Fifty-two more Mondays to sit in the morning-room and darn stockings. Fifty-two Sat.u.r.days to give out stores. Three hundred and sixty-five days to dust ornaments, interview the cook, and say, 'Well, let me see! The cold mutton had better be used up for lunch'--Oh, dear me!"

"I'll tell you what--let's have a nice long grumble," said Lettice, giving her chair a hitch nearer the fire, and bending forward with a smile of enjoyment. "Let's hold an Indignation Meeting on our own account, and discuss our grievances. Women always have grievances nowadays--it's the fashionable thing, and I like to be in the fashion.

Three charming and beauteous maidens shut up in the depths of the country in the very flower of their youth, with nothing to do--I mean with far too much to do, but with no amus.e.m.e.nt, no friends, no variety!

We are like the princesses in the fairy tales, shut up in the moated tower; only then there were always fairy G.o.dmothers to come to the rescue, and beautiful princes in golden chariots. We shall have to wait a long time before any such visitors come tramping along the Kendal high-road. I am sure it sounds melancholy enough to make anyone sorry for us!"

"Father is the dearest man in the world, but he doesn't understand how a girl of seventeen feels. I was seventeen on my last birthday, so it's worse for me than for you, for I am really grown-up." Hilary sighed, and rested her sleek little head upon her hand in a pensive, elderly fashion. "I believe he thinks that if we have a comfortable home and enough to eat, and moderately decent clothes, we ought to be content; but I want ever so much more than that. If mother had lived--"

There was a short silence, and then Norah took up the strain in her crisp, decided accents. "I am fifteen and a half, and I look very nearly as old as you do, Hilary, and I'm an inch taller. I don't see why I need go on with these stupid old cla.s.ses. If I could go to a good school, it would be another thing, for I simply adore music and painting, and should love to work hard, and become celebrated; but I don't believe Miss Briggs can teach me any more than I know myself, and there is no better teacher for miles around. If father would only let me go abroad for a year; but he is afraid of trusting me out of his sight. If _I_ had seven children, I'd be glad to get rid of some of them, if only to get a little peace and quietness at home."

"Mother liked the idea of girls being educated at home, that is the reason why father objects to sending us away. The boys must go to boarding-schools, of course, because there is no one here who can take them in hand. As for peace and quietness, father enjoys having the house full. He grumbles at the noise sometimes, but I believe he likes it at the bottom of his heart. If we do happen to be quiet for a change in the evening, he peers over his book and says, 'What is the matter; has something gone wrong? Why are you all so quiet?' He loves to see us frisking about."

"Yes, but I can't frisk any longer--I'm too dull--I want something to happen," repeated Norah, obstinately. "Other people have parties on New Year's Day, or a Christmas-tree, or crowds of visitors coming to call.

We have been sitting here sewing from ten o'clock this morning--nasty, uninteresting mending--which isn't half done yet, though it is nearly four o'clock. And you never think of me! I'm fifteen, and I feel it more than either of you. You see it is like this. Sometimes I feel quite young, like a child, and then you two are too proper to run about and play with me, so I am all alone; and then I feel quite old and grown-up, and am just as badly off as you, and worse, because I'm the youngest, and have to take third turn of everything, and wear your washed-out ribbons! If only something would happen that was really startling and exciting--!"

"I sink it's very naughty to wish like that!" A tiny, reed-like voice burst into the conversation with an unexpectedness which made the three sisters start in their seats; a small figure in a white pinafore crept forward into the firelight, and raised a pair of reproachful eyes to Norah's face. "I sink it's very naughty to wish like that, 'cause it's discontented, and you don't know what it might be like. Pr'aps the house might be burned, or the walls fall down, or you might all be ill and dead yourselves, and _then_ you wouldn't like it!"

The three girls looked at each other, undecided between laughter and remorse.

"Mouse!" said Hilary, severely, "what are you doing here? Little girls have no business to listen to what big people are saying. You must never sit here again without letting us know, or that will be naughty too. We don't mean to be discontented, Mouse. We felt rather low in our spirits, and were relieving ourselves by a little grumble, that's all. Of course, we know that we have really many, many things to be thankful for--a nice house, and--ah--garden, and such beautiful country all round, and--ah--good health, and--"

"And the bunnies, and the pigeons, and the new carpet in the dining- room, and because the puppy didn't die--and--and--_Me_!" said the Mouse, severely; and when her sisters burst into a roar of laughter she proceeded to justify herself with indignant protest. "Well, it's the trufh! The bunnies _are_ pretty, and you said, 'Thank goodness! we've got a respectable carpet at last!' And Lettice cried when the little pup rolled its eyes and squealed, and you said to Miss Briggs that I was only five, and if I _was_ spoiled she couldn't wonder, 'cause I was the littlest of seven, and no one could help it! And it's 'Happy New Year'

and plum pudding for dinner, so I don't sink you ought to be discontented!"

"You are quite right, dear, it's very naughty of us. Just run upstairs to the schoolroom, and get tidy for tea, there's a good little Mouse.

Shut the door behind you, for there's a fearful draught." Hilary nodded to the child over her shoulder, and then turned to her sisters with an expressive shrug. "What a funny little mite she is! We really must be careful how we speak before her. She understands far too well, and she has such stern ideas of her own. Well, perhaps after all we are wrong to be discontented. I hated coming to live in this quiet place, but I have been ever so much stronger; I never have that wretched, breathless feeling now that I had in town, and I can run upstairs to the very top without stopping. You can't enjoy anything without health, so I ought to be--I am!--very thankful that I am so much better."

"I am thankful that I have my two dear hobbies, and can forget everything in playing and drawing. The hours fly when I can sit out of doors and sketch, and my precious old violin knows all my secrets. It cries with me, and sings with me, and shrieks aloud just as I would do if I dared to make all the noise I want, when I am in a temper. I do believe I could be one of the best players in the world if I had the chance. I feel it in me! It is aggravating to know that I make mistakes from want of proper lessons, but it is glorious to feel such power over an instrument as I do when I am properly worked up! I would not change places with any girl who is not musical!"

Lettice said nothing, but she lifted her eyes to the oval mirror which hung above the mantelpiece, and in her heart she thought, "And I am glad that I am so pretty. If one is pretty, everyone is polite and attentive; and I do like people to be kind, and make a fuss! When we were at the station the other day the people nudged each other and bent out of the windows of the train as I pa.s.sed. I saw them, though I pretended I didn't. And I should look far nicer if I had proper clothes. If I could only have had that fur boa, and the feather for my hat! But what does it matter what I wear in this wretched place? There is no one to see me."

The firelight played on three thoughtful faces as the girls sat in silence, each occupied with her special train of thought. The room looked grey and colourless in the waning light, and the glimpse of wintry landscape seen through the window did not add to the general cheeriness. Hilary shivered, and picking up a log from the corner of the grate dropped it into the fire.

"Well, there is no use repining! We have had our grumble, and we might as well make the best of circ.u.mstances. It's New Year's Day, so I shall make a resolution to try to like my work. I know I do it well, because I am naturally a good housekeeper; but I ought to take more interest in it. That's the way the good people do in books, and in the end they dote upon the very things they used to hate. There's no saying--I may come to adore darning stockings and wending linen before the year is out! At any rate I shall have the satisfaction of having done my best."

"Well, if you try to like your work, I'll try to remember mine--that's a bargain," said Lettice solemnly. "There always seems to be something I want particularly to do for myself, just when I ought to be at my 'avocations,' as Miss Briggs has it. It's a bad plan, because I have to exert myself to finish in time, and get a scolding into the bargain. So here's for punctuality and reform!"

Norah held her left hand high in the air, and began checking off the fingers with ostentatious emphasis. "I resolve always to get up in the morning as soon as I am called, and without a single grumble; always to be amiable when annoyed; always to do what other people like, and what I dislike myself; always to be good-tempered with the boys, and smile upon them when they pull my hair and play tricks with my things; always be cheerful, contented, ladylike in deportment, and agreeable in manner.

What do you say? _Silly_! I am not silly at all. If you are going to make resolutions at all, you ought to do it properly. Aim at the sky, and you may reach the top of the tree; aim at the top of the tree, and you will grovel on the ground. You are too modest in your aspirations, and they won't come to any good; but as for me--with a standard before me of absolute perfection--"

"Who is talking of perfection? And where is the tea, and why are you still in darkness, with none of the lamps lighted? It is five o'clock, and I have been in my study waiting for the bell to ring for the last half-hour. What are you all doing over there by the fire?" cried a masculine voice, and a man's tall figure stood outlined in the doorway.

CHAPTER TWO.

HILARY IN LUCK.

There was a simultaneous exclamation of dismay as the three girls leapt from their seats, and flew round the room in different directions.

Hilary lighted the lamps, Norah drew the curtains across the windows, while Lettice first gave a peal to the bell, and then ran forward to escort her father to a chair by the fire.

"Tea will be here in a moment, father; come and sit down. It's New Year's Day, you know, and we have been so busy making good resolutions that we have had no time for anything practical. Why didn't you come down before? You are a regular old woman about afternoon tea; I believe you would miss it more than any other meal."

"I believe I should. I never get on well with my writing in the first part of the afternoon, and tea seems to give me a fresh start. So you girls have been making good resolutions? That's good hearing. Tell me about them." And Mr Bertrand leant back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his head, and looking up at his young daughters with a quizzical smile. A photographer would have been happy if he could have taken a portrait at this moment, for Mr Bertrand was a well-known author, and the books which were written in the study in Westmoreland went far and wide over the world, and made his name a household word.

He had forgotten his beloved work at this moment, however, at the sight of something dearer still--his three young daughters standing grouped together facing him at the other side of the old-fashioned grate, their faces flushed from the heat of the fire, their eyes dazzled by the sudden light. How tall and womanlike they looked in their dark serge dresses! Lettice's hair framed her face in a halo of mist-like curls; Hilary held up her head in her dignified little fashion; mischievous Norah smiled in the background. They were dearer to him than all his heroines; but, alas, far less easy to manage, for the heroines did as they were bid, while the three girls were developing strong wills of their own.

"I believe you have been plotting mischief, and that is the beginning and the end of your good resolutions!"

"Indeed, no, father; we were in earnest. But it was a reaction, for before that we had been grumbling about-- Wait a moment, here comes tea.

We'll tell you later on. Miss Briggs says we should never talk about disagreeable topics at a meal, and tea is the nicest meal of the day, so we can't afford to spoil it. Well, and how is Mr Robert getting on this afternoon?"

Mr Bertrand's face twitched in a comical manner. He lived so entirely in the book which he was writing at the time that he found it impossible to keep silent on the subject; but he could never rid himself of a comical feeling of embarra.s.sment in discussing his novels in the presence of his daughters.

"Robert, eh? What do you know about Robert?"

"We know all about him, of course. He was in trouble on Wednesday, and you came down to tea with your hair ruffled, and as miserable as you could be. He must be happy again to-day, for your hair is quite smooth.

When is he going to marry Lady Mary?"

"He is not going to marry Lady Mary at all. What nonsense! Lady Mary, indeed! You don't know anything about it! Give me another cup of tea, and tell me what you have been grumbling about. It doesn't sound a cheerful topic for New Year's Day, but I would rather have even that than hear such ridiculous remarks! Grumbling! What can you have to grumble about, I should like to know?"

"Oh, father!" The three young faces raised themselves to his in wide- eyed protest. The exclamation was unanimous; but when it was over there was a moment's silence before Hilary took up the strain.

"We are dull, father! We are tired of ourselves. You are all day long in your study, the boys spend their time out of doors, and we have no friends. In summer time we don't feel it, for we live in the garden, and it is bright and sunny; but in winter it is dark and cold. No one comes to see us, the days are so long, and every day is like the last."

"My dear, you have the housework, and the other two have their lessons.

You are only children as yet, and your school days are not over. Most children are sent to boarding-schools, and have to work all day long.

You have liberty and time to yourselves. I don't see why you should complain."

"Father, I should like to go to school--I long to go--I want to get on with my music, and Miss Briggs can't teach me any more."

"Father, when girls are at boarding-schools they have parties and theatricals, and go to concerts, and have all sorts of fun. We never have anything like that."

"Father, I am not a child; I am nearly eighteen. Chrystabel Maynard was only seventeen at the beginning of the book?"

Mr Bertrand stirred uneasily, and brushed the hair from his forehead.

Chrystabel Maynard was one of his own heroines, and the allusion brought home the reality of his daughter's age as nothing else could have done.