The New Mistress Part 12

"There."

He had paused to wipe the rather greasy handle upon his white handkerchief, and then, in pa.s.sing the knife, their hands just touched-- a mere touch, and Hazel had gone.

The meat had disappeared, the puddings and pies had followed, and, turned waiter now, the young squire had merrily pa.s.sed along the plates, till the time for rising had nearly arrived, when accident once more placed him beside Hazel.

"Your girls have thoroughly enjoyed themselves, Miss Thorne," he said, for he had learned her name now from one of the elder children--Feelier Potts, to wit.

"Oh, most thoroughly," said Hazel, smiling brightly and with genuine pleasure. "It is delightful to see them so happy."

"Do you see that Beatrice?" whispered Miss Lambent from the other end of the tent.

"Yes."

"Grace next I suppose? Oh, there is my mother beckoning to me, Miss Thorne," said the squire hastily, "it is a pity to have so pleasant an affair spoiled. Would you mind hinting to Mr Burge that he should ask the vicar to say grace!"

"Oh, yes, I will," said Hazel, nodding to him.

"As if he were her equal," said Miss Lambent indignantly; while, hurrying to the end of the table. Hazel was just in time to whisper to the host.

"Why, of course," he said. "What a stupid! Thank you. Miss Thorne.

Mr Lambent!" he cried aloud, "would you be kind enough to say grace?"

Out in the field then, with the sun shining, the band playing, and plenty of enjoyment for the schools, which were separated by a rope stretched from one end to the other. Races were run for prizes of all kinds, and, full of animation, while the vicar stood with his hands behind him patronisingly looking on, the young squire was the life and soul of the affair, and ready with a dozen fresh ideas to suggest to the host. There were prizes for the fastest runners, prizes for the slowest, for the first in and the last in, for jumps and hops, and the best singers, and the worst singers, scramblings, blindfold-walking, sports galore.

Hazel forgot her troubles, and with Miss Burge's help she was always the centre, of some new sport or game; Cissy and Mabel being like a pair of attendant fairies, ready to be seized upon by Mr Canninge as the bearers of the prizes that were to be won.

"I never saw George so full of spirits before," said Mrs Canninge to Rebecca Lambent as they sat in a garden-chair looking on.

"I should say he will have a bad headache afterwards," replied that lady.

"Oh, no, he is fond of athletics and that sort of thing. Charming young person, your new schoolmistress, Beatrice dear," she continued. "Very ladylike and well-spoken."

"Yes, a very well educated person," said Beatrice coldly.

"The squire's a brick, that's what he is, Betsey," said the host, wiping his forehead with his handkerchief, about five o'clock. "I tell you what, I'm about tired out. Now, look here, you go in and get yourself a cup of tea, or you'll be done up, and if you're as wise as I take you to be, you'll put just a pinch of ody-wee in the cup. It'll be all over at six, and then well have a comfortable dinner."

"But what are you going to do, Bill!"

"To do? I'm going to fetch that girl in to have a cup of tea with you.

Bless her, she's worked like a slave. No, I won't it's all right, I'll take in her mother. Poor old lady, no one seemed to speak to her. Look at that now. That's what I call a genuine English gentleman, Betsey.

Here, hi! Mr Chute, that'll do; now come up to the house, let them play by themselves. I say, Betsey, this has been a day!"

A day to be remembered, for Mr Chute was tightening his fists and scowling at one of the young Potts, wishing the while that he had a cane. Not that young Potts had been behaving so very badly, but his schoolmaster was annoyed, and some people when hurt look round at once for some one as a spleen-vent. He was suffering from the same pain that had sent a sting through Beatrice Lambent, and made her sister frown.

For just as Mr William Forth Burge had told his sister his determination, George Canninge, the princ.i.p.al landholder and personage of those parts, the newly-elected magistrate on the county bench, had gone up to Hazel Thorne, raised his hat and said quietly:

"Miss Thorne, you look tired out. Will you allow me to take you into the house and get you some tea?"

"And she forgot herself," cried Beatrice Lambent pa.s.sionately, as she paced her room that night Hazel Thorne's self-forgetfulness consisted in acting, like any unconscious girl would under the circ.u.mstances. She gave the speaker a grateful look full of innocency, and, taking his proffered arm, walked with him into Miss Burge's drawing-room, where she was received with smiles.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

TOUCHING THE SENSITIVE PLANT.

It was Burns who wrote his wish that some power would give us the ability to see ourselves from other people's point of view. If Hazel Thorne had received this gift she would not have remained so steeped in ignorance, but gazing at herself through Beatrice Lambent's eyes, have seen that she had been guilty of an almost deadly sin.

For what could have been more heinous than for "a young person in her station in life," as Miss Beatrice afterwards said, to presume to take the squire's arm, an arm that Beatrice looked upon as sacred, and thought quite polluted by the touch of one who was only a schoolmistress, and consequently not likely to possess feelings similar to her own?

All the same, though, Hazel did touch the sacred limb, and allowed herself to be taken into the drawing-room, which Mrs Canninge had just entered, and was now presiding at a tea-table.

"You'll let me do that for you, Miss Burge," she had said. "You must be tired out."

"Well, really and truly, Mrs Canninge, my poor legs do ache to such an extent," said Miss Burge confidentially, "that I feel a'most ready to drop."

"That you must, indeed," said Mrs Canninge, smiling, as the little body toddled to a large cane arm-chair, and plumped herself down so vigorously that the cane chair uttered a loud protest, and after giving way in an elastic manner, kept on uttering little squeaks and creaks, somewhat after the fashion of Miss Feelier Potts, as it made efforts to recover itself.

Meanwhile little Miss Burge sat there smiling gratefully, and enjoying her rest, as she gently rocked herself to and fro rubbing her hands in regular twin motion backwards and forwards along her aching legs.

"You see, Mrs Canninge--and sugar, please--three lumps. Yes, I always take cream, it do improve the tea so--you see my brother takes so much interest in the schools, and he'd set his mind upon the boys and girls enjoying themselves, that it would have been a sin and a shame not to have done one's best to help him; but, oh my! It has been a job."

"I'm sure you must have worked like a slave, Miss Burge," said Mrs Canninge, handing the tea, "and we ought all to be very grateful to you and your brother."

"Oh, it isn't me, my dear," said Miss Burge (fortunately neither Miss Lambent nor Beatrice was at hand to hear Mrs Canninge addressed as "my dear")--"it is all my brother. He hasn't a bit of pride in him. He says, you know, Mrs Canninge, he first learned to read and write at Plumton School, and it's been so useful to him that--"

"Excuse me. Miss Burge, I have not my best gla.s.ses with me, is not this Miss--Miss--?"

"Thorne, yes, Mrs Canninge, and it's very kind of your son to bring the poor dear in to have some tea."

Mrs Canninge looked rather curiously at Hazel Thorne, as her son brought her into the drawing-room. If she had been plain and ordinary looking, Mrs Canninge would have thought nothing of the incident; but then Hazel Thorne was neither plain nor ordinary, and, what was more, she did not seem in the slightest degree oppressed by the novelty of the situation, but chatted quietly to her companion, who was the more conscious of the two.

"Oh, here is my mother," he said. "Mother dear, I have brought you an exhausted slave; pray feed and rest her, or she will be throwing off the Plumton chains, and escaping to some place where they will treat her better. Miss Thorne, this is my mother, Mrs Canninge."

"I am very glad to know you, Miss Thorne," said Mrs Canninge quietly; and Hazel looked her full in the eyes before lowering her own, and bending slightly, for there was a something in Mrs Canninge's way that was different to her son's. George Canninge had spoken to her as if she were his equal, while his mother had smiled, spoken kindly, and hastened to pour out some tea; but Hazel felt and knew that it was not in the same way as she would have spoken and acted towards one of her own set.

The shade of difference was very slight, but it was marked, and George Canninge noted it as well, though it was lost upon little Miss Burge, who turned to Hazel, and began to prattle away directly.

"Ah, that's right, Mr Canninge, I am glad you have brought Miss Thorne in. She has been regularly f.a.gged to death. I never did see any one work so."

"Miss Thorne has been indefatigable," said the squire; "and, by-the-way, Miss Thorne, I think your mamma is somewhere here. I'll go and find her."

Hazel was growing cold, but this little gentlemanly attention made her smile again as she bowed her thanks, and George Canninge was just leaving the room, when a familiar voice was heard, and Mr William Forth Burge appeared with Mrs Thorne, handing her in very carefully, and talking loudly all the while, as he brought her into a place where he was sure there would be no draught, and then fetched her some tea and cake.

"Well, Mr Burge," cried George Canninge, for he felt conscious that his mother was freezing the current of conversation, "what are we to call it, a success or a failure?"

Mr William Forth Burge opened his mouth and stared, but for a few moments no words came.