Trent's Trust, and Other Stories Part 14

"Say no more, my dear madam," said the colonel politely. "Until she is free I will stroll outside, through--er--the groves of the Academus"--

But Miss Tish, equally alarmed at the diversion this would create at the cla.s.sroom windows, recalled herself with an effort. "Please wait here a moment," she said hurriedly; "I will bring her down;" and before the colonel could politely open the door for her, she had fled.

Happily unconscious of the sensation he had caused, Colonel Starbottle seated himself on the sofa, his white hands resting easily on the gold-headed cane. Once or twice the door behind him opened and closed quietly, scarcely disturbing him; or again opened more ostentatiously to the words, "Oh, excuse, please," and the brief glimpse of a flaxen braid, or a black curly head--to all of which the colonel nodded politely--even rising later to the apparition of a taller, demure young lady--and her more affected "Really, I beg your pardon!" The only result of this evident curiosity was slightly to change the colonel's att.i.tude, so as to enable him to put his other hand in his breast in his favorite pose. But presently he was conscious of a more active movement in the hall, of the sounds of scuffling, of a high youthful voice saying "I won't" and "I shan't!" of the door opening to a momentary apparition of Miss Tish dragging a small hand and half of a small black-ribboned arm into the room, and her rapid disappearance again, apparently pulled back by the little hand and arm; of another and longer pause, of a whispered conference outside, and then the reappearance of Miss Tish majestically, reinforced and supported by the grim presence of her partner, Miss Prinkwell.

"This--er--unexpected visit," began Miss Tish--"not previously arranged by letter"--

"Which is an invariable rule of our establishment," supplemented Miss Prinkwell--

"And the fact that you are personally unknown to us," continued Miss Tish--

"An ignorance shared by the child, who exhibits a distaste for an interview," interpolated Miss Prinkwell, in a kind of antiphonal response--

"For which we have had no time to prepare her," continued Miss Tish--

"Compels us most reluctantly"--But here she stopped short. Colonel Starbottle, who had risen with a deep bow at their entrance and remained standing, here walked quietly towards them. His usually high color had faded except from his eyes, but his exalted manner was still more p.r.o.nounced, with a dreadful deliberation superadded.

"I believe--er--I had--the honah--to send up my kyard!" (In his supreme moments the colonel's Southern accent was always in evidence.) "I may--er--be mistaken--but--er--that is my impression." The colonel paused, and placed his right hand statuesquely on his heart.

The two women trembled--Miss Tish fancied the very shirt frill of the colonel was majestically erecting itself--as they stammered in one voice,--

"Ye-e-es!"

"That kyard contained my full name--with a request to see my ward--Miss Stannard," continued the colonel slowly. "I believe that is the fact."

"Certainly! certainly!" gasped the women feebly.

"Then may I--er--point out to you that I AM--er--WAITING?"

Although nothing could exceed the laborious simplicity and husky sweetness of the colonel's utterance, it appeared to demoralize utterly his two hearers--Miss Prinkwell seemed to fade into the pattern of the wall paper, Miss Tish to droop submissively forward like a pink wax candle in the rays of the burning sun.

"We will bring her instantly. A thousand pardons, sir," they uttered in the same breath, backing towards the door.

But here the unexpected intervened. Unnoticed by the three during the colloquy, a little figure in a black dress had peeped through the door, and then glided into the room. It was a girl of about ten, who, in all candor, could scarcely be called pretty, although the awkward change of adolescence had not destroyed the delicate proportions of her hands and feet nor the beauty of her brown eyes. These were, just then, round and wondering, and fixed alternately on the colonel and the two women. But like many other round and wondering eyes, they had taken in the full meaning of the situation, with a quickness the adult mind is not apt to give them credit for. They saw the complete and utter subjugation of the two supreme autocrats of the school, and, I grieve to say, they were filled with a secret and "fearful joy." But the casual spectator saw none of this; the round and wondering eyes, still rimmed with recent and recalcitrant tears, only looked big and innocently shining.

The relief of the two women was sudden and unaffected.

"Oh, here you are, dearest, at last!" said Miss Tish eagerly. "This is your guardian, Colonel Starbottle. Come to him, dear!"

She took the hand of the child, who hung back with an odd mingling of shamefacedness and resentment of the interference, when the voice of Colonel Starbottle, in the same deadly calm deliberation, said,--

"I--er--will speak with her--alone."

The round eyes again saw the complete collapse of authority, as the two women shrank back from the voice, and said hurriedly,--

"Certainly, Colonel Starbottle; perhaps it would be better," and ingloriously quitted the room.

But the colonel's triumph left him helpless. He was alone with a simple child, an unprecedented, unheard-of situation, which left him embarra.s.sed and--speechless. Even his vanity was conscious that his oratorical periods, his methods, his very att.i.tude, were powerless here.

The perspiration stood out on his forehead; he looked at her vaguely, and essayed a feeble smile. The child saw his embarra.s.sment, even as she had seen and understood his triumph, and the small woman within her exulted. She put her little hands on her waist, and with the fingers turned downwards and outwards pressed them down her hips to her bended knees until they had forced her skirts into an egregious fullness before and behind, as if she were making a curtsy, and then jumped up and laughed.

"You did it! Hooray!"

"Did what?" said the colonel, pleased yet mystified.

"Frightened 'em!--the two old cats! Frightened 'em outen their slippers!

Oh, jiminy! Never, never, NEVER before was they so skeert! Never since school kept did they have to crawl like that! They was skeert enough FIRST when you come, but just now!--Lordy! They wasn't a-goin' to let you see me--but they had to! had to! HAD TO!" and she emphasized each repet.i.tion with a skip.

"I believe--er," said the colonel blandly, "that I--er--intimated with some firmness"--

"That's it--just it!" interrupted the child delightedly.

"You--you--overdid 'em"

"What?"

"OVERDID 'EM! Don't you know? They're always so high and mighty! Kinder 'Don't tech me. My mother's an angel; my father's a king'--all that sort of thing. They did THIS"--she drew herself up in a presumable imitation of the two women's majestic entrance--"and then," she continued, "you--YOU jest did this"--here she lifted her chin, and puffing out her small chest, strode towards the colonel in evident simulation of his grandest manner.

A short, deep chuckle escaped him--although the next moment his face became serious again. But Pansy in the mean time had taken possession of his coat sleeve and was rubbing her cheek against it like a young colt.

At which the colonel succ.u.mbed feebly and sat down on the sofa, the child standing beside him, leaning over and transferring her little hands to the lapels of his frock coat, which she essayed to b.u.t.ton over his chest as she looked into his murky eyes.

"The other girls said," she began, tugging at the b.u.t.ton, "that you was a 'cirkiss'"--another tug--"'a n.i.g.g.e.r minstrel'"--and a third tug--"'a agent with samples'--but that showed all they knew!"

"Ah," said the colonel with exaggerated blandness, "and--er--what did YOU--er--say?"

The child smiled. "I said you was a Stuffed Donkey--but that was BEFORE I knew you. I was a little skeert too; but NOW"--she succeeded in b.u.t.toning the coat and making the colonel quite apoplectic,--"NOW I ain't frightened one bit--no, not one TINY bit! But," she added, after a pause, unb.u.t.toning the coat again and smoothing down the lapels between her fingers, "you're to keep on frightening the old cats--mind! Never mind about the GIRLS. I'll tell them."

The colonel would have given worlds to be able to struggle up into an upright position with suitable oral expression. Not that his vanity was at all wounded by these irresponsible epithets, which only excited an amused wonder, but he was conscious of an embarra.s.sed pleasure in the child's caressing familiarity, and her perfect trustfulness in him touched his extravagant chivalry. He ought to protect her, and yet correct her. In the consciousness of these duties he laid his white hand upon her head. Alas! she lifted her arm and instantly transferred his hand and part of his arm around her neck and shoulders, and comfortably snuggled against him. The colonel gasped. Nevertheless, something must be said, and he began, albeit somewhat crippled in delivery:--

"The--er--use of elegant and precise language by--er--young ladies cannot be too sedulously cultivated"--

But here the child laughed, and snuggling still closer, gurgled: "That's right! Give it to her when she comes down! That's the style!" and the colonel stopped, discomfited. Nevertheless, there was a certain wholesome glow in the contact of this nestling little figure.

Presently he resumed tentativery: "I have--er--brought you a few dainties."

"Yes," said Pansy, "I see; but they're from the wrong shop, you dear old silly! They're from Tomkins's, and we girls just abominate his things.

You oughter have gone to Emmons's. Never mind. I'll show you when we go out. We're going out, aren't we?" she said suddenly, lifting her head anxiously. "You know it's allowed, and it's RIGHTS 'to parents and guardians'!"

"Certainly, certainly," said the colonel. He knew he would feel a little less constrained in the open air.

"Then we'll go now," said Pansy, jumping up. "I'll just run upstairs and put on my things. I'll say it's 'orders' from you. And I'll wear my new frock--it's longer." (The colonel was slightly relieved at this; it had seemed to him, as a guardian, that there was perhaps an abnormal display of Pansy's black stockings.) "You wait; I won't be long."

She darted to the door, but reaching it, suddenly stopped, returned to the sofa, where the colonel still sat, imprinted a swift kiss on his mottled cheek, and fled, leaving him invested with a mingled flavor of freshly ironed muslin, wintergreen lozenges, and recent bread and b.u.t.ter. He sat still for some time, staring out of the window. It was very quiet in the room; a b.u.mblebee blundered from the jasmine outside into the open window, and snored loudly at the panes. But the colonel heeded it not, and remained abstracted and silent until the door opened to Miss Tish and Pansy--in her best frock and sash, at which the colonel started and became erect again and courtly.

"I am about to take my ward out," he said deliberately, "to--er--taste the air in the Alameda, and--er--view the shops. We may--er--also--indulge in--er--slight suitable refreshment;--er--seed cake--or--bread and b.u.t.ter--and--a dish of tea."

Miss Tish, now thoroughly subdued, was delighted to grant Miss Stannard the half holiday permitted on such occasions. She begged the colonel to suit his own pleasure, and intrusted "the dear child" to her guardian "with the greatest confidence."

The colonel made a low bow, and Pansy, demurely slipping her hand into his, pa.s.sed with him into the hall; there was a slight rustle of vanishing skirts, and Pansy pressed his hand significantly. When they were well outside, she said, in a lower voice:--