L. T. Meade

“ It was amazing what those fellows managed to eat; and it was still more amazing to see how Rita and Agnes enjoyed themselves. It was the thought of their disappointment which had so terribly annoyed me when the four boys insisted on bursting into our parlour and forcing themselves into our presence; but I soon saw that Rita and Agnes were only delighted. They laughed and joked, and as they laughed Alex and Charley became like lambs of sweetness and gentleness. Dear, dear! how nice a brother can be to other people’s sisters! It is quite extraordinary. ”

“ I do think you are unfairly equipped for this life, Dumps.”
She would never call me anything else now; I was Dumps to her—her darling, plain, practical, jolly Dumps. That was how she spoke of me. She had written to the girls whom she knew at the school, and had told me to be sure to introduce myself as her very dearest friend, as her newest and dearest.
“They will embrace you; they will take you into their bosoms for my sake,” she said.
I am afraid I was very much enamoured of Lady Lilian; she was the type of girl who would excite the admiration of any one. ”

“ That evening—it was Saturday—I told Alex and Charley and Von Marlo about Hannah’s dream.
“Rot, I call it!” said Charley.
“Oh Charley, you are very unkind!”
“Well, I’m sure,” said Charley, “why should she have been so cross and disobliging when we really wanted somebody—when we had no sort of mother? Now that we’re going to have that jolly, fat, round woman to look after us and to see to our comforts, Hannah is beginning to find out what her duties are.”
“Things will work themselves right,” said Von Marlo in his solemn way. “Take my word for it, Rachel, things will shape themselves right.” ”

“ I said. “Really, Comtesse, I cannot understand you.”
“Fray don’t call me that; call me Riki. I like you so very much; you are different from others.”
“Every one tells me that,” I answered, a little bitterness in my tone.
“You have the goodness within—you perhaps have not the beauty without; but what does that matter when goodness within is more valuable? It is but to look at you to know that you have got that.”
“If you were really to see into my heart, Riki, you would perceive that I am an exceedingly selfish and very ungrateful girl.” ”

“ I treat her as a sort of friend, you see, as she and I are all alone in the house together.”
I began to like Miss Donnithorne better and better each moment. She was so jolly. Whenever she spoke her eyes sparkled as though they were laughing, while the rest of her face was grave. All the same, I did not want Nancy, and I said so.
“I can help myself,” I argued. “We have only got Hannah in our big house.”
“Well, well, dear! if you can manage for yourself, I am the last one to wish you to do otherwise,” said Miss Donnithorne. “Here is your parcel; you can take it upstairs.” ”

“ Finally I found myself walking away from school, led by Augusta—away from school, and towards home. I was making no protest of any sort whatever.
At last we reached our own house, and Augusta looked wistfully at the tall steps which led to the front door; but she said, “I am not coming in with you, for I know you would rather be alone. It must be a fearful trial for you to have that noble, exalted father of yours united in marriage to such a very commonplace woman as Miss Donnithorne. I feel for you, from the bottom of my heart. Kiss me; I am truly sorry for you.” ”

“ I said, “I can’t imagine how you manage to leave the kitchen just now.”
“Oh, I can manage,” said Hannah. “I get as much help as I want.”
“And you are such a good cook, Hannah; you take to the new life as kindly as I do.”
“Much chance I have of not taking to it. It’s do your work or go; that’s the rule of rules in this house. If you are kept to cook, cook you must; if you don’t cook, out you go, and some one else comes in who can cook. That’s the way. Now, Miss Rachel, you’ve got to be made into a fashionable young lady, magnificently dressed, and educated in one of the ’orrid French schools.” ”

“ He is never ill, except with those fearful headaches.”
“He hadn’t a good, careful woman like Grace Donnithorne to look after him in the past,” replied Hermione in an indifferent tone. “For goodness’ sake don’t be anxious!”
Just at this moment the door opened and Augusta entered.
“A letter for you,” said Hermione.
She glanced at me as she spoke, and her eyes evidently implored me to keep my news to myself. But Augusta had seen my face.
“Is anything wrong?”
“Nothing—nothing,” said Hermione, with impatience. “For goodness’ sake don’t worry her, Augusta; she has not quite got over her cold. ”

“ I tell you what it is, Dumps,” said Alex; “we’re—we’re a bit stunned. Of course, it’s rather awkward, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know that it is,” said Charley. “He could always do as he liked, couldn’t he? I mean he never thought much about us, did he?”
“Oh, don’t blame him now,” I said.
“I don’t want to—I only want you to understand. Father always did what he liked. Hannah was dreadful; she spoke as she ought not to speak. It is just as well she should go out and let the open air smooth away some of her grievances. I do not see that it matters to her; he is not her father.” ”

“ Hannah bustled into the room.
“They’ll be here in a few minutes, children,” she said; “and don’t forget that I’m here to take your parts. Bless you, poor orphans—bless you!”
Then she disappeared downstairs.
“Oh dear! Oh dear!” I said.
“For goodness’ sake,” said Alex, moving away from the table, “don’t begin to snivel, whatever you do, Dumps. She’s a mighty silly old woman.”
“Oh, what a supper!” said Charley.
He gave a sigh of profound satisfaction. After a minute he said, “Whatever sort of a step-mother she is, I am going to eat! I say, what a supper!” ”

“ Augusta sat huddled up in one corner of the omnibus, while Hermione and I got as close to the door as we could, and gazed out of the window, which was wide-open, exclaiming at each turn as we drove along. The Champs Élysées flashed into view; we drove on, and presently turned into a very broad street, and pulled up with a jerk before a house which seemed to have a balcony to each window, and which was brilliantly lit from attic to cellar. ”

“ I said, “and he complains of the noise we are making.”
“Noise?” cried Alex. “Why, we are as mum as mice!”
“People must breathe, you know,” said Agnes in what I considered a very impertinent way.
I stared at her. She had no right to speak like that of my father, the great Professor Grant; for my father was a member of the Royal Society, no less, and you can imagine that to hear such talk from a silly little girl like Agnes Swan was, to say the least of it, disagreeable. So I drew myself up; but then I caught Von Marlo’s eyes, and I felt soothed, for he seemed to understand. ”

“ Kindly Death he is to some, terrible to others; a gentle and beloved friend to those who are worn-out with misery—a rest for the weary. But there are times when Death is not longed for, and this was one of those times. We children felt as we sat huddled together in the parlour, now such a comfortable room, that we had never wanted the Professor as we did then. He was a man in the prime of life, and great were his attainments.
“It is wonderful what he is thought of,” Alex kept repeating, and he kept on telling me and telling me all about father and what people said of him. ”

“ Agnes and Rita seemed neither of them to thoroughly appreciate these remarks of Von Marlo’s, for he was really the biggest and most imposing-looking of the four boys. Even Alex, who was a handsome fellow, looked very young beside him. As to me, I felt soothed. Of course, you must understand that if you have been called Dumps all your life, and told to your face that you haven’t one vestige of good looks, it must be a sort of pleasure to have a person suddenly inform you that you are—oh! better than good-looking—the very prettiest girl he has seen in the whole of the country. ”

“ Miss Donnithorne laid her hand on my arm.
“I wonder, Dumps,” she said, “if you are a very proud girl?”
“Yes,” I said, “I think I have plenty of pride.”
“But there are all sorts,” said Miss Donnithorne. “I hate a girl who has none. I want a girl to be reasonable. I don’t want her to eat the dust and to do absurd things, or to lower herself in her own eyes. I want a girl to be dignified, to hold her head high, to look straight out at the world with all the confidence and sweetness and fearlessness that a good girl ought to feel ”

“ I said, “I don’t want a fire to dress by.”
“Yes, you do, miss, to-day, for it’s bitter cold,” said Nancy.
She soon had a nice fire blazing; she then brought me in a comfortable hot bath, and finally a little tray with a cup of tea and a thin slice of bread-and-butter.
“Now, miss,” she said, “you can get up and dress slowly. Missis said she won’t have breakfast until a quarter to nine this morning, and it is only a quarter to eight now. And, miss, them are the clothes. They’re all beautifully aired, and ready to put on, and missis says that you’ll understand.” ”

“ Loneliness? I’m a sight too busy to be lonely. I does my work, and I eats my vittals, and when bedtime comes I sleeps like a top. I’m fond of the Professor, and proud of him, he’s so cliver; and I’m fond of Miss Rachel, whom I’ve known since she was born, and of the boys, although they be handfuls.”
This was Hannah’s creed; she had no fear, and she was fond of us. But she had a rough tongue, and could be very rude at times, and could make things unpleasant for us children unless we humoured her.
It was Von Marlo, the Dutch boy, who humoured her now. ”

“ Charley, my lamb, I remember you when you were nothing more than a baby.”
“But I was your pet, Hannah,” I said. “Tell me that I was your pet.”
“But you were nothing of the sort,” said Hannah. “I will own that I was always took with looks. Now, Alex has looks.”
“And I. I have looks too,” said Charley. “I was gazing at my face in the glass this morning, and I saw that I had beautiful, dark, greyey-blue eyes.”
“It’s very wrong to encourage vanity,” said Hannah. “Well, Dumps will always be spared that temptation. But sakes! I must take away the things. What a mess you have made of the place! ”

“ But, all the same, if she is coming to live here, what is she like? You have seen her, Miss Rachel; you can describe her.”
“Yes, you may as well tell us about her,” said Charley. “I suppose she is precious ugly. Catch father choosing a woman with good looks! Why, he doesn’t know blue eyes from brown, or a straight nose from a crooked one, or a large mouth from a small one. He never looks at any woman; I can’t imagine how he got hold of her.”
“Hannah said,” remarked Alex, “that she got hold of him.”
“Well, surely that doesn’t matter,” said Von Marlo. “Describe her, Miss Rachel.” ”

“ I said.
“Why, all the world knows that you have been staying with Miss Donnithorne. Do tell us about her. We are dying with curiosity. It is no secret, you know.”
“What is no secret?”
“Why, that you have been staying there,” said Rita Swan, giving her sister a nudge at the moment.
“I don’t want it to be a secret,” I said. “I have had a very happy time. I’ll tell you about her and her nice house later on.”
“Oh dear! we are likely to know plenty of her in the near future,” said Agnes. “But there’s the bell; we must go in. Come along, Dumps. Why, to be sure, you do look smartened up! ”

“ It was a dreary, cold, and foggy day, and I shivered as I stood in my fur cloak on the platform while Mademoiselle ran wildly about, collecting the luggage, and trying to find a porter to convey it to the Customs. Mademoiselle evidently did not appreciate England, and I felt that the air was more bitingly cold than in Paris. We got into a cab and were driven as fast as possible through the West End towards that dreary part of the town where the old house stood. ”

“ Dear, dear, I do feel excited! I wonder how we shall like the life. Don’t frown, Dumps; you surely needn’t worry about Augusta. She has made a kind of king of your father. She believes him to be all that is heroic and noble and majestic in life. It is really a most innocent admiration; let her keep it.”
“Yes, of course, if she likes,” I said.
The air was cold. I wrapped the warm fur cloak which my step-mother had insisted upon giving me for the voyage tightly round me, and sat down on one of the deck-seats. By-and-by Augusta tottered forward. ”

“ In her own house, surrounded by her own things, she was more difficult than ever to resist. Indeed, I think no one tried to do so, for she was the very soul of tact, and managed to make us all feel that we were her guests, and as guests ought to be particularly nice. Alex said to me, “She is quite charming! She is good! She is a dear! I’m beginning to love her. I don’t care what you say to the contrary.”
“I like her for herself,” I said.
“Then for goodness’ sake prove it, Dumps, and don’t wear that horridly starched, proper face. It’s enough to drive any one cracked even to look at you. ”

“ I had grey gloves on my hands, and the little muff was seized, and—oh yes, I kissed it. I was a new Dumps altogether. I looked in the long glass in my bedroom, and saw an almost slender Dumps in an elegant costume. Never mind the plain face; the whole appearance was good, and very lady-like. And she had done it all. Where was the girl whose dress was outgrown, whose hats had often not the semblance of respectability about them? The girl who was always in despair about the possibility of mending her old stockings any longer, whose gloves had mostly holes in the fingers? ”