Mabel Quiller-Couch

“ Poor Miss Potts looked quite troubled, but Priscilla’s joyful cry rang out before she could speak.
“Oh, how lovely! Oh, you dear, kind Miss Potts! Look, Geoffrey; we can both use it. Isn’t it lovely?” and Priscilla held out a box of paints, just such another as they had bought for Loveday. “And they are sans poison, too.”
“Good!” cried Geoffrey. “Now I’ll be able to paint for you while you look on. Miss Potts, you are a dear; you understand a fellow’s feelings before he understands them himself.” ”

“ It was with very varied feelings that they all climbed the cliff the next day to Mr. Winter’s home, and walked slowly up the pebbled path. Geoffrey was full of curiosity and interest; Loveday was a little shy of again entering her prison, but interested too; Mrs. Carlyon was very thankful, and in her heart very glad, for it seemed to her that it might be the beginning of brighter, happier days for the poor, lonely, sad old man; Priscilla, too, dimly felt the same thing, and she wanted, oh, so much! that he should be less sad. ”

“ Winter did come to Trelint, and Mrs. Carlyon and the children went with him to inspect the comfortable, roomy old house which stood beside Miss Potts’ little old-fashioned house and shop, without humbling hers or losing its own dignity. And everything in the house seemed right; and the garden was beautiful, large, and old, and well-filled with every kind of flower that one loves best, and many kinds of fruits too. ”

“ I wonder how little ‘only’ girls and boys play? They can’t ever have such nice games as we have.”
She sat up amongst the branches, gazing down through the shady trees, pondering over this matter and sniffing at her leaf; and all her life after, the scent of those geraniums brought back to her mind the sunny day, Loveday’s tooth-pulling, Miss Potts, the old orchard, and the serious mood she was in there.
Presently the sound of horses’ hoofs on rough cobble-stones reached her. “That must be Betsy being harnessed,” she murmured, beginning at once to climb down; “I wonder if father is going out?” ”

“ There was no other dwelling-place, or sign of human being, within sight, only a wide, wide space of bare brown fields on two sides; the grassy cliff-tops with the sea in the distance on the third; and on the fourth nothing but the heaving, calling sea; while the wind, always blowing there, swept along unchecked, winter or summer, storm or calm, keeping up an incessant wailing around the house; and the wail of the wind and the call of the gulls alone broke the silence. ”

“ I only put on my cloak because I was afraid my dress would show as I came up the cliff, and I was afraid some one would see me and stop me.”
Mr. Winter had recovered himself by this time, and seeing that she could but badly manage with one hand to slip back the hood and put on her hat, he actually helped her. At the touch of the soft curls, at the frank, grateful glance of the childish eyes, a new sense of life and happiness ran through his chilled veins, a new peace came to the heart that had for so long waged a bitter, resentful war against God, himself, and his fellow-creatures. ”

“ Once more Loveday mounted the carriage, but as she did so she remembered the mothers and babies in the schoolroom. “Oh dear,” she cried impatiently, “it seems to me I can’t get any rest; if it isn’t giants it’s mothers! But I know what I’ll do: I will lie down here, and when I hear them coming I will pull the rug up over me so that they can’t see me.” ”

“ PRISCILLA PAYS ANOTHER CALL LOVEDAY was not a prisoner, but she was somewhat subdued and ashamed of herself, and Priscilla, who felt very, very sorry for her, and forgot all about her naughtiness and the injury she had done, was quite troubled to see how grave her father looked, and how sternly he spoke to her.
“Well,” he said, “this is a nice thing! Here am I, called away from my patients and everything, to come and help a little girl who cannot be trusted to go a-visiting by herself but she must go and behave disgracefully, and bring shame on us all! What have you to say for yourself?” ”

“ Loveday had driven past the great chair very often, and longed to stop and climb up into it, but until to-day she had never had a chance. In her delight she forgot all about the women and their laughter. But, alas! when she reached the chair she found that the seat was far too high for her to climb up into by herself; it would have taken a very tall man to lift her high enough to reach it.
“Never mind, I can sit on the footstool,” she thought; but even that proved a climb, and it was a difficult matter to get up and hold on to her parasol all the time. ”

“ Even grown-ups don’t know everything, but they do laugh at such silly things. I don’t see anything funny in it.”
“No, I don’t suppose you do, dear. But look! here is a fine shop,” said Mrs. Carlyon, drawing up before a window full of toys, and china, and a few books, and some boxes of chocolates, and a long string of tin buckets all painted different colours. “We will go in, shall we? I want to get you a spade and bucket.”
“Oh, thank you!” gasped Loveday. “How lovely!” and she forgot in a moment all her troubles and the trying habit grown-ups have of laughing at nothing. ”

“ Priscilla’s love of horses was, then and always, one of the passions of her life, and of all horses Betsy was the queen. She hurried through the orchard now to speak to Betsy, and to see what was happening. In the yard she found Hocking, their man, wheeling the carriage out of the coach-house, and Betsy standing, partly harnessed, looking on. At the sound of Priscilla’s step she looked around, and Priscilla, running to her, embraced one of her legs and kissed her soft warm shoulder. ”

“ Let’s play that we are piskies, and come up in the night and tidy Mr. Winter’s garden for him, and make him think it is a fairy that has done it, [103] and—and then we’d come again, and he’d think the fairies had been again. Shall we, Aaron? Oh, do say yes; and it will be a secret, and nobody must ever know, and everybody will wonder—and oh, it will be simply, simply splendid.”
Aaron listened eagerly, quite carried away by her enthusiasm. Loveday, with her ideas, her wild plans, and strange thoughts, was a constant wonder to him, and where she led he followed—if he could. ”

“ Peters and the kittens suffered, though, Loveday suffered too; for Nurse was so angry when she saw the petticoats in the box with the cats, that she ordered Loveday to sit down and pick off from them every single hair that the cats had left behind, and they had left so many that to Loveday it seemed a marvel that they were not all quite bald. She did not get rid of quite all the hairs, though, for by tea-time her eyes were so swelled and smarting with crying, she was excused the rest, after promising never, never to do such a thing again. ”

“ You aren’t at all a greedy little person, are you? Where are we to sit? On the shafts, or the steps, or must we run behind? I will tell you what we will do. I will sit in Priscilla’s place and hold you on my knee, and Priscilla shall have the box-seat and drive us. Will that please your High Mightiness?”
“Yes, that will be lovely,” agreed Loveday, quite delighted; “and I’ll hold my parasol over us both.”
“That will be charming; only try not to take out both my eyes. What would mother say if you took back my two eyes on two tips of your sunshade?”
“Mine isn’t a sunshade,” said Loveday. ”

“ Then Lady Carey undid the other parcel, and took out a red one made in the same way.
“This is for Loveday. Do you think she will like it?”
Priscilla was again almost speechless with delight.
“She will love hers too,” she cried at last rapturously. “And she looks so pretty in red. Thank you, Lady Carey, very much indeed. Oh, I want Loveday to see them both, now, at once, and I want mother to see, and father. O father,” she cried, running to him as he came into the room again, “do look at what Lady Carey has made for Loveday and me!” ”

“ Mrs. Wall did not say anything, but her lips set a little more tightly than usual as she went to the till and took out two halfpennies.
“Thank you,” said Loveday, with a sigh of relief, and, hurrying out, she flew across the road to the Tickells’ shop, almost opposite. As she reached the door she glanced back for one more look at Mrs. Wall’s fascinating store, but all she saw was Mrs. Wall’s cold stern eye looking after her with anything but an amiable expression in it, and she turned with relief to Emily Tickell’s welcoming smile. ”

“ Ellen always grew very cross at these times, but she cooked her best, for every one in Trelint knew who Dr. Carlyon’s cook was; just as every one knew how many servants every one else had, and who they were. Nurse, too, was not as patient as usual, she had so many things on her mind, for where there are only two maids to help, a big party makes every one very busy, and the children had to amuse themselves as best they could—at least, Priscilla and Loveday had to; Geoffrey had gone to spend the day in the country with some friends, glad enough to escape “such silly things as At Homes,” he said. ”

“ IN WHICH A GREAT MANY THINGS HAPPEN FOUR such happy, beautiful weeks followed. Mrs. Carlyon and Geoffrey came down to Porthcallis within a few days, and they all settled into the comfortable rooms Dr. Carlyon had taken for them. Loveday was very sorry to leave Bessie and Aaron and the dear little bedroom; but they went every day to “Bessie’s beach,” as they called it, for it was their favourite play-place. Each day they thought they knew all the rocks and pools by heart, yet every time they came again they found fresh ones. ”

“ One night Barker heard one little bucca say, ‘I’m going to hide my pick under the ferns.’ ‘I shan’t,’ says another; ‘I shall leave mine on Barker’s knee.’”
“Oh!” gasped Loveday, “then they knew his name. Did they know all the time that he was there listening to them?”
“I reckon so,” said Aaron gravely. “Little people knows everything mostly; that’s why you’ve got to be so careful.”
“Go on,” said Loveday eagerly. ”

“ You see, her birthday is in the winter; it would be silly to give her a parasol.”
“I understand. If your birthday is in the winter, you don’t feel the sun. I expect that is why no one ever gave me one.”
At which idea Loveday shrieked with laughter. “Fancy daddy with a parasol!” she cried. “What a silly daddy you would look!”
And in her excitement she lowered her own, and caught it in Priscilla’s hair.
“Poor Priscilla won’t have a wig or a parasol either, if you aren’t more careful of her,” said Dr. Carlyon, trying to rescue his eldest daughter’s curls from his younger daughter’s parasol. ”

“ THE WORTH OF A TOOTH IT did seem very unjust, and the more they thought of it the more unjust it seemed, especially to Priscilla.
“When I had a tooth pulled out no one gave me anything,” she grumbled; “but Loveday has a shilling given her for hers, and some sweets, and such a fuss made.”
“I only had sixpence, and mine was a double tooth,” said Geoffrey thoughtfully, “and I am a boy.”
“I don’t see that being a boy ought to make any difference,” retorted Priscilla; “boys’ teeth don’t hurt more than girls’, and boys ought to be able to bear it better.” ”

“ More than once they had to pause on their way and gaze about them.
“I wish we could always get up as early as this,” sighed Loveday. “I think I shall, and I’ll try and make Priscilla and Geoffrey get up too; the other parts of the day are never so pretty. I wish Prissy could see it now.”
“I’ve seen it like this scores of times,” said Aaron, in a tone that implied: “This is nothing to me; I am used to it.” ”

“ She picked a leaf of the scenty geranium and offered it to Priscilla, who took it gratefully, for she loved the scent, and Ellen was not often so generous.
It was too hot in the yard to remain there long, and too dull, so Priscilla presently wandered away to the orchard beyond. The orchard was on the slope of the hill at the back of the house, and was full of very old apple-trees. Each of the children had a favourite tree, and a favourite seat in it. Priscilla clambered up to hers, and sat there for a few moments, sniffing at her geranium leaf and looking about her rather disconsolately ”

“ Some one or something had spread straw all over it again, and it was just as untidy as ever!
“That must be the wicked fairies!” cried Loveday indignantly. “The nasty, naughty, wicked things! They got here first, and this is what they have done, just to annoy us and Mr. Winter! It is too bad. I only hope he saw it yesterday as we left it for him. [113] I think it’s dreadful of them to annoy a poor man like that, when he’s so sad. I don’t know how they can behave so!”
“Aw, it’s just like ’em,” said Aaron gravely. “They don’t care, they’m that bad.” ”

“ Priscilla and Loveday almost wished that they had been invited too, for the day seemed very long and dull without mother, or Geoffrey, or Nurse. They were told, too, to keep in [40] the nursery and play, for they would be in the way anywhere else, but to be told to amuse oneself makes it a very difficult thing to do; everything seems, at once, to be not the very least bit amusing. ”

“ I love Betsy, and I love driving her, but, of course, I can’t drive Betsy always; I am going to earn my own living when I grow up.”
“Would you have bells on the horse’s harness if you were a miller’s man?” asked Loveday.
“Oh yes—a whole lot of dear little brass ones, and I’d keep them always shining like new.”
“Well, here we are at Lantig School-house,” said Dr. Carlyon. “Draw up here, Prissy. Would you two like to come inside, or wait in the carriage?”
“Is it vaccinations?” asked Priscilla.
“Yes, it is vaccinations. I think there will be about a dozen or more babies to-day.” ”

“ One day she told him all about Lady Carey and the cloaks, and he seemed very interested. “Is that the pretty cloak I first saw you in?” he asked; and when Priscilla said, “Yes, it was,” he said, “A very sensible clever woman she must be to make such a charming garment. I have never seen any I like so much.”
Another day she told him about Miss Potts, and what an interesting person she was, and how she was an “only”; so she, Priscilla, tried to be a sort of sister to her, and went quite often to see her. ”