Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

“ The thought of the big house was not half so attractive, shorn of the figure of the sympathetic friend. The library with no Eleanor sitting writing at her desk; the drawing-room with no Eleanor in the deep-cushioned chair; the dining-room with no Eleanor at the head of the table—how blank it all seemed! How dreadfully dull to be alone all day, with only the doctor to break the monotony! Only the doctor! The blood rushed in a flood to Ruth’s cheeks as she realised the significance of that one word. ”

“ He liked her, of course—she could not pretend to doubt that; but just as a grown man might care for an amusing child who served to while away an idle hour, but who was not worth the trouble of a serious thought.
“He thinks I am shallow,” thought Mollie sorrowfully, and then suddenly inverted the sentence. “Am I shallow?” she asked herself, with an uneasy doubt creeping over her self-complacency. “I expect I am, for I am content with the surface of things, and like to laugh better than to think. But I’m twenty; I don’t want to be treated as a child all my life. ”

“ Despite these striking contrasts, the fact remained, however, that if any member of the household were ill, or had a secret to confide, or a favour to request, they betook themselves to the heedless Mollie, rather than to herself. Dearly as she loved her sister, Ruth felt a little rankling of soreness mingling with her mystification. She did not yet realise the magic power which cheerfulness wields in this world, or the charm of a sunny face and a ready rippling laugh. Hearts turn to the sun as instinctively as plants, and forgive much for the sake of the warmth and glow. ”

“ She has not much fun in her life now, poor dear, and that makes her think all the more of her youth. We envy her, Ruth and Trix and I, because we have a very quiet time at home. We are poor, you see. You can’t have much fun if you are poor.”
“You think that riches are the one thing needful; that if you had enough money your happiness would be assured?”
“Ah!” sighed Mollie rapturously. “How happy I should be! I’ve never had enough money for my wants in all my life, so I can’t even imagine the bliss of it. I should not know how to be happy enough.” ”

“ No two girls could possibly have led a less eventful life. We have had no money to travel and see the world, and we are not in the least bit accomplished, but we have had a happy time all the same, and we mean to be happy, whatever happens; don’t we, Ruth?”
Ruth did not answer, but sat with downcast eyes, staring at the ground. She more than half disapproved of Mollie’s candour, despising herself the while for so doing, so she preserved a dead silence, until Jack Melland nobly stepped into the breach. ”

“ What would become of poor Berengaria without her Lucille? We are so grand in real life now that we forget the dear old game; but, when we are back in Attica, we shall be able to play it better than ever, now that we really know what it feels like to be rich and have everything one wants!”
Mollie did not answer, and both girls sat silently gazing before them, while their thoughts wandered northwards to a shabby, crowded house, and to a sloping-roofed attic under the leads, in which so many hours had been spent. ”

“ Ruth and Mollie were kept busy teaching the babies and making clothes for the family—cutting down Trix’s dress to do duty for Betty; laboriously planning little pairs of knickers out of trousers worn at the knees; patching, darning, covering-up, hiding over, turning and twisting; making up something out of nothing, with the lordly sum of fifteen pounds a year each for dress and pocket-money alike. They had never known the luxury, dear to girlish hearts, of choosing a garment simply because it was pretty or becoming. ”

“ I could give you a comfortable home, and enough money to make life easy and pleasant. It would be my best happiness to see you happy. We could travel; you would be able to help Mollie and the rest. If you married me, your people would be my people, and I should be as anxious as yourself to let them share our good fortune; and I would love you very dearly, Ruth! I seem old to you, perhaps, but my love would be more proved and certain than if I were a boy of your own age. I am a prosperous man, but I want something more from life than I have had so far—something that you alone can give roe. ”

“ I can’t endure to see mother with red eyes. She will smile when she sees these roses, bless her! I defy anyone not to enjoy opening a box of flowers; and when we go home we will cheer them up again,—fortune or no fortune. Dear old Trix shall have some of my fineries made down, as a change from the green serge.”
Mollie’s spirits lightened perceptibly as she loitered about the garden, for to a town-bred girl it was luxury indeed, not only to look upon a wealth of roses, but to be able to gather them lavishly as she pleased. ”

“ You are not patient at all. You are the most impatient person I ever met. If anyone dares even to have a different opinion from you, you can hardly contain yourself. I wish you could see your face! You look like this.”
Mollie drew herself up, making a valiant attempt to draw her eyebrows together, send out lightning sparks from her eyes, inflate her nostrils, and tug the ends of an imaginary moustache at one and the same time; and succeeded in looking at once so pretty and so comical that, instead of being convicted, Jack laughed more heartily than before. ”

“ She looked piteously for comfort, and, meeting only smiles, drew herself up with what was intended to be an air of haughty disdain; but it is difficult to look haughty when with every moment fresh hairpins are falling to the ground, and with the descent of fresh coils your hat is continually assuming a still more impudent angle.
“You do look a sight!” cried Mollie with sisterly candour, and Ruth beckoned imperiously to the groom to help her to dismount. ”

“ Ruth’s mind flew at once to considerations of ways and means, and she suffered a moment of agonising suspense before Mrs Connor’s eager consent put an end to anxiety.
“Oh, I shall be delighted—delighted! The girls will love it, of all things. How kind of you, dear Uncle Bernard! Ruth! Mollie! Are you not delighted to have such a treat in store?”
“Thank you, Uncle Bernard; I should love to come!” cried Ruth warmly. “Mollie and I have often said that there is nothing in the world we should enjoy more than paying a visit to the Court. It is most good of you to ask us!” ”

“ Meantime, Ruth and Mollie were enjoying their first experience of that most delightful feminine amusement—shopping in London. They drove to the doors of world-famed establishments, entered with smiling self-confidence, and gave their orders, unperturbed even by the immaculate visions in black satin who hastened forward to receive them; so marvellous and inspiring are the effects of a purse and a cheque-book behind it!
Mrs Thornton was purse-bearer, and, to do her justice, enjoyed the occasion as much as the girls themselves. ”

“ Oh, Ruth, it is too good to be true! Can you really be happy with a dull, old fellow like me? No country seat, you know; no life of ease and luxury, just a comfortable, commonplace house, with a husband who is too hard-worked to have much time for play. I have no fortune to offer you, dear, except love—there’s no end to that wealth!”
Ruth turned her beautiful eyes upon him with a smile of perfect content. ”

“ My own heart is quite palpitating with all I have undergone to-day. I was walking along,—all innocent and unsuspicious,—gazing upon the fair spring scene, when suddenly, glancing ahead, I beheld a figure standing at the junction of the cross-roads. ’Tis ever thus, my love! Fate stands waiting for us where the paths diverge, to point out the way in which we should go. End of volume one ... Do you feel excited?”
Trix grinned broadly, Ruth looked tired and impatient.
“Oh, thrilled, of course! So many interesting people come to see us that it’s difficult to choose between them. ”

“ As for Ruth, she walked along with compressed lips and frowning brows. It was not possible for a girl to find herself thrown into close companionship with two young men, and not wonder in the recesses of her heart if perchance friendship might not eventually develop into something warmer. Ruth and Mollie had both thought and dreamed, and to each it had occurred that possibly some such ending of the great problem might have occurred to Mr Farrell himself. ”

“ When people are in the extremity of anxiety and poverty, they have no heart to attend to the little superfluities which add so much to the beauty of daily life; there was not a single flower on the table, nor in the half-lit drawing-room, where Trix sternly forbade the lighting of a second lamp. Mr Connor sat silent and haggard, and his wife poured out tea and smiled a pathetic, patient little smile, as the children catechised the travellers. ”

“ Ruth stood still and looked at him. The drops of moisture were thick upon hat and coat, her soft cheeks were damp with rain, but her eyes danced with a spice of mischief which was more like Mollie than the grave, elder sister of the family.
“I’ll drive with pleasure on one condition—that you will first allow yourself to be taken to your patient’s house,” she replied demurely, adding when the doctor hesitated in embarrassment: “It is such a very odd neighbourhood for a patient to live in, in the midst of these great blocks of offices! I think we may perhaps have to drive you a long, long way.” ”

“ It is easy for rich people to cut down expenses—to give up carriage and horses, dismiss two or three servants, and indulge in fewer pleasures and excitements; but it is a very different matter when there are no superfluities with which to part, but only, as it seems, the barest necessaries of life. Mrs Connor’s eyes filled slowly with tears as she stretched out her hand and laid it over her daughter’s. It was the signal of capitulation, and Ruth recognised it as such, and felt a sinking of the heart. ”

“ I want a wife who loves me, or no wife at all! One never knows what lies ahead in this world, and if dark days come I should like to feel that she cared for me more, rather than less. It would be hard for us both if she valued only my possessions, and they took to themselves wings and fled. And there is your own future to consider. Love will come to you some day, and you must be free to welcome him. Don’t distress yourself about me, Ruth ”

“ What did they have for dinner every night? On and on went the endless catechism, which the sisters tolerated only as an improvement on silence. They had no wish to visit Attica, but retired upstairs to their bedroom at the earliest possible moment to mingle tears of misery.
“I—I feel as if I should burst!” cried Ruth expressively. “My heart is so full that I can’t bear another thing! Everything seems to have happened at once, and I feel crushed!”
“It’s so bad that it must get better! it can’t possibly get worse!” said Mollie, persistently hopeful in the midst of her misery. ”

“ No one appreciates the real object of money more than I do!”
“And what is your idea of the ‘real value,’ if one may ask?”
“To spend, of course!” she answered audaciously. “It is the only thing to do, for if you keep it, it’s just a dull collection of coins. I love spending! Now, if I became a big heiress to-morrow, would you like to know what I should do?”
“Extremely; it would be most interesting!” said Mr Farrell.
“Yes, Miss Mollie, do tell us!” urged Victor.
Jack looked up with a puckered brow, half amused, half anxious, and Ruth murmured a gentle “Mollie dear!” ”

“ But I love you, and I can’t do without you, Ruth! I couldn’t live alone, for you and I belong to each other. The others are dears in their way; but they are only ‘steps,’ and we two seem so close together. Imagine Attica without you! Imagine going to bed alone, with no one to talk to about the events of the day! What does the horrid old money matter? We always have been poor, and we always shall be. ”

“ There was no barrier of near relationship to prevent two of the young people making a match, if they were so disposed; and while Uncle Bernard, so far, seemed to favour his elder niece, he had expressly stated that he would prefer a male heir. Ruth’s favour was not easily won, but as both young men appeared agreeable, gentlemanly, and good-looking, it had been a distinctly pleasant experience to look forward and wonder if he,—if I,—if perhaps some day, long ahead, when we know each other well... All girls have such dreams, and understand how their existence adds savour to a situation. ”

“ No Uncle Bernard to speak a word of greeting; no flutter of silken skirts belonging to nice girls who had no sisters, and were dying to adopt other nice girls without delay; no scent of cigarettes smoked by interesting young men, who might have sisters or might not, but who would certainly be pleased to welcome Berengaria and Lucille!
Ruth had knitted her dark brows, and drawn herself stiffly erect; Mollie was prepared to smile in benign patronage on less important guests. ”

“ It was Ruth who spoke, and at the sound of her words the shadow came back to Jack’s brow.
“Yes, what shall we do? Think of it—three months—twelve weeks—eighty-four separate days to lounge away with the same question on your lips! I’d rather be sentenced to hard labour at once. Life is not worth living without work. I’d rather be a clerk on sixty pounds a year than stagnate as a country squire.”
“You would be a very bad squire if you did stagnate!” cried Mollie spiritedly, throwing back her little head, and looking up at him with a flash of the grey eyes. ”

“ Real life was so much more interesting than romance!
“I feel so very Lucille-y!” Mollie declared “Travelling on pleasure, with a tea-basket coming to meet me! It was an inspiration of yours to order it, Ruth! I shall be grateful to you to the end of my life! Let’s talk about what we shall do to-night... Let’s guess who will be there, and what they will be like. The lady chaperon, now! Should you think that the presence of a chaperon implied that there would be young men in the party? I hope there are.” ”

“ It is not easy for me, either; but we must both realise that the Victor Druce of our imagination never existed, but was a creation of our own brains. This man—this adventurer—who has used us as his tool, must never suspect that he has caused us pain; we must play our parts without flinching, and let him see more and more clearly that we desire nothing from him. It will be difficult, but there is nothing else for it, if we are to keep our dignity. Ruth, you have plenty of will-power;—one can see it in your face; you will not let this man deceive you again with his plausible words? ”

“ Something it seemed must happen to prevent this long-dreamed-of journey; it did not seem possible that the stars should run placidly in their courses, while Ruth and Mollie Farrell were going a-visiting with a box full of fineries!
Yet the day did break, an ordinary, grey morning, with no sign to distinguish it from another. Looking out of the window, men and women could be seen going calmly about their duties. The postman and newspaper-boy arrived at their accustomed time. No one outside the household seemed to realise that the day was big with fate. ”

“ It is a habit which is inclined to make one consider oneself the most interesting person on earth.”
“Well, so you are! To yourself, I mean; you know you are!” cried Mollie, with an innocent naïveté which made Mr Melland laugh again. It was seldom, indeed, that anyone was honest enough to confess to self-love, and her candour seemed infectious, for, on the verge of contradicting her assertion with regard to himself, a sudden recollection rushed through him of his own thoughts, doubts, conflicts, and final determination of the past twenty-four hours. ”

“ If we lived in the country we could do the work alone, but cockroaches! No really refined mind can cope with cockroaches, and they simply swarm in the back kitchen... Mother’s terribly cut up that you have left the Court. If I had been in your place I’d have stayed on, and persuaded the old man to help father out of his difficulties.”
“Oh, Trix, as if we hadn’t tried! You talk as if no one had any sense but yourself! You are very clever and important, no doubt, but even your earnings will not keep the family. There is a little work left for Mollie and myself!” cried Ruth hotly. ”

“ If I am ever married, it shall be to a man who will risk something for my sake, not to a mercenary who thinks first of himself. I suspected something of this from the first afternoon I called at the Court. You were sitting together on the terrace, and something in his attitude... Oh, well, why dwell on it any more?—it is none too pleasant. Ruth dear, you have avoided me, and I have seemed to force myself upon you, but I was determined to find out the truth, for both our sakes. It is better so, is it not?”
Ruth’s dull glance of misery was pathetic to behold. ”

“ Trix’s method of asking favours was hardly as ingratiating as might be desired, and for a moment the chances seemed all in favour of a refusal. The colour flamed in Ruth’s cheeks, and her black brows drew ominously near together. She was fighting a hard battle against pride and resentment; but, as was usually the case, the better self won. She nodded back at Trix, and said—
“I will! ... Run and bring your books. We won’t venture into the dining-room, for the boys make such a noise that one can’t hear one’s own voice.” ”

“ At length Ruth spoke, letting her figure drop back in her chair with a gesture of weariness—
“I wonder how it is that nothing is ever as nice as one expects? If we could have looked forward two months ago, and seen ourselves as we are now, we should have imagined ourselves the happiest creatures on earth; but I am not. Sometimes it seems quite perfect for a few moments, but something always happens to rub off the bloom. Uncle Bernard is cross, or Mrs Wolff stupid, or—or something else! I believe we are not meant to be happy in this world!”
Mollie looked up with a quick flush of dissent. ”