Part 10 (1/2)

”Now eat your breakfast,” she said. ”I shall glance through my letters while you are busy.”

She leaned back in her chair and opened several envelopes. Priscilla ate her chicken and ham, drank her coffee and felt the benefit of the double tonic which had been administered in so timely a fas.h.i.+on. It was one of Miss Oliphant's peculiarities to inspire in those she wanted to fascinate absolute and almost unreasoning faith for the time being. Doubts would and might return in her absence, but in the suns.h.i.+ne of her particularly genial manner they found it hard to live.

After breakfast the girls were leaving the room together when Miss Heath, the princ.i.p.al of the hall in which they resided, came into the room. She was a tall, stately woman of about thirty-five and had seen very little of Priscilla since her arrival, but now she stopped to give both girls a special greeting. Her manners were very frank and pleasant.

”My dear,” she said to Prissie, ”I have been anxious to cultivate your acquaintance. Will you come and have tea with me in my room this afternoon? And, Maggie, dear, will you come with Miss Peel?”

She laid her hand on Maggie's shoulder as she spoke, looked swiftly into the young girl's face, then turned with a glance of great interest to Priscilla.

”You will both come,” she said. ”That is right. I won't ask any one else. We shall have a cozy time together, and Miss Peel can tell me all about her studies, and aims, and ambitions.”

”Thank you,” said Maggie, ”I'll answer for Miss Peel. We'll both come; we shall be delighted.”

Miss Heath nodded to the pair and walked swiftly down the long hall to the dons' special entrance, where she disappeared.

”Is not she charming?” whispered Maggie. ”Did I not tell you you would fall in love with Dorothea?”

”But I have not,” said Priscilla, coloring. ”And I don't know whether she is charming or not.”

Maggie checked a petulant exclamation which was rising to her lips.

She was conscious of a curious desire to win her queer young companion's goodwill and sympathy.

”Never mind,” she said, ”the moment of victory is only delayed. You will tell a very different story after you have had tea with Dorothea this evening. Now, let us come and look at the notice-boards and see what the day's program is. By the way, are you going to attend any lectures this morning?”

”Yes, two,” said Prissie-- ”one on Middle History, from eleven to twelve, and I have a French lecture afterward.”

”Well, I am not doing anything this morning. I wish you were not. We might have taken a long walk together. Don't you love long walks?”

”Oh, yes; but there is no time for anything of that sort here-- nor----” Priscilla hesitated. ”I don't think there's s.p.a.ce for a very long walk here,” she added. The color rushed into her cheeks as she spoke and her eyes looked wistful.

Maggie laughed.

”What are your ideas in regard to s.p.a.ce, Miss Peel? The whole of Kingsdenes.h.i.+re lies before us. We are untrammeled and can go where we please. Is not that a sufficiently broad area for our roamings?”

”But there is no sea,” said Priscilla. ”We should never have time to walk from here to the sea, and nothing-- nothing else seems worth while.”

”Oh, you have lived by the sea?”

”Yes, all my life. When I was a little girl, my home was near Whitby, in Yorks.h.i.+re, and lately I have lived close to Lyme-- two extreme points of England, you will say; but no matter, the sea is the same.

To walk for miles on the top of the cliffs, that means exercise.”

”Ah,” said Maggie with a sigh, ”I understand you-- I know what you mean.”

She spoke quickly, as she always did under the least touch of excitement. ”Such a walk means more than exercise; it means thought, aspiration. Your brain seems to expand then and ideas come. Of course you don't care for poor flat Kingsdenes.h.i.+re.”

Priscilla turned and stared at Miss Oliphant. Maggie laughed; she raised her hand to her forehead.

”I must not talk any more,” she said, turning pale and shrinking into herself. ”Forgive my rhapsodies. You'll understand what they are worth when you know me better. Oh, by the way, will you come with me to Kingsdene on Sunday? We can go to the three o'clock service at the chapel and afterward have tea with some friends of mine-- the Marshalls-- they'd be delighted to see you.”

”What chapel is the service at?” inquired Priscilla.