Part 37 (2/2)
”You won't want to, ently ”Of course it would not be possible for you to come home all that distance for holidays, but you will soon learn not toto look forward to Noill tell you a little about the schools you are going to”
It was easy to listen with apparent interest to this, to put in a question here and there and glean all the information possible But when the pair left the rooripped her brother's arm
”Eustace,” she said huskily, ”I--I can't bear it”
”You justelse to do”
The words were so hopeless that Nesta's tears began to fall thick and fast, and he drew her ale out of earshot They reached the picture gallery, and sat down in a deep -seat overlooking the front drive and the beautiful park beyond Here Nesta buried her face in her hands and fairly sobbed
Eustace bore it for soirl,” he said, ”don't be silly You'll have a red nose for dessert”
”I don't care,” Nesta blurted out
”But you must care,” Eustace said a little i and find out we're ain ”I can't hide it any o ho will make me stay here with these--these horrid people”
”Nesta!” Eustace exclaimed
”Well, I can't help it; they are horrid, even if they are our people I never thought of the like this And I can't--I won't stay with therily ”You knoe can't help staying if every one says we are to”
”Then,” said Nesta, drawing herself up with a sudden attenity, ”I shall run away”
”Silly!” Eustace exclaimed irritably
”You'll see it isn't silly when I do it,” said Nesta gloo about how horrid it is for us, and then if they won't take us ho Eustace to fill in the threat for himself
”You really will tell ry tone
Nesta nodded defiantly
”Then you are a little beast,” said Eustace furiously--”a cruel little beast”
Nesta rose with her nose very high in the air
”Thank you,” she said; ”you are most awfully polite I shall take care not to tell you anything ever again”
Eustace knelt up on the seat, and leant out of the openinto the soft evening air He was too angry to speak coherently, too bewildered to knohat to say With a toss of her head Nesta turned and left hiallery, and kneas meant to understand he had her sincerest disapproval A few months earlier, he would presently have thrown off his sense of irritation and laughed at Nesta's little airs of iht he had no heart for the funny side of it He was vexed to have lost his influence over Nesta, and worried at the thought of what an upset her headstrong course would make Let alone his randparents'
indignation to reckon with, and Herbert's and Brenda's scornful surprise They would indeed think them wild Bush children, and be justified in their present attitude of cool unfriendliness
Yet to be left in these uncongenial surroundings for a space of time that seemed like an eternity to a lad of fourteen; to be forced to remain with these unsympathetic companions for the next four or five years, with no one to turn to and without a home, meant desolation as complete for Eustace as for Nesta