Part 2 (1/2)
She talked so grandly, and used such great big words!--”A good thing, too,” Mrs Asplin averred. She wished the rest would follow her example, and not use so much foolish, meaningless slang.--Her eyes looked so bright and mocking, as if she were laughing at something all the time.--Poor, dear child! could she not talk as she liked? It was a great blessing she _could_ be bright, poor lamb, with such a parting before her!--She was so grown-up, and patronising, and superior!--Tut!
tut! Nonsense! Peggy had come from a boarding-school, and her ways were different from theirs--that was all. They must not take stupid notions, but be kind and friendly, and make the poor girl feel at home.
Fraulein on her side reported that her new pupil was docile and obedient, and anxious to get on with her studies, though not so far advanced as might have been expected. Esther was far ahead of her in most subjects, and Mellicent learned with pained surprise that she knew nothing whatever about decimal fractions.
”Circ.u.mstances, dear,” she explained, ”circ.u.mstances over which I had no control prevented an acquaintance, but no doubt I shall soon know all about them, and then I shall be pleased to give you the promised help;”
and Mellicent found herself saying, ”Thank you,” in a meek and submissive manner, instead of indulging in a well-merited rebuke.
No amount of ignorance seemed to daunt Mariquita, or to shake her belief in herself. When Maxwell came to grief in a Latin essay, she looked up and said, ”Can I a.s.sist you?” and when Robert read aloud a pa.s.sage from Carlyle, she laid her head on one side and said, ”Now, do you know, I am not altogether sure that I am with him on that point!” with an a.s.surance which paralysed the hearers.
Esther and Mellicent discussed seriously together as to whether they liked, or disliked, this extraordinary creature, and had great difficulty in coming to a conclusion. She teased, puzzled, aggravated, and provoked them; therefore, if they had any claim to be logical, they should dislike her cordially, yet somehow or other they could not bring themselves to say that they disliked Mariquita. There were moments when they came perilously near loving the aggravating creature. Already it gave them quite a shock to look back upon the time when there was no Peggy Saville to occupy their thoughts, and life without the interest of her presence would have seemed unspeakably flat and uninteresting. She was a bundle of mystery. Even her looks seemed to exercise an uncanny fascination. On the evening of her arrival the unanimous opinion had been that she was decidedly plain, but there was something about the pale little face which always seemed to invite a second glance, and the more closely you gazed, the more complete was the feeling of satisfaction.
”Her face is so _neat_,” Mellicent said to herself; and the adjective was not inappropriate, for Peggy's small features looked as though they had been modelled by the hand of a fastidious artist, and the air of dainty finish extended to her hands and feet and slight, graceful figure.
The subject came up for discussion on the third evening after Peggy's arrival, when she had been called out of the room to speak to Mrs Asplin for a few minutes. Esther gazed after her as she walked across the floor with her dignified tread, and when the door was closed she said slowly--
”I don't think Mariquita is as plain now as I did at first; do you, Oswald?”
”N-no! I don't think I do. I should not call her exactly plain. She is a funny little thing, but there's something nice about her face.”
”Very nice!”
”Last night in the pink dress she looked almost pretty.”
”Y-es!”
”Quite pretty!”
”Y-es! really quite pretty.”
”We shall think her lovely in another week,” said Mellicent tragically.
”Those awful Savilles! They are all alike--there is something Indian about them. Indian people have a lot of secrets that we know nothing about; they use spells, and poisons, and incantations that no English person can understand, and they can charm snakes. I've read about it in books. Arthur and Peggy were born in India, and it's my opinion that they are bewitched. Perhaps the ayahs did it when they were in their cradles. I don't say it is their own fault, but they are not like other people, and they use their charms on us, as there are no snakes in England. Look at Arthur! He was the naughtiest boy--always hurting himself, and spilling things, and getting into trouble, and yet everyone in the house bowed down before him, and did what he wanted.--Now mark my words, Peggy will be the same!”
Mellicent's companions were not in the habit of ”marking her words,” but on this occasion they looked thoughtful, for there was no denying that they were already more or less under the spell of the remorseless stranger.
On the afternoon of the fourth day Miss Peggy came down to tea with her pigtail smoother and more glossy than ever, and the light of war s.h.i.+ning in her eyes. She drew her chair to the table, and looked blandly at each of her companions in turn.
”I have been thinking,” she said sweetly, and the listeners quaked at the thought of what was coming. ”The thought has been weighing on my mind that we neglect many valuable and precious opportunities. This hour, which is given to us for our own use, might be turned to profit and advantage, instead of being idly frittered away--
”'In work, in work, in work alway, Let my young days be spent.'
”It was the estimable Dr Watts, I think, who wrote those immortal lines! I think it would be a desirable thing to carry on all conversation at this table in the French language for the future.
_Pa.s.sez-moi le beurre, s'il vous plait_, Mellicent, _ma tres chere.
J'aime beaucoup le beurre, quand il est frais. Est-ce que vous aimez le beurre plus de la_,--I forget at the moment how you translate _jam, il fait tres beau, ce apres-midi, n'est pas_?”
She was so absolutely, imperturbably grave that no one dared to laugh.
Mellicent, who took everything in deadly earnest, summoned up courage to give a mild little squeak of a reply. ”_Wee_--_mais hier soir, il pleut_;” and in the silence that followed Robert was visited with a mischievous inspiration. He had had French nursery governesses in his childhood, and had, moreover, spent two years abroad, so that French came as naturally to him as his own mother-tongue. The temptation to discompose Miss Peggy was too strong to be resisted. He raised his dark, square-chinned face, looked straight into her eyes, and rattled off a breathless sentence to the effect that there was nothing so necessary as conversation, if one wished to master a foreign language; that he had talked French in the nursery; and that the same Marie who had nursed him as a baby was still in his father's service, acting as maid to his sister. She was getting old now, but was a most faithful creature, devoted to the family, though she had never overcome her prejudices against England and English ways. He rattled on until he was fairly out of breath, and Peggy leant her little chin on her hand, and stared at him with an expression of absorbing attention. Esther felt convinced that she did not understand a word of what was being said, but the moment that Robert stopped, she threw back her head, clasped her hands together, and exclaimed--
”_Mais certainement, avec_ pleasure!” with such vivacity and Frenchiness of manner that she was forced into unwilling admiration.