Part 2 (2/2)
”No, you don't!” he said mildly, ”I decline to perform again. If you want any more wriggling you must accomplish it yourselves. Drina, has your governess--by any unfortunate chance--er--red hair?”
”No,” said the child; ”and won't you _please_ crawl across the floor and bolo me--just _once_ more?”
”Bolo me!” insisted Billy. ”I haven't been mangled yet!”
”Let Billy a.s.sa.s.sinate somebody himself. And, by the way, Drina, are there any maids or nurses or servants in this remarkable house who occasionally wear copper-tinted hair and black fox furs?”
”No. Eileen does. Won't you please wriggle--”
”Who is Eileen?”
”Eileen? Why--don't you know who Eileen is?”
”No, I don't,” began Captain Selwyn, when a delighted shout from the children swung him toward the door again. His sister, Mrs. Gerard, stood there in carriage gown and sables, radiant with surprise.
”Phil! _You!_ Exactly like you, Philip, to come strolling in from the antipodes--dear fellow!” recovering from the fraternal embrace and holding both lapels of his coat in her gloved hands. ”Six years!” she said again and again, tenderly reproachful; ”Alexandrine was a baby of six--Drina, child, do you remember my brother--do you remember your Uncle Philip? She doesn't remember; you can't expect her to recollect; she is only twelve, Phil--”
”I remember _one_ thing,” observed Drina serenely.
Brother and sister turned toward her in pride and delight; and the child went on: ”My Aunt Alixe; I remember her. She was _so_ pretty,” concluded Drina, nodding thoughtfully in the effort to remember more; ”Uncle Philip, where is she now?”
But her uncle seemed to have lost his voice as well as his colour, and Mrs. Gerard's gloved fingers tightened on the lapels of his coat.
”Drina--child--” she faltered; but Drina, immersed in reflection, smiled dreamily; ”So pretty,” she murmured; ”I remember my Aunt Alixe--”
”Drina!” repeated her mother sharply, ”go and find Bridget this minute!”
Selwyn's hesitating hand sought his moustache; he lifted his eyes--the steady gray eyes, slightly bloodshot--to his sister's distressed face.
”I never dreamed--” she began--”the child has never spoken of--of her from that time to this! I never dreamed she could remember--”
”I don't understand what you are talking about, mother,” said Drina; but her pretty mother caught her by the shoulders, striving to speak lightly; ”Where in the world is Bridget, child? Where is Katie? And what is all this I hear from Dawson? It can't be possible that you have been fox-hunting all over the house again! Your nurses know perfectly well that you are not to hunt anywhere except in your own nursery.”
”I know it,” said Drina, ”but Kit-Ki got out and ran downstairs. We had to follow her, you know, until she went to earth.”
Selwyn quietly bent over toward Billy: ”'Ware wire, my friend,” he said under his breath; ”_you'd_ better cut upstairs and unlock that schoolroom.”
And while Mrs. Gerard turned her attention to the cl.u.s.ter of clamouring younger children, the boy vanished only to reappear a moment later, retreating before the vengeful exclamations of the lately imprisoned nurses who pursued him, caps and ap.r.o.ns flying, bewailing aloud their ignominious incarceration.
”Billy!” exclaimed his mother, ”_did_ you do that? Bridget, Master William is to take supper by himself in the schoolroom--and _no_ marmalade!--No, Billy, not one drop!”
”We all saw him lock the door,” said Drina honestly.
”And you let him? Oh, Drina!--And Ellen! Katie! No marmalade for Miss Drina--none for any of the children. Josie, mother feels dreadfully because you all have been so naughty. Winthrop!--your finger! Instantly!
Clemence, baby, where on earth did you acquire all that grime on your face and fists?” And to her brother: ”Such a household, Phil! Everybody incompetent--including me; everything topsy-turvy; and all five dogs perfectly possessed to lie on that pink rug in the music room.--_Have_ they been there to-day, Drina?--while you were practising?”
”Yes, and there are some new spots, mother. I'm _very_ sorry.”
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