Part 19 (2/2)

Austin's, and I had spent most of those two days at the window, declaring to my mother that I should not feel so ”strange” if I got to know some of our neighbours by sight, if nothing more.

'But hitherto I had hardly succeeded even in this. There did not seem to be any ”neighbours” in the pa.s.sers-by; they were just pa.s.sers by who never seemed to pa.s.s by again, and without anything particular to distinguish them if they did. For St. Austin's was a busy little place, and our house was on the South Esplanade, the favourite ”promenade” for the visitors, none of whom, gentlemen, ladies, or children had particularly attracted me till the morning I first caught sight of my funny little trots.

'I do think they would have attracted any one--any one certainly that loved children. I fancy I see them now, the two dears, coming slowly and solemnly along, each with a hand of their nurse, pulling _well_ back from her, as if the effort to keep up, even with her deliberate rate of walking, was almost too much for their fat little legs. They looked exactly the same size, and were alike in everything, from their dresses--which this first day were brown holland, very easy about the bodies, very short and bunchy about the skirts--to the two white woolly lambs, clasped manfully by each in his or her disengaged hand. Whether they were boys or girls I could not tell in the least, and to this day I do not know.

'”_Aren't_ they darlings, mamma?” I said.

'”They certainly are two funny little trots,” she replied with a smile, using my own expression.

'Mamma went back to her knitting, but I stayed by the window, watching my new friends. They pa.s.sed slowly up the Esplanade, my eyes following them till they were out of sight, and then I turned away regretfully.

'”They are sure not to pa.s.s again,” I said, ”and they are so nice.”

'”If they live near here, very likely the Esplanade is their daily walk, and they will be pa.s.sing back again in a few minutes,” said my mother, entering into my fancy.

'I took up her suggestion eagerly. She was right: in about a quarter of an hour my trots appeared again, this time from the other direction, and, as good luck would have it, just opposite our window, their nurse happening to meet an acquaintance, they came to a halt!

'”Mamma, mamma,” I exclaimed, ”here they are again!”

'Mamma nodded her head and smiled without looking up. She was just then counting the rows of her knitting, and was afraid of losing the number.

I pressed my face close to the window--if only the trots would look my way!--I could hardly resist tapping on the pane.

'Suddenly a bright thought struck me. I seized Gip, my little dog, who was asleep on the hearth-rug and held him up to the window.

'”T'ss, Gip; T'ss, cat. At her; at her,” I exclaimed.

'Poor Gip had doubtless been having delightful dreams--it was very hard on him to be wakened up so startlingly. He blinked his eyes and tried to see the imaginary cat--no doubt he thought it was his own fault he did not succeed, for he was the most humble-minded and unpresuming of little dogs, and his faith in me was unbounded. He could not see a cat, but he took it for granted that _I_ did; so he set to work barking vigorously.

That was just what I wanted. The trots heard the noise and both turned round; then they let go their nurse's hands and made a little journey round her skirts till they met.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”Suddenly a bright thought struck me. I seized Gip, my little dog, who was asleep on the hearthrug, and held him up to the window.” _To face page_ 212]

'”Dot,” said one, ”pretty doggie.”

'”Doll,” said the other, both speaking at once, you understand, ”pretty doggie.”

'I don't mean to say that I _heard_ what they said, I only _saw_ it. But afterwards, when I had heard their voices, I felt sure that was what they had said, for they almost always spoke together.

'Then they joined their disengaged hands (the outside hand of each still clasping its woolly lamb), and there they stood, legs well apart, little mouths and eyes wide open, staring with the greatest interest and solemnity at Gip and me. At Gip, of course, far more than at me. Gip was a dog, _I_, was only a girl!--quite a middle-aged person, no doubt, the trots thought me, if they thought about me at all; perhaps they did a little, as I was Gip's owner; for I was sixteen, and they could not have been much more than three.

'But all this time they were so solemn. I wanted to make them laugh.

There was a little table in the window--a bow window, _of course_, as it was at the sea-side, and certain to catch winds from every quarter of the heavens--upon which I mounted Gip, and set to work putting him through his tricks. I made him perform ”ready, present, _fire_,” with a leap to catch the bit of biscuit off his nose. I made him ”beg,” ”lie dead,” like Mother Hubbard's immortal pet, and do everything a well-educated dog could be expected to do. And, oh, how funny it was to watch the trots! Evidently they had never seen anything of the kind before; they stared at first as if they could hardly believe their eyes, and then they smiled, and, _at last_, they laughed. How prettily they laughed--they looked more like two fat cherubs than ever.

'But their laughing attracted their maid's attention. She too turned round, and I was pleased to see that she had a pleasant pretty young face. ”I shouldn't have liked those dear trots to have a cross old nurse,” I said to myself, and the maid still further raised herself in my good opinion by laughing and smiling too. In a minute or two when she thought ”that was enough for to-day,” she stooped and whispered to the trots. They immediately lifted their little hands, the right of one, the left of the other--for _nothing_, you see, could have persuaded them to let go of their precious lambs--to their rosy mouths and blew a kiss to me, and I could _see_ them say, ”Zank zou, lady; zank zou, doggie.”

'You may be sure I kissed my hand to them in return, and off they toddled, each with a hand of ”Bessie,” as I afterwards heard them call their maid, and hauling back manfully as before, which gave Bessie the look of a very large steam-tug convoying two very little vessels.

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