Part 2 (1/2)
”But I may not be here to taste it,” said Elaine.
”Bless the child!” said Mistletoe. ”And where else would you be on Christmas-day but in your own house?”
”Perhaps far away. Who knows?”
”You haven't gone and seen a young man and told him----”
”A young man, indeed!” said Elaine, with a toss of her head. ”There's not a young man in England I would tell anything save to go about his business.”
Miss Elaine had never seen any young men except when they came to dine on Sir G.o.dfrey's invitation; and his manner on those occasions so awed them that they always sat on the edge of their chairs, and said, ”No, thank you,” when the Baron said, ”Have some more capon?” Then the Baron would snort, ”Nonsense! Popham, bring me Master Percival's plate,” upon which Master Percival invariably simpered, and said that really he did believe he _would_ take another slice. After these dinners, Miss Elaine retired to her own part of the house; and that was all she ever saw of young men, whom she very naturally deemed a cla.s.s to be despised as silly and wholly lacking in self-a.s.sertion.
”Then where in the name of good saints are you going to be?” Mistletoe went on.
”Why,” said Elaine, slowly (and here she looked very slyly at the old Governess, and then quickly appeared to be considering the lace on her dress), ”why, of course, papa would not permit me to sacrifice myself for one dragon or twenty dragons.”
”What!” screamed Mistletoe, all in a flurry (for she was a fool).
”What?”
”Of course, I know papa would say that,” said Miss Elaine, demure as possible.
”Oh, mercy me!” squeaked Mistletoe; ”we are undone!”
”To be sure, I might agree with papa,” said the artful thing, knowing well enough she was on the right track.
”Oo--oo!” went the Governess, burying her nose in the household cookery-book and rocking from side to side.
”But then I might not agree with papa, you know. I might think,--might think----” Miss Elaine stopped at what she might think, for really she hadn't the slightest idea what to say next.
”You have no right to think,--no right at all!” burst out Mistletoe.
”And you sha'n't be allowed to think. I'll tell Sir G.o.dfrey at once, and he'll forbid you. Oh, dear! oh, dear! just before Christmas Eve, too! The only night in the year! She has no time to change her mind; and she'll be eaten up if she goes, I know she will. What villain told you of this, child? Let me know, and he shall be punished at once.”
”I shall not tell you that,” said Elaine.
”Then everybody will be suspected,” moaned Mistletoe. ”Everybody. The whole household. And we shall all be thrown to the Dragon. Oh, dear!
was there ever such a state of things?” The Governess betook herself to weeping and wringing her hands, and Elaine stood watching her and wondering how in the world she could find out more. She knew now just enough to keep her from eating or sleeping until she knew everything.
”I don't agree with papa, at all,” she said, during a lull in the tears. This was the only remark she could think of.
”He'll lock you up, and feed you on bread and water till you do--oo--oo!” sobbed Mistletoe; ”and by that time we shall all be ea--ea--eaten up!”
”But I'll talk to papa, and make him change his mind.”
”He won't. Do you think you're going to make him care more about a lot of sheep and cows than he does about his only daughter? Doesn't he pay the people for everything the Dragon eats up? Who would pay him for you, when you were eaten up?”
”How do you know that I should be eaten up?” asked Miss Elaine.
”Oh, dear! oh, dear! and how could you stop it? What could a girl do alone against a dragon in the middle of the night?”