Part 28 (1/2)
It's no use trying to hide there; I can see you all the time.”
It was probably the first time for twenty years that anyone had smiled in that lumber-room.
Presently the angry repet.i.tions of Nicholas' name gave way to a shriek, and a cry for somebody to come quickly. Nicholas shut the book, restored it carefully to its place in a corner, and shook some dust from a neighbouring pile of newspapers over it. Then he crept from the room, locked the door, and replaced the key exactly where he had found it. His aunt was still calling his name when he sauntered into the front garden.
”Who's calling?” he asked.
”Me,” came the answer from the other side of the wall; ”didn't you hear me? I've been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I've slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there's no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can't get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree-”
”I was told I wasn't to go into the gooseberry garden,” said Nicholas promptly.
”I told you not to, and now I tell you that you may,” came the voice from the rain-water tank, rather impatiently.
”Your voice doesn't sound like aunt's,” objected Nicholas; ”you may be the Evil One tempting me to be disobedient. Aunt often tells me that the Evil One tempts me and that I always yield. This time I'm not going to yield.”
”Don't talk nonsense,” said the prisoner in the tank; ”go and fetch the ladder.”
”Will there be strawberry jam for tea?” asked Nicholas innocently.
”Certainly there will be,” said the aunt, privately resolving that Nicholas should have none of it.
”Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt,” shouted Nicholas gleefully; ”when we asked aunt for strawberry jam yesterday she said there wasn't any. I know there are four jars of it in the store cupboard, because I looked, and of course you know it's there, but she doesn't, because she said there wasn't any. Oh, Devil, you _have_ sold yourself!”
There was an unusual sense of luxury in being able to talk to an aunt as though one was talking to the Evil One, but Nicholas knew, with childish discernment, that such luxuries were not to be over-indulged in. He walked noisily away, and it was a kitchenmaid, in search of parsley, who eventually rescued the aunt from the rain-water tank.
Tea that evening was partaken of in a fearsome silence. The tide had been at its highest when the children had arrived at Jagborough Cove, so there had been no sands to play on-a circ.u.mstance that the aunt had overlooked in the haste of organising her punitive expedition. The tightness of Bobby's boots had had disastrous effect on his temper the whole of the afternoon, and altogether the children could not have been said to have enjoyed themselves. The aunt maintained the frozen muteness of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention in a rain-water tank for thirty-five minutes. As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag.
FUR
”You look worried, dear,” said Eleanor.
”I am worried,” admitted Suzanne; ”not worried exactly, but anxious. You see, my birthday happens next week-”
”You lucky person,” interrupted Eleanor; ”my birthday doesn't come till the end of March.”
”Well, old Bertram Kneyght is over in England just now from the Argentine. He's a kind of distant cousin of my mother's, and so enormously rich that we've never let the relations.h.i.+p drop out of sight.
Even if we don't see him or hear from him for years he is always Cousin Bertram when he does turn up. I can't say he's ever been of much solid use to us, but yesterday the subject of my birthday cropped up, and he asked me to let him know what I wanted for a present.”
”Now I understand the anxiety,” observed Eleanor.
”As a rule when one is confronted with a problem like that,” said Suzanne, ”all one's ideas vanish; one doesn't seem to have a desire in the world. Now it so happens that I have been very keen on a little Dresden figure that I saw somewhere in Kensington; about thirty-six s.h.i.+llings, quite beyond my means. I was very nearly describing the figure, and giving Bertram the address of the shop. And then it suddenly struck me that thirty-six s.h.i.+llings was such a ridiculously inadequate sum for a man of his immense wealth to spend on a birthday present. He could give thirty-six pounds as easily as you or I could buy a bunch of violets. I don't want to be greedy, of course, but I don't like being wasteful.”
”The question is,” said Eleanor, ”what are his ideas as to present-giving? Some of the wealthiest people have curiously cramped views on that subject. When people grow gradually rich their requirements and standard of living expand in proportion, while their present-giving instincts often remain in the undeveloped condition of their earlier days. Something showy and not-too-expensive in a shop is their only conception of the ideal gift. That is why even quite good shops have their counters and windows crowded with things worth about four s.h.i.+llings that look as if they might be worth seven-and-six, and are priced at ten s.h.i.+llings and labelled seasonable gifts.'”
”I know,” said Suzanne; ”that is why it is so risky to be vague when one is giving indications of one's wants. Now if I say to him: 'I am going out to Davos this winter, so anything in the travelling line would be acceptable,' he might give me a dressing-bag with gold-mounted fittings, but, on the other hand, he might give me Baedeker's Switzerland, or 'Skiing without Tears,' or something of that sort.”
”He would be more likely to say: 'She'll be going to lots of dances, a fan will be sure to be useful.'”
”Yes, and I've got tons of fans, so you see where the danger and anxiety lies. Now if there is one thing more than another that I really urgently want it is furs. I simply haven't any. I'm told that Davos is full of Russians, and they are sure to wear the most lovely sables and things.
To be among people who are smothered in furs when one hasn't any oneself makes one want to break most of the Commandments.”