Part 41 (1/2)

Their little sitting-room had a bow-window down to the ground, the front part of which formed two doors with gla.s.s in the upper part and wood below, leading out into the garden. On fine days they always stood wide open, and the warm summer air scented with roses streamed in. Both Beth and Aunt Victoria loved to look out into the garden.

From where Beth sat to do her French at the end of the table, she could see the soft green turf, a bright flower-border, and an old brick wall, mellowed in tone by age, behind it; and a little to the left, a high, thick screen of tall shrubs of many varieties, set so close that all the different shades of green melted into each other.

The irregular roof of a large house, standing on lower ground than the garden, with quaint gables and old chimneys, rose above the belt of shrubs; the tiles on it lay in layers that made Beth think of a wasp's nest, only that they were dark-red instead of grey; but she loved the colour as it appeared all amongst the green trees and up against the blue sky. She often wondered what was going on under that roof, and used to invent stories about it. She did not write anything in these days, however, but stored up impressions which were afterwards of inestimable value to her. The smooth grey boles of the beeches, the green down on the larches, the dark, blue-green crown which the Scotch fir held up, as if to accentuate the light blue of the sky, and the wonderful ruddy-gold tones that shone on its trunk as the day declined; these things she felt and absorbed rather than saw and noted, but because she felt them they fired her soul, and resolved themselves into poetic expression eventually.

They dined early, and on the hot afternoons they sat and worked together after dinner, Beth sewing and Aunt Victoria knitting, until it was cool enough to go out. Aunt Victoria was teaching Beth how to make some new underclothing for herself, to Beth's great delight. All of her old things that were not rags were patches, and the shame of having them so was a continual source of discomfort to her; but Aunt Victoria, when she discovered the state of Beth's wardrobe, bought some calico out of her own scanty means, and set her to work. During these long afternoons, they had many a conversation that Beth recollected with pleasure and profit. She often amused and interested the old lady; and sometimes she drew from her a serious reprimand or a solemn lecture, for both of which she was much the better. Aunt Victoria was severe, but she was sympathetic, and she was just; she seldom praised, but she showed that she was satisfied, and that was enough for Beth; and she never scolded or punished, only spoke seriously when she was displeased, and then Beth was overwhelmed.

One very hot day when they were working together, Aunt Victoria sitting on a high-backed chair with her back to the open doors because the light was too much for her eyes, and Beth sitting beside her on a lower seat, but so that she could look up at her, and also out into the garden, it occurred to her that once on a time, long ago, Aunt Victoria must have been young, and she tried artfully to find out first, if Aunt Victoria remembered the fact, and secondly, what little girls were like at that remote period.

”Was your mamma like mine, Aunt Victoria?” she asked.

Aunt Victoria had just made a mistake in her knitting, and answered shortly: ”No, child.”

”When you were all children,” Beth pursued, ”did you play together?”

”Not much,” Aunt Victoria answered grimly.

”Did you quarrel?”

”My dear child! what could put such a notion into your head?”

”What did you do then?” said Beth. ”You couldn't have been all the time learning to sit upright on a high-backed chair; and I am trying so hard to think what your home was like. I wish you would tell me.”

”It was not at all like yours,” Aunt Victoria replied with emphasis.

”We were most carefully brought up children. Our mother was an admirable person. She lived by rule. If one of her children was born at night, it was kept in the house until the morning, and then sent out to nurse until it was two years old. If it was born by day, it was sent away at once.”

”And didn't great-grandmamma ever go to see it?”

”Yes, of course; twice a year.”

”I think,” said Beth, reflecting, ”I should like to keep my babies at home. I should want to put their little soft faces against mine, and kiss them, you know.”

”Your great-grandmamma did her duty,” said Aunt Victoria with grim approval. ”She never let any of us loll as you are doing now, Beth.

She made us all sit up, as _I_ always do, and as I am always telling you to do; and the consequence was our backs grew strong and never ached.”

”And were you happy?” Beth said solemnly.

Aunt Victoria gazed at her vaguely. She had never asked herself the question. Then Beth sat with her work on her lap for a little, looking up at the summer sky. It was an exquisite deep blue just then, with filmy white clouds drawn up over it like gauze to veil its brightness.

The red roofs and gables and chimneys of the old house below, the shrubs, the dark Scotch fir, the copper-beech, the limes and the chestnut stood out clearly silhouetted against it; and Beth felt the forms and tints and tones of them all, although she was thinking of something else.

”Mamma's back is always aching,” she observed at last, returning to her work.

”Yes, that is because she was not so well brought up as we were,” Aunt Victoria rejoined.

”_She_ says it is because she had such a lot of children,” said Beth.

”Did you ever have any children, Aunt Victoria?”

Miss Victoria Bench let her knitting fall on her lap--”My--dear--child!” she gasped, holding up both her hands in horror.