Part 2 (1/2)
”A girl can't ride alone in Oxford--she'd be talked about at once!”
Lady Connie flushed mutinously.
”I could take a groom, Aunt Ellen!”
”Well, I don't approve of it,” said Mrs. Hooper, in the half plaintive tone of one who must speak although no one listens. ”But of course your uncle must decide.”
”We'll talk it over, my dear Connie, we'll talk it over,” said Dr.
Hooper cheerfully. ”Now wouldn't you like Nora to show you to your room?”
The girls went upstairs together, Nora leading the way.
”It's an awful squash in your room,” said Nora abruptly. ”I don't know how you'll manage.”
”My fault, I suppose, for bringing so many things! But where else could I put them?”
Nora nodded gravely, as though considering the excuse. The newcomer suddenly felt herself criticised by this odd schoolgirl and resented it.
The door of the spare-room was open, and the girls entered upon a scene of chaos. Annette rose from her knees, showing a brick-red countenance of wrath that strove in vain for any sort of dignity. And again that look of distant laughter came into Lady Connie's eyes.
”My dear Annette, why aren't you having a rest, as I told you! I can do with anything to-night.”
”Well, my lady, if you'll tell me how you'll get into bed, unless I put some of these things away, I should be obliged!” said Annette, with a dark look at Nora. ”I've asked for a wardrobe for you, and this young lady says there isn't one. There's that hanging cupboard”--she pointed witheringly to the curtained recess--”your dresses will be ruined there in a fortnight. And there's that chest of drawers. Your things will have to stay in the trunks, as far as I can see, and then you might as well sleep on them. It would give you more room!”
With which stroke of sarcasm, Annette returned to the angry unpacking of her mistress's bag.
”I must buy a wardrobe,” said Connie, looking round her in perplexity.
”Never mind, Annette, I can easily buy one.”
It was now Nora's turn to colour.
”You mustn't do that,” she said firmly. ”Father wouldn't like it. We'll find something. But do you want such a lot of things?”
She looked at the floor heaped with every variety of delicate mourning, black dresses, thick and thin, for morning and afternoon; and black and white, or pure white, for the evening. And what had happened to the bed?
It was already divested of the twilled cotton sheets and marcella quilt which were all the Hoopers ever allowed either to themselves or their guests. They had been replaced by sheets 'of the finest and smoothest linen, embroidered with a crest and monogram in the corners, and by a coverlet of old Italian lace lined with pale blue silk; while the down pillows at the head with their embroidered and lace-trimmed slips completed the transformation of what had been a bed, and was now almost a work of art.
And the dressing-table! Nora went up to it in amazement. It too was spread with lace lined with silk, and covered with a toilet-set of mother-of-pearl and silver. Every brush and bottle was crested and initialled. The humble looking-gla.s.s, which Nora, who was something of a carpenter, had herself mended before her cousin's arrival, was standing on the floor in a corner, and a folding mirror framed in embossed silver had taken its place.
”I say, do you always travel with these things?” The girl stood open-mouthed, half astonished, half contemptuous.
”What things?”
Nora pointed to the toilet-table and the bed.
Connie's expression showed an answering astonishment.
”I have had them all my life,” she said stiffly. ”We always took our own linen to hotels, and made our rooms nice.”
”I should think you'd be afraid of their being stolen!” Nora took up one of the costly brushes, and examined it in wonder.