Part 20 (1/2)
”Tasmania is not England, miss. It would not suit her ladys.h.i.+p for you to wear your hair so.”
”Then I won't wear it any other way.”
”As you please, miss. I can put on your dress, and you can arrange your hair yourself, but I won't give you what will be a bit of a surprise to you.”
”Oh, do it as you please,” said Evelyn.
Her hair, very pretty in itself, although far too thin to make much show, was accordingly arranged in childish fas.h.i.+on; and when Evelyn presently found herself arrayed in her high-bodied and long-sleeved white muslin dress, with white silk stockings and little silk shoes to match, and a white sash round her waist, she gazed at herself in the gla.s.s in puzzled wonder.
Read stood for a moment watching her face.
”I am pretty, am I not?” said Evelyn, turning and looking full at her maid.
”It is best not to think of looks, and it is downright sinful to talk of them,” was Read's somewhat severe answer.
Evelyn's eyes twinkled.
”I feel like a very good, pretty little girl,” she said. ”Last night I was a charming grown-up young lady. Very soon again I shall be a charming grown-up young lady, and whether Aunt Frances likes it or not, I shall be much, much better-looking than Audrey. Now, please, I have been good, and I want what you said you had for me.”
”It is a letter from Jasper,” replied Read. ”She told me I was to give it to you. Now, please, miss, don't make yourself untidy. You look very nice and suitable. When the gong rings you can go down-stairs, or sooner if your fancy takes you. I am going off now to attend to my mistress.”
When alone, Evelyn tore open the letter which Jasper had left for her.
It was short, and ran as follows:
My darling, precious Lamb,-The best friends must part, but, oh, it is a black, black heart that makes it necessary! My heart is bleeding to think that you won't have me to make your chocolate, and to lie down in the little white bed by your side this evening. Yes, it is bleeding, and bleeding badly, and there will be no blessing on her who has tried to part us. But, Miss Evelyn, my dear, don't you fret, for though I am away I do not mean to be far away, and when you want me I will still be there. I have a plan in my head, and I will let you know about it when it is properly laid. No more at present, but if you think of me every minute to-night, so will I think of you, my dear little white Eve; and don't forget, darling, that whatever they may do to you, the time will come when they will all, the Squire excepted, be under your thumb.
-Your loving ”Jasper.”
The morsel of content and satisfaction which Evelyn had felt when she saw herself looking like a nice, ordinary little girl, and when she had sat in the schoolroom surrounded by all the gay young folks of her cousin's station in life, vanished completely as she read Jasper's injudicious words. Tears flowed from her eyes; she clenched her hands.
She danced pa.s.sionately about the room. She longed to tear from her locks the white ribbons which Read had arranged there; she longed to get into the white satin dress which she had worn on the previous occasion; she longed to do anything on earth to defy Lady Frances; but, alack and alas! what good were longings when the means of yielding to them were denied?-for all that precious and fascinating wardrobe had been put into Evelyn's traveling-trunks, and those trunks had been conveyed from the blue-and-silver bedroom. The little girl found that she had to submit.
”Well, I do-I do,” she thought-”but only outwardly. Oh, she will never break me in! Mothery darling, she will never break me in. I am going to be naughty always, always, because she is so cruel, and because I hate her, and because she has parted me from Jasper-your friend, my darling mothery, your friend!”
CHAPTER XII.-HUNGER.
When Jasper was conveyed from Wynford Castle she drove to the ”Green Man” in the village. There she asked the landlady if she could give her a small bedroom for the night. The landlady, a certain Mrs. Simpson, was quite willing to oblige Miss Jasper. She was accommodated with a bedroom, and having seen her boxes deposited there, wandered about the village. She took the bearings of the place, which was small and unimportant, and altogether devoted to the interests of the great folks at Castle Wynford. Wynford village lived, indeed, for the Castle; without the big house, as they called it, the villagers would have little or no existence. The village received its patronage from the Squire and his family. Every house in the village belonged to Squire Wynford. The inhabitants regarded him as if he were their feudal lord.
He was kindly to all, sympathetic in sorrow, ready to rejoice when bright moments visited each or any of his tenants. Lady Frances was an admirable almoner of the different charities which came from the great house. There was not a poor woman in the length and breadth of Wynford village who was not perfectly well aware that her ladys.h.i.+p knew all about her, even to her little sins and her small transgressions; all about her struggles as well as her falls, her temptations as well as her moments of victory. Lady Frances was loved and feared; the Squire was loved and respected; Audrey was loved in the sort of pa.s.sionate way in which people will regard the girl who always has been to them more or less a little princess. Therefore now, as Jasper walked slowly through the village with the fading light falling all over her, she knew she was a person of interest. Beyond doubt that was the case; but although the villagers were interested in her, and peeped outside their houses to watch her (even the grocer, who did a roaring trade, and took the tenor solo on Sunday in the church choir, peered round his doorstep with the others), she knew that she was favored with no admiring looks, and that the villagers one and all were prepared to fight her. That was indeed the case, for secrets are no secrets where a great family are concerned, and the villagers knew that Jasper had come over from the other side of the world with the real heiress.
”A dowdy, ill-favored girl,” they said one to the other; ”but nevertheless, when the Squire-bless him!-is gathered to his fathers, she will reign in his stead, and sweet, darling, beautiful Miss Audrey will be nowhere.”
They said this, repeating the disagreeable news one to the other, and vowing each and all that they would never care for the Australian girl, and never give her a welcome.
As Jasper slowly walked she was conscious of the feeling of hostility which surrounded her.
”It won't do,” she said to herself. ”I meant to take up my abode at the 'Green Man,' and I meant that no one in the place should turn me out, but I do not believe I shall be able to continue there; and yet, to go far away from my sweet little Eve is not to be thought of. I have money of my own. Her mother was a wise woman when she said to me, 'Jasper, the time may come when you will need it; and although it belongs to Eve, you must spend it as you think best in her service.'
”It ain't much,” thought Jasper to herself, ”but it is sixty pounds, and I have it in gold sovereigns, scattered here and there in my big black trunk, and I mean to spend it in watching over the dear angel lamb. Mrs.
Simpson of the 'Green Man' would be the better of it, but she sha'n't have much of it-of that I am resolved.”