Part 31 (1/2)
”How?” replied Sylvia.
”Just as if you were bursting to tell me something.”
”I am-I am,” answered Sylvia. ”Oh Jasper, you must help me!”
”Of course I will, dear.”
”I have resolved to accept your most kind offer. I will pay you somehow, in some fas.h.i.+on, but if you could make just one of Evelyn's frocks fit for me to wear!”
”Ah!” replied Jasper. ”Now, I am as pleased about this as I could be about anything. We will have more than one, my pretty young miss. But what do you want it for?”
”I am going to do a great, big, dangerous thing,” replied Sylvia. ”If father discovers, things will be very bad, I am sure; but perhaps he will not discover. Anyhow, I am not proof against temptation. I met Lady Frances Wynford.”
”And how does her ladys.h.i.+p look?” asked Jasper-”as proud as ever?”
”She was not proud to me, Jasper; she was quite nice. She asked me to take a drive with her.”
”You took a drive with her ladys.h.i.+p!”
”I did indeed; you must treat me with great respect after this.”
Jasper put her arms akimbo and burst into a loud laugh.
”I guess,” she said after a pause, ”you looked just as fine and aristocratic as her ladys.h.i.+p's own self.”
”I drove in a luxurious carriage, and had a lovely fur cloak wrapped round me,” replied the girl; ”and Lady Frances was very, very kind, and she has asked me to spend Sat.u.r.day at the Castle.”
”Sat.u.r.day! Why, that is to-morrow.”
”Yes, I know it is.”
”You are going?”
”Yes, I am going.”
”You will see my little Eve to-morrow?”
”Yes, Jasper.”
Jasper's black eyes grew suspiciously bright; she raised her hand to dash away something which seemed to dim them for a second, then she said in a brisk tone:
”We have our work cut out for us, for you shall not go shabby, my pretty, pretty maid. I will soon have the dinner in order, and--”
”But what have you got for father's dinner?”
”A little soup. You can tell him that you boiled his chop in it. It is really good, and I am putting in lots of pearl barley and rice and potatoes. He will be ever so pleased, for he will think it cost next to nothing; but there is a good piece of solid meat boiled down in that soup, nevertheless.”
”Oh, thank you, Jasper; you are a comfort to me.”
”Well,” replied Jasper, ”I always like to do my best for those who are brave and young and put upon. You are a very silly girl in some ways, Miss Sylvia; but you have been good to me, and I mean to be good to you.
Now then, dinner is well forward, and we will go and search out the dress.”
The rest of the day pa.s.sed quickly, and with intense enjoyment as far as Sylvia was concerned. She had sufficiently good taste to choose the least remarkable of Evelyn's many costumes. There was a rich dark-brown costume, trimmed with velvet of the same shade, which could be lengthened in the skirt and let out in the bodice, and which the young girl would look very nice in. A brown velvet hat accompanied the costume, with a little tuft of ostrich feathers placed on one side, and a pearl buckle to keep all in place. There were m.u.f.fs and furs in quant.i.ties to choose from. Sylvia would for once in her life be richly appareled. Jasper exerted herself to the utmost, and the pretty dress was all in order by the time night came.