Part 46 (1/2)

Evelyn did mutter a tiny piece of information with regard to the said reign.

”I shall question you on your history from time to time,” said Lady Frances. ”I take an interest in this school experiment. Whether it will last or not I cannot say; but I may as well say one thing-if for any reason your presence is not found suitable in the school where I have now sent you, you will go to a very different order of establishment and to a much stricter _regime_ elsewhere.”

”What is a _regime?_” asked Evelyn.

”I am too tired to answer your silly questions. Now go and read your book in that corner. Do not make a noise; I have a headache.”

Evelyn slouched away, looking as cross and ill-tempered as a little girl could look.

”Audrey darling,” called her mother in a totally different tone of voice, ”play me that pretty thing of Chopin's which you know I am so fond of.”

Audrey approached the piano and began to play.

Evelyn read her book for a time without attending much to the meaning of the words. Then she observed that her uncle, who had been asleep behind his newspaper, had risen and left the room. Here was the very opportunity that she sought. If she could only get her Uncle Edward quite by himself, and when he was in the best of good humors, he might give her some money. She could not run away without money to go with.

Jasper, she knew, had not a large supply. Evelyn, with all her ignorance of many things, had early in her life come into contact with the want of money. Her mother had often and often been short of funds. When Mrs.

Wynford was short, the ranch did without even, at times, the necessaries of life. Evelyn had a painful remembrance of b.u.t.terless breakfasts and meatless dinners; of shoes which were patched so often that they would scarcely keep out the winter snows; of little garments turned and turned again. Then money had come back, and life became smooth and pleasant; there was an abundance of good food for the various meals, and Evelyn had shoes to her heart's content, and the sort of gay-colored garments which her mother delighted in. Yes, she understood Jasper's appeal for money, and determined on no account to go to that good woman's protection without a sufficient sum in hand.

Therefore, as Audrey was playing some of the most seductive music of that past master of the art, Chopin, and Lady Frances lay back in her chair with closed eyes and listened, Evelyn left the room. She knew where to find her uncle, and going down a corridor, opened the door of his smoking-room without knocking. He was seated by the fire smoking. A newspaper lay by his side; a pile of letters which had come by the evening post were waiting to be opened. When Evelyn quietly opened the door he looked round and said:

”Ah, it is you, Eve. Do you want anything, my dear?”

”May I speak to you for a minute or two, Uncle Edward?”

”Certainly, my dear Evelyn; come in. What is the matter, dear?”

”Oh, nothing much.”

Evelyn went and leant up against her uncle. She had never a sc.r.a.p of fear of him, which was one reason why he liked her, and thought her far more tolerable than did his wife or Audrey. Even Audrey, who was his own child, held him in a certain awe; but Evelyn leant comfortably now against his side, and presently she took his arm of her own accord and pa.s.sed it securely round her waist.

”Now, that is nice,” she said; ”when I lean up against you I always remember that you are father's brother.”

”I am glad that you should remember that fact, Evelyn.”

”You are pleased with me on the whole, aren't you, Uncle Edward?” asked the little girl. Evelyn backed her head against his shoulder as she spoke, and looked into his face with her big and curious eyes.

”On the whole, yes.”

”But Aunt Frances does not like me.”

”You must try to win her affection, Evelyn; it will all come in good time.”

”It is not pleasant to be in the house with a person who does not like you, is it, Uncle Edward?”

”I can understand you, Evelyn; it is not pleasant.”

”And Audrey only half-likes me.”

”My dear little girl,” said her uncle, rousing himself to talk in a more serious strain, ”would it not be wisest for you to give over thinking of who likes you and who does not, and to devote all your time to doing what is right?”

Evelyn made a wry face.