Girls of the Forest Part 36

Briar turned pale; Patty glanced at her. Adelaide, who had watchful blue eyes, turned and looked from one sister to the other.

"You are talking rubbish," said Briar. "Go and play."

"Who was they?" repeated Pen.

"I don't know."

"Am I baby or big wise girl?"

"Oh, you are an infant Solomon! I don't know who the people were."

"Don't you?"

Penelope looked at Briar with a sigh of disappointment. Then she whispered to herself:

"It's 'cos of Adelaide. Course they don't want to say anything when Addy's there."

She strolled away.

"What was the child talking about?" asked Adelaide.

"I'm sure I don't know," replied Briar. "She's the rummiest little thing that ever walked. But there's no good in taking any notice of what she says."

"Of course no one does," answered Adelaide. "But I do wonder if ghosts ever walk across the lawn. Do you believe in ghosts, Briar?"

"Certainly not," said Briar. "No girl in her senses does."

"I don't know at all as to that," replied Adelaide. "There was a girl that came to stay with Nancy King last year; her name was Freda Noell.

She believed in ghosts. She said she had once been in a haunted house.

What is it, Briar? Why do you shrug your shoulders?"

"I don't know," said Briar. "I don't want to talk about ghosts. I don't believe in them."

She got up and crossed the lawn. The next moment Pen had tucked her hand inside her arm.

"You needn't keep it from me," she said in a whisper. "It was you and Patty and Paulie. I knew who you were, 'cos the moon shone on Patty's Glengarry cap. You needn't deny it."

"I do deny it. I didn't go," said Briar.

She felt her heart smite her as she told this lie. She walked quickly.

"Do leave me," she said. "You are a little girl that doesn't at all know her own place."

"But I do know it," said Penelope. "My place is at the seaside. I want to go there. I'm 'termined to go there. If I don't go one way I'll go another. Why should Paulie, what is the naughtiest of girls, have all the fun? I don't mind Renny being there so much. And why should I, what is the very best of girls, be kept stuck here with only nursey and you childrens to bother me? I am going. I'm 'termined."

She marched away. Patty came up.

"Patty," said Briar, "I've done it."

"What?" asked Patty.

"I've told a lie about it. I said we weren't on the lawn at all. I told her she was talking nonsense."

"Couldn't you have got out of it by any other way?" asked Patty. "It doesn't seem right to tell lies."

"I could with any one but Pen; but Pen can see through a brick wall. I had to tell it, and very plump, too, where Pen was in the question."

"Well, it makes me feel horrid," said Patty. "I am sorry we went. I think we did awfully wrong."

"We did it for Paulie. We'd do more than that for her," replied Briar.

"I suppose so. I certainly love Paulie very much," answered Patty.

"And, Patty," continued Briar, "having told such a great black lie to help her, we must go through with it. Pen means mischief. She's the sort of child who would do anything to gain anything. She wants to go to the seaside, and she wouldn't mind whom she got into trouble if it suited her own ends. We must remember she means mischief, and if she talks again about three figures on the lawn, you and I have got to stick to it that we didn't go. Do you understand?"

"I do, and I consider it awful," said Patty.

She did not add any more, but went slowly into the house. Presently, feeling much depressed, she sought nurse's society. Nurse was turning some of the girls' skirts. She was a good needlewoman, and had clung to the house of Dale through many adverse circ.u.mstances. She was enjoying herself at present, and used often to say that it resembled the time of the fat kine in Egypt.

"Ah, Miss Patty!" she cried. "It's glad I am to see you, darling."

"Can I do anything for you, nursey?" asked Patty.

"Of course you can, dear. You can help me to unpick this frock. I am cutting it down to fit Miss Pen. It will make a very neat frock for her, and it seems unfair that dear Miss Tredgold should be at more expense than is necessary."

"Why," asked Patty, with a surprised look, "doesn't father pay for the things?"

"Mr. Dale!" cried nurse in a tone of wrath, "I'd like to see him. It's not that he wouldn't, and for all I can tell he may have the money; but, bless you, darling! he'd forget it. He'd forget that there was such a thing as dress wanted in all the world; and servants and food, and the different things that all well-managed houses must have, couldn't lie on his memory while you were counting twenty. Do you suppose if that dear, blessed lady didn't put her hand into her pocket in the way she does that you'd be having the right good time you are now having, and the nice clothes, and the good education, and the pretty ponies coming next week?

And Miss Pauline, just because she's a bit pale, taken to the seaside?

Not a bit of it, my dear Miss Patty. It's thankful you ought to be to the Providence that put it into your aunt's head to act as she has done. Ah!

if my dear mistress was living she would bless her dear sister."

"Did you know mother before she was married?" asked Patty, taking up a skirt and the pair of sharp scissors which nurse provided her with, and sitting down happily to her task.

"Didn't I live with her when she was Miss Tredgold?" asked nurse. "And didn't I over and over again help Miss Sophia out of sc.r.a.pes? Oh, she was a wild young lady!"

"You don't mean to tell me that Aunt Sophy ever did anything wrong?"

"Nothing mean or shameful; but for temper and for spirit and for dash and for go there wasn't her like. Not a horse in the land was wild enough to please her. She'd ride bareback on any creature you gave her to mount, and never come to grief, neither. She broke horses that trainers couldn't touch. She had a way with her that they couldn't resist. Just a pat of her hand on their necks and they'd be quiet and s.h.i.+ver all over as though they were too delighted for anything. Oh, she did follow the hounds! My word! and she was admired, too. She was a young lady in a thousand. And as for wanting to have her own way, she was for all the world like our Miss Pauline. It strikes me those two have very much in common, and that is why Miss Tredgold has taken such a fancy to your sister."

"Do you think she has?" asked Patty.

"Do I think it?" cried nurse. "For goodness' sake, Miss Patty, don't cut the material. Do look where you are putting the scissors. Do I think it, miss? I know it. Miss Marjorie, sweet pet, you shall thread these daisies. You shall make a pretty chain of them to put around your neck.

There's my little precious."

Fat, lovely, little Marjorie shrieked with delight when nurse put a coa.r.s.e needle, to which was attached an equally coa.r.s.e piece of cotton, and a basket of daisies before her. Marjorie tried to thread daisies, and uttered little cries of happiness, while Patty and nurse talked together.

"Miss Tredgold was a wonderful young lady, so handsome and high-spirited.

But if she didn't always obey, she never did anything mean or underhand.