A Very Naughty Girl Part 15

"Had you not better get up, Evelyn?" said the maid. "The servants told me down-stairs that breakfast would be served in the breakfast-room to-day up to ten o'clock."

"Do you think I am going to let her have the victory over me?" said Evelyn. "No; I shall not stir. I won't go to meals at all if this sort of thing goes on. Oh, I am cruelly treated! I am-I am! And I am so desperately hungry! Is not there even any chocolate left, Jasper?"

"I am sorry to say there is not, dear-you finished it all, to the last drop, last night; and the tin with the biscuits is empty also. There is nothing to eat in this room. I am afraid you will have to hurry and dress yourself-that is, if you want breakfast."

"I won't stir," said Evelyn-"not if she comes to drag me out of bed with cart-ropes."

Jasper stood and stared at her young charge.

"You are very silly, Miss Evelyn," she said. "You will have to submit to her ladys.h.i.+p. You are only a very young girl, and you will find that you cannot fight against her."

Evelyn now covered her face with her handkerchief, and her sobs became distressful.

"Come, dear, come!" said Jasper not unkindly; "let me help you to get into your clothes."

But Evelyn pushed her devoted maid away with vigorous hands.

"Don't touch me. I hate you!" she said.-"Oh mothery, mothery, why did you die and leave me? Oh, your own little Evelyn is so wretched!"

"Now, really, Miss Evelyn, I am angry with you. You are a silly child!

You can dress and go down-stairs and have as nice a breakfast as you please. I heard them talking in the breakfast-room as I went by. They were such a merry party!"

"Much they care for me!" said Evelyn.

"Well, they don't naturally unless you go and make yourself pleasant.

But there, Miss Evelyn! if you don't get up, I cannot do without my breakfast, so I am going down to the servants' hall."

"Oh! could not you bring me up a little bit of something, Jasper-even bread-even dry bread? I don't mind how stale it is, for I am quite desperately hungry."

"Well, I'll try if I can smuggle something," said Jasper; "but I do not believe I can, all the same."

The woman departed, anxious for her meal.

She came back in a little over half an hour, to find Evelyn sitting up in bed, her eyes red from all the tears she had shed, and her face pale.

"Well," she said, "have you brought up anything?"

"Only hot water for your bath, my dear. I was not allowed to go off even with a biscuit."

"Oh dear! then I'll die-I really shall. You don't know how weak I am!

Aunt Frances will have killed me! Oh, this is too awful!"

"You had better get up now, Miss Evelyn. You are very fat and stout, my dear, and missing one meal will not kill you, so don't think it."

"I know what I do think, Jasper, and that is that you are horrid!" said Evelyn.

But she had scarcely uttered the words before there came a low but very distinct knock on the door. Jasper went to open it. Evelyn's heart began to beat with a mixture of alarm and triumph. Of course this was some one coming with her breakfast. Or could it be, possibly-- But no; even Lady Frances would not go so far as to come to gloat over her victim's miseries.

Nevertheless, it was Lady Frances. She walked boldly into the room.

"You can go, Jasper," she said. "I have something I wish to say to Miss Wynford."

Jasper, in considerable annoyance, withdrew, but returned after a minute and placed her ear to the keyhole. Lady Frances did not greatly mind, however, whether she was overheard or not.

"Get up, Evelyn," she said. "Get up at once and dress yourself."

"I-I don't want to get up," murmured Evelyn.

"Come! I am waiting."

Lady Frances sat down on a chair. Her eyes traveled slowly round the disorderly room; displeasure grew greater in her face.

"Get up, my dear-get up," she said. "I am waiting."

"But I don't want to."

"I am afraid your wanting to or not wanting to makes little or no difference, Evelyn. I stay here until you get up. You need not hurry yourself; I will give you until lunch-time if necessary, but until you get up I stay here."

"And if," said Evelyn in a tremulous voice, "I don't get up until after lunch?"

"Then you do without food; you have nothing to eat until you get up.

Now, do not let us discuss this point any longer; I want to be busy over my accounts."

Lady Frances drew a small table towards her, took a note-book and a Letts's Diary from a bag at her side, and became absorbed in the irritating task of counting up petty expenses. Lady Frances no more looked at Evelyn than if she had not existed. The angry little girl in the bed even ventured to make faces in the direction of the tyrannical lady; but the tyrannical lady saw nothing. Jasper outside the door found it no longer interesting to press her ear to the keyhole. She retired in some trepidation, and presently made herself busy in Evelyn's boudoir.

For half an hour the conflict went on; then, as might be expected, Evelyn gingerly and with intense dislike put one foot out of bed.

Lady Frances saw nothing. She was now murmuring softly to herself. She had long-very long-accounts to add up.

Evelyn drew the foot back again.

"Nasty, horrid, horrid thing!" she said to herself. "She shall not have the victory. But, oh, I am so hungry!" was her next thought; "and she does mean to conquer me. Oh, if only mothery were alive!"

At the thought of her mother Evelyn burst into loud sobs. Surely these would draw pity from that heart of stone! Not at all. Lady Frances went calmly on with her occupation.

Finally, Evelyn did get up. She was not accustomed to dressing herself, and she did so very badly. Lady Frances did not take the slightest notice. In about half an hour the untidy toilet was complete. Evelyn had once more donned her crimson velvet dress.

"I am ready," she said then, and she came up to Lady Frances's side.

Lady Frances dropped her pencil, raised her eyes, and fixed them on Evelyn's face.

"Where do you keep your dresses?" she said.

"I don't know. Jasper knows."

"Is Jasper in the next room?"

"Yes."