Читать книгу Tomboys at the Abbey - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 5

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“What’s all this about a new maid?” Joy demanded, as they drove home after the crowning. For once she was not at the wheel; her aunt and guardian, Joan’s mother, Mrs. Shirley, had insisted that she should not drive after the excitement of the ceremony, and Joy had admitted that it would be a nuisance to change as completely as would be necessary.

“You couldn’t drive in a long white dress, looking like a bridesmaid,” Joan had pointed out.

Joy had agreed, and the girls wore their coats over their gowns, and Billy, the young chauffeur, drove the car.

Joy sat beside him, but had turned in her seat to ask her question. Joan explained, and Joy pursed her lips.

“Hard lines on Jenny-Wren and Jacky-boy! Bad luck that they should be parted. They’re twin souls; they’ll feel terrible.”

“They’ll have to part sometime.” Joan’s matter-of-fact common sense spoke out.

“It needn’t have been so soon. The Wilmots might have let Jack be a boarder for a year or two, instead of sending her to a new place.”

“She’s an only girl, just as Jen is. I suppose they couldn’t bear to part with her.”

Joy gave a groan of disapproval. “Hard on the kids! I feel for them.”

“So do I,” Joan agreed. “But somehow I didn’t think you would sympathise so much.”

“I wouldn’t have liked to be parted from you for good and all, when I was sixteen.”

“Oh!” Joan said, considerably startled, for Joy did not often show her feelings. She glanced at her mother, who smiled but did not speak.

Joy sat staring ahead and said no more. When Joan broke the silence it was to return to the schoolgirls and their trouble.

“Perhaps in the holidays we could invite both Jen and Jack and give them a jolly time together, Joy.”

“Oh, sure! We must do that. But don’t talk! I want to think.”

Joan raised her brows and lapsed into silence also. “Any result from this prolonged period of thought?” she asked, as they drove up the beech avenue to the Hall.

“Tell you later.” Joy cast a proud happy look at her house. She had inherited it from her grandfather four years ago, when she was fifteen, and the inheritance had been quite unexpected. She still felt a sense of surprise that it should be her own and she was still rejoicing in its possession. Joan, one month older, had been left the Abbey ruins in the grounds of the Hall, and she loved the Abbey as much as Joy loved the house.

They ran upstairs to change into shorter frocks and to tidy their hair, and Mrs. Shirley, going to her own room, heard Joy’s comment, “Crowns of violets and beech leaves may look very beautiful, but when you take them off they do leave you in a mess.”

“Yes, we can do with some tidying,” Joan agreed, and did not ask any more questions. Something was working in Joy; they would hear about it in due course.

It was at night, as they sat over the fire, for May-day could be cold, that Joy spoke.

“I’ve had an idea. But I don’t know if it’s sensible or possible.”

“You could tell us, and we could talk it over,” Mrs. Shirley suggested.

“Yes, Aunty dear. But please be kind and say you like my plan.”

Joan laughed, lying back in a big chair and gazing at the fire. “Joy dear! Neither Mother nor I will say one word till we know what your plan is.”

“I know you won’t. You’re both cautious, and sensible, and perhaps a little stodgy.”

“Joy! What a thing to call us!”

“Oh well, I’ll take it back. But I’ve a feeling that my plan isn’t cautious, and perhaps it isn’t sensible, but it certainly couldn’t be called stodgy. Quite the opposite!”

Joan addressed the dancing flames. “In time, if we’re patient, we may hear all about it.”

“What is your plan, my dear?” Mrs. Shirley looked at Joy.

The direct question from the aunt she adored brought an instant response. “Why shouldn’t we ask those two poor kids here for the summer? They’d have far more of one another than they will at school. They could cycle to town each day; Jen’s used to it. I believe they’d love it.”

Joan’s exclamation was echoed by her mother’s startled cry. “Joy dear! What a very strange idea!”

“I know. But it isn’t really, when you think about it.”

“The girls would love it, of course,” Joan began, as her mother looked doubtful. “But there’s no need, Joy. They’re to be together all summer.”

“They’d like it much better if they were together here than if they were together at school.”

“I’m sure they would. But what would the Head say? She’s a dear and tremendously kind, but I don’t know that she’s as kind as all that.”

“She let Jen come here for the whole of last summer, and for the autumn term too.”

“Yes, but it was because we really needed her; in the summer to look after Rykie for us, and in the autumn to be company for Selma. Jen was the greatest possible use both times. But we can’t say we need her help now.”

“That’s partly the point,” Joy argued, while Mrs. Shirley listened attentively. “Having asked her twice for our own sake, because we felt she would be useful, I think we ought to ask her at least once because it will be useful to her.”

“I see that,” Joan agreed. “But will Miss Macey see it?”

“You’ll have to talk her round,” Joy explained. “She likes you. You’ve talked her into it twice already.”

“I! It’s your idea. And there are Mrs. Wilmot and Jen’s people to be consulted too.”

“I believe Mrs. Wilmot will be pleased. She’s never been keen on sending Jack to be a boarder. She only allowed it once, in Jen’s first term, when the school came here; and that wasn’t really boarding-school at all. I’m sure she’d be glad and relieved, if we asked Jack here. And you know quite well what Mrs. Robins will say. She’s been delighted to let Jen live with us.”

“Do you yourself want the children to come, Joy?” Mrs. Shirley asked, with the directness of approach which Joan had learned from her.

“Don’t call them children, Aunty dear. They’re nearly sixteen; you’ll hurt their feelings,” Joy protested.

“They seem like children to me. Do you really want them?”

“That’s the important point,” Joan agreed. “You said Rykie must be my job, because she was my cousin; but this is entirely your idea. They mustn’t come unless you’re keen to have them, Joy.”

“Well, I am keen. Yes, Aunty, I do want them. I think it would be fun,” Joy said defiantly. “Some young life about the place and all that. Jen and Jack can be great sport, if they aren’t too much on their good behaviour. It would cheer us all up to have them.”

“I didn’t know you were feeling so dull! What do you want to do? Pillow-fights at night? Perhaps I could oblige,” Joan mocked.

Joy’s eyes gleamed. “I might come to that; you never know! But I do think it would be fun to have two school people here. We’d hear all that’s going on. When I was watching the girls to-day I had a wild spasm of longing to be back at school.”

“You weren’t so keen while you were there!”

“Oh, I don’t want to work! But I’d like the fun of the crowd and lots of things happening. Wouldn’t you like it, if we could go back to school?”

“I don’t know that I should,” Joan laughed. “I’m quite content to be grown-up; you evidently are not. Well, Mother dear, shall we try to find some young life for Joy’s sake?”

“Oh, not any young life! It must be Jen and Jacky-boy. You like them both, Aunty; you know you do.”

“I am always glad to have Jen here,” Mrs. Shirley said placidly. “I don’t know Jack as well as I know Jen, but they are friends, so I am sure I should like Jack too.”

“They wouldn’t need any looking after,” Joy urged. “There’ll be school and prep.; and if I know Jack, every spare minute will be given to cricket practice. We’ll find them a pitch, but not on the front lawn! I shall join in; it will be a change from tennis. I’m convinced Jacky-boy will hoot at my bowling and scorn my batting, but I may be allowed to do a little fielding in the background.”

“Oh, if you’re going to play with the little children——!” Joan jeered.

“Listen to granny! Of course I shall play, if they’ll have me. It would be good for you to join in too. You’re positively middle-aged,” Joy retorted. “And you aren’t twenty yet. Are you coming with me to see the Head? It’s no use writing to Mrs. Wilmot until Miss Macey has agreed.”

Joan looked at her mother. “If everybody is willing, may they come, Mother dear? It will please Jen so much, and I’d really like to do something for her. She’s trying so hard to be good to Jack and to comfort her.”

“I am willing, if you girls will take the responsibility, and if you can win Miss Macey’s consent,” Mrs. Shirley said.

“I can see only one thing against it,” Joan began solemnly. “I’m not at all sure of the effect on Joy. She has a wild streak in her, though we haven’t seen much of it lately; if Jacky-boy excites it, there’s no saying what may happen.”

Joy rose, in offended dignity, and threatened her with a cushion. “Unsay those harsh words! A wild streak! I’ll show you! At least, I’m not old and stodgy before my time! Wild, indeed! What about this?” and she strode to her piano and began to dash off the noisiest country-dances she could think of, at full speed, till both Joan and Mrs. Shirley cried for mercy.

“Oh, Joy, stop! I want to do them all, but not as fast as that!” Joan begged.

Suddenly Joy was lost in a Brahms waltz and then in a lullaby. She drifted into a Chopin Nocturne, and Mrs. Shirley smiled in pleasure, as she looked across at Joan.

Joan nodded; Joy’s artist side had come uppermost, and she was herself again.

Joan lay back in her big chair and gazed dreamily at the leaping flames, and thought of the crowning and dancing, the maypole and the Queens; of the married first Queen of the Hamlet Club, Miriam; of the President, Cicely, who spent much time in travelling with her father to Ceylon; of the recent Queens, Muriel and Nesta, and of Beatrice, “Beetle,” or Queen Bee, who must now carry on the tradition.

“She’ll do it very well. She was always a kind helpful sort of person.... How I hope we shall see Jen as Queen some day! And how I wonder what will be the result—on Joy, especially—if Jen and Jack come here! I don’t think we shall be dull; Joy may be indignant, but she has that wild, very young, side. She took very little notice of Rykie, but Jack and Jen will play up to her. Anything may happen!”