Читать книгу The Abbey Girls - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 8

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Cicely’s next visit to the abbey was paid on Sunday afternoon a week later. Mrs Shirley admitted her in some dismay.

‘I’m very sorry, but Joan is out——’

‘I know. That’s why I came to-day. I wanted to talk to you alone, and you’ll tell Joan afterwards.’

Mrs Shirley, looking puzzled, led her into the quiet green garden with the old monastery walls on every side, which Joan called the cloister garth, and which had once been the burial place of the old monks. Three chairs stood here in the sunshine, and Mrs Shirley explained, ‘We often sit out here on Sundays. Even in winter it is sheltered and warm. Joan calls it her sun parlour.’

‘It’s delightful! How splendid those high windows are from here! That’s the refectory, isn’t it? There’s so much of it that I still feel muddled, although she showed it to us so thoroughly. But I came to talk business,’ and she turned resolutely from the beauties of gray stone, uneven walls, and weather-beaten roofs, of Norman doorways and Early English arches, to Mrs Shirley, waiting in polite curiosity.

‘I don’t usually spend my Sunday afternoons visiting! But I wanted to see you alone, and Joan told me she was generally out. Do you remember what I told her about our club, Mrs Shirley? There was something I didn’t tell her. When I was crowned, last May Day, my grandfather was awfully pleased. I live with my grandparents at Broadway End, while my father is in Ceylon on business, you know.’

‘I have heard of the house, but I have never been so far. They say it is a beautiful place.’

‘It is very jolly! Well, he was so pleased that he wanted to do something to celebrate it, and after consulting Miss Macey he offered to give a new scholarship to the school, to be given by the Hamlet Club every year to some girl who couldn’t otherwise manage to go to school. Miss Macey gives a good many scholarships, but they have to be won by exams. This is the gift of the club to some girl who couldn’t get a scholarship in the ordinary way for some reason—to give her a chance. She’d get a year at our school—and it’s a jolly good one—and then if she did well Miss Macey would give her a school scholarship. And we have to choose a new candidate each year.’

Mrs Shirley was listening with deep interest, a touch of colour in her face as she foresaw the drift of all this.

‘Our first candidate was Edna Gilks’s cousin Peggy. She isn’t brilliant, and would never have won a scholarship, and they couldn’t afford to send her to school. But she’s keen on cooking, and wants to be a cookery mistress, and she’s doing awfully well in domestic work of all kinds, needlework and laundry, and so on. We have them once a week, and Peggy’s first rate at that kind of thing. So she’ll have a cookery scholarship at Easter, and we have to choose a new candidate. Miriam and I have talked it over with Marguerite, and we would like Joan to be our candidate for next year. The question is, could you do without her? What about the abbey?’

Mrs Shirley’s eyes had brightened at thought of this great chance for Joan, but her face was very serious.

‘But why should you do such a great thing for Joan?’

‘Because we like her,’ Cicely said promptly, ‘and because it would be worth while. She’s so plucky, and she works so hard, that we’re sure she’d get on well. We liked her from the first moment, and we’ve gone on liking her more ever since. It might make it possible for her to win the scholarship to Bedford, and then she could complete her training. She’s exactly the kind of girl we want to help. She ought to have her chance.’

‘But is there no other girl you wish to help this year?’

‘Not so far as I know. You really mustn’t say no, Mrs Shirley, unless it’s because you can’t possibly spare her, for it would be such a real pleasure to us all. We have to help some girl; it’s only a question of choice. If it isn’t Joan it will be some one else, and some one in whom we don’t feel nearly so much interest. I do hope you’ll be able to agree. But I thought I must ask you privately, before mentioning it to Joan.’

‘You are more than kind, and very thoughtful,’ there was a break in Mrs Shirley’s voice. ‘I do not know why you should show us such kindness.’

‘Because you’ve got such a jolly daughter, Mrs Shirley.’

Mrs Shirley laughed at that. ‘I could spare her, though at present she relieves me of most of the work. But I could arrange that. But I should have to talk it over with her. She has seemed older than her age ever since her father’s death, and we discuss everything together.’

Cicely nodded. ‘But surely she’ll be willing? I know she’s longing to be back at school. Wasn’t she awfully cut up when she had to leave London?’

‘She felt it very much. But the abbey consoled her after a while. She loves it very deeply.’

‘I could see she did. But it would hardly make up for school. I’m sure she’d like Miss Macey’s. We do have good times! Of course she’d join the Hamlet Club, and the dancing would be valuable to her later on. She really would enjoy it.’

‘I’m sure she would. But I am wondering if we ought to accept. There seems no reason why you——’

‘Now, please, please don’t begin to think of that! Just think what a pleasure it will be to us! We were quite pleased to help Peggy last year, but none of us knew her. We weren’t particularly interested in her till she came to school. Then of course we were anxious she should do well, and glad when she did. But think what a pleasure it will be to choose a girl we know and like already! We shall all be simply delighted, and it’s we who will be grateful to you, Mrs Shirley, if you’ll let Joan be our next Hamlet girl. Now I must hurry home. My grandmother would be frightfully hurt if I were late for tea on Sunday. Will you talk it over with Joan? And please remember that we all want her to come most frightfully.’

‘You are so very, very kind that it would be most ungracious to refuse,’ Mrs Shirley said tremulously. ‘I do not know how to thank you for your kind thought of Joan. I will tell her of your visit to-night, and write to you immediately.’

‘And mind you write what you know I want you to say!’ laughed Cicely, as she wheeled out her cycle. ‘I’m used to having my own way! There’s one thing you might explain to her, Mrs Shirley. The school as a whole does not know about the scholarship. It’s a private arrangement between my grandfather and Miss Macey at present. Miriam, Marguerite, and I are the look-out committee, to choose our girl each year, and the Gilks girls know about it because of Peggy, but no one else knows. We thought we would see how it worked out before making it public. It has answered very well in Peggy’s case, and I’m sure it will in Joan’s. We thought, too, that the first few girls chosen might prefer it should not be known. Later, when we can point to two or three as a proof of its success, it will be different. So perhaps you’ll explain to Joan.’

‘I think,’ said Mrs Shirley gravely, ‘that any girl who accepts your great kindness should not be too proud to have it known.’

‘So do I—in theory. But we thought some girls might object, and we didn’t want anyone to hesitate on that account. Of course we who know will always feel a special interest in our girls, and will want to know how they get on, even after they have left Miss Macey’s. But it really doesn’t concern any one but ourselves.’

‘And the girls to whom you offer a chance in life! For that is what it will mean to most of them.’

‘We’d like it to mean that. We’ll feel it has really been some use if they do well, of course. Good-bye, then! I’ll be expecting good news from you, Mrs Shirley.’