CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
The next morning Peggy and Eunice converted the library into a work-room, and cut out their blouses by the aid of paper patterns borrowedfrom Mrs Saville's maid. This dignitary had made several offers ofhelp, which had been courteously but firmly refused, for the two newhands were determined to accomplish their task unaided, and thereby tosecure the honour and glory to themselves.
"The first step is easy enough. Any baby could cut out by a pattern!"Peggy declared, but an hour's work proved that it would have required avery intelligent baby indeed to have accomplished the feat. It wasextraordinary how confusing a paper pattern could be! The only thingthat seemed more confusing than the pattern itself was the explanationwhich accompanied it. Peggy tossed the separate pieces to and fro, thewhile she groaned over the mysterious phrases. "`Place the perforatededge on the bias of the cloth!' Which is the perforated edge? Which isthe bias? `Be careful to see that the nicked holes come exactly in themiddle of--' I don't know in the least which they call the `nickedholes!' I can't think what is the use of half these silly littlepieces. If I couldn't cut out a pattern better than that, I'd retirefrom the business. Why can't they tell you plainly what you have todo?"
So on she stormed, prancing from one side of the table to the other,shaking the flimsy sheets in an angry hand, and scattering pins andneedles broadcast on the carpet, while Eunice, like the tortoise, toiledslowly away, until bit by bit the puzzle became clear to her mind. Shediscovered that one piece of the pattern stood for half only of aparticular seam, while others, such as collar and cuffs, represented awhole; mastered the mystery of holes and notches, and explained the sameto Peggy, who was by no means too grateful for her assistance.
"Well, I'll take your word for it," she said. "I myself can makenothing out of an explanation so illogical and lacking in common-sense.I'll cut the stupid thing out as you say, and see what comes of it.Here goes--"
Her scissors were in the silk before Eunice had time to protest, andaway she hacked, with such speed and daring that she had finished thecutting out before the other had finished her careful preparation of thefirst seam.
"Now then for the tacking!" she cried, and for five minutes on end therewas silence, until-- "Dear me!" quoth Miss Peggy in a tone of dismay,and peaked solemn brows over her work.
"What is the matter? Has something gone wrong?"
"Um--yes! Seems to have done. The stupid old silk must have gottwisted about somehow, when I was cutting out this back. The roses areall upside down!" She spoke in a studiedly careless manner, butEunice's face was a picture of woe. To her orderly mind the accidentseemed irretrievable; and yet how was it to be remedied, whenextravagant Peggy had used every fragment of her material? Her facefell, her voice thrilled with horror.
"Never! You don't mean it! How dreadful! What will you do? Oh,Peggy, take mine, do, and let me buy something else for myself."
"Not an inch! It's no use, Eunice, I will not do it! We are going tohave blouses alike, and that's settled. That's the worst of theseflower patterns, they do cut out so badly: but it is no use grievingover what cannot be cured. Go on with your work, my dear, and don'tmind me."
"But what will you--"
"Sew it up as it is! I'm not sure that it won't look better, after all.More Frenchy!" and Peggy pinned the odd pieces together, and smiled atthe effect with a complacency which left the other breathless withastonishment. She seemed oblivious of the fact that she had made amistake, and utterly unconcerned at the prospect of wearing a garment inwhich the pattern reversed itself in back and front. Such a state ofmind was inconceivable to the patient toiler, who rounded every cornerwith her scissors as carefully as if an untoward nick meant destruction,and pinned and repinned half-a-dozen times over before she could satisfyherself of the absence of crinkles. Peggy was ready to be "tried on"before Eunice had half finished the first process, and though she wentobediently at the first call, the ordeal was a painful one to allconcerned. Eunice was so nervous and ignorant that she dare hardly makean alteration, for fear of making bad worse, while Peggy wriggled likean eel, turning her head now over this shoulder, now over that, andissued half-a-dozen contradictory orders at the same moment.
"The shoulder creases--put the pins in tighter! The back is too wide--take a great handful out of the middle seam. Why does it stick out likethat at the waist, just where it ought to go in? Oh, the fulness, ofcourse, I forgot that. Leave that alone then, and go on to the neck.Put pins in all round where the band ought to go."
"Tryings on" were numerous during the next few mornings; but, whileEunice's blouse gradually assumed a trig and reputable appearance,Peggy's developed each time a fresh set of creases and wrinkles.Neither girl was experienced enough to understand that carelessly cutand badly tacked material can never attain to a satisfactory result, norin truth did they trouble very much over the deficiency, for Peggy nosooner descried a fault, than her inventive genius hit on a method ofconcealing it. Revers, niches, and bows were tacked on with arecklessness which made Eunice gasp with dismay, but she could not denythat the effect was "Frenchy" and even artistic, for, whatever might beMiss Peggy's shortcomings as a plain sew-er, she had a gift of gracefuldraping which amounted almost to genius. After the first day'sexperience Peggy had readily consented to her friend's plea for a week'spreparation, and well it was that she had done so, for it was five gooddays before the bodices were sufficiently finished to allow the sleevesto be taken in hand. Oh, those sleeves! Who would ever have believedthat it could be so difficult to fit such simple things, or to persuadethem to adapt themselves to holes expressly provided for theiraccommodation? The girls spent weary hours turning, twisting, pleatingin, letting out, tacking, and untacking, until at length Peggy's long-worn patience gave way altogether, and she vowed that not once againshould the blouse go on her back until she donned it for the evening'sexhibition.
"If they are not right this way, they will have to be wrong! I can'twaste all my life fussing over a pair of sleeves. What can it matterwhether they are put an inch one way or the other? They have just notto settle down and be happy where I put them, for I'm not going to movethem any more!"
She frowned as she spoke and drew an impatient sigh, which did notaltogether refer to the work on hand. There was a weight on her heartwhich refused to be conjured away even by the presence of Arthur andEunice, and the interests and occupations which they brought with them.Rob was angry--no, what was even worse, he was not angry, but, with astupid masculine blindness, had taken for granted that his company wasno longer desired. Nearly a fortnight had passed since that miserableafternoon, and not once had he been inside the gates of Yew Hedge. Shehad met him twice, and each time had come home from the interviewfeeling more miserable, as Rob elaborately sustained his old friendlymanner. To cry, "Hallo, Peggy!" on meeting; to discuss the doings ofthe neighbourhood in an easy-going fashion, as if no cloud hoveredbetween them, and then to march past the very gates without coming in,refuse invitations on trumpery excuses, and attend a church at theopposite end of the parish--such behaviour as this was worse thaninconsistent in Peggy's eyes, it approached perilously near hypocrisy!
"I don't care!" she told herself recklessly; but she did care all thesame, and her heart gave a throb of relief when on the morning of whathad come to be known in the family as "Blouse day," Arthur announced hisintention of asking both the Darcy brothers to dinner.
"After your hard work you ought to have an audience to admire andapplaud," he said, "and I shall tell them we want them particularly.They were asking how your dressmaking was getting on the other day, so Iam sure they will be glad to accept. You won't want an answer, Isuppose, Mistress Housekeeper? They can return with me or not, as thecase may be?"
"Certainly! Certainly! It makes no difference," said Peggy loftily;and thus it happened that the girls went upstairs to dress that eveningwithout knowing who would be waiting to receive them when they madetheir entrance into the drawing-room. The blous
es were laid out in thedressing-room which connected the two bedrooms, and to a casual glancethere was no doubt which was the more successful. The one could boastno remove from the commonplace, the other was both artistic anduncommon, a garment which might have come direct from the hands of aFrench _modiste_. Eunice's face fell as she looked, and she breathed asigh of depression.
"Oh, Peggy, how horrid mine looks beside yours! What a mean, skimpylittle rag! I am ashamed to appear in it. You will look beautiful,perfectly beautiful! You have done it splendidly."
Peggy gave a murmur of polite disclaimer, and pursed in her lips torestrain a smile.
"Wait until they are on, dear. You can never tell how a thing looksuntil it is on," she said reassuringly; but alas, for Peggy, little didshe dream how painfully she would discover the truth of her own words.
A quarter of an hour later Eunice was hooking the front of her bodice,when the door burst open and in rushed Peggy, red in the face, gaspingfor breath, her neck craned forward, her arms sticking out stiffly oneither side, for all the world like a waxen figure in a shop window.
"My neck!" she gasped. "My sleeves! They torture me! My arms arescrewed up like sausages. The collar band cuts like a knife. I'm likea trussed fowl--I'll burst! I know I shall! I'll die of asphyxiation.What shall I do? What shall I do? What can have happened to make itlike this?"
"Oh dear! oh dear! You do look uncomfortable. It was big enough whenyou tried it on last. You must have drawn in the arm-holes while youwere sewing them. Yes, you have! I can see the puckers, and thesleeves are stretched so tight too. You didn't take them in again,surely?"
"Just a tiny bit. They looked so baggy. But the collar, Eunice, thecollar! For pity's sake take it off! I shall be raw in a moment. Takethe scissors, pull--tug! Get it off as quick as you can."
"Take it off! But then what will you--" pleaded Eunice; but Peggy'seyes flashed at her with so imperious a command that she began to snipwithout further protest. The band came off easily--astonishinglyeasily, and Peggy heaved a sigh of relief, and flapped her arms in theair.
"When! That's better. I can breathe again. I could not have borne itanother moment. Now I should be fairly comfortable, if only--only--thesleeves were a little bigger! It is too late to let them out, but justround the arm-holes, eh? A little tiny snip here and there to relievethe pressure?"
She put her head on one side in her most insinuating fashion, but Eunicewas adamant. Never, she protested, would she consent to such a step.No seam could be expected to hold, if treated in such fashion. Howwould Peggy like it if her sleeve came off altogether in the course ofthe evening? There would be humiliation! Better a thousand times atrifling discomfort than such a downfall as that!
"Trifling!" echoed Peggy sadly. "Trifling indeed. Shows all you know.I am suffering tortures, my dear, and you stand there, cool andcomfortable, preaching at me!" She paused for a moment, and for thefirst time stared scrutinously at her friend. Eunice looked charming,the simplicity of her dress giving a quaint, Quaker-like appearance tothe sweet face. Plain as her blouse was, it was a remarkable successfor a first effort, and though it had necessarily a dozen faults, thewhole effect was neat and dainty.
"What did I tell you?" groaned Peggy dismally. "Who looks better now,you or I? I look `beautiful,' don't I, perfectly beautiful! It's sobecoming to have no collar band, and one's arms sticking out likeflails! I sha'n't be able to eat a bite. It's as much as I can do tosit still, much less move about. I'll put on a fichu, and then I canleave some hooks unfastened, to give myself a little air."
It seemed, indeed, the best solution, since somehow or other it wasnecessary to conceal the jagged silk round the neck. Peggy pinned on asquare of chiffon; but the numerous trimmings over which it lay gave aclumsy appearance to her usually trim little figure, while discomfortand annoyance steadily raised the colour in her cheeks. She wasconscious of appearing at her worst, and for one moment was tempted tothrow aside her plan, and take to ordinary evening-dress. Only for onemoment, however, for the next she decided roundly against so mean acourse. What if she had failed? her guest had succeeded, and why robher of praise well-earned? After all, would she not have been a hundredtimes more distressed if positions had been reversed, and Eunice wassuffering her present discomfort? The cloud left her brow, and she ledthe way downstairs with a jaunty air.
"Come along, come along! I've always vowed that I enjoyed a goodbeating, and now I've got a chance of proving the truth of my words.You are a born dressmaker, my dear, and the sooner I retire from thebusiness the better. You will be the hero of the occasion, and I shallbe the butt; but don't look so remorseful, I implore you. It has been agreat joke, and some day--years hence!--I may even see some humour inthe present condition of my arms. I'm accustomed to being teased, anddon't care one little bit how much they deride me!"
A moment later, as the drawing-room door opened, she realised indeed howlittle she cared, for Rob was not there. His excuses had evidentlyalready been made, for no allusion was made to his absence, while herown appearance with Eunice was the signal for a general rising, everyone exclaiming and applauding, and walking round in admiring circles.Eunice was overwhelmed with congratulations, while Peggy had to run thegauntlet of remorseless family banter.
Only one voice was raised in her behalf, but Hector Darcy declared withunblushing effrontery that he voted in her favour, and held to hisdecision, in spite of all that the others could say. Peggy deplored hiswant of taste, yet felt a dreary sense of comfort in his fealty. Itsoothed the ache at her heart, and made her so unconsciously gentle inreturn that the major's hopes went up at a bound.
After dinner, chairs were carried into the verandah, and Peggy made nodemur when Hector set her seat and his own at a little distance from therest. Perhaps at heart she was even a little grateful to him for beingso anxious to enjoy her society, for no one else seemed to desire it forthat moment. Colonel and Mrs Saville were talking contentedlytogether, Arthur was engrossed with Eunice, Rob--ah, where was Rob? Hadhe made up his mind never to enter Yew Hedge again? Peggy turned herconversational gift to account, and led the subject so subtly in the wayshe would have it go, that presently Hector found himself explaining thecause of his brother's absence, believing that that explanation wasentirely of his own offering.
"Rob is busy writing a paper for some magazine or review, and can thinkof nothing else. You know what he is when he once gets mounted on hishobby! He would have thought it a terrible waste of time to have lefthis papers to come out to dinner."
Well, well, the time had been when Rob would not have thought it wasteof time to spend an evening with his friend; when not even an articlefor a review would have prevented him from witnessing the completion ofan enterprise in which his partner was interested.
It was a very woe-begone Peggy who crept into bed that evening. Herarms were stiff and sore from their long pressure, there were the deepred marks on her shoulders where the seams had pressed into the flesh,but the ache in her heart was worse to bear than either one or theother. She burrowed her little brown head into the pillow, and the salttears trickled down her nose.
"Nobody loves me!" she sobbed. "Nobody loves me! Mellicent was right.He loves beetles better than me!"
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