A City Schoolgirl and Her Friends

by May Baldwin

  CHAPTER XV.

  EVA'S PRESENTIMENT.

  'I am tired already,' said Eva with a yawn, as they started fromBlackstead Station to walk to Heather Road. It was not far, and it wastoo early for any cabs to be at the station.

  'Take my arm,' said Vava with pretended sympathy.

  But as Eva took it she sighed, instead of laughing, as she said, 'I feeldreadfully depressed, just as if something were going to happen.'

  'So something is going to happen; we are going to have a home of our ownagain,' said Vava. 'But I don't see why that should make you somelancholy; it is not very flattering to us.'

  'It's not that! You know I am just as keen about this house business asever I was, and I consider I worked it very cleverly, for you wouldnever have come here but for me. Confess now, would you?' said Eva.

  'No, I don't suppose we should; but I don't know that you "worked it,"as you call it, quite honestly,' replied Vava.

  'If every one were as honest as you are, which means saying out justwhat you think, the world would be a very disagreeable place to livein,' retorted Eva.

  Vava did not make any reply; she was beginning to feel a little of Eva'sdepression, for it did not seem promising to begin their new lifetogether by quarrelling.

  Presently Eva, who forgot what she had said five minutes after she hadsaid it, remarked, 'You may laugh as much as you like.'

  Vava was not laughing, but Eva did not notice that.

  'But I have a presentiment that something will happen in this house. Iwoke up this morning with a dreadful weight on my mind, just as if someone were dead, and it's a dreadful feeling. Have you ever had it?'

  'The feeling that some one were dead? Not unless it was true,' repliedVava.

  'But it's not true now--at least as far as I know--so it must be apresentiment; or else why should I feel like this to-day of all days,when I was in such good spirits yesterday?' she demanded.

  'Do you mean that you think that one of us is going to die?' inquiredVava in low tones. She was not superstitious, though like most Celts shehad a vivid imagination.

  But Eva was sorry when she saw how she had frightened Vava, and she saidhastily, 'Of course not; I only felt as if things would go wrong. I daresay we shall find that some of the furniture has not arrived, or thatyour china has been broken on the way, or that the chimney smokes and wesha'n't be able to have any fire in the dining-room, or something horridlike that.'

  'Well, you are a cheerful companion!' said Amy's voice from behind.

  The two girls turned, and found that Stella and Amy had caught up tothem and overheard Eva's prophecies about the state of things thatawaited them.

  'Eva has been having bad dreams or something, I think,' laughed Vava,who had recovered her spirits.

  'I haven't. I only had a presentiment, and, mark my words, it will cometrue,' declared that young person.

  'So have I a presentiment, and that is we shall find the fire lightedand a nice warm room to go into, thanks to Mrs. Hackney's kindness,'remarked Stella, as they turned the corner of the road.

  The others looked at No. 2 Heather Road, which had come in sight; and,spying smoke come out of the chimney, laughed heartily at Stella'spresentiment. So that it was a merry quartette, after all, which arrivedat the new little house, and the sound of their young and joyous voicesmade Mrs. Hackney smile happily to herself.

  'Oh mother, can't I just go in and bid them welcome? I do so want to seetheir faces and hear what they say when they see everything,' pleadedDoreen.

  'No, Doreen; I will have no running in and out, and you are not to gonear them to-day. I have left a message to say that if they wantanything they are to come and ask for it; but they will have plenty todo and talk about without you?' declared her mother.

  So Doreen, who had already been into No. 2 with flowers for the vases,gave a sigh, and had to content herself with looking out of the backwindow, in the hope that Vava would go into the garden, and she wouldsee her from there.

  Stella put the key into the door and turned the handle, but found thatit was already unlocked; and, making their way to the sitting-room whichwas to be furnished for the Whartons for their own use, they found totheir delight that not only was the fire lit, but the breakfast waslaid, and the room quite tidy and furnished.

  Amy and Eva were loud in their exclamations of delight; but Stella andVava stood quite still, with lumps in their throats, for the room wasfurnished exactly like Stella's little boudoir at Lomore, with the samecarpet, curtains, and all, and even the same pictures on the wall, witha single oil-painting of her mother over the mantelpiece.

  Vava was the first one to recover herself. 'Stella, it's just likeLomore!' and as Stella had chosen a paper like her former one, it reallywas like the old room.

  'It's very kind of them,' she said, rather doubtfully.

  'Kind of them! I should think it is! And fancy Mrs. Hackney guessingwhere all the furniture used to go! Do you remember that bureau alwaysstood on the left of the window, just like that, and the little table inthe bow? I expect nursie or David wrote and told them!' exclaimed Vava.

  'It is very kind,' repeated Stella in the same constrained voice.

  Seeing that the two sisters were agitated at sight of the familiarobjects, Amy and Eva, with tact, went upstairs to look at the latter'ssuite, and give them time to recover themselves.

  'Kind! of course it is. What is the matter, Stella? You never seem tolike people doing kind things. Aren't you pleased that David took thetrouble to pack all these things so carefully that they are not a bitscratched or spoilt, and aren't you obliged to Mrs. Hackney for makingthe room like our old sitting-room at home?' demanded Vavahalf-impatiently.

  'It was very good of David, and of course I am grateful to him; and Mrs.Hackney meant to be kind too, but I think she ought to have asked mebefore she unpacked my private things,' said Stella.

  Vava looked thoughtful. She felt that Stella was in the right aboutthis. 'But they are not private, Stella; they are only furniture, andshe meant to be kind, and she has got all this nice breakfast ready. Ithink she is in the kitchen, for I can hear some one poking the fire. Dolet's go and thank her, and please be nice and smile at her, Stella,'Vava begged her.

  Stella smiled at this, and it was with smiles on their faces that theypicked their way along the passage through packing-cases into thekitchen. But when they opened the door the smiles changed into wildcries of delight, and her English friends would have been surprised ifthey had seen the way in which the reserved and cold Miss Wharton threwher arms round the neck of the respectable middle-aged servant, whoturned and held out her arms to her 'bairns.'

  'You thought your old nursie was going to let you keep house all byyourselves, with no one to look after you, did you?' she said, as shesmoothed their hair and petted them both as if they were littlechildren.

  'Then it was you who unpacked our things? Stella thought some one hadbeen taking a liberty. Stella's dreadfully afraid of people takingliberties with her, nursie,' said Vava.

  'And quite right too! Dearie me! if you knew how I've worried at thethought of you two lambs alone in this great city! But it's all rightnow; I'm here to look after you. And you've very decent neighbours, whoknow their place, and are very obliging without being forward at all,'said Mrs. Morrison, for she it was.

  'Oh I forgot Doreen; I must just go and tell her how glad we are to seenursie. Fancy her never letting it out, for she must have known it, andMrs. Hackney too!' cried Vava, preparing to rush off as she spoke.

  'Hoots, Miss Vava, what can you be thinking of, running off without everasking your elder sister's leave, and she your guardian and all?' saidMrs. Morrison reprovingly.

  'I didn't think.--May I go, Stella?' she said.

  'Yes, but don't stay, and thank Mrs. Hackney for ordering the coals andthe gasman,' said Stella.

  'You'd better say for all she has done, for she met me at the station,and brought me across London herself, or I doubt if I'd ever have gothere; it fairly bewildered m
e,' said their old nurse.

  'When did you come, nursie?' inquired Vava.

  'On Wednesday. I wanted to get over the journey and the strangeness ofthings before you came, and to get things a bit straight; but I've onlybeen able to settle the kitchen and your own sitting-room and onebedroom. I could not take it upon me to interfere with the two youngleddies' rooms, and indeed I did not know where to put their furniture.There's only furniture for one bedroom between the two of them, thoughthat's fine. They would have done better to have got two smaller sets,or a few pieces at a time, I'm thinking, instead of spending all thatmoney on one suite, as the man called it,' remarked Mrs. Morrison.

  'It belongs to one of them; the other is getting hers, a piece at atime, as you suggest,' said Stella.

  'She'll be a sensible young lady. What are they like?' continued Mrs.Morrison.

  Vava left Stella to describe their new house-mates, and also to talkthings over with Mrs. Morrison, who had a great deal to tell her and askher, and ran off to see Doreen, who was rewarded for her patience byVava's delight.

  'I'm just so happy I don't know what to do!' she cried, her eyes shiningand her cheeks so rosy that Mrs. Hackney felt as if the sea-breezescould very well be done without.

  'She is a nice old woman, your old nurse,' said Doreen.

  'She's not old; she's only middle-aged.--And she says--at least Stellasays--I am to thank you for all your kindness, and nursie is verygrateful to you too,' said Vava to Mrs. Hackney.

  'She is a treasure, and I am very glad you have her. Thank you forcoming in Vava; and now run and have your breakfast; you ought to have afine appetite for it after all this excitement, especially as you didnot have much breakfast before you started, I expect,' said Mrs.Hackney.

  'We did not have any. Our landlady said she could not get breakfasts atthat unearthly hour, as she should not be up herself, so we just hadsome biscuits, and I am hungry. But, oh I am glad to have said good-byeto those horrid lodgings!' cried Vava with feeling.

  'You have much to be thankful for,' observed Mrs. Hackney.

  'Yes, and I am thankful,' said Vava simply. Then she went back to hernew home, and found Stella, Amy, and Eva in the kitchen, talking happilyto Mrs. Morrison, who quite approved of the two strangers, and wasinclined to take them to her motherly heart when she found that theywere orphans like her own bairns, and had been well brought up, and werewell-mannered young ladies. Then the four went in to breakfast.

  'What about your presentiment now?' cried Vava, turning to Eva, who hadquite recovered her good spirits.

  'It has come to pass. I said something was going to happen, and you seeit has. Fancy your old nurse being here without your knowing anythingabout it!' cried Eva.

  'You said you had a bad presentiment about something having gone wrong,and nursie's coming is not wrong at all; it has put things right,'persisted Vava.

  'Oh well, I haven't got any presentiment now, so it's all right,'declared Eva.

  'And presentiments are very foolish things,' said Stella rather primly.

  The breakfast was a very good one. Mrs. Morrison had made porridge andhot scones, and had brought honey with her from the north, and the girlssat over their meal a long time, forgetting the work they had beforethem, until Amy started up, saying, 'We had better begin putting up thecurtains and getting the rooms ready. My bedroom is chaos, and Eva's isnot much better.'

  Stella had noticed that Amy was very quiet during breakfast, and itoccurred to her that perhaps the girl was disturbed at the arrival ofMrs. Morrison. It made it look as if the house and the ordering of itwere to be entirely Stella's, whereas it had been arranged that she andAmy should share in the management. So, leaving Vava with Eva to clearaway, she followed Amy to her room, which did indeed look chaotic.

  Amy had bought a nice bed and a chest of drawers and washstand of lightoak, very simple but quite pretty, and these, with one chair and someboxes and pictures, were all her furniture.

  'We shall soon make this look pretty; and, if you will use it, there isan extra arm-chair which they have sent down from Lomore that I shouldlike you to have,' said the Scotch girl.

  'Thank you, I should like it very much, if you can spare it; but youmust value anything that comes from your old home,' replied Amy, whoseemed a little depressed.

  'Yes, that is why it is such a pleasure to have Mrs. Morrison with us;she is almost like a mother to us. She was with my mother before she wasmarried. I hope you don't mind her coming?' asked Stella.

  'Mind? I am delighted; I like her already, and I don't mind saying thatI was rather dreading the housekeeping and managing. It is all very wellwhen you have nothing else to do, but it is difficult to do two thingswell. My City work gets rather heavy in spring, and I am often not hometill late, and then I am too tired to do anything but sit quietly by thefire and read a book.'

  'You will like her the more the more you know her,' said Stella, muchrelieved; and then added, 'I thought something had vexed you.'

  'Oh it had nothing at all to do with Mrs. Morrison; it was only Eva'ssuite; but it's no use talking about it, or to her. The thing is done,and something has come over Eva lately; she is not a bit like what sheused to be. I have been hoping that Vava would do her good; but theydon't seem to get on quite as well as I hoped,' replied Amy.

  'Vava is a little too outspoken, but I hope they will be friends; Ithink she will have a good influence over Eva, because she is so veryfrank. I am sorry you don't like the furniture Eva has bought. Is itvery gimcrack?' inquired Stella.

  'Gimcrack! I only wish it were; it's far too handsome. I don't know howmuch she paid for it, but it can't have cost less than twenty pounds atthe least!' exclaimed Amy.

  'Shall we go and look at it?' suggested Stella, who was curious to seethis much-talked-of furniture, and the two went into Eva's room, wherethey found Vava admiring herself in the three cheval glasses of thewardrobe.

  'Look, Stella, isn't this a lovely idea, and isn't it a lovely suite?'cried Vava, twisting and turning herself.

  'Yes, it is very handsome,' said Stella, and said no more, and then,after a few polite remarks about the pictures, which Eva was justhanging, she left the room, and was followed by Amy.

  'How on earth did the man give it her, and where do you think she hasgot it?' demanded Amy when they were back in her bedroom.

  'I don't know. I am afraid it is a very expensive suite; but it is nogood worrying about it. It seems so dreadful that a girl of sixteenshould have no one to look after her, no near relation, and no guardian,except yourself, and you are only a friend, after all, and have noauthority over her. We must just be as friendly as we can to her, andtry and win her confidence, and if she won't give it, wait until the manturns up for his money, which he will soon do if she does not pay up.'

  'Then he will remove it, and that will disgrace us all!' cried Amy.

  'No, indeed, he will not; I shall not allow anything of that kind,'declared Stella with decision.

  And then, though 'Eva's suite' was often in their minds, they dismissedthe subject from their conversation, and started upon the putting inorder of the new house.