'You see, little Sara,' he wrote, 'your daddy is not a business man at all, and figures and documents bother him. He does not really understand them, and all this seems so enormous. Perhaps, if I was not feverish, I should not be awake, tossing about, one half of the night, and spend the other half in troublesome dreams. If my little missus were here, I dare say she would give me some solemn, good advice. You would, wouldn't you, little missus?'
One of his many jokes had been to call her his 'little missus' because she had such an old-fashioned air.
He had made wonderful preparations for her birthday. Among other things, a new doll had been ordered in Paris, and her wardrobe was to be, indeed, a marvel of splendid perfection. When she had replied to the letter asking her if the doll would be an acceptable present, Sara had been very quaint.
'I am getting very old,' she wrote. 'You see, I shall never live to have another doll given me. This will be my last doll. There is something solemn about it. If I could write poetry, I am sure a poem about "A Last Doll" would be very nice. But I cannot write poetry. I have tried, and it made me laugh. It did not sound like Watts or Coleridge or Shakespeare at all. No one could ever take Emily's place, but I should respect the Last Doll very much; and I am sure the school would love it. They all like dolls, though some of the big ones - the almost fifteen ones - pretend they are too grown-up.'
Captain Crewe had a splitting headache when he read this letter in his bungalow in India. The table before him was heaped with papers and letters which were alarming him and filling him with anxious dread, but he laughed as he had not laughed for weeks.
'Oh,' he said, 'she's better fun every year she lives. God grant this business may right itself and leave me free to run home and see her. What wouldn't I give to have her little arms round my neck this minute! What wouldn't I give!'
The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities. The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to be a party. The boxes containing the presents were to be opened with great ceremony, and there was to be a glittering feast spread in Miss Minchin's sacred room. When the day arrived the whole house was in a whirl of excitement. How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because there seemed such preparations to be made. The schoolroom was being decked with garlands of holly; the desks had been moved away, and red covers had been put on the forms which were arrayed round the room against the wall.
When Sara went into her sitting-room in the morning, she found on the table a small, dumpy package, tied up in a piece of brown paper. She knew it was a present, and she thought she could guess whom it came from. She opened it quite tenderly. It was a square pin-cushion, made of not quite clean red flannel, and black pins had been stuck carefully into it to form the words, 'Menny hapy returns.'
'Oh!' cried Sara, with a warm feeling in her heart. 'What pains she has taken! I like it so, it - it makes me feel sorrowful.'
But the next moment she was mystified. On the underside of the pin-cushion was secured a card, bearing in neat letters the name 'Miss Amelia Minchin'.
Sara turned it over and over.
'Miss Amelia!' she said to herself. 'How can it be!'
And just at that very moment she heard the door being cautiously pushed open, and saw Becky peeping round it.
There was an affectionate, happy grin on her face, and she shuffled forward and stood nervously pulling at her fingers.
'Do yer like it, Miss Sara?' she said. 'Do yer?'
'Like it?' cried Sara. 'You darling Becky, you made it all yourself.'
Becky gave a hysteric but joyful sniff, and her eyes looked quite moist with delight.
'It ain't nothin' but flannin, an' the flannin ain't new; but I wanted to give yer somethin' an' I made it of nights. I knew yer could pretend it was satin with diamond pins in. I tried to when I was makin' it. The card, miss,' rather doubtfully, ''twarn't wrong of me to pick it up out o' the dustbin, was it? Miss 'Meliar had throwed it away. I hadn't no card o' my own, an' I knowed it wouldn't be a proper presink if I didn't pin a card on - so I pinned Miss 'Meliar's.'
Sara flew at her and hugged her. She could not have told herself or anyone else why there was a lump in her throat.
'Oh, Becky!' she cried out, with a queer little laugh. 'I love you, Becky - I do, I do!'
'Oh, miss!' breathed Becky. 'Thank yer, miss, kindly; it ain't good enough for that. The - the flannin wasn't new.'
7
The Diamond Mines Again
When Sara entered the holly-hung schoolroom in the afternoon, she did so as the head of a sort of procession. Miss Minchin, in her grandest silk dress, led her by the hand. A man-servant followed, carrying the box containing the Last Doll, a housemaid carried a second box, and Becky brought up the rear, carrying a third and wearing a clean apron and a new cap. Sara would have much preferred to enter in the usual way, but Miss Minchin had sent for her, and, after an interview in her private sitting-room, had expressed her wishes.
'This is not an ordinary occasion,' she said. 'I do not desire that it should be treated as one.'
So Sara was led grandly in and felt shy when, on her entry, the big girls stared at her and touched each other's elbows, and the little ones began to squirm joyously in their seats.
'Silence, young ladies!' said Miss Minchin, at the murmur which arose. 'James, place the box on the table and remove the lid. Emma, put yours upon a chair. Becky!' suddenly and severely.
Becky had quite forgotten herself in her excitement, and was grinning at Lottie, who was wriggling with rapturous expectation. She almost dropped her box, the disapproving voice so startled her, and her frightened, bobbing courtesy of apology was so funny that Lavinia and Jessie tittered.
'It is not your place to look at the young ladies,' said Miss Minchin. 'You forget yourself. Put your box down.'
Becky obeyed with alarmed haste and hastily backed toward the door.
'You may leave us,' Miss Minchin announced to the servants with a wave of her hand.
Becky stepped aside respectfully to allow the superior servants to pass out first. She could not help casting a longing glance at the box on the table. Something made of blue satin was peeping from between the folds of tissue-paper.
'If you please, Miss Minchin,' said Sara suddenly, 'mayn't Becky stay?'
It was a bold thing to do. Miss Minchin was betrayed into something like a slight jump. Then she put her eyeglass up, and gazed at her show pupil disturbedly.
'Becky!' she exclaimed. 'My dearest Sara!'
Sara advanced a step toward her.
'I want her because I know she will like to see the presents,' she explained. 'She is a little girl too, you know.'
Miss Minchin was scandalized. She glanced from one figure to the other.
'My dear Sara,' she said, 'Becky is the scullery-maid. Scullery-maids - er - are not little girls.'
It really had not occurred to her to think of them in that light. Scullery-maids were machines who carried coal-scuttles and made fires.
'But Becky is,' said Sara. 'And I know she would enjoy herself. Please let her stay - because it is my birthday.'
Miss Minchin replied with much dignity:
'As you ask it as a birthday favour - she may stay. Rebecca, thank Miss Sara for her great kindness.'
Becky had been backing into the corner, twisting the hem of her apron in delighted suspense. She came forward, bobbing courtesies, but between Sara's eyes and her own there passed a gleam of friendly understanding, while her words tumbled over each other.
'Oh, if you please, miss! I'm that grateful, miss! I did want to see the doll, miss, that I did. Thank you, miss. And thank you, ma'am' - turning and making an alarmed bob to Miss Minchin - 'for letting me take the liberty.'
Miss Minchin waved her hand again - this time it was in the direction of the corner near the door.
'Go and stand there,' she commanded. 'Not too near the young ladies.'
Becky went to her place, grinning. She did not care where she was sent, so that she might
have the luck of being inside the room, instead of being downstairs in the scullery, while these delights were going on. She did not even mind when Miss Minchin cleared her throat ominously and spoke again.
'Now, young ladies, I have a few words to say to you,' she announced.
'She's going to make a speech,' whispered one of the girls. 'I wish it was over.'
Sara felt rather uncomfortable. As this was her party, it was probable that the speech was about her. It is not agreeable to stand in a schoolroom and have a speech made about you.
'You are aware, young ladies,' the speech began - for it was a speech - 'that dear Sara is eleven years old today.'
'Dear Sara!' murmured Lavinia.
'Several of you here have also been eleven years old, but Sara's birthdays are rather different from other little girls' birthdays. When she is older she will be heiress to a large fortune, which it will be her duty to spend in a meritorious manner.'
'The diamond mines,' giggled Jessie, in a whisper.
Sara did not hear her; but as she stood with her green-grey eyes fixed steadily on Miss Minchin, she felt herself growing rather hot. When Miss Minchin talked about money, she felt somehow that she always hated her - and, of course, it was disrespectful to hate grown-up people.
'When her dear papa, Captain Crewe, brought her from India and gave her into my care,' the speech proceeded, 'he said to me, in a jesting way, "I am afraid she will be very rich, Miss Minchin." My reply was, "Her education at my seminary, Captain Crewe, shall be such as will adorn the largest fortune." Sara has become my most accomplished pupil. Her French and her dancing are a credit to the seminary. Her manners - which have caused you to call her Princess Sara - are perfect. Her amiability she exhibits by giving you this afternoon's party. I hope you appreciate her generosity. I wish you to express your appreciation of it by saying aloud all together, "Thank you, Sara!'"
The entire schoolroom rose to its feet as it had done the morning Sara remembered so well.
'Thank you, Sara!' it said, and it must be confessed that Lottie jumped up and down. Sara looked rather shy for a moment. She made a courtesy - and it was a very nice one.
'Thank you,' she said, 'for coming to my party.'
'Very pretty, indeed, Sara,' approved Miss Minchin. 'That is what a real princess does when the populace applauds her. Lavina' - scathingly - 'the sound you just made was extremely like a snort. If you are jealous of your fellow-pupil, I beg you will express your feelings in some more ladylike manner. Now I will leave you to enjoy yourselves.'
The instant she had swept out of the room the spell her presence always had upon them was broken. The door had scarcely closed before every seat was empty. The little girls jumped or tumbled out of theirs; the older ones wasted no time in deserting theirs. There was a rush toward the boxes. Sara had bent over one of them with a delighted face.
'These are books, I know,' she said.
The little children broke into a rueful murmur, and Ermengarde looked aghast.
'Does your papa send you books for a birthday present?' she exclaimed. 'Why, he's as bad as mine. Don't open them, Sara.'
'I like them,' Sara laughed, but she turned to the biggest box. When she took out the Last Doll it was so magnificent that the children uttered delighted groans of joy, and actually drew back to gaze at it in breathless rapture.
'She is almost as big as Lottie,' someone gasped.
Lottie clapped her hands and danced about, giggling.
'She's dressed for the theatre,' said Lavinia. 'Her cloak is lined with ermine.'
'Oh!' cried Ermengarde, darting forward, 'she has an opera-glass in her hand - a blue-and-gold one.'
'Here is her trunk,' said Sara. 'Let us open it and look at her things.'
She sat down upon the floor and turned the key. The children crowded clamouring around her, as she lifted tray after tray and revealed their contents. Never had the schoolroom been in such an uproar. There were lace collars and silk stockings and handkerchiefs; there was a jewel-case containing a necklace and a tiara which looked quite as if they were made of real diamonds; there was a long sealskin and muff; there were ball dresses and walking dresses and visiting dresses; there were hats and tea-gowns and fans. Even Lavinia and Jessie forgot that they were too elderly to care for dolls, and uttered exclamations of delight and caught up things to look at them.
'Suppose,' Sara said, as she stood by the table, putting a large, black-velvet hat on the impassively-smiling owner of all these splendours - 'suppose she understands human talk and feels proud of being admired.'
'You are always supposing things,' said Lavinia, and her air was very superior.
'I know I am,' said Sara undisturbedly. 'I like it. There is nothing so nice as supposing. It's almost like being a fairy. If you suppose anything hard enough it seems as if it were real.'
'It's all very well to suppose things if you have everything,' said Lavinia. 'Could you suppose and pretend if you were a beggar and lived in a garret?'
Sara stopped arranging the Last Doll's ostrich plumes, and looked thoughtful.
'I believe I could,' she said. 'If one was a beggar, one would have to suppose and pretend all the time. But it mightn't be easy.'
She often thought afterward how strange it was that just as she had finished saying this - just at that very moment - Miss Amelia came into the room.
'Sara,' she said, 'your papa's solicitor, Mr Barrow, has called to see Miss Minchin, and, as she must talk to him alone and the refreshments are laid in her parlour, you had all better come and have your feast now, so that my sister can have her interview here in the schoolroom.'
Refreshments were not likely to be disdained at any hour, and many pairs of eyes gleamed. Miss Amelia arranged the procession into decorum, and then, with Sara at her side heading it, she led it away, leaving the Last Doll sitting upon a chair with the glories of her wardrobe scattered about her; dresses and coats hung upon chair backs, piles of lace-frilled petticoats lying upon their seats.
Becky, who was not expected to partake of refreshments, had the indiscretion to linger a moment to look at these beauties - it really was an indiscretion.
'Go back to your work, Becky,' Miss Amelia had said; but she had stopped to reverently pick up first a muff and then a coat, and while she stood looking at them adoringly, she heard Miss Minchin upon the threshold, and, being smitten with terror at the thought of being accused of taking liberties, she rashly darted under the table, which hid her by its tablecloth.
Miss Minchin came into the room, accompanied by a sharp-featured, dry little gentleman, who looked rather disturbed. Miss Minchin herself also looked rather disturbed, it must be admitted, and she gazed at the dry little gentleman with an irritated and puzzled expression.
She sat down with stiff dignity, and waved him to a chair.
'Pray be seated, Mr Barrow,' she said.
Mr Barrow did not sit down at once. His attention seemed attracted by the Last Doll and the things which surrounded her. He settled his eyeglasses and looked at them in nervous disapproval. The Last Doll herself did not seem to mind this in the least. She merely sat upright and returned his gaze indifferently.
'A hundred pounds,' Mr Barrow remarked succinctly. 'All expensive material, and made at a Parisian modiste's. He spent money lavishly enough, that young man.'
Miss Minchin felt offended. This seemed to be a disparagement of her best patron and was a liberty.
Even solicitors had no right to take liberties.
'I beg your pardon, Mr Barrow,' she said stiffly. 'I do not understand.'
'Birthday presents,' said Mr Barrow, in the same critical manner, 'to a child eleven years old! Mad extravagance, I call it.'
Miss Minchin drew herself up still more rigidly.
'Captain Crewe is a man of fortune,' she said. 'The diamond mines alone -'
Mr Barrow wheeled round upon her.
'Diamond mines!' he broke out. 'There are none! Never were!'
Miss Minchin actuall
y got up from her chair.
'What!' she cried. 'What do you mean?'
'At any rate,' answered Mr Barrow quite snappishly, 'it would have been much better if there never had been any.'
'Any diamond mines?' ejaculated Miss Minchin, catching at the back of a chair, and feeling as if a splendid dream was fading away from her.
'Diamond mines spell ruin oftener than they spell wealth,' said Mr Barrow. 'When a man is in the hands of a very dear friend, and is not a business man himself, he had better steer clear of the dear friend's diamonds mines, or gold mines, or any other kind of mines dear friends want his money to put into. The late Captain Crewe -'
Here Miss Minchin stopped him with a gasp.
'The late Captain Crewe!' she cried out, 'the late! You don't come to tell me that Captain Crewe is -'
'He's dead, ma'am,' Mr Barrow answered with jerky brusqueness. 'Died of jungle fever and business troubles combined. The jungle fever might not have killed him if he had not been driven mad by the business troubles, and the business troubles might not have put an end to him if the jungle fever had not assisted. Captain Crewe is dead!'
Miss Minchin dropped into her chair again. The words he had spoken filled her with alarm.
'What were his business troubles?' she said. 'What were they?'
'Diamond mines,' answered Mr Barrow, 'and dear friends - and ruin.'
Miss Minchin lost her breath.
'Ruin!' she gasped out.
'Lost every penny. That young man had too much money. The dear friend was mad on the subject of the diamond mine. He put all his own money into it, and all Captain Crewe's. Then the dear friend ran away - Captain Crewe was already stricken with fever when the news came. The shock was too much for him. He died delirious, raving about his little girl - and didn't leave a penny.'
Now Miss Minchin understood, and never had she received such a blow in her life. Her show pupil, her show patron, swept away from the select seminary at one blow. She felt as if she had been outraged and robbed, and that Captain Crewe and Sara and Mr Barrow were equally to blame.
'Do you mean to tell me,' she cried out, 'that he left nothing? That Sara will have no fortune? That the child is a beggar? That she is left on my hands a little pauper instead of an heiress?'
Mr Barrow was a shrewd business man, and felt it as well to make his own freedom from responsibility quite clear without any delay.
A Little Princess Page 6