by L. T. Meade
Marlo?"
Von Marlo smiled, and bowed to me.
"Now get out of the way, Dumps," said Alex. "And what have you put onyour best frock for, and why are you all prunes and prisms? What is thematter?"
"Only that father is at home. He is lying down; he has a shockingheadache. You really mustn't make a noise.--You must go away, please,Mr Von Marlo and Mr Squibs."
"Oh, how jokingly funny!" exclaimed Alex, and he burst into a loud laughand sank down on the bench in the hall. But the Dutch boy, Von Marlo,came up to me and made another little bow, and took my hand as though hewould kiss it; he raised it to within a few inches of his lips and thendropped it again. I was told afterwards that this was the Dutch way ofshowing reverence to a lady, and I was immensely touched by it. Hesaid, "Certainly, Miss Grant, we will go away. I did not know whenGrant asked me to come in that your father was ill."
"But I say, the Professor was in his class holding forth nothalf-an-hour back," said Squibs, whose real name was Squire.
"Well, he's lying down now, and there can be no noise," I said.
I had scarcely uttered the words before up the steps came my own twospecial visitors, Rita and Agnes Swan.
"Oh Jiminy!" cried Alex; and he stepped back as the two young ladiessailed in.
"How do you do, Rachel?" said Rita.
"How do you do, Rachel?" said Agnes.
They were also dressed in their best, and were evidently highly pleasedand intended to have a good time. They did not at all object to thefact that four rather tall, ungainly schoolboys were standing about inthe hall.
"You know my brothers, don't you, Rita?" I said, presenting Alex andCharley. "And this is Mr Von Marlo, and this is Mr Squire."
Alex and Charley reddened up to the roots of their hair; Squibs lookedas though he could not possibly get any redder--he was nearly alwaysscarlet; but the Dutch boy, Von Marlo, bowed in the most graceful style,and then stood quite at his ease, glancing at the girls.
"I say," said Alex, coming up to me and speaking in a very loudsemi-whisper, "have they come to tea?"
"Yes--yes. Do go away--please go away--and take the boys with you."
"But are there cookies and good things for tea?"
"Yes; but there really isn't enough for four extra people. Do go away,Alex. I'll have something nice for your supper by-and-by. Do! there'sa good boy."
But neither Alex nor Charley would see the fun of that, and I am surethose girls who take the trouble to read my history will guess at mymortification when I tell them that four extra guests sat down to atea-table only prepared for three.
Now Hannah, our servant, was by no means noted for her good temper. Shebrought in fresh bread-and-butter, fresh tea, fresh jam; but the fearfuldifficulty of keeping the room quiet and of making those boys abstainfrom laughter, of making even Rita and Agnes behave themselves, wasenough to wear any poor girl out. I do not know what I should have donebut for the Dutch boy, Von Marlo. He saw that I was annoyed, and hecame up to me and offered me all the help he possibly could.
"It is quite a shame," he said; "and you looked so nice when you openedthe door. I thought you were the very prettiest girl I had ever laideyes on. You see, I have not been in England more than two months. Ihave come here to go to this famous school."
"You speak English very well," I said.
"Oh yes, I learnt that in Holland; we all learn it there. We learnEnglish, German, and French as soon as ever we can speak at all, Ithink; for, you see, our language--Dutch--is not much use to us outsideour own country. There is nothing in that," he continued modestly."Now, what can I do to help you?"
I looked at him, and my ruffled spirits became soothed. After all, whyshould I not make the best of things?
"I'll try to keep the fellows quiet," said Von Marlo; "and you needn'tcall me Mr--I am only a schoolboy. You can just say Von Marlo, as I amsure you say Squibs to Squire. We can all be jolly together. What doyou say?"
"Done!" I cried; and after that the meal went swimmingly.
It was amazing what those fellows managed to eat; and it was still moreamazing to see how Rita and Agnes enjoyed themselves. It was thethought of their disappointment which had so terribly annoyed me whenthe four boys insisted on bursting into our parlour and forcingthemselves into our presence; but I soon saw that Rita and Agnes wereonly delighted. They laughed and joked, and as they laughed Alex andCharley became like lambs of sweetness and gentleness. Dear, dear! hownice a brother can be to other people's sisters! It is quiteextraordinary. I bent over to Rita and whispered to her, "I hope youare not vexed."
"Vexed?" she whispered back. "No; I'm sure I'm delighted. I did notthink it was to be a big party of this sort; and really the boys of theupper school are almost like men. It is very nice indeed; I am enjoyingmyself extremely."
And so she was, and so was Agnes. When tea was over, however, ananxious moment arrived. We could not play any noisy games, and the boysimmediately declared that they were not going away.
"We are going to see the fun out now," said Alex. "Never mindto-morrow's work. I'll do that in the small hours--burn the candle, youknow."
Here he winked at Agnes, and she winked back at him, thinking herselfexceedingly witty.
Games were proposed, and games were begun; but, alas! how could sevenyoung people keep absolutely quiet? I was trembling all over. Iffather were but to come down and see the absolute riot in the parlour, Ididn't know what would happen. I was certain of one thing: neither Ritanor Agnes would ever be allowed to have tea with me again.
After a time I did a very injudicious thing. I left the room. I ranupstairs. I listened outside father's room and heard him moving about.I knocked, and immediately the door was flung open, and there was fatherin his dressing-gown, with his beautiful grey hair pushed back off hisforehead.
"What's all that murmuring and muttering and shuffling that is going ondownstairs?" he said. "And how flushed your cheeks are! And there is asmear of jam on one of them. What have you been doing?"
"Having tea, father."
"You never offered me a cup."
"Oh father! when you first came in I offered to get you some."
"Well, I'd like some now. Bring me up something to eat."
"Then, father darling, is your head better?"
"Yes, my dear, yes. Go downstairs and bring me up a tray full of food--toast and an egg and some tea. Bring them up with your own hands. Seethere isn't a sound. If I have two or three hours of quiet I shall bequite fit to resume my work to-night. I have to lecture in Hall at nineo'clock this evening. I shall not be able to utter a word if thisheadache continues. Now, Rachel, be off; set to work and get me somefood at once, as fast as ever you can."
I was half-way downstairs when my father's voice called after me:
"Do stop all that whispering and whistling and noise. I can't imaginewhat is happening."
"I will do what I can, father," I said.
PART ONE, CHAPTER TWO.
THE POACHED EGG.
I returned to the boys and to my school friends.
"Father is awake," I said, "and he complains of the noise we aremaking."
"Noise?" cried Alex. "Why, we are as mum as mice!"
"People must breathe, you know," said Agnes in what I considered a veryimpertinent way.
I stared at her. She had no right to speak like that of my father, thegreat Professor Grant; for my father was a member of the Royal Society,no less, and you can imagine that to hear such talk from a silly littlegirl like Agnes Swan was, to say the least of it, disagreeable. So Idrew myself up; but then I caught Von Marlo's eyes, and I felt soothed,for he seemed to understand.
"If the Professor wishes it," he said, "we will, of course, hardly speakat all.--It might be best," he added, turning to Alex, "if we all wentaway. What do you think?"
"Please yourself, Von," said Alex, speaking in a very patronising way,and flinging himself back in a deep chair. "Squibs and Charley and Istay; and as you a
re the quietest of the party, and inclined topatronise Dumps, I don't see why you should go."
Von Marlo came straight up to me and said:
"Can I do anything for you? They say I patronise you, but that is nottrue. I don't exactly know what they mean by patronise, but I will doall I can to help you, for you are quite the nicest little girl I havemet since I came to England."
Agnes and Rita seemed neither of them to thoroughly appreciate theseremarks of Von Marlo's, for he was really the biggest and mostimposing-looking of the four boys. Even Alex, who was a handsomefellow, looked very young beside him. As to me, I felt