by L. T. Meade
have a jolly time,and to forget heroics and `high strikes' and all the rest. Oh, there'sthe luncheon-bell, and I'm ever so hungry!"
That was a very happy evening notwithstanding the fact that the MissGrace Donnithorne of less than a couple of months ago was now Mrs Grantand our step-mother. In her own house, surrounded by her own things,she was more difficult than ever to resist. Indeed, I think no onetried to do so, for she was the very soul of tact, and managed to makeus all feel that we were her guests, and as guests ought to beparticularly nice. Alex said to me, "She is quite charming! She isgood! She is a dear! I'm beginning to love her. I don't care what yousay to the contrary."
"I like her for herself," I said.
"Then for goodness' sake prove it, Dumps, and don't wear that horridlystarched, proper face. It's enough to drive any one cracked even tolook at you. You were always plain, but now that you are both plain andaffected, you will be too offensive to live with before long."
"Thank you," I answered. "I never did come to my family forcompliments, and I certainly am not getting them."
"You won't get them from me, or from Charley, or from Von Marlo whileyou behave like that. Why, I declare I'd rather be that poor, dementedAugusta Moore than go on as you are doing."
"But what am I doing?" I asked. "What do you mean? I'm doingnothing."
"Nothing, Dumps? Be truthful with yourself. Try and get over thathorrid feeling, and let us be really happy this Christmas."
"But there was our mother--"
"She wasn't with us last Christmas, was she?"
"She was in spirit."
"Well, if she was with us in spirit last Christmas--when we were sojolly miserable, and I had that bad influenza, and Charley sprained hisfoot, and we had hardly any Christmas dinner and no Christmas-boxes atall except the things we managed to make with the old carpenter's tools,and when father forgot to come home till the evening, and you began tocry and said that he had been run over by an omnibus--if mother was withus in spirit when we were all really wretched, don't you think she willbe twenty times more in spirit with us now when we are all jolly andgood and good-humoured? If our mother is an angel in heaven--and Isuppose you believe she is--she must be blessing that sweet woman GraceDonnithorne, as you used to call her, every moment of the time. Oh,there! I needn't say any more. I'll let Von Marlo have a talk withyou."
"But he sha'n't--I won't be talked to," I said.
I rushed away up to my own room. In spite of myself, my feelings werearrested by Alex's words. For a moment I knelt down and said to God,"Please let me feel kindly towards my step-mother; please let me have areally nice Christmas Day."
After that it was wonderful how my spirits were soothed and how muchhappier I felt. Christmas Eve ended in fun and games and all sorts ofpreparations for the merriest Christmas which was to follow, and we allwent to bed in high good-humour.
PART TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
My presents were much appreciated, although it is true that fatherlooked somewhat dubiously at his inkpot. He asked me how it was opened.I described the exact method by which he was to press the spring, andhe remarked then that it would take time.
"But," I said, "you see there is a kind of sponge with a leather coverto it, which presses down into the bottle and prevents every scrap ofair from getting in, so that the ink keeps much longer."
"Yes; but the period it takes from one's existence!" remarked father.Then he glanced at me. "Never mind," he said; "you meant well. I amalways willing to admit it when any one means well."
Now, I had actually spent a pound of my money on this inkstand offather's--one-tenth of my quarter's allowance--and all the praise I gotwas that I meant well.
Von Marlo came up to me and said, "It is a most wonderful and cleverlyconstructed inkstand. I tell you what--whenever I come over to yourhouse I'll see that it's dusted and kept in order. I'll look after itmyself. I think it's quite lovely."
I had given Von Marlo a nice little tablet for notes, which he professedto be delighted with; and I had given my step-mother a new sort of diarywith a lock and key. There was no one whom I had forgotten. EvenAugusta was in raptures with the very driest book on mathematics that Icould pick up. She said that for once she believed I was a thoroughlysensible girl.
Then there were the gifts from the others to me. My step-mother gave mea lovely little narrow gold chain with a locket attached to it; andfather, for the first time since I could remember, gave me a presentsimply as a present. It consisted of a row of very curious,sweet-scented beads, which were mounted now in gold, and could be worneither as a necklace or as a bracelet.
"But you have had these for ages," I said.
"Yes; but my wife thought that they could be set very prettily for you,"he said.
I was delighted, and thanked him heartily. I had often coveted thoseblue beads, for they were a wonderful greenish blue, and in some lightslooked quite opalescent.
The boys, too, gave me things very suitable and very useful. No one hadforgotten me. Even Augusta gave me a pin-cushion stuck full of pinsthat I scratched myself with the first thing. That was very likely, forshe had put them in so badly that several stuck out underneath, and Ihad inflicted a wound before I was aware of this fact.
But the presents, after all, were nothing compared to the festive airwhich pervaded the place.
We went to church, and we knelt before God's altar, and joined in thegreat and glorious Festival of Divine Love.
After church we were all to go to the Aldyces' for dinner. Thisinvitation had been vouchsafed to us on the occasion of my father'smarriage, and Mrs Grant said that it was quite impossible not to acceptit.
"You will like Hermione," I said to Augusta. I thought she would. Ithought Hermione's precise ways would rather please Augusta. Thecarriage, however, did not meet us at the church, for it was arrangedthat we were to go home first and have lunch at Hedgerow House, and thenwere to walk in a body the two miles which separated us from The Grange,Squire Aldyce's beautiful old residence.
We went there in high spirits. Everything was joyful that day. Heremore and more presents awaited us. Really it was marvellous. Alexmanaged to whisper to me, "Have you no eye for contrasts?"
"Contrasts?" I asked, turning round and giving him a flashing glance.
"Between this Christmas and last," he said.
I felt annoyed. I had been trying so very hard to keep in the best ofhumours--to be good, if I, poor naughty Dumps, could really and truly begood--and now the spirit of naughtiness was once more awakened. Oh, ofcourse, this was a glorious time, and I ought to be delighted; but theache had returned to my heart, the longing to be in my own little roomlooking at my mother's miniature, the wish for the old desolation whenshe, as I said to myself, had been honoured and her memory respected.
I stood in a brown study for a minute or two, and as I stood thusHermione came up to me and asked me if I would not like to go away withher to her room. I was very glad of the reprieve. She took my hand andwe ran upstairs. When we found ourselves in her pretty room she made mesit down in the cosiest chair she could find, poked the fire, andsquatted herself on the hearth-rug. She wore a lovely dress of verypale Liberty green silk, and looked, with her aristocratic small faceand beautiful hair, like a picture.
"Well, Dumps," she said, "and so you have solved the mystery?"
"You knew it at that time?" I said.
"Knew it? Of course I did! It was the greatest amazement to me whenMiss Donnithorne said, `You are not to tell her; her father doesn't wishit to be known.'"
"Then she did not want to have it kept a secret?"
"She?" said Hermione. "Poor darling! it was her greatest desire to tellyou--in fact, she had quite made up her mind to do so--but she receiveda most urgent letter from your father saying that he would infinitelyprefer none of you to know until after the ceremony. You mustn't blameher."
"I think it was exceedingly wrong to deceive me," I said.
I was silent. On the whole, my step-mother's conduct could not seemquite so black if she herself had been forced to act as she did.Nevertheless, I felt uncomfortable.
Hermione glanced at me.
"You look very much better," she said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Not that you are dressed so wonderfully well--of course, I shouldn'tdream of making any comments with regard to your dress; but then youwere quite exquisitely attired the last time you came here. Mother saidshe had never seen anything so _chic_ in all her life as that littledark-blue costume