Aunt Mary

by Sophie May

  CHAPTER II.

  A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT.

  'Mamma dear,' said Dora Maitland, the eldest of that lady's twodaughters, a sweet gentle-looking girl about twelve years of age, 'mayAnnie and I go and ask Mabel and Julia Ellis to take a walk with us thisafternoon? We are going to see John Hutton's beehives; he has got somenew glass ones, and he says it is so interesting to watch the littlecreatures at work. I am sure we should all like to see them, and I do sowish that Clara was here, to go with us, she is such a dear girl.'

  While this request was making, Dora's younger sister, Annie, stoodlooking with beseeching eyes at mamma, evidently very anxious for thatlady's reply, which was not immediately given, for Mrs. Maitland wasapparently debating in her own mind whether it were desirable, or not,to attend to Dora's request.

  'May we, mamma?' urged the young pleader timidly. 'You are not afraid tolet us go, are you?' she inquired.

  'Oh no, not afraid,' replied Mrs. Maitland; 'at least, not afraid ofyour going alone; but what I am afraid of is, that it may beinconvenient to Mrs. Ellis to let your young friends accompany you, asat present I know that their nurse is away, and--and she herself is notat all well.'

  'Then do you think, mamma, that we may ask Julia to go with us? We likeher best, and Mabel could stay at home and take care of the children, asshe is the eldest.'

  'Not a bad suggestion, my dear Dora,' replied her mother, 'only I fearthere would be some objection on Mabel's part to such an arrangement.From what I have observed in that young lady,' continued Mrs. Maitland,'she is not very loving, nor very tractable, and I fear she has beenspoiled by over indulgence. However, if you will promise not to pressthe matter, should you see that it is likely to be inconvenient to Mrs.Ellis, you may go; it is a lovely afternoon, and I hope you will enjoyyourselves.'

  With light hearts and buoyant footsteps, the two fair girls set off ontheir errand of inquiry to Camden Terrace, where Mr. Ellis resided,meeting with a very kind reception from Mrs. Ellis, and a joyfulgreeting from Mabel and Julia, who, to say the truth, were gettingrather tired of the monotony of home, especially as, the nursemaidbeing away for a fortnight, and mamma not being well, they were underthe necessity of taking care of the children, if care it could becalled, where neither love nor forbearance were in exercise; but thelittle ones were only prevented from doing mischief, or hurting eachother.

  As the engagements of Mr. Ellis kept him from home all day, he had verylittle time, and I am sorry to say that he had very little inclination,to attend to his children, though we must do him the justice to say thathe _wished_ sincerely for their proper training; but he thought, as Ifear too many papas do, that this duty belonged exclusively to his wife.This _we_ think is a grave mistake. Children cannot be taught too earlythe lesson of obedience; and often it happens that the weakness ortenderness of a mother prevents her from enforcing this very salutaryprecept.

  But I return to our young friends, who were under the necessity ofmaking their request in the presence of both Mabel and Julia, thoughthey had agreed between themselves not to do so, but to ask their mammaalone, so that if it were inconvenient to her they would not press thematter.

  Without waiting for their mamma's answer, both the girls immediatelybegged to be allowed to go, indeed using every entreaty, so that poorMrs. Ellis appeared quite distressed; and the young Maitlands were noless so, for they remembered what their mamma had said to them.

  'I really scarcely know what to do,' said Mrs. Ellis, at last; 'I shouldbe sorry to deprive you of any pleasure, but you know, Mabel, I am notwell, and nurse is not with us: besides which, your papa made aparticular request this morning that I would not let you go out to-day.'

  'Oh, that is always the way with papa,' broke in Mabel, impetuously. 'Ibelieve he would never let us go even for a walk, if he were at home.'

  'Hush, hush, Mabel!' said her mother; 'I wonder you are not ashamed tospeak of your papa in this disrespectful manner. Besides, you know thatyou are not speaking the truth.'

  'Don't let them go, Mrs. Ellis, if it is inconvenient to you,' said DoraMaitland; 'we will call another day. I am sure mamma would be very sorryto hear that our coming brought any trouble to you.'

  'It is not a trouble, of course,' again broke in the impetuous Mabel,without waiting her mamma's reply; 'and we shall be home long beforepapa, so nothing need be said to him about our having been out.'

  The two young visitors looked at each other, and appeared quitedistressed at this suggestion. They had been, and rightly so, taught toconsider deception of any kind as falsehood; but Mrs. Ellis did notappear to be of the same opinion, and though she still urged her own illhealth and the absence of the nurse, she was evidently inclined to yieldto the continued and earnest request of her daughters.

  'We will promise you not to be away more than an hour, dear mamma,' saidJulia, who was certainly the best of the two girls; and this promisebeing seconded by Mabel very earnestly, poor Mrs. Ellis foolishly gaveher consent to their going, which consent had no sooner been obtained,than the selfish girls darted off to make ready for their walk, leavingDora and Annie very much concerned about what had passed, and determinedin their own minds to forego the anticipated pleasure of seeing theglass beehives till a more convenient season, for fear they should notbe back at the appointed time.

  Mrs. Ellis, as I think I have before stated, had long been verydelicate; she was of a nervous temperament, and nothing appeared toaffect her health so much as excitement of any kind. She had beenordered lately to be kept perfectly quiet, but this is one of thoserules that are more easily made than complied with by the mistress of ahouse, and the mother of a family; and, unfortunately for Mrs. Ellis,she had no strength of mind to aid her in the discharge of the dutiesthat devolved upon her, for she was weakly indulgent both to herchildren, and her servants, and thus she was too often the slave of theone, and the dupe of the other.

  After the young people had set off for their walk, she sat down toconsider whether she had done right in letting them go; and rememberingher husband's prohibition, and the uncertainty of the time at which hewould return home, she evidently came to an unfavourable conclusion inthe matter, as she exclaimed aloud; 'I wish I had not let them go!'

  Wishing, however, now, was of no avail, and as sundry screams from thenursery betokened a misfortune of some kind, the bell was rung for thecook to go, and ascertain the cause of the tumult. Fortunately, therewas no great harm done: poor little Willie had contrived to mount on twoboxes, which stood side by side, but not close enough together toprevent the chubby fat legs from slipping between them; and as Freddyand Gertrude in vain attempted to extricate the little fellow from hisawkward position, they set up a simultaneous scream in token of theirdistress.

  Kind-hearted Susan, however, soon set all to rights, for she waswell-known to carry in her pocket sundry mysterious little sweet balls,which, if they were not over-clean, had a remarkable tendency tosoothe, insomuch that sagacious Master Fred, seeing his sister Mabel oneday crying with passion, inquired if he should go and ask Susan for oneof her sugar balls, to do her good; a proposition which that young ladyhighly resented, though the very mention of the said sweets had stoppedthe crying.

  But we must return to poor mamma, who had in vain endeavoured to followSusan upstairs, she trembled so violently. When, however, Willie wasplaced on her knee, and she saw the slight nature of the hurt he hadsustained, she began to feel more composed, for there was really no harmdone.

  The poor lady, however, was not suffered to calm down thus easily, forbefore Susan had time to quit the room, the sound of a key in the frontdoor betokened the dreaded return of her husband, and again excited allher nervous fears.

  'Why have you got the children with you, Ada?' said Mr. Ellis to hiswife, reproachfully. 'You know that the doctor has told you to keepquiet.'

  'Yes, I know,' replied Mrs. Ellis, meekly, 'but poor Willie has hurt hisleg, so Susan brought him down to me.'

  'But what has Susan to do with the children?' inquired Mr. Ell
is.'Surely Mabel and Julia are quite old enough to take care of them,without calling Susan from her work in the kitchen! Where are thegirls?' demanded Mr. Ellis, sharply; 'I hope you have not let them goout after what I said this morning.'

  'Mrs. Maitland's little girls came to ask them to take a walk, and I didnot like to refuse them,' said Mrs. Ellis, timidly.

  'Then I can only tell you, Ada,' said her husband, with suppressedpassion, 'that by your foolish weakness you have deprived them of agreat pleasure. It is not often that I can spare time to go out withthem, but as I have had some tickets given me to go to a panorama, Ihave, at great inconvenience, come home, in order to take them, and youtell me that they are gone out.'

  Poor Mrs. Ellis! This was a terrible mortification to her; she felt forher husband, and she felt for the disappointment of the girls, thoughthey certainly deserved it.

  'I am very sorry I let them go, dear Arthur,' she said, 'but theypressed me so much that I did not like to refuse.'

  'Yes, yes,' said Mr. Ellis, 'I know; it is the old story: you are tooweak-minded to refuse, and our children are to be ruined for want ofproper restraint, or else _I_ am to be appealed to in case ofpunishment, and so must be considered by them harsh and unkind. I cannothelp saying that it is very cruel of you, Ada, to give way to thisnervous weakness of yours,' continued Mr. Ellis, as he saw the poor ladybegin to cry; 'the only way will be, I suppose, to send the girls to aboarding-school, before you have quite spoiled them.'

  Having thus delivered his opinion, Mr. Ellis walked out of the room; andsoon the rather violent shutting of the front door gave token that hehad left the house, to the really great sorrow of his wife, who nowheartily repented having given her consent to what had been the cause ofso much trouble. But we must leave her to repent at leisure, and followthe gay young party, who, notwithstanding some few qualms of conscienceon their first setting out, soon found plenty to interest them in thesurrounding villas and gardens, where such diversity of taste isdisplayed.