A College Girl | Page 9

in the right spirit, you could be of real use and comfort, and
would have the satisfaction of doing a kind deed."
Darsie set her lips in a straight line, and tilted her chin in the air.

"Couldn't pretend to go in the right spirit! I'd be in a tearing rage.
Somebody else can have the `satisfaction,' and I'll go to the sea."
"Darsie, dear, that's naughty!"
"I feel naughty, mother. `Naughty' is a mild word. Savage! I feel savage.
It's too appalling. What does father say? I'm sure he would never--"
"Father feels as I do; very disappointed for our own sakes and for yours
that our happy party should be disturbed, but he never shirks a
disagreeable duty himself, and he expects his children to follow his
example."
Lavender instantly burst into tears.
"It's always the way--always the way! It was too good to be true. We
might have known that it was. She'll choose me, and Hannah will go
without me. We'd planned every day--fishing, and bathing, and making
hay, and I shall be mewed up in a close carriage, and have meals of
nuts--and n-n-nobody to talk to. Oh, I can't--I can't bear it! I wish I
could die and be buried--I cannot bear it--"
"You won't have to bear it. She'll choose me. I'm the eldest, and the
most of a companion." Clemence spoke with the calmness of despair,
her plump cheeks whitening visibly, her pale eyes showing a flush of
red around the lids. "Of course, if it's my duty, I must go--but I'd as
soon be sent to prison! I'm feeling very tired, and thought the holiday
would set me up. Now, of course, I shall be worse. Eight weeks alone
with Aunt Maria would try anybody's nerves. I shall be a wreck all
winter, and have neuralgia till I'm nearly mad."
"Nonsense, darling! If you are so tired, the rest and quiet of The
Towers will be just what you need; and as we don't know yet which one
of you Aunt Maria will wish as a companion, it is a pity for you all to
make yourselves miserable at once. Why not try to forget, and hope for
the best! Surely that would be the wiser plan."
The three girls looked at each other in eloquent silence. Easy to talk.

Forget, indeed. As if they could! Mother didn't really believe what she
said. She was making the best of it, and there were occasions when
making the best of it seemed just the most aggravating thing one could
do.
It was a relief to the girls when Mrs Garnett was summoned from the
room on household business, and they were left to themselves. A
craving for sympathy was the predominant sensation, and prompted the
suggestion, "Let's wire to the Vernons," which was followed by a
stampede upstairs. The telegraph was a sufficiently new institution to
appear a pleasure rather than a toil, even though a message thus
dispatched was an infinitely longer and more laborious effort than a run
round the terrace, so to-day a leaf was torn from the note-book, a
dramatic announcement penned and placed in the hanging-bag, with its
jingling bell of warning, and the three girls took it in turns to pull at the
cord till the missive arrived at its destination. Attracted by the sound of
the bell, Vi and plain Hannah stood at the window awaiting the
communication, read over its contents, and stood silent and dismayed.
The Garnetts, watching from afar, realised the dramatic nature of that
pause, and thrilled in sympathy.
"One of us is going to be sent to prison instead of to the country!"
"Prison!" Vi and plain Hannah wagged their heads over the cipher,
hesitated long, pencil in hand, and, finally, in a frenzy of impatience,
which refused to be curbed even by loyalty to the telegraph itself,
dispatched an urgent summons to speech--
"Come round and talk!"
The Garnetts flew. The Vernons, waiting upon the doorstep, escorted
them upstairs to the scantily furnished room which had first been a
nursery, then promoted to playroom, and, ultimately, when the more
juvenile name wounded the susceptibilities of its inmates, had become
definitely and proudly "the study." The bureau in the corner was Dan's
special property, and might not be touched by so much as a finger-tip.
The oak table with three sound legs and a halting fourth, supported by
an ancient volume of Good Words, was Vi's property; John and plain

Hannah shared the dining-table, covered with the shabby green baize
cloth, which stood in the centre of the room. There were a variety of
uncomfortable chairs, an ink-splashed drugget, and red walls covered
with pictures which had been banished from other rooms as they
acquired the requisite stage of decrepitude and grime.
The