A Houseful of Girls

A Houseful of Girls, by Sarah Tytler

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Title: A Houseful of Girls
Author: Sarah Tytler
Release Date: December 10, 2006 [EBook #20081]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A HOUSEFUL OF GIRLS. BY SARAH TYTLER,
AUTHOR OF
"CITOYENNE JACQUELINE," "PAPERS FOR THOUGHTFUL GIRLS," ETC., ETC.
LONDON: WALTER SMITH AND INNES, 31 & 32, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND. 1889.
[All rights reserved.]
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.

CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. A FLUTTER IN THE DOVE-COT 1
II. THE "COUP DE GR?CE" 20
III. THE HEADS OF THE HOUSE LOOK GRAVE 35
IV. THE CRASH 54
V. PROMOTION 72
VI. THE CLOUD DEEPENS 81
VII. ROSE GOES WEST AND ANNIE GOES EAST 106
VIII. STANDING AND WAITING 122
IX. A WILFUL DOG WILL HAVE HIS WAY 136
X. LIFE IN AN HOSPITAL WARD 157
XI. MRS. JENNINGS AND HER DAUGHTER HESTER 182
XII. A YOUNG ARTIST'S EXPERIENCE 188
XIII. MR. ST. FOY'S AND THE MISSES STONE'S 196
XIV. THE OLD TOWN, WITH ITS AIR STAGNANT YET TROUBLED. IS MAY TO BECOME A SCHOLAR OR A SHOP-GIRL? 214
XV. TOM ROBINSON TAKEN INTO COUNSEL 234
XVI. ROSE'S FOLLY AND ANNIE'S WISDOM 257
XVII. MAY HAS TO FIGHT HER OWN BATTLE 288
XVIII. DORA IS THE NEXT MESSENGER WITH BAD TIDINGS 316
XIX. THE UNEMPLOYED--A FAMILIAR FACE 322
XX. REDCROSS AGAIN 342
XXI. MISS FRANKLIN'S MISTAKE 363
XXII. A SHRED OF HOPE 382
XXIII. SECOND THOUGHTS AND LAST WORDS 392

A HOUSEFUL OF GIRLS
CHAPTER I.
A FLUTTER IN THE DOVE-COT.
Is there any sensation equal to that produced by the first lover and the first proposal coming to a girl in a large family of girls? It is delightfully sentimental, comical, complimentary, affronting, rousing, tiresome--all in one. It is a herald of lovers, proposals, and wonderful changes all round. It is the first thrill of real life in its strong passions, grave vicissitudes, and big joys and sorrows as they come in contact with idle fancies, hearts that have been light, simple experiences which have hitherto been carefully guarded from rude shocks.
It does not signify much whether the family of girls happen to be rich or poor, unless indeed that early and sharp poverty causes a precocity which deepens girls' characters betimes, and by making them sooner women, robs them of a certain amount of the thoughtlessness, fearlessness, and impracticability of girlhood. But girlhood, like many another natural condition, dies hard; and its sweet, bright illusions, its wisdom and its folly, survive tolerably severe pinches of adversity.
The younger members of such a sisterhood are politely supposed to be kept in safe ignorance of the great event which is befalling one of the seniors. It is thought at once a delicate and prudent precaution to prevent the veil which hides the future, with its casualties, from being lifted prematurely and abruptly, where juvenile minds are concerned, lest they become unhinged and unfit for the salutary discipline of schoolroom lessons, and the mild pleasure of schoolroom treats. The flower in the bud ought to be kept with its petals folded, in its innocent absence of self-consciousness, to the last moment.
But there is an electric sympathy in the air which defeats precautions. There is a freemasonry of dawning womanhood which starts into life everywhere. How do the young people pick up with such surprising quickness and acuteness the looks and whispers meant to pass over their heads, the merry glances, nervous shrugs, quick blushes, and indignant pouts, which have suddenly grown strangely prevalent in the blooming circle? The bystanders are understood to be engrossed with their music-lessons, their drawing-classes, their rudimentary Latin and Greek--if anybody is going in for the higher education of women--their pets, their games of lawn-tennis, their girl companions with whom these other girls are for ever making appointments to walk, to practise part-singing, to work or read together, to get up drawing-room tableaux or plays.
The general consciousness is not, in certain lights, favourable to a lover's pretensions. For human nature is perverse, and there is such a thing as esprit-de-corps running to excess. There may be a due amount of girlish pride in knowing that one of the sisters has inspired a grand passion. There may be a tremulous respect for the fact that she has passed the Rubicon, that, in place of girlish trifling, she has an affair which has to do with the happiness or misery of a fellow creature, not to say with her own happiness or misery, on her burdened mind. Why, if she does not take care, she may be plunged at once, first into