Etheldreda the Ready | Page 8

finished. What was going to happen next?
CHAPTER THREE.
In the schoolroom the young people flocked together, eager to discuss
the news apart from the restraint of their parents' presence. Round the
great fireplace stood one of those delightful fenders whose top is
formed by a wide-cushioned seat. Hereward pulled it forcibly back,
with a fine disregard of cinders, until it was sufficiently distant from
the blaze to be comfortable, when the six young people seated

themselves and prepared to talk in comfort. They made a pretty picture
as the leaping flame lighted up their fair blond faces, but for the
moment the general expression was far from cheerful. The twins were
all eyes and gaping mouths, devoured with curiosity to hear what their
elders might have to say with regard to the thrilling intelligence just
given; the two schoolboys looked cross and thundery, and it was
difficult to say which was the more exasperating to
beholders--Rowena's angry frown or Dreda's artificial smiles.
Gurth stamped a smoking cinder into the hearthrug, taking a malicious
pleasure in the scorch and smell which ensued. He was never too
patient, and this afternoon he felt that he had reached the end of his
tether.
"Oh, chuck it, Rowena!" he cried savagely. "What's the use of sitting
there looking like a tragedy queen? A jolly example you set, for the
eldest of a family. You look as if the whole thing was got up on
purpose to annoy you, and nobody had a right to be pitied except your
precious self. I don't see it a bit! I think you come off best of all. Your
education is finished, so you're bound to be all right!"
"Education!" echoed Rowena, in the tone of ineffable scorn natural to a
young woman who for months past had been basking in the prospect of
a presentation at court. "Education, indeed! Who cares for education? If
it is finished, what has it all been intended for, pray? To prepare me for
a life which I am not to have! Other girls have the best time of their
lives when they come out. They are taken about to see everything and
do everything which they have longed for all the time they have been
shut up at school. It's no wonder I feel bad at coming home to find I
have only escaped one prison for another. To live here all the year long!
What a prospect! There isn't a decent neighbour nearer than five
miles.--If this could only have happened a year or two later, after I had
had a little fun!"
"Rowena, how selfish! You think only of yourself, and not a bit of
anyone else--father or mother, or the boys, or--or Me!" cried Dreda,
smiting herself on the breast with dramatic empressement as she uttered
the last all-important word. "It won't be a bit easier for me when the

time comes, but I do hope and believe that I shall bear it bravely, and
try to be an example to the rest. It's our duty, you know, as the eldest
daughters of the house!"
"Oh, Dreda, stop preaching! It's too ridiculous. You to lecture me! For
that matter, you need not wait until you are finished to set me an
example. You can begin this very minute, for I don't believe for a
moment that father will be able to afford to send you to Madame
Clerc's. It's a frightfully expensive school, and he used to grumble at
the way my extras ran up, even before, when he was rich. I expect you
will have to finish at home with the Spider, and then she will go, and
you will have to set to work to teach Maud!"
"I shan't!" shrieked Dreda, and flamed a sudden violent red.
"She shan't!" shrieked Maud, at one and the same moment, her fair,
placid face flushing to the same crimson hue.
They faced each other like two infuriated turkey cocks--heads erect,
feathers ruffled, bodies swaying to and fro with indignation.
"As if I should!"
"As if I'd let you!"
"Teach her!"
"Teach me!"
"The very idea!"
"I'm 'stonished you should talk such nonsense, Rowena!"
Rowena laughed softly. It was the first time she had unbent since the
telling of the dread news. She put her head on one side and stared at
Dreda's furious face with an "I told you so!" expression which that
young lady found infinitely exasperating.
"Our dear Dreda, as usual, finds preaching easier than practice. You see,

my dear, when it comes to the point, you are not a bit more resigned
than I am myself. It's worse for me to give up all the fun of my first
season than for you to stay at home instead of going to school; the only
difference is that I