Hetty Gray | Page 3

and no questions have been asked. Unless it was much for her good I would fain hope that nobody ever will claim her now. Wild as she is, I've grown to love that little Hetty, so I have. Ah, here she is coming along, as hungry as a little pussy for her milk, I'll be bound!"
Hetty came trudging along the garden path, her curls standing up in a bush on her head, her little fat fingers stained green with grass, and her pinafore, no longer green, filled with moon-daisies. She was singing with her baby voice lifted bravely:
"Dust as I am I come to zee--"
"Dust indeed!" cried Mrs. Kane, "I never saw such dust. Only look at her shoes that I blacked this morning!"
"Poor dear, practising her singing," said Mrs. Ford. "Well, little lass, and what have you been seeing and doing all day long?"
"I saw big Ben poking his fire," answered Hetty after a moment's reflection. "He put me out, and then I saw him hurting the horses' feet with his hammer. I wanted the horses to come along with me, but they shook their heads and stayed where they were. Then I tried to catch the butterflies, and they flew right past my eyes. And I thought the yellow lilies could fly too, and they wouldn't. Then I pulled their heads off--"
"And were you not at school at all?" asked Mrs. Ford. "Well, well, Hetty, you are wild. If you saw my little boys going so good to their school! What more did you do, Hetty?"
"I went into school, and schoolmistress put me in a corner. Then I drew marks with my tears on the wall; and afterwards I said my spelling. And I came home and got some daisies; and I saw Charlie Ford standing in the pond with his shoes and stockings on."
"Oh my! oh my! well I never!" cried Mrs. Ford, snatching up her bonnet, and getting ready to go home in a hurry. "Charley in the pond with his shoes and stockings on! It seems, Mrs. Kane, that I've been praising him too soon!"
While Mrs. Ford was running down the road after Charley, Mrs. Enderby, up at Wavertree Hall, was directing her servants to carry the table for tea out upon the lawn under the wide-spreading beech-trees; and her two little daughters, Phyllis aged eight and Nell aged seven, were hovering about waiting to place baskets of flowers and strawberries on the embroidered cloth. Mrs. Rushton, sister-in-law of Mrs. Enderby and aunt of the children, was spending the afternoon at the Hall, having come a distance of some miles to do so.
Mrs. Enderby was a tall graceful lady, with a pale, gentle, but rather cold face; her dress was severely simple and almost colourless; her voice was sweet. Mrs. Rushton was unlike her in every respect, low in size, plump, smiling, and dressed in the most becoming and elegant fashion. Mrs. Enderby spoke slowly and with deliberation; Mrs. Rushton kept chattering incessantly.
"Well, Amy," said the former, "I hope you will talk to William about it, and perhaps he may induce you to change your mind. Here he is," as a gentleman was seen coming across the lawn.
Mrs. Rushton shrugged her shoulders. "My dear Isabel," she said, "I do not see what William has to do with it. I am my own mistress, and surely old enough to judge for myself."
The two little girls sprang to meet their father, and dragged him by the hands up to the tea-table.
"William," said Mrs. Enderby, "I want you to remonstrate with Amy."
"It seems to me I am always remonstrating with Amy," said Mr. Enderby smiling; "what wickedness is she meditating now?"
Mrs. Rushton laughed gaily, dipped a fine strawberry into cream and ate it. Her laugh was pleasant, and she had a general air of good humour and self-complacency about her which some people mistook for exceeding amiability.
"Isabel thinks I am going to destruction altogether," said she, preparing another strawberry for its bath of cream; "only because I am thinking of going abroad with Lady Harriet Beaton. Surely I have a right to arrange my own movements and to select my own friends."
Mr. Enderby looked very grave. "No one can deny your right to do as you please," he said; "but I hope that on reflection you will not please to go abroad with Lady Harriet Beaton."
"Why!"
"Surely you know she is not a desirable companion for you, Amy. I hope you have not actually promised to accompany her."
"Well, I think I have, almost. She is very gay and charming, and I cannot think why you should object to her. If I were a young girl of sixteen, instead of a widow with long experience, you could not make more fuss about the matter."
"As your brother I am bound to