Lady Connie | Page 7

that odd
gleam in the eyes under depths appeared again. But at last she said,
smiling--
"Thank you. But my muscles are quite strong enough for the only
exercise I want. You said I might have a horse, Uncle Ewen, didn't
you?" She turned eagerly to the master of the house.
Dr. Hooper looked at his wife with some embarrassment. "I want you
to have anything you wish for--in reason--my dear Connie; but your
aunt is rather exercised about the proprieties."
The small dried-up woman behind the tea-urn said sharply:
"A girl can't ride alone in Oxford--she'd be talked about at once!"
Lady Connie flushed mutinously.
"I could take a groom, Aunt Ellen!"
"Well, I don't approve of it," said Mrs. Hooper, in the half plaintive
tone of one who must speak although no one listens. "But of course
your uncle must decide."
"We'll talk it over, my dear Connie, we'll talk it over," said Dr. Hooper

cheerfully. "Now wouldn't you like Nora to show you to your room?"
The girls went upstairs together, Nora leading the way.
"It's an awful squash in your room," said Nora abruptly. "I don't know
how you'll manage."
"My fault, I suppose, for bringing so many things! But where else could
I put them?"
Nora nodded gravely, as though considering the excuse. The newcomer
suddenly felt herself criticised by this odd schoolgirl and resented it.
The door of the spare-room was open, and the girls entered upon a
scene of chaos. Annette rose from her knees, showing a brick-red
countenance of wrath that strove in vain for any sort of dignity. And
again that look of distant laughter came into Lady Connie's eyes.
"My dear Annette, why aren't you having a rest, as I told you! I can do
with anything to-night."
"Well, my lady, if you'll tell me how you'll get into bed, unless I put
some of these things away, I should be obliged!" said Annette, with a
dark look at Nora. "I've asked for a wardrobe for you, and this young
lady says there isn't one. There's that hanging cupboard"--she pointed
witheringly to the curtained recess--"your dresses will be ruined there
in a fortnight. And there's that chest of drawers. Your things will have
to stay in the trunks, as far as I can see, and then you might as well
sleep on them. It would give you more room!"
With which stroke of sarcasm, Annette returned to the angry unpacking
of her mistress's bag.
"I must buy a wardrobe," said Connie, looking round her in perplexity.
"Never mind, Annette, I can easily buy one."
It was now Nora's turn to colour.
"You mustn't do that," she said firmly. "Father wouldn't like it. We'll

find something. But do you want such a lot of things?"
She looked at the floor heaped with every variety of delicate mourning,
black dresses, thick and thin, for morning and afternoon; and black and
white, or pure white, for the evening. And what had happened to the
bed? It was already divested of the twilled cotton sheets and marcella
quilt which were all the Hoopers ever allowed either to themselves or
their guests. They had been replaced by sheets 'of the finest and
smoothest linen, embroidered with a crest and monogram in the corners,
and by a coverlet of old Italian lace lined with pale blue silk; while the
down pillows at the head with their embroidered and lace-trimmed slips
completed the transformation of what had been a bed, and was now
almost a work of art.
And the dressing-table! Nora went up to it in amazement. It too was
spread with lace lined with silk, and covered with a toilet-set of
mother-of-pearl and silver. Every brush and bottle was crested and
initialled. The humble looking-glass, which Nora, who was something
of a carpenter, had herself mended before her cousin's arrival, was
standing on the floor in a corner, and a folding mirror framed in
embossed silver had taken its place.
"I say, do you always travel with these things?" The girl stood
open-mouthed, half astonished, half contemptuous.
"What things?"
Nora pointed to the toilet-table and the bed.
Connie's expression showed an answering astonishment.
"I have had them all my life," she said stiffly. "We always took our
own linen to hotels, and made our rooms nice."
"I should think you'd be afraid of their being stolen!" Nora took up one
of the costly brushes, and examined it in wonder.
"Why should I be? They're nothing. They're just like other people's!"

With a slight but haughty change of manner, the girl turned away, and
began to talk Italian to her maid.
"I never saw anything like them!" said Nora stoutly.
Constance Bledlow took no notice. She and Annette were chattering
fast, and Nora could not understand a word. She