Mrs Days Daughters | Page 5

the year. When the bills come in."
"How did you think Bessie looked to-night?"
"I thought my little Deleah was the belle of the ball."
"Deleah is a child only. You never have eyes but for Deleah."

"Bess was all right."
"I thought she looked so fair and sweet. Her neck and arms are like
milk, William. I wonder if Reggie Forcus--means anything?"
"Ba-a! Not he! No such luck."
"I really don't see why. I don't see why our girls should not have as
good luck as other people's. Reggie will marry some one, I suppose."
"Now, don't be a silly fool if you can help it; and don't encourage the
girl to run her head at any such nonsense. Francis Forcus will no more
allow his brother to marry your daughter than the queen will allow him
to marry one of hers. I told you that before."
"But Bessie--poor child--thinks differently."
"Tell Bessie not to be an ass then; and come to bed."
She went to bed; and, spite of her disturbing thoughts of Bessie and her
love affair, went to sleep.
"Oh, dear!" she said as she lay down. "What a lot of bother there'll be
for the servants, getting the house straight, tomorrow; and they so late
to bed! The drawing-room carpet to put down again, and all the
furniture to move into place. And it only seems the other day since we
went through the same thing on last New Year's Eve."
"Turning the house upside down is what women like. It's what they're
made for."
"I wonder how many more dances we shall have to give before both the
girls are married, and off our hands! I'm sure I shall never take the
trouble to give one for the boys."
"Shan't you, indeed!"
"Why do you speak like that, William? I don't know that I have said
anything for you to jeer at."

"Oh, go to sleep! And let's hope you won't have any worse troubles
than the laying down or taking up of a carpet."
The old servant Emily, who had lived with the Days since their
marriage, and was as much friend as servant to her mistress and the
young people, had once, in speaking of her master, made the
memorable pronouncement that he was "Apples abroad and crabs at
home." This speech, being interpreted, meant that the noisy, boisterous
good temper and high spirit which his acquaintances witnessed in him
did not always characterise the deportment of the head of the house in
the bosom of his family.
He lay for a time, staring at the dying fire which was on his side of the
room. He lay still, to let his wife believe he was asleep, but was too
irritable and restless to lie so for long. He turned about on his pillow,
cautiously at first, so as not to wake her; yet when she did not awake
was aggrieved, and sharply called her name.
"You sleep like a pig," he said. "I have not closed my eyes since I came
to bed."
The fact that she could sleep and he could not was to him a grievance
which dated from their marriage, twenty years ago. Poor Mrs. Day had
grown to think her predilection to indulge in slumber when she went to
bed was a failing to be apologised for and hidden, if possible. She was
often driven fictitiously to protest that she also had lain wakeful. He
received a like statement when she made it now in contemptuous
silence.
"I have been thinking about what you tell me of Bess and young
Forcus," the father said. "Of course, if there were, by chance, anything
in it it would be a very good thing for the girl."
"I am glad you see it in that light at last, William. I have always, of
course, known that it would be a good thing."
"What I have been thinking is, perhaps I had better go and see Francis
Forcus about it."

"Reggie's brother? Oh, no, William! I would not do that."
"And why not, pray? You and I can never look at a thing in the same
light for two minutes at a time. If I want to rest on my oars you're
badgering me to be up and doing. If I begin to see it's time for me to
interfere, it's 'Oh, no, William!' There never was your equal for
contradiction."
"All the same I should not go to Sir Francis."
"And why not? What's your reason? What is there against it? If his
brother, who is dependent on him for the present as if he were his son,
is going to marry my daughter, he and I will have to talk it over, I
suppose?"
"Yes. But not until Reggie has spoken to