Sparrows | Page 6

Mrs Devitt.
"Your old schoolmistress!" remarked Miss Spraggs.
"I didn't know she was alive," went on Mrs Devitt. "She writes from
Brandenburg College, Aynhoe Road, West Kensington Park, London,
asking me to do something for her."
"Of course!" commented the agreeable rattle.
"How did you know?" asked Mrs Devitt, looking up from the letter she
was reading with the help of glasses.
"Didn't you know that there are two kinds of letters: those you want and
those that want something?" asked Miss Spraggs, in a way that showed
she was conscious of saying a smart thing.
"I can hardly believe human nature to be so depraved as you would
make it out to be, Eva," remarked Mrs Devitt, who disliked the fact of
her unmarried sister possessing sharper wits than her own.
"Oh! I say, is that your own?" guffawed Devitt from his place on the
hearthrug.
"Why shouldn't it be?" asked Miss Spraggs demurely.
"Anyway," continued Mrs Devitt impatiently, "she wishes to know if I
am in want of a companion, or anything of that sort, as she has a
teacher she is unable to keep owing to her school having fallen on bad
times."
"Then she's young!" cried Lowther, who was lolling near the window.
"'Her name is Mavis Keeves; she is the only daughter of the late
Colonel Keeves, who, I believe, before he was overtaken by misfortune,
occupied a position of some importance in the vicinity of Melkbridge,'"

read Mrs Devitt from Miss Annie Mee's letter.
"Keeves! Keeves!" echoed her husband.
"Do you remember him?" asked his wife.
"Of course," he replied. "He was a M.F.H. and knew everyone"
(everyone was here synonymous with the elect the Devitts were pining
to meet on equal terms). "His was Sir Henry Ockendon's place."
The prospects of Mavis Keeves securing employment with the Devitts
had, suddenly, increased.
"How was it he came 'down'?" asked the agreeable rattle, keenly
interested in anything having to do with the local aristocracy, past or
present.
"The old story: speculatin' solicitors," replied Montague, who made a
point of dropping his "g's." "One week saw him reduced from money to
nixes."
Mrs Devitt raised her eyebrows.
"I mean nothin'," corrected Devitt.
"How very distressing!" remarked Victoria in her exquisitely
modulated voice. "We should try and do something for her."
"We will," said her father.
"We certainly owe a duty to those who were once our neighbours,"
assented Miss Spraggs.
"Do you remember her?" asked Mrs Devitt of her husband.
"Of course I do, now I come to think of it," he replied.
"What was she like?"

He paused for a moment or two before replying.
"She'd reddy sort of hair and queer eyes. She was a fine little girl, but a
fearful tomboy," said Devitt.
"Pretty, then!" exclaimed Mrs Devitt, as she glanced apprehensively at
her step-daughter.
"She was then. It was her hair that did it," answered her husband.
"H'm!" came from his wife.
"The pretty child of to-day is the plain girl of to-morrow" commented
Miss Spraggs.
"What was her real disposition?" asked Mrs Devitt.
"I know nothin' about that; but she was always laughin' when I saw
her."
"Frivolous!" commented Mrs Devitt.
"Perhaps there's more about her in the letter," suggested Lowther, who
had been listening to all that had been said.
"There is," said his step-mother; "but Miss Mee's writing is very trying
to the eyes."
Montague took the schoolmistress's letter from his wife's hand. He read
the following in his big, blustering voice:
"'In all matters affectin' Miss Keeves's educational qualifications, I find
her comme il faut, with the possible exception of freehand drawing,
which is not all that a fastidious taste might desire. Her disposition is
winnin' and unaffected, but I think it my duty to mention that, on what
might appear to others as slight provocation, Miss Keeves is apt to give
way to sudden fits of passion, which, however, are of short duration.
Doubtless, this is a fault of youth which years and experience will
correct.'"

"Rebellious!" commented Mrs Devitt.
"Spirit!" said Harold, who all this while had been reclining in his
invalid chair, apparently reading a review.
Mrs Devitt looked up, as if surprised.
"After all, everything depends on the point of view," remarked Miss
Spraggs.
"Is there any more?" asked Harold.
By way of reply, his father read from Miss Mee's letter:
"'In conclusion, I am proud to admit that Miss Keeves has derived
much benefit from so many years' association with one who has
endeavoured to influence her curriculum with the writin's of the late Mr
Ruskin, whose acquaintance it was the writer's inestimable privilege to
enjoy. With my best wishes for your welfare, I remain, dear Madam,
your obedient servant, Annie Allpress Mee.' That's all," he added, as he
tossed the letter on to the table