The Fortunes of the Farrells | Page 4

"Carelessness!" replied Ruth shortly, and with the candour of near
relations. "I couldn't forget if I tried. First thing when I wake in the
morning I think of all the bothersome duties I have to do in the day, and
the last thing at night I am thinking of them still. But you are so

frivolous, Mollie!"
"And you are so morbid, my dear! You don't offer to help me, I observe;
and since you are so conscientious as all that, I should think you might
lend me a hand in my extremity. There! I'll give you Ransome's for a
treat; he breaks out at the toes, but his heels are intact. It's playwork
mending for him compared with the other boys."
She tossed a collection of brown woollen stockings into her sister's lap,
and Ruth took them up, frowning heavily with her black brows, but
never dreaming of refusing the request, though her own share of the
household mending had kept her employed during the earlier part of the
afternoon, while Mollie was amusing herself elsewhere. She took a
darning-egg out of her basket, threaded a needle daintily, and set to
work in the painstaking manner which characterised all her efforts; but
she sighed as she worked, and Mollie sang, and that was the difference
between them.
"Don't make such a noise, Mollie; you make my head ache. Another
time, I wish you would do your mending when I do mine, and then we
should get a chance of a rest. Just to-day, too, when the girls are out! I
hate a large family, where there is never any privacy or repose. I wish
the pater could afford to send the boys to a boarding-school. It would
be the making of them, and such a blessing to us."
Mollie pursed her lips disapprovingly.
"I'd miss them horribly. They are naughty, of course, and noisy and
tiresome, and make no end of work, but that's the nature of boys; on the
other hand, they are full of fun and good-humour, if you take them the
right way. And they are affectionate little ruffians, too; and so good-
looking. I'm proud of them on Sundays, in their Eton suits."
"But there's only one Sunday, and six long days of shabbiness and
patches! Bruce ought to have a new school suit; the one he is wearing
has descended from the other two, and is disgracefully shabby. I spoke
to mother about it to-day, and she said she had intended to buy one this
month, but business was bad, and there was the coal bill to pay. The old

story! Business always is bad, and the coal bill is ever with us!"
Mollie crinkled her brows, and for a fraction of a second her face
clouded.
"There's no hope for me, then! I was going to plead for an extra
sovereign to carry me to the end of the quarter, for I've spent my last
cent, and there are one or two absolute necessities which I shall have to
get by hook or by crook, or stay in bed until the next allowance is due.
Well; something will turn up, I suppose! It's always the darkest the
hour before the dawn, and, financially speaking, it's pitch black at the
present moment. Let's pretend Uncle Bernard suddenly appeared upon
the scene, and presented us each with a handsome cheque."
"I'm tired of Uncle Bernard! Ever since I was a child I have heard about
him and his eccentricities, and his house, and his wealth, and that we
were his nearest relatives, and that some day he would surely remember
us, and break his silence; but he never has, so now I look upon him as a
sort of mythological figure who has no real existence. If he cared
anything about us he would have written long ago. I expect he has
forgotten our very existence, and left all his money to charities."
"I expect he has, but it's fun to pretend. Suppose he remembered my
birthday and sent me a ten-pound note! Fancy me, my dear, with a
whole ten pounds to spend as I liked. What fun we'd have! Most of it
would have to go in useful things, but we'd take a sovereign or two and
have a reckless burst just to see what it was like. A hansom to town,
lunch at a real swagger restaurant; and, after that, good seats at a
matinee, ices between the acts, and another hansom home, instead of
shivering at the corner waiting for omnibuses. Oh, bliss! Oh, rapture! If
it could only come true! If uncle would once come to see us, he
couldn't help liking us; could he?"
"He'd like me best, because I am pretty," said Ruth calmly.
"He'd like me best, because I