The Golden Calf | Page 9

so of leisure allowed for the preparation of studies
and the writing of home letters. Miss Rylance unlocked her desk, and
took out her paper and pens; but, having got so far as this, she seemed
rather inclined to join in the conversation than to begin her letter.
'Isn't that rather a worldly idea for your time of life?' she asked, looking
at Ida with her usual unfriendly expression.
'No doubt. I should be disgusted if you or Bessie entertained such a
notion. But in me it is only natural. I have drained the cup of poverty to
the dregs. I thirst for the nectar of wealth. I would marry a soap-boiler,
a linseed-crusher, a self-educated navvy who had developed into a great
contractor--any plebian creature, always provided that he was an honest
man.'
'How condescending!' said Miss Rylance. 'I suppose, Bessie, you know
that Miss Pew has especially forbidden us all to indulge in idle talk
about courtship and marriage?'
'Quite so,' said Bessie; 'but as old Pew knows that we are human, I've
no doubt she is quite aware that this is one of her numerous rules which

we diligently set at nought.'
Urania began her letter, but although her pen moved swiftly over her
paper in that elegant Italian hand which was, as it were, a badge of
honour at Mauleverer Manor, her ears were not the less open to the
conversation going on close beside her.
'Marry a soap-boiler, indeed!' exclaimed Bessie, indignantly; 'you
ought to be a duchess!'
'No doubt, dear, if dukes went about the world, like King Cophetua, on
the look out for beggar-maids.'
'I am so happy to think you are coming to Kingthorpe! It is the dearest
old place. We shall be so happy!'
'It will not be your fault if we are not, darling,' said Ida, looking
tenderly at the loving face, uplifted to hers. 'Well, I have written to my
father to ask him for five pounds, and if he sends the five pounds I will
go to Kingthorpe. If not, I must invent an excuse--mumps, or measles,
or something--for staying away. Or I must behave so badly for the last
week of the term that old Pew will revoke her sanction of the intended
visit. I cannot come to Kingthorpe quite out at elbows.'
'You look lovely even in the gown you have on,' said Bessie.
'I don't know anything about my loveliness, but I know that this gown
is absolutely threadbare.'
Bessie, sighed despondently. She knew her friend's resolute temper,
and that any offer of clothes or money from her would be worse than
useless. It would make Ida angry.
'What kind of man is your father, darling?' she asked, thoughtfully.
'Very good-natured.'
'Ah! Then he will send the five pounds.'

'Very weak.'
'Ah! Then he may change his mind about it.'
'Very poor.'
'Then he may not have the money.'
'The lot is in the urn of fate, Bess, We must take our chance. I think,
somehow, that the money will come. I have asked for it urgently, for I
do want to come to Kingthorpe.' Bessie kissed her. 'Yes, dear, I wish
with all my heart to accept your kind mother's invitation; though I
know, in my secret soul, that it is foolishness for me to see the inside of
a happy home, to sit beside a hospitable hearth, when it is my mission
in life to be a dependent in the house of a stranger. If you had half a
dozen small sisters, now, and your people would engage me as a
nursery governess--'
'You a nursery governess!' cried Bessie, 'you who are at the top of
every class, and who do everything better than the masters who teach
you?'
'Well, if my perfection prove worth seventy pounds a-year when I go
out into the world, I shall be satisfied,' said Ida.
'What will you buy with your five pounds?' asked Bessie.
'A black cashmere gown, as plain as a nun's, a straw hat, and as many
collars, cuffs, and stockings as I can get for the rest of the money.'
Miss Rylance listened, smiling quietly to herself as she bent over her
desk. To the mind of an only daughter, who had been brought up in a
supremely correct manner, who had had her winter clothes and summer
clothes at exactly the right season, and of the best that money could buy,
there was a piteous depth of poverty and degradation in Ida Palliser's
position. The girl's beauty and talents were as nothing when weighed
against such sordid surroundings.

The prize-day came, a glorious day at the beginning of August, and the
gardens of Mauleverer Manor, the wide reach of blue river, the
meadows, the willows, the distant woods, all looked their loveliest, as
if Nature