The Mistletoe Bough | Page 9

here again poor Bessy was made to understand how
terribly difficult was this experiment of entertaining on a footing of
friendship a lover with whom she had quarrelled only a month or two
before. That she must as a necessity become the partner of Godfrey
Holmes she had already calculated, and so much she was prepared to
endure. Her brothers would of course dance with the Coverdale girls,
and her father would of course stand up with Isabella. There was no
other possible arrangement, at any rate as a beginning.
She had schooled herself, too, as to the way in which she would speak
to him on the occasion, and how she would remain mistress of herself
and of her thoughts. But when the time came the difficulty was almost
too much for her.
"You do not care much for dancing, if I remember?" said he.
"Oh yes, I do. Not as Patty Coverdale does. It's a passion with her. But
then I am older than Patty Coverdale." After that he was silent for a
minute or two.
"It seems so odd to me to be here again," he said. It was odd;--she felt
that it was odd. But he ought not to have said so.
"Two years make a great difference. The boys have grown so much."
"Yes, and there are other things," said he.
"Bella was never here before; at least not with you."
"No. But I did not exactly mean that. All that would not make the place
so strange. But your mother seems altered to me. She used to be almost
like my own mother."
"I suppose she finds that you are a more formidable person as you grow
older. It was all very well scolding you when you were a clerk in the
bank, but it does not do to scold the manager. These are the penalties
men pay for becoming great."
"It is not my greatness that stands in my way, but--"
"Then I'm sure I cannot say what it is. But Patty will scold you if you
do not mind the figure, though you were the whole Board of Directors
packed into one. She won't respect you if you neglect your present
work."

When Bessy went to bed that night she began to feel that she had
attempted too much. "Mamma," she said, "could I not make some
excuse and go away to Aunt Mary?"
"What now?"
"Yes, mamma; now; to-morrow. I need not say that it will make me
very unhappy to be away at such a time, but I begin to think that it will
be better."
"What will papa say?"
"You must tell him all."
"And Aunt Mary must be told also. You would not like that. Has he
said anything?"
"No, nothing;--very little, that is. But Bella has spoken to me. Oh,
mamma, I think we have been very wrong in this. That is, I have been
wrong. I feel as though I should disgrace myself, and turn the whole
party here into a misfortune."
It would be dreadful, that telling of the story to her father and to her
aunt, and such a necessity must, if possible, be avoided. Should such a
necessity actually come, the former task would, no doubt, be done by
her mother, but that would not lighten the load materially. After a
fortnight she would again meet her father, and would be forced to
discuss it. "I will remain if it be possible," she said; "but, mamma, if I
wish to go, you will not stop me?" Her mother promised that she would
not stop her, but strongly advised her to stand her ground.
On the following morning, when she came down stairs before breakfast,
she found Frank standing in the hall with his gun, of which he was
trying the lock. "It is not loaded, is it, Frank?" said she.
"Oh dear, no; no one thinks of loading now-a-days till he has got out of
the house. Directly after breakfast I am going across with Godfrey to
the back of Greystock, to see after some moor-fowl. He asked me to go,
and I couldn't well refuse."
"Of course not. Why should you?"
"It will be deuced hard work to make up the time. I was to have been
up at four this morning, but that alarum went off and never woke me.
However, I shall be able to do something to-night."
"Don't make a slavery of your holidays, Frank. What's the good of
having a new gun if you're not to use it?"
"It's not the new gun. I'm not such a child as that comes to. But, you see,

Godfrey is here, and one ought to be civil to him. I'll tell you what I
want you girls to do, Bessy. You must come