Tom and Some Other Girls | Page 6

the girl
gazed at him in surprise. Why did he look so sorry? Was he already
feeling the blank which her absence would leave? Did he fear that she
would be home-sick, and regret her hasty decision? She stared into his
face with her bright blue eyes, and her father gazed back, noting the
firm chin, the arched brows, the characteristic tilt of the head. This
overweening confidence of youth--he was asking himself
earnestly--was it altogether a misfortune, or but raw material out of
which great things were to be made in the future? Was it not better to
go forth to meet life's battle with a light heart and fearless tread than
trembling and full of doubt? Surely it was better, and yet his heart was

sore for the girl, as the heart of a leader must be sore when he sends his
soldiers to the front, knowing that no victory is won without a cost, no
fight without a scar. Something very like a tear glittered in the father's
eye, and at the sight Rhoda's face softened into a charming tenderness.
She snuggled her head into his neck, and rubbed her soft cheeks against
his, murmuring absurd little sentences of endearment, as to a child of
two years old.
"Whose pet is it, then? Whose own precious? The nicest old sweet in
the world."
Mr Chester pushed the girl aside, and put on a frown of portentous
ferocity to conceal the delight with which her demonstration had, in
reality, filled him. He loved to feel the sweep of the crisp locks, the
touch of the soft cheek; he even appreciated, if the truth must be told,
being addressed as a "precious," but wild horses would not have
induced him to confess as much, and he made haste to leave the room
with Harold lest perchance any sign of his real feelings might betray
themselves to the sharp feminine eye.
Left alone with her mother, Rhoda clasped her hands behind her back,
and paced slowly up and down. It was a relief, after all, to be rid of the
men, and be able to talk things over with a feminine hearer who never
brought forward inconvenient quibbles, who accepted statements as
facts, as of course they were, and agreed to propositions in a quiet,
reasonable manner. Rhoda thought out several important matters in that
march to and fro, and announced the result in a decisive manner.
"I must have a complete new outfit! I don't believe in taking half-worn
things. You can send them away to that poor clergyman in Ireland, with
the five daughters. Geraldine, isn't it, who `fits' my clothes? Well,
Geraldine shall have my blue silk, and the fawn jacket, and the blouses,
and the grey dress. If the arm-holes stick into her as much as they do
into me, she will wish I had never been invented. She can have my best
hat, too, if she wants it. I hate it, and at `Hurst' you never wear anything
but sailors', with the school colours. There is a blue house, and a pink,
and a green, and a yellow, and a red; that's the way they arrange in all
big schools, and I only hope and pray it won't be my fate to be yellow,

or what an image I'll look! Other things being equal, Mum dear, kindly
say you think the blue house would be best for my health and morals. I
want to live in, you understand, not out-- that's one point I have quite
decided."
"In what, dearest? Out of what? I don't understand what you mean."
"In school itself. There are three houses in the school building and three
in the grounds, and, of course, if you live `out' you have ten minutes'
walk over to classes, whatever the weather may be. I should object to
shivering across the first thing in the morning in rain and snow and
getting all splashed and blown. No one can call me a coddle, but I do
like comfort, and it would be a dreadful fag--"
"I should think so, indeed; most risky! I wouldn't hear of it for you. If
you go at all you must live in, and have a comfortable room, with a fire
in cold weather."
"Oh, well; I don't know if you can expect that. We mustn't be too
exacting. You will look after my clothes at once, mother, won't you?
for there will be so much to get. I want things nice, you know! I should
like the girls to see that I had decent belongings. I love having all the
little things complete and dainty. I think girls ought to be particular
about them. It's a sign of refinement. I can't endure shabby things round
me."
"Of course not, darling;