Kitabı oku: «Girls of the True Blue», sayfa 7
CHAPTER XIV. – “IT WAS NOT WORTH WHILE.”
It was a week later. Every one in the house had got accustomed to the presence of Captain Richmond, and Nan more fully, day by day, endorsed Nora’s and Kitty’s verdict with regard to him. He was delightful; he was kind; he was sunshiny. It seemed much easier to be good now that he was there. The children – even Augusta – were all anxious to please him, and at odd moments when lessons were over, and on half-holidays, he always had a pleasant scheme to propose, and would take his four nieces, as he called them, to all kinds of places which Nan had never seen before. When there, he had a way of singling her out, taking her hand, and explaining things to her, so that from the first she was his very special little friend.
A week went by in this fashion, and then all of a sudden, just when they least wished for it, came a pouring wet Sunday. It was early in June and the weather ought to have been fine. Captain Richmond said the clerk of the weather-office was seriously to blame; but whoever was wrong, the clouds were unmistakably there, and out of their sullen depths poured the rain without a moment’s intermission. The children had managed to go to church in the morning, but in the afternoon it was hopeless.
“Uncle Peter,” said Kitty, “come up to the schoolroom and let us have a cosy time.”
“I am quite agreeable,” replied the Captain.
“But, Peter,” said his sister-in-law, “I am expecting quite a number of guests this afternoon; you surely will not leave me in the cold!”
Uncle Peter put on a very wry face.
“You know, Jessie,” he answered, “that I am not at all fond of what may be called callers; I never know what to say to them, and I do not think they find me at all agreeable. May I not go and be happy in my own way with the children?”
“Very well,” said Mrs. Richmond in a resigned voice; “but please send Augusta downstairs, for she always helps me so nicely to entertain my Sunday visitors.”
“And now come, Uncle Peter – do not let us delay – come at once,” said Kitty.
So, with Kitty hanging on one arm and Nora appropriating the other, the Captain made his way to the schoolroom. Here he was welcomed with shouts of glee by Nan and Augusta. Chairs were pulled forward, and the little party settled themselves in a happy circle.
“Oh Gussie!” said Kitty all of a sudden, “I quite forgot; mother wants you to go downstairs and help her entertain the Sunday visitors.”
“Oh, but I won’t! It is quite too bad,” said Augusta, flushing with indignation. “Why should I?”
“You do most Sundays, and you always said you liked it so much.”
“Well, I won’t go now; it is not fair. – I need not go, need I, Uncle Peter?”
“You must arrange that with your aunt, Augusta; it is not my affair.”
Once again Captain Richmond put on that straight look which Augusta both adored and feared. It always caused her heart to palpitate, and gave her a sensation of longing to be quite a different girl from what she really was. She got up now, frowning as she did so.
“It is too bad,” she said – “just when we were going to have real fun.”
“If you like, Augusta,” suddenly said Nan, “I will go down when half the time is up, and you can come back. I dare say Mrs. Richmond will not mind; she only wants some one just to hand round the cups of tea.”
“Oh no; that would never do,” said Captain Richmond. “I will go down when half the time is up and send you back, Augusta. Nan is too young to be initiated into the ways of drawing-room folks.”
So Augusta had to go, very unwillingly, and the two little sisters and Nan were alone with the Captain.
“Now, Uncle Peter,” said Kitty the moment the door closed behind Augusta, “we want you to be your very nicest self.”
“And what is my nicest self?” he answered.
“We want you to be your exciting self.”
“You quite mystify me, Kitty. I should like to know when I am nicest. And I never knew before that I was exciting.”
“But you are when you make schemes.”
“Oh! that is it, is it?”
“And we want a big, big scheme now – something to last us for months – something to – You know what I mean, don’t you, Noney?”
“To rouse us all up – to make us walk with our heads in the air,” said Nora.
“Dear me! How very funny!”
“We want to be soldiers. Do you not remember you talked to us before about being soldiers? Let us be soldiers for a bit, and make lovely plans, and you be our captain,” said Kitty again.
“Well, of course you can be soldiers; that is easy enough.”
“But you must settle a sort of victory time for us – a great big reward time – and let it come three months from now, after we come back from the summer holidays, or perhaps before. Plan it all out, Uncle Peter; plan everything out as straight as possible. Make us soldiers, and give us a battle to fight.”
“Dear me!” said Uncle Peter, “this is quite a Sunday afternoon talk. Do you mean it in the religious sense?”
“Oh yes, if you like; but what we want is to have something to fight hard about. – Don’t you think so, Nan?”
Nan’s face had turned very white; her eyes, shining with intense earnestness, fixed themselves on Captain Richmond’s face.
“A sort of moral battle,” said the Captain. “Well, of course it can be done. I will plan it all out and tell you what we will do to-morrow; I cannot think of it in an instant. Those who wish to join must be regularly enrolled as soldiers.”
“Soldiers under Captain Richmond,” laughed Nora – “or Captain Peter, as we always call you. You will have to set us things to do, and you will have to write to us from Aldershot, and you must make a whole lot of punishments if we go wrong. Oh! it will be exciting – quite splendid.”
Just then Miss Roy came into the room.
“How cosy you all look!” she said “What is up?”
“We are frightfully excited,” said Nan. “We are going to be turned into soldiers, and we are going to fight under the banner of Captain Peter. This is our captain,” she added, touching the young soldier’s arm with great affection; “there is nothing we would not do for him – nothing.”
“I declare you quite touch me,” said the good-natured fellow. “Well, I will think something out and let you know to-morrow. Now let us talk of something commonplace.”
The conversation was merry and full of laughter; the wet afternoon was forgotten. Augusta came back long before they expected her.
“There are no visitors,” she said, “and Aunt Jessie did not want me.”
“I was just coming down, but this is much pleasanter,” – said the Captain.
“Oh Augusta! we have something wonderful to tell you,” said Nora. “Sit right down here in this comfortable chair. – Please, Uncle Peter, tell her.”
“Oh! it is a wild scheme of these little folk,” he answered. “I do not suppose a great tall girl like Augusta will join under any consideration whatever. Well, it is this, my dear niece Gussie – these children want to become soldiers.”
“Play soldiers?” asked Augusta.
“No, not exactly, but good, tough, moral soldiers; and they want to enlist under me, and I am to help them, forsooth! I will draw up plans, and those who want to join can be enrolled to-morrow afternoon. But I do not suppose you will care about it.”
“Oh yes, but I will!” said Augusta. Her eyes wore a startled look; a red flush came into her cheeks. She looked at Nan, who shuffled uneasily and looked down.
“I shall join,” she said the next moment; “it sounds very exciting, and the sort of thing I should like.”
“Then there will be four of us. – Perhaps Miss Roy will join too?” said Kitty.
“Yes, dear; I should quite like to,” said the governess. “I want something to stimulate me, and I should like to serve under Captain Peter.”
“Then I shall deserve my captaincy,” said the young man. – “And now, chicks, I am going away, for you have given me a pretty nut to crack. We will arrange to meet here at six o’clock tomorrow, when I shall have all my plans drawn up.”
When the Captain left the room the four children were silent for a short time; then Miss Roy burst in.
“My dears,” she said, “the clouds are breaking; there is a ray of sunshine. We will have tea immediately, and then get ready to go to evening service.”
As Nan knelt in church she thought of Captain Peter, and wondered what sort of soldier she would turn out under his leadership.
“If it were not for Augusta I should be the happiest of girls,” she thought. “I do hope that to be one of his soldiers will mean lots of hard lessons and stiff sort of things to do, and it won’t mean being good and straight and honourable. Oh! I do hope and trust he won’t want us to be any of those, for I am not straight, Gussie is not straight. Oh dear! oh dear! it is exciting. I am afraid.”
Augusta rather avoided Nan that evening, to Nan’s own great relief. The next day brought as usual a rush of work, with no opportunity for any private talks, and it was not until a few minutes to six that Augusta and Nan found themselves alone.
Nan had gone into her room to brush her hair, preparatory to the Captain’s visit, when there came a tap at her door and in walked Gussie.
“Well, Nan,” she said, “are you prepared for this?”
“Prepared for what?” asked Nancy.
“You know what I mean: for this sort of soldier business – folly, I call it. Of course, I am going to join; but are you?”
“Yes, Augusta, I am,” said Nancy. She spoke in a very firm voice.
“Well, all right; you know what it means, I suppose. There will be a lot of morality in the matter.”
“What do you mean by morality?”
“Keeping straight – keeping in the centre of that road where you want to walk, but where you never do walk. I thought I would warn you. If you are thinking of doing what the others are going to do, you will have an impossible time; but do not say I did not warn you.”
“No, I won’t, Augusta. Oh! please remember that you are not” —
“That I am not what?”
“That you are not going quite straight yourself.”
“You little wretch!” said Augusta. “If you ever dare – dare to breathe what I in a moment of kindness helped you to do, won’t you catch it from me? You do not know what I can be when I am really your enemy. Your own position, too; what are you in this house? A nobody. There! I will say no more.”
Augusta ran out of the room. Nan stood white and trembling. She clasped her hands together; her eyes, brimful of tears, were fixed on the window.
“How am I to bear it?” she thought. “Just when I was beginning to be so happy! Why am I so awfully miserable? I wonder what it means. I do think that I really quite hate Augusta.”
Just then Kitty’s gay voice was heard.
“Come, Nancy; our captain will arrive in a minute or two, and he will want all the soldiers to be waiting for him.”
Kitty’s laughing face, wreathed in smiles, was poked round the door. Nan made an effort to cheer up.
“How white you look!” said Kitty. “Is anything worrying you?”
“Oh no; nothing really.”
“I thought you would be so glad about this! You do not know what heavenly plans Uncle Peter is always making up. I will tell you about some of his funny plans when we were children another time; but of course there is nothing like this, and it was my thought to begin. You will see how splendidly he will draw up his rules, and how easy and yet how difficult it will be to obey them. He has a sort of way of searching through you, and dragging the best out of you, and crushing down the bad in you. Oh, he is a darling! He is like no one else in the world.”
“I think so too,” said Nan.
“And yet you look so sad, Nancy! I am sure you need not be, for every one is so fond of you! And as for Uncle Peter, there is hardly anything he would not do for you. He always calls you his dear little new niece; he is quite as fond of you as if you were his real niece.”
“Is he – is he really?” said Nan. “Would he be as fond of me if he knew” —
“Knew what, Nan?”
“That I – Oh Kitty! you know that I have no money, and you know that” —
“Now stop,” said Kitty. “If you do want to make me angry you will talk of that sort of thing again; it is very unfair of you after what mother said.”
“Oh, then, I won’t – I won’t!”
“If that is all that is worrying you, cheer up; Uncle Peter does not want sad faces.”
“And if – Suppose – suppose I was not good at any time, would he hate me then?” asked the little girl.
“I am sure he would not. Once, do you know, I did such a naughty thing! I spilt a lot of ink on the carpet. I was a tiny child, and when Miss Roy came in – Miss Roy had not been with us more than a month, and I did not know how kind she would be – I said pussy had jumped on the table; and I had scarcely said it before Uncle Peter came in – he was staying in the house, you know. He sat down by the fire. It was wintertime, and he asked me to come and sit on his knee; and he put his arm round me, and I sat there so cosy, though I had a big, big ache in my heart. Miss Roy quite believed me about pussy, and she got the ink wiped up, and washed the carpet with milk, so that it should not show; and then she went out of the room, and I nestled up close to Uncle Peter. There was a big pain in my heart. Uncle Peter looked straight down at me.
“You see how the milk has taken out the ink; you can scarcely see it at all now,” he said; and then he raised my face and looked into my eyes, and he said, “Kitty, it was not worth while.”
Then I knew that he knew; and, oh, I cried so! And I said, “Did you hear?” And he said, “I saw you spill the ink, and I heard.”
“And, oh! I was so sad, and he comforted me. He was not angry after the first, but he got me to go straight up to Miss Roy and tell her the truth. It was awfully hard to do, but I did it; and then he forgave me, and I had no more pain in my heart. Come now, Nan – come.”
“I want to kiss you first,” said Nan. “Kitty, you do not know how much I love you. I love you better at this moment than I have ever done before.”
CHAPTER XV. – SOLDIERS OF THE TRUE BLUE
The schoolroom was very daintily arranged; there were flowers on the mantelpiece and on a little table, near which an arm-chair had been placed for Uncle Peter. On the table were some sheets of foolscap paper, a bottle of ink, pen, blotting-paper, &c. Just as the children entered, the door was opened and Uncle Peter himself came in. He generally wore a smiling face, but now he looked grave and determined. He walked across the room with, as Nan expressed it, his most military step. He stopped when he came opposite the children, and bowed gravely to them, and then sat down in the chair.
“It is too exciting for anything!” thought Kitty. “How is he going to begin? I am sure he has made all his plans. I can judge that by his face; it is the sort of face which makes me thrill and want to do anything in the world for him.”
Miss Roy had taken her place with the children. She looked grave and earnest, too, and Augusta for a wild moment wished she was out of it. Then the Captain raised his eyes. He had been arranging the paper before him, and trying the pen to see if it would write smoothly. Now he began to address the little group in front of him.
“I have been thinking over our scheme,” he said in his most pleasant voice; “and if you are all determined, I want you to take, not an oath to me – nothing of that sort – but to take a promise, by which you will be enrolled. The regiment in which you will be members we will call the Royal True Blue. I am its captain, general, or what you will; and, as far as possible, the rules which will guide your conduct will be much the same rules as a real regiment which serve our King would have. Loyalty will be its motto. There are three ways in which the soldiers can serve in the Royal True Blue. They can serve by keen attention to intellectual matters, by keen attention to physical matters, and by keen attention to morals.”
Miss Roy nodded her head as each of these remarks fell from the Captain’s lips.
“I quite agree with you,” she said; and then she coloured slightly.
The Captain looked at her and gave a smile.
“There will be,” he said, “different grades, of course; month by month the soldiers will rise to higher and higher responsibilities. There will be an orderly-book, in which Miss Roy, in my absence, must write down the events of every day truthfully, exactly as they occur to her. Neglect of the different heads under which the soldiers serve will merit punishment; careful attention to these details will merit rewards. I shall visit the soldiers’ camp at least every month, have a consultation with Miss Roy, who will be my sergeant, and measure out my rewards and punishments accordingly. I should like this scheme to continue until the end of the summer holidays, when to the victorious soldier I will award, if she deserves it, something similar to the Victoria Cross. It will be a cross made of silver, tied with blue ribbon, and will be as far as possible an imitation of the cross which her late beloved Majesty gave to her most distinguished soldiers. Perhaps you all understand what alone wins a Victoria Cross? It is given ‘for valour’ – for valour, as a rule, in the field of battle. Now, as you are all soldiers you must have a field of battle. Your battlefield is in this house; wherever you are together, whether you are in the country or in town; in your school; in your own rooms, when you lie down and when you rise up: at all times you soldiers of the Royal True Blue will be in the battlefield, and doubtless a time for valour will arrive – when one of you will endanger herself for the sake of another. It is possible that none of these soldiers will win the Royal Cross, but I mean to hold it out as an incentive – the very best I can give. And now, children, I have lectured enough; will you each in turn come forward and make the necessary promise?”
“Oh, this is dreadful!” said Augusta; she squeezed Nan’s hand in her excitement. “I – I do not think I can.”
“But I can,” said Nan. “I can; I mean to.”
“What is it, Augusta – are you frightened?” said the Captain. “Oh, come! you promised to join; do not draw back now. You do not know what a world of good it will do you. This scheme means bracing; it means a strong effort to do the right. Come! if you live in this house you will have a dull time if you are not a soldier.”
“All right,” said Augusta; “but I will not be the first to take the promise.”
“Then you shall be the first, Kitty,” said the Captain; “that is only right, for it is your scheme.”
Kitty rose from her chair and came forward. Captain Richmond had some small pieces of blue ribbon fastened with silver mottoes. He held one of these up, and Kitty approached. He took her hand, looked solemnly into her eyes, and said:
“Are you willing to serve in the Royal True Blue as a soldier of the King of Heaven? Are you willing to obey the rules of the regiment, to be loyal and true, to shun what is deceitful and wrong? Are you willing?”
“Yes,” said Kitty.
Then the Captain bent forward and kissed her.
“This is our seal of consecration,” he said; “and here is your motto. Wear it openly when you like, or when you do not care to show it to the world keep it safely hidden, but never lose it. On the day it is taken from you you are disgraced; you lose this ribbon as a soldier loses his sword – only by public disgrace.”
Kitty went back to her seat trembling and with tears in her eyes. The same promise was exacted from the others, and then Captain Richmond looked at the four.
“I am very proud of my battalion,” he said, “and I think you will all do well, soldiers of the Royal True Blue. Now, I want to give you a few directions. There are three distinct paths in which the soldiers must walk. First, there is the path of intellect. Now, that means great attention to your lessons at school; it means diligent reading. I do not mean that kind of slippery reading which goes on when one is thinking of a hundred things at the same time: I do not mean the reading of silly novels. I mean the reading of good books, stimulating, with nice thoughts in them. There is nothing to my mind like the life of a soldier, and there is nothing more splendid than to read accounts of what brave soldiers have done; and as you five are now soldiers, you might, during the months that you servo under me, read as many books about soldiers as possible. I can furnish you with a list. I believe such reading will do you a lot of good. This, of course, is not a command of mine; it is a suggestion which you may like to carry out. In the orderly-book there will be careful reports of your transgressions in intellectual respects; the number of bad marks at school, the getting down to the bottom of your form, lateness also in attending your different classes, will all mean marks against you. On the other hand, diligence in learning, briskness and anxiety to excel, will mean good marks. I will explain the marks to my sergeant, Miss Roy, presently. So much for intellect. Now we come to the physical part of the scheme. I believe very strongly in physical exercise. I do not mean the sort of exercise which tires one to death – over-cycling, for instance, or playing lawn-tennis too long – but I do mean steady exercise every day; and part of your duties will be your drill. I will speak to Mrs. Richmond, and she will get a real army sergeant to come here daily to drill you. You will feel as you are marching, and turning from right to left, and going through the different manœuvres that you are real soldiers, and it will do you a world of good. Other exercise ought also to be taken, and under this head I would advocate early rising. I would also advocate order and neatness. Each day ought to be planned out, and there ought to be very little time for idling, for a real soldier in the enemy’s country has to be on the alert morning, noon, and night. He ought never to be away from his post; he ought to watch for the approach of the enemy at every corner, at every unexpected point. We now come to the third head, which surely is the most important of all, for in my regiment, the Royal True Blue, I want to have soldiers worthy of the name: a coward would be detestable to me; a liar could not be borne. I want my soldiers to be straight, to be upright, to be honourable; I want them to walk in the middle of the road.”
“Oh! oh!” suddenly came from Nan’s lips.
The Captain gave her a long, penetrating glance. She coloured, and dropped her head.
“It can be done,” he said, “but it is not specially easy; and I hope it will be done. And now, surely we have had enough morality and enough solemn talk even for the soldiers of the True Blue. I propose an entertainment this evening. I have consulted with your mother, and she gives me leave to take you all to the theatre – yes, every single one of you – to see a fine play about a soldier and how he acted under difficulties.”
The wild delight of the children at this last announcement can be better understood than explained. Captain Richmond knew what he was about; he knew that the eager young minds had gone through sufficient strain. The girls rushed off to their rooms, and the Captain and Miss Roy were alone.
“It is very good of you to join this,” he said, turning to the governess.
“I like it,” she replied. “Whether the children can stand this somewhat severe discipline remains to be proved.”
“I believe they can; they have all character,” replied the Captain. “I shall be deeply interested to know how this experiment progresses. I will give you your orderly-book to-morrow, and explain to you how the marks are to be put down. There is only one thing, however, Miss Roy – there must be no favouritism; you must be as strict and as severe with your favourite, Kitty, as you are with Augusta, whom I do not think you much care about.”
“I do not,” replied Miss Roy. “I do not understand her. She is popular with most people; Mrs. Richmond is very much attached to her, and Kitty and Nora are fond of her.”
“But Nan is not,” said the Captain.
“No,” replied Miss Roy; “Nan is afraid of her.”
“I have seen that from the first,” replied Captain Richmond; “and, to tell you the truth, in planning my rules I thought a good deal both of Nancy and Augusta. This thing will try them both pretty stoutly; I have no doubt that in the end all will be well. And now, one more word in your ear: I do not think I ever met a dearer little girl than Nancy Esterleigh.”
“She is a sweet child,” replied Miss Roy; “and she was very, very happy with us before Augusta came.”
The children, now all dressed for their evening’s entertainment, came into the room. Captain Richmond had ordered a carriage; it was now at the door, and the happy party, including Miss Roy, started off for their evening’s pleasure.
In the play a soldier received the Victoria Cross. He was one who had been snubbed and looked down upon, and always shoved into the cold: he had been overlooked when others were promoted; when others were ordered to the front, he was expected to stay behind in England; the girl he loved was given to a man over his head. Everything seemed to be against him, but never once through all these trying circumstances did he lose his brightness, his freshness, his courage. He had a gay and cheerful word for each comrade and for each friend, and in the end his chance came: he managed to get to the front – how, it does not matter; he rescued another at the risk of his own life – how, does not matter either; the thing that matters is that he received that decoration of all others the most thrilling, the most ennobling, the Cross of the Order of Victoria.
Nan’s little face turned white with excitement as she watched the progress of the play; and at last, when the happy soldier was decorated for valour in the field, she burst into tears.
Captain Richmond took her hand, and bent and whispered to her:
“Odds against, but he won,” was his remark. “Cheer up, Nancy; you too can win.”
“Even if the odds are against me?” she whispered back.
“Ah! of course. Look well to the front, soldier of the True Blue.”
