CHAPTER XVII.
THE LEISURE HOURS
School-life began in real earnest, and school-life at Aylmer House was so stimulating, so earnest, so invigorating, that all that was best in each girl was brought to the fore. There was an admirable time-table, which allowed the girls periods for play as well as the most suitable hours for work. In addition, each day there were what were called the “leisure hours.” These were from five to seven o’clock each evening. The leisure hours began immediately after tea, and lasted until the period when the girls went to their rooms to dress for dinner. During these two hours they were allowed to do precisely what they pleased.
Mrs. Ward was most particular that no teacher should interfere with her girls during the leisure hours. From the very first she had insisted on this period of rest and absolute relaxation from all work. Work was strictly forbidden in the school from five to seven, and it was during that period that the queens of the school generally exercised their power. Aneta then usually found herself surrounded by her satellites in one corner of the girls’ own special sitting-room, and Maggie was in a similar position at the farther end. Aneta’s satellites were always quiet, sober, and well-behaved; Maggie’s, it is sad to relate, were a trifle rowdy. There is something else also painful to relate – namely, that Merry Cardew cast longing eyes from time to time in the direction of that portion of the room where Maggie and her friends clustered.
The girls had been about a fortnight at school, and work was in full swing, when Kathleen, springing from her seat, said abruptly, “Queen, I want to propose something.”
“Well, what is it?” asked Maggie, who was lying back against a pile of cushions and supplying herself daintily from a box of chocolates which her adorers had purchased for her.
“I want us all,” said Kathleen, “to give a party to the other queen and her subjects; and I want it to be about the very jolliest entertainment that can be found. We must, of course, ask Mrs. Ward’s leave; but she is certain to give it.”
“I don’t know that she is,” said Maggie.
“Oh, she is – certain sure,” said Kathleen. “May I go and ask her now?”
“Do you dare?” said Rosamond Dacre, looking at Kitty’s radiant face with some astonishment.
“Dare!” cried Irish Kitty. “I don’t know the meaning of anything that I don’t dare. I am off. I’ll bring you word in a few minutes, girls.” She rushed out of the room.
Janet Burns looked after her, slightly raising her brows. Rosamond Dacre and the two Roaches began to sound her praises. “She is sweet, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” said Clara; “and I do so love her pretty Irish brogue.”
“Mother tells me,” said Janet, who was Scotch, “that Irish characters are not much good – they’re not reliable, I mean.”
“Oh, what a shame!” said Matty Roache.
“I don’t think we need discuss characters,” said Maggie. “I don’t know a great deal about the Irish, but I do know that Kitty is a darling.”
“Yes, so she is – one of the sweetest girls in the whole school,” said Molly Tristram, who was quite as excited as Kathleen herself with regard to the party scheme.
Meantime Kitty found herself tapping at Mrs. Ward’s private door. Mrs. Ward said, “Come in,” and the pretty girl, with her great dark-blue eyes and wild-rose complexion, entered abruptly.
“Well, Kathleen?” said Mrs. Ward in her pleasant tone.
“Oh, please, Mrs. Ward, I’ve come with such a lovely scheme.”
“And you want me to help you?”
“Oh yes, please, do say you will before I let you into the secret!”
“I can’t do that, dear; you must just tell me what is in your mind, and be satisfied with my decision. The only thing that I can assure you beforehand is that if it is a workable scheme, and likely to give you great pleasure, I will do my best to entertain it.”
“Then we’re certain to have it – certain,” said Kathleen.
“It was I who thought of it. You will forgive me if I speak out just as plainly as possible?”
“Of course, Kathleen dear.”
“Well, you know you are the head-mistress.”
“That is scarcely news to me, my child.”
“And people, as a rule,” continued Kathleen, “respect their head-mistress.”
“Dear me,” said Mrs. Ward with a smile, “have you come here, Kathleen, to say that you don’t respect me?”
“Respect you!” said Kathleen. “We do a jolly lot more than that. We adore you! We love you! You’re – you’re a sort of – of mother to us.”
“That is what I want to be,” said Mrs. Ward with fervor, and she took the girl’s hand and smoothed it gently.
“I often want to hug you, and that’s a fact,” said Kathleen.
“You may kiss me now if you like, Kitty.”
“Oh, Mrs. Ward!” Kitty bent down and bestowed a reverent kiss on that sweet face.
“I have permitted you to kiss me, Kitty,” said Mrs. Ward, “in order to show you that I sympathize with you, as I do with all my dear girls. But now, what is the matter?”
“Well, the fact is this. We want, during the ‘leisure hours’ to give a party.”
“Is that all? Do you all want to give a party?”
“Our side wants to give a party, and we want to invite the other side to it.”
“But what do you mean by ‘our side’ and ‘the other side’?”
“Oh, Mrs. Ward! you know – of course you know – that Aneta and Maggie divide the school.”
“I know,” said Mrs. Ward after a pause, “that Aneta has considerable influence, and that Maggie also has influence.”
“Those two girls divide the school,” said Kathleen, “the rest of us follow them. As a matter of fact, we only follow our leaders in the leisure hours; but as they come every day a good deal can be done in that time, can’t it?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Ward, and her tone was not exactly cheerful. “On which side are you, Kitty?”
“Oh, dear Mrs. Ward, of course, on Maggie’s! Do you think that a girl like me, with all my spirit and that irresistible sort of fun always bubbling up in me, could stand the stuck-ups?”
“Kitty, you have no right to speak of any girls in the school by such an offensive term.”
“I am sorry,” said Kitty. “I ought not to have said it to you. But they are stuck-ups; they really are.”
“And what do you call yourself?”
“Oh, the live-and-let-live – that’s our title. But it’s only quite among ourselves, and perhaps I ought not to have said it.”
“I will never repeat what you have told me in confidence, dear. But now for your request?”
“Well, we of Maggie’s set want to invite the Aneta set to a sort of general party. We should like it to be on the half-holiday, if possible. We want to give them a right royal entertainment in order to knock some of their stuck-upness out of them. We wish for your leave in the matter.”
“You must describe your entertainment a little more fully.”
“I can’t; for we haven’t really and truly planned it all out yet. But I tell you what we’ll do. If you give us leave to have the party, we will ask Queen Aneta and her satellites if possible this very evening, and then we’ll submit our programme to you. Now, may we do this, or may we not?”
“Who sent you to me, Kathleen?”
“I came of my own very self, but of course the others approved. We have no intention of doing shabby things in the dark, as they do in some schools. That would be unfair to you.”
Mrs. Ward thought a little longer. “I will give you the required permission,” she said, “on one condition.”
“Oh, Mrs. Ward, darling! what is that?”
“You can have your party on Saturday week, and I will give you from early in the afternoon until bedtime to enjoy it.”
“Oh, Mrs. Ward, you are too angelic!”
“Stop a minute. You may not care for it so much when I have finished what I have got to say.”
“What is it, dear Mrs. Ward?”
“It is this: that you ask me too as one of your guests.”
“Oh! oh!” said Kathleen. Her expressive face changed from red to white and then to red again. Her eyes brimmed over with laughter, and then as suddenly filled with tears. “But would you – would you like it?”
“Yes, and I don’t want to destroy your pleasure; but I presume you will have a sort of supper or an entertainment which will include refreshments. Let me assist you with the expense of your supper, and may I be present at it as one of your guests? I will promise to leave soon after supper, and not to appear until supper. How will that do?”
“Oh, it would be just, heavenly! It will give such distinction. I know the girls will love it.”
“I think I can make myself pleasant to you all,” said Mrs. Ward, “and I should like to be there.”
“But as to paying anything, Mrs. Ward, you will come as our guest, and you know we have most of us plenty of money. Please, please, let us do the entertaining.”
“Very well, dear, I will not press that point. I hope I have made you happy, Kathleen.”
“Oh! you have – very, very happy indeed. And Saturday week is to be the day?”
“Yes, Kathleen.”
Kathleen bent down, took one of Mrs. Ward’s hands, and kissed it. Then she skipped out of the room and flew back to her companions. They were waiting for her in a state of suppressed eagerness.
“Well, Kathleen – Kitty – Kit, what’s the news?” asked Maggie.
Room was made for Kathleen in the center of the group.
“We have won! We may do it!” she said, speaking in a low tone. “Oh, she’s – she’s like no one else! I don’t know how you will take it, girls; but if you’re not just delighted you ought, to be. Why, what do you think? She wants to come herself.”
“Mrs. Ward!” said Maggie in amazement.
“Yes, just to supper. She says she will come – she wishes to come – that we’re to invite her; in fact, she makes it a sine quâ non. She will go away again after supper, and we’re to have the whole glorious day, next Saturday week, from two in the afternoon until bedtime. Oh, sha’n’t we have fun!”
“Yes, of course,” said Maggie. “It’s much better even than I thought. I will write the letters of invitation immediately.”
“But why should you write a whole lot of letters?” said Kathleen. “You are one queen. Write to the other queen and mention that Mrs. Ward is coming.”
There was nothing like the present time for making arrangements; and Maggie wrote on a sheet of headed note-paper provided for her by her satellites the following words:
“Queen Maggie presents her compliments to Queen Aneta, and begs for the pleasure of her company with all her subjects on Saturday the 15th of October, to an entertainment from three to nine o’clock. She hopes that the whole school will be present, and writes in the names of her own subjects as well as of herself.
“P.S.– Mrs. Ward has most kindly promised to attend.”
This letter was subjected to the approval of the group of girls who surrounded Maggie. It was then addressed to “Queen Aneta,” and Kathleen crossed the room with it and dropped it, there and then, into Aneta Lysle’s lap.
It caused very deep amazement in the hearts of all the girls who belonged to Aneta’s party, and it is highly probable that they might have refused to accept the invitation but for that magical postscript, “Mrs. Ward has most kindly promised to attend.” But there was no withstanding that patent fact, as Mrs. Ward knew very well when she made the proposal to Kathleen.
After a lapse of about twenty minutes, Cicely Cardew crossed the room and laid the answer to Maggie’s note in her lap:
“Queen Aneta and her subjects have much pleasure in accepting Queen Maggie’s invitation for the 15th inst.”
“Hip, hip, hurrah!” cried Kathleen. “The thing’s arranged, and we’ll have about the jolliest flare-up and the most enticing time that girls ever had at any school.” She sprang from her seat, and began tossing a book which had lain in her lap into the air, catching it again. In short, the subjects of the two queens broke up on the spot and chatted gaily together, and Maggie and her subjects could not be induced to say one word of what was to take place on the 15th of October.
“It is wonderful,” thought Aneta to herself. “Why does Mrs. Ward come? But, of course, as she comes we must all come.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE TREASURE
Maggie had by no means forgotten her promise to the Tristram girls to give them a bracelet apiece. It was easy to do this, for they were her very special friends in the school. The fact is that Molly and Belle had a somewhat peculiar position at Aylmer House, for they were not only Maggie’s special friends, but also the undoubted friends and allies of Cicely, Merry, and also of Aneta. But they were such good-humored, good-natured, pleasant sort of girls – so lively, so jolly – that they could take up a position with ease which would oppress and distress other people.
When Maggie presented them with their bracelets they were in wild raptures, accepting them gleefully, and on occasions when ornaments were permitted to be worn – which, as a matter of fact, was only in the leisure hours – they invariably had them on their arms.
But other girls noticed them, and one and all admired them immensely.
“Oh, I have others,” said Maggie in a careless tone; “many more. My dear father was a great traveler, and these are some of the treasures he brought from the East.”
Maggie had by no means forgotten to bring her two boxes of jewellery to Aylmer House. These lay at the bottom of her little trunk, which was, it is true, stowed away in the box-room. But as the girls were at liberty to go there for anything they especially required, she was not troubled on this account.
There came a day, shortly after the great party was arranged, when the rain poured incessantly, and some of the girls were a little restless. Molly and Isabel were wearing their queer Oriental bracelets. Kathleen suddenly caught sight of them, and demanded in an eager tone that Maggie should exhibit her treasures. Maggie, only too pleased to have anything to do which glorified herself, immediately complied. She ran to find Miss Lucy in order to obtain the key of the box-room.
“What do you want it for, dear?” said Miss Johnson in her pleasant voice.
“I have two boxes in the bottom of one of my trunks, Miss Lucy; they are full of curiosities which my father collected from time to time. The girls want to see them. Do you mind my showing them?”
“Of course not, Maggie; but if they are of any value you had better give them to Mrs. Ward to take care of for you.”
“Oh, well,” said Maggie, “I don’t know really whether they are of value or not.” She got rather red as she spoke.
“I should like to see them myself,” said Miss Johnson. “I know a little bit about gems and curios.”
“Certainly, Miss Lucy; do come,” said Maggie. “We’re in our sitting-room, and I shall be only too delighted to show them to you.”
Maggie fetched down her two precious boxes, and soon she was surrounded, not only by her own special satellites, but by every girl in the school. They were all loud in their expressions of rapture at the unique and lovely things which she exhibited to them.
Kathleen, as usual, was quick in suggestion. “Would not Mrs. Ward love to see them?” she said.
“I am sure she would,” remarked Miss Johnson. – “I hadn’t the least idea, Maggie, that you had such treasures in those old tin boxes. They must be carefully put away in the safe for you. My dear girl, they’re worth a great deal of money.”
“Oh, I don’t suppose they are,” said Maggie, trying to speak carelessly, although she by no means wished to part with her treasures.
“I tell you what,” said Kathleen. “Can’t we make an exhibition of them on the day?”
“Yes, why not?” said Molly and Isabel. “That would be quite lovely.”
“Oh yes, do! – do, Maggie darling!” said Merry Cardew.
Maggie at once agreed; and Miss Johnson said, “Now, if you will put them all back in their boxes I will take them and lock them into the safe myself. I shouldn’t have an easy moment if I thought such valuable things were in one of your school-trunks.”
“Oh!” said Maggie, looking up with flushed cheeks and bright eyes, “please – please let me keep them until after our party. Then we will consult Mrs. Ward, and she will tell me what to do.”
“If you must keep them, then, Maggie,” said Miss Johnson, “you had better have them in your own bedroom. They would be at least safe there. Put them into your locked drawer, dear; I think it will hold both these boxes.”
“Thank you very much,” said Maggie. She put the ten bracelets into their tin box, and the necklets and other curios into the other, locked each, and took them upstairs. “It would never, never do,” she said to herself, “for me to lose control of these precious things. I am almost sorry now that I allowed the girls to tempt me to show them.”
After a few minutes she came downstairs. Her stepfather’s allowance of pocket-money was certainly not ample, and she knew that at the party which was to be so specially distinguished she must give, if she wished to keep up her prestige in the school, a lion’s share towards the expenses. There was a quaint little brooch in one of her boxes containing one large ruby and set with diamonds which she intended to sell in order to provide herself with funds. But what use would any of her treasures be if they were consigned to the safe at Aylmer House?
After a great deal of consultation, it was resolved that the girls were to meet in their own special sitting-room at four o’clock, where tea and light refreshments were to be provided by Queen Maggie and her subjects. Afterwards they were to play games, have recitations, and amuse themselves in different ways until five o’clock; when a curtain which would be put across a portion of the room would be raised, and tableaux vivants, in which Maggie, Kathleen, and both the Tristram girls, who were all adaptable for this purpose, were to take special parts. The tableaux were under the management of Janet Burns, who was exceedingly clever, and had studied the scenes – which she took from different episodes in Scott’s novels – with great care. The rehearsing for the tableaux was a little difficult, but this was done each evening after tea, when Maggie and her subjects had the sitting-room to themselves.
Immediately after the tableaux there would be that wonderful supper, at which Mrs. Ward was to be the principal guest, and then the happy evening would end with all sorts of dances and frolics.
Now, all these things would cost money, and it was arranged, after brief consultation, that each girl was to subscribe in an equal ratio towards the proposed entertainment. Janet, who had a head for figures as well as a taste for tableaux vivants, suggested that, to do the entertainment properly, they would have to expend something like fifteen shillings each. This was immediately agreed upon, and even the Tristrams did not feel embarrassed by the amount which was decided upon, for Mr. Tristram was wise in his generation, and would not send his girls to an expensive school if he could not give them a sufficient supply of pocket-money to make them feel independent. The only person who was short of funds on this occasion was Maggie, for her stepfather had arranged that she was to receive her allowance at the end of the term, not at the beginning. He had given her a few shillings to go to school with; but these she had already spent on chocolates, which were considered essential during the leisure hours. It is true that Mrs. Ward would have advanced a little money to Maggie, but Maggie could not bear to ask her. She had a great dislike to the subject of money being mentioned in Mrs. Ward’s presence. She was afraid beyond everything else that the fact of her being received at such a select school for forty pounds a year might reach the ears of her fellow-pupils. What more easy than to sell that charming little Oriental brooch, which was one of the treasures in one of those tin boxes? But Maggie could not manage this in Miss Lucy’s presence, and it was quite against the rules at Aylmer House for any girl to go shopping or even to leave the house unaccompanied.
On one or two previous occasions Maggie had, however, managed to evade this rule without being found out, and she thought she could do so now. She planned the whole thing rather cleverly. She had a room to herself; which of course made it easier for her, and there were always the leisure hours. She made up her mind to feign headache or some slight indisposition, to go downstairs by the back way, and sell her brooch on a certain afternoon during the leisure hours. She must do it quickly, for the girls had proposed to put the necessary money for the entertainment into a bag on a certain Tuesday. Maggie must, therefore, go out on Monday in order to sell her brooch. Her absence from the little party in the girls’ sitting-room was explained by Molly Tristram, who said that Maggie was upstairs lying down. No one troubled to make any comment with regard to this. Any girl might have a headache, and Mrs. Ward did not wish her girls to be catechised as to how they spent their leisure hours. Besides, Janet Burns was occupying all their attention with the tableaux vivants, Queen Aneta’s girls most good-naturedly leaving them the sitting-room to themselves for this purpose.
Maggie, in her distant bedroom, felt the quiet in the house. She had been lying down; now she rose noiselessly. This was the time when the servants had their tea, when Mrs. Ward was busy writing letters or resting in her own sitting-room, when Lucy Johnson and the other governesses were either reposing in their bedrooms, or were out, or were reading. There was, of course, the chance that Maggie might meet some one; but, having calculated all possibilities, she thought that she could most likely get out unobserved.
During her expeditions with Miss Lucy Johnson she had noticed a jeweller’s shop not far away, and resolved to go to him with her precious brooch. It was a very respectable shop, and she was certain he would give her fair value. She could be back again before she was missed, and, in fact, could join her companions in the girls’ sitting-room long before the leisure hours had expired. The days were now getting very short, but this fact was in Maggie’s favor rather than otherwise.
She ran downstairs unnoticed by any one, opened a side-door which was used as a tradesmen’s entrance, and got into the street. Then, putting wings to her feet, she quickly turned the corner, left the square where Aylmer House was situated, and reached the jeweller’s shop. She entered. There were a few people standing by the counter; and the jeweller, a certain Mr. Pearce, was attending to them. Maggie felt impatient. She awaited her turn as best she could. How she disliked those showy-looking people who were purchasing goods of some value, whereas she only wanted to sell! She could scarcely restrain her great impatience, and was relieved when another shopman came forward.
He asked her what he could do for her. She immediately showed him the quaint little brooch set with rubies and diamonds.
“I want to sell this,” said Maggie, speaking abruptly and the color flaming into her cheeks. “What will you give me for it?”
“Oh my!” suddenly exclaimed one of the ladies who was purchasing jewels in Pearce’s shop, “what a lovely curio! Wherever now did you get it from?”
Maggie turned and said in a low tone, “It belongs to me. It was left to me by my father.”
The man who was attending to Maggie took up the brooch and examined it carefully. He took it into another room, where he subjected it to various tests. He then came back to Maggie.
“I will give you five pounds for this, miss, if you can satisfy me that you have come rightly by it.”
“Oh my!” said the American lady, drawing near, and her eyes glistening.
“What is your address, miss?”
Maggie by no means wished to give her address. “I haven’t, stolen that brooch,” she said. “It belongs to me; I have a right to sell it.”
“Of course, miss, I shall never trouble you in any way, but I really must have your address. In purchasing secondhand from young ladies like yourself it is essential that everything should be above-board and quite correct.”
“Well,” said Maggie in a hurried voice, “take the brooch and give me the money. I must get back as quickly as I can. I am one of Mrs. Ward’s pupils at Aylmer House.”
The man looked at Maggie with all respect. “And your own name?”
“Howland,” said Maggie. “Miss Howland.”
The man entered name and address in his book, and then handed Maggie five sovereigns. She was hurrying from the shop, when the customer who had been standing near all the time, and listening with great attention, followed her.
“I say, young lady,” she exclaimed, “I am from New York, and I like your quaint old English things. That man cheated you, I take it. If you had offered me that brooch I’d have given you fifteen pounds for it, not five. If you have any more curios to sell, my address is Miss H. Annie Lapham, Langham Hotel. I am straight from the States, and would like to take a collection of beautiful things home with me.”
“Thank you,” said Maggie in a hurried voice.
She ran back to Aylmer House as quickly as she could. As soon as she was quite out of sight the lady re-entered the shop.
“Say,” she remarked to the shopman, “I witnessed that little transaction between you and Miss Howland. I want to buy that brooch for ten pounds.”
“I am sorry, madam,” said the man, “but it is not for sale just at present.”
“That means,” said Miss Lapham, coloring crimson, “that you have cheated the young lady. You ought to have given her four times as much for the brooch.”
The man shrugged his shoulders.
Miss Lapham grew redder than ever, “I happen to know Miss Howland’s address,” she said. Then she went away without giving’ him time to add a word.
When she had left the shop the younger Mr. Pearce turned to his brother, took the little brooch from the drawer into which he had carelessly thrown it, and gave it to the elder Mr. Pearce to examine. “There’s a find here,” he said; “only, somehow, I feel a bit uncomfortable. How did one of the young ladies from Aylmer House come by a treasure of this sort?”
The other man examined the brooch carefully. “It’s worth a good bit,” he said. “What did you give her for it?”
“Five pounds; but somehow I think that I ought not to have taken it for that sum.”
“It is worth at least two hundred,” said the elder Mr. Pearce. “Where did you say she lived?”
“She is one of the young ladies at Aylmer House – Miss Howland.”
“What! from Mrs. Ward’s school?”
“Yes.”
“You had better give me that brooch, Alfred,” said his brother. “We’ll have to consider what is to be done. We can’t rob the young lady of it. We had best consult Mrs. Ward.”
“Oh, as to that,” said the younger Pearce, “that sounds almost as shabby as giving the schoolgirl too little money.”
“Well, lock it up for the present,” said the elder Pearce; “but I am an honest tradesman, and I can’t see even a schoolgirl robbed.”
“She was up to some little lark,” said the younger man, “and evidently did not know the value of the brooch. Why, I think she’d have taken a pound for it. But what she did know the value of was her precious time; she was very much annoyed at being kept waiting and at being asked for her address. It is plain she got out without leave; and although the brooch may belong to her – I am sure I hope it does – she has broken a rule, you mark my words. Those schoolgirls are always up to larks. Well, I’d never have thought it of one of Mrs. Ward’s girls.”
“It is a pity you didn’t consult me, Alfred,” said his brother. “The best thing to do now is to put the brooch carefully away. We’ll consider what is best to be done with it; but as to giving the young lady only five pounds for what we can sell any day at Christie’s for a couple of hundred, that is not to be thought of.”