Spring Days

ter wait a minute or two. In that way we shall esc

always up to some cunning

wn and give him his breakfast. He won't say anything to her; he knows well

r; you tell him a lot of lies, and leave

t at the same time I must say that if it weren't for you

n't bear in you, you're always trying

ng. However, I must go and tell Grace to go d

?" said Sally, wh

cat's-paw of. I assure you it wasn't easy to persuade her to go down to fat

as no counting on what answ

ctly what Ma

ings yourself. You think of nothing but yourself, or some young man you are after. I wouldn't do what

her. She thought how she might best pursue the quarrel, but her stomach called her thoughts from h

o'cl

suppose he won't start

he door, "Mr. Brookes wants to know

arly ready; that there'

ter go back to my

ring that horrid little dog into my roo

n't. Flossie is the cle

her in my room. There she is trying to drin

d marched out of the room,

her black hair, but she did not go down to breakfast until the wheels grated on the gravel and

ng him, that he had not had an hour'

him in order. Do you remember wh

How can you speak

pocrisy. There is no har

oming to the point,"

at else d

ht he should write to Aunts Mary and Hester, and just as he was going out of the door he said that he'd pr

She flaunted her head, however, and said disdainfu

asked Maggie, who determine

stop to. I don't know what he has found out

n't you

; he said that you had been seen crossing the canal locks, and that you had spent hours with him on the beach, and he spoke about

speak of

le or female, at the Manor House. I thought he was going to curse the Horlocks; but I reminded him

has been talking to him about me; I wonder who told him I spent hours on the beach with Jimmy; I

"Father said that Maggie was nearly as bad, and wa

if he had seen her walking round the garden out of sight of

man, but I should like to know what father would say

now you are mad with jealousy. Do you think I don't know how you flirted with Jimmy? Do you think I didn't see how you shifted Frank on to me so that

fist. Maggie rushed from the room, or, more

this staid young man, who had been twi

for a moment to her brother's shoulder, but as if conscious of the dubi

re in a house!-Nothing but pleasure; from one year's end

brief questions, and appeared to devote to them the small part of his attention not already engaged in the judicious breaking of his bread. He did not answer nor did he comment; and when he had finished eat

mpossible to relate. And the day after the tennis party was such a day in the Brookes household, nor did its tumult cease when the

o her room. Thence Grace's solicitations could not move her, and she remained there until she saw her father coming up the drive; then she ran down to meet him, and made a frank accusation of Sally's treatmen

he would not allow the young lady that was going to be his wife to spend her days feasting and skylarking with a lot of vulgar and penniless young men from the Southdown Road. He had declared that it was time to settle d

, and their bitterness was neither assuaged nor softened by Grace's rather haughty statement that

may be able to

citement; but his efforts were vain, for it had occurred to Mr. Brookes that he might find calm in a bottle of '34 port. There were a few bottles left which he appreciated at their right value. He rang for the wine, and old Joseph announced, with all the intolerable indifference of a well-trained servant, that the young gentleman had drunk it all up yesterday. Mr. Brookes kept his temper better than the girls anticipated, and it was not until he had drunk a bottle of a latter-day w

ight and she sat bolt upright on the sofa, her ha

enting. Put up your silk handkerchief and come to the point. We all know it will be the same a hundred years hence, but in the meantime you

r knew one so unsympathetic; you we

e but listen to you and sympathise with you. When you were a boy and sold my books to the boys at your school, and

ho was a spinster, cast down her eyes and fidgeted wit

lictions are only a s

listener. You used to think me so once." Then becoming instantly serious, Aunt Mary said: "Of course I t

vation," murmu

house. I am worn out, I really am; it never ends. In a big house like Woborn one is always behindhand. The days aren't long enough, that's the fact of it; when one thinks one is getting through one thing one is called away to another. 'Please, mum, the cook would like to speak with you for a moment.' 'There is no tea in the house, mum.' 'What! is all the tea I gave out last week gone?' 'Yes, mum. There was, you remember, the dressmaker here three days, and we had Mrs. Jones in to help. And we shall want another piece of che

ou saw her when you were at Woborn. I am sure she must have had gentle blood in her veins; she wasn't a bit like a servant, so elegant and graceful. Those soft blue eyes of hers. I often used to look at them and think how beautiful they were. Well, she fell madly in love with West. Notwithstanding his bandy legs, there was something fascinating about him. He had a way about him that the maid-servants used to like; Robinson wasn't the first. Well, she completely lost her head, perfectly frantic-frantic; her eyes on fire. I

I was going to see Robinson. (Here the remembrance of West proved too much for Aunt Mary, and she shook with laughter.) Of course if I had let him put up the horses he would have run round to Robinson's and warned her that I was coming. Oh, I shall never forget that day! It was broiling, the sun came down on the flagstones in those narrow little back streets, and there was I toiling, toiling up that dreadful hill, inquiring out the way. I found the street, it was on the very top of the hill: such a poor, miserable place you never saw. Such a dreadful old woman opened the door to me, and I said, 'Is Miss Robinson in?' She said, 'Yes.' I could hear Robinson whispering over the banisters, saying, 'No, no, no, say I am out.'

t," sighed Aunt Hester. "I wish you h

ttle room just under the slates, with one garret window and the sun pouring in. There was scarcely any furniture, and I was sitting on her bed. I said, 'Now, Robinson

. I said, 'West, I saw Robinson yesterday, and I have a parcel for you; she has promised me not to see you, and you must promise me not to see her.' 'Very well, mum, since you say it.' 'This is a very sad affair, West.' 'A bad business, mum-a bad business, mum.' There was always something in West's stolid face that used to amuse me. You should

story. Then, feeling that she wasdigressing at too great length, she strove to generalise from

the pantry; and yet I had to give her a character. Of course it was very wrong of me to enable her to thrust herself upon another family, but what was I to do? I couldn't deprive her of the mean

ck to the point where she had entered on her various digressions, and without further ado,

f counsel and help. Their conduct is to be deeply regretted; but theirs

cannot be allowed. I have only to look round to take it all in. They are worrying their father

e since po

ther, and they wondered if the terrors of

hands, "is obliged to go to London every morn

r home bef

the carriage whenever they like, and they invite here every one it pleases the

to my house. All I know of them is th

great disadvantages of the place. Those villa residences have brought into Southwick a host of

ounds invested-no,

incomes. They are all devoured with envy, and all

ery morning I see them at the station watc

n his own home; feasting and pleasure going on morning, noon, and, I may say, night, for when

en, the othe

ing his champagn

out of the distillery; I hope he won't lose it. Well, I met Berkins in Pall Mall, and he said if I would return by the late train that he would spend the night here, and we would go up to town together in the morning. I suspected nothing; I went into my dining-room, and there I found them all at supper. Had it not been

ou fix the day an

r against him; she laughs at him, says he is pompous, and imitates him. Of course, it is quite true that he thinks everything he

ought to have been a man; had she been

icarage, glanced uneasily at her sister, a

be all the same a h

" replied Aunt Hester, w

the speakers stared at each

t is she who upsets everything. She can't agree with Maggie; they are always quarrelling. Th

give one look round to take it all in one glance. When she came to meet me in Brighton I understood it all at once; I saw she could not restrain herself, no powers of self-restraint. Her eyes fixed on every man as if she couldn't see enough of him; her black eyes flashing. I wanted

t dear

money. Those girls are highly organised, highly sensitive; their nerves are highly strung. They want something to bring them down," said Aunt Mary; but catching at that moment sight

sinfulness of their disobedience. I have here one or two litt

can do is to see to their health. No girls in good he

one. I have no one to talk to, to assist me, to take my place in any way. I am obliged to go to London every day, and I assure you my heart is all of a flutter in the morning when I take the train, for I don't know what

minable lamentations, but Aunt Hester, a nervous and timid creature who talked but little, not only declared that she could not bear to hear the same stories over and over a

an look to. There is no use in telling us this over again; it is mere waste of time. What we have to do now is by all means

en, she must be subdued,

is the true medicine, and by it alo

t it would be all the same a hundred years hence. Even Aunt Mary's realism did not offend Aunt Hester as did this un-Christian philosophy; she gathered her strength for a grave reproof, but wa

rriage? Is Berkins as amorous as ever? That man does amuse

remember Mr. Berkins is a m

year, but he has very little m

t to rush off into a long financial statement when his sister, wh

riage to be or not to be? T

t her sister; she would have been, I feel sure, glad t

ally, what

urn Berkins into ridicule, laughs

Aunt Mary; "you must excuse my laugh

acie, dear, tell me about this marriage. I hear that your mind is not made up-that you are not at all

n make out, is either decided or satisfied. Mr.

n," interrupted Mr. Brookes

agree upon money matters,

o a beard until Sally

father; I alw

t the money matters that your fathe

l settle the same amount. But father won't agree to this; he wants Mr. Berkins

James?" ask

is investments with pride, and pathetically declared that he would not marry again because he would not deprive his dear children of anything. Aunt Mary crossed her ha

es; but the dear lady lost herself in the domestic entanglement of many families, on the subject of which she contributed much curious information, without, however, elucidati

es; you have been listening to

rratives, and she was forced to seek unaided for the lost thread. Soon after the girls came i

ey found pleasure in lamenting the follies of the young people. The same stories were told, almost the same words were uttered. The only malcontent was Willy. He had no interest in his sisters, and the hours after dinner in th