the day of evelyn’s freedom came to an end. no remark had been made with regard to her extraordinary dress; no comments when she declined to accompany her own special guest to her bedroom. she was allowed to have her own sweet will. she went up-stairs very late, and, on the whole, not discontented. she had enjoyed her chat with some of the strange children who had arrived that afternoon. lady frances had scarcely looked at her. that fact did not worry her in the least. she had said good-night in quite a patronizing tone to both her aunt and uncle, she did not trouble even to seek for audrey, and went up to her room singing gaily to herself. she had a fine, strong contralto voice, and she had not the slightest idea of keeping it in suppression. she sang the chorus of a common-place song which had been popular on the ranch. lady frances quite shuddered as she heard her. presently evelyn reached her own room, where jasper was awaiting her. jasper knew her young mistress thoroughly. she had not the slightest idea of putting herself out too much with regard to evelyn, but at the same time she knew that evelyn 107 would be very cross and disagreeable if she had not her comforts; accordingly, the fire burned clear and bright, and there were preparations for the young girl’s favorite meal of chocolate and biscuits already going on.
“oh dear!” said evelyn, “i am tired; but we have had quite a good time. of course when the castle belongs to me i shall always keep it packed with company. there is no fun in a big place like this unless you have heaps of guests. aunt frances was quite harmless to-night.”
“harmless!” cried jasper.
“yes; that is the word. she took no notice of me at all. i do not mind that. of course she is jealous, poor thing! and perhaps i can scarcely wonder. but if she leaves me alone i will leave her alone.”
“you are conceited, evelyn,” said jasper. “how could that grand and stately lady be jealous of a little girl like yourself?”
“i think she is, all the same,” replied evelyn. “and, by the way, jasper, i do not care for that tone of yours. why do you call me a little girl and speak as though you had no respect for me?”
“i love you too well to respect you, darling,” replied jasper.
“love me too well! but i thought people never loved others unless they respected them.”
“yes, but they do,” answered jasper, with a short laugh. “how should i love you if that was not the case?” 108
evelyn grew red and a puzzled expression flitted across her face.
“i should like my chocolate,” she said, sinking into a chair by the fire. “make it for me, please.”
jasper did so without any comment. it was long past midnight; the little clock on the mantelpiece pointed with its jeweled hands to twenty minutes to one.
“i shall not get up early,” said evelyn. “aunt frances was annoyed at my not being down this morning, but she will have to bear it. you will get me a very nice breakfast, won’t you, dear old jasper? when i wake you will have things very cozy, won’t you, jas?”
“yes, darling; i’ll do what i can. by the way, evelyn, you ought not to have let that poor miss sylvia come up here and go off by herself.”
evelyn pouted.
“i won’t be scolded,” she said. “you forget your place, jasper. if you go on like this it might really be best for you to go.”
“oh, i meant nothing,” said jasper, in some alarm; “only it did seem—you will forgive my saying it—not too kind.”
“i like sylvia,” said evelyn; “she is handsome and she says funny things. i mean to see a good deal more of her. now i am sleepy, so you may help me to get into bed.”
the spoilt child slept in unconscious bliss, and the next morning, awaking late, desired jasper to 109 fetch her breakfast. jasper rang the bell. after a time a servant appeared.
“will you send miss wynford’s breakfast up immediately?” said jasper.
the girl, a neat-looking housemaid, withdrew. she tapped at the door again in a few minutes.
“if you please, miss jasper,” she said, “lady frances’s orders are that miss evelyn is to get up to breakfast.”
jasper, with a slight smirk on her face, went into evelyn’s bedroom to retail this message. evelyn’s face turned the color of chalk with intense anger.
“impertinent woman!” she murmured. “go down immediately yourself, jasper, and bring me up some breakfast. go—do you hear? i will not be ruled by lady frances.”
jasper very unwillingly went down-stairs. she returned in about ten minutes to inform evelyn that it was quite useless, that lady frances had given most positive orders, and that there was not a servant in the house who would dare to disobey her.
“but you would dare,” said the angry child. “why did you not go into the larder and fetch the things yourself?”
“the cook took care of that, miss evelyn; the larder door was locked.”
“oh, dear me!” said evelyn; “and i am so hungry.” she began to cry.
“had you not better get up, evelyn?” said the maid. “the servants told me down-stairs that breakfast 110 would be served in the breakfast-room to-day up to ten o’clock.”
“do you think i am going to let her have the victory over me?” said evelyn. “no; i shall not stir. i won’t go to meals at all if this sort of thing goes on. oh, i am cruelly treated! i am—i am! and i am so desperately hungry! is not there even any chocolate left, jasper?”
“i am sorry to say there is not, dear—you finished it all, to the last drop, last night; and the tin with the biscuits is empty also. there is nothing to eat in this room. i am afraid you will have to hurry and dress yourself—that is, if you want breakfast.”
“i won’t stir,” said evelyn—“not if she comes to drag me out of bed with cart-ropes.”
jasper stood and stared at her young charge.
“you are very silly, miss evelyn,” she said. “you will have to submit to her ladyship. you are only a very young girl, and you will find that you cannot fight against her.”
evelyn now covered her face with her handkerchief, and her sobs became distressful.
“come, dear, come!” said jasper not unkindly; “let me help you to get into your clothes.”
but evelyn pushed her devoted maid away with vigorous hands.
“don’t touch me. i hate you!” she said.—“oh mothery, mothery, why did you die and leave me? oh, your own little evelyn is so wretched!”
“now, really, miss evelyn, i am angry with you. you are a silly child! you can dress and go down-stairs 111 and have as nice a breakfast as you please. i heard them talking in the breakfast-room as i went by. they were such a merry party!”
“much they care for me!” said evelyn.
“well, they don’t naturally unless you go and make yourself pleasant. but there, miss evelyn! if you don’t get up, i cannot do without my breakfast, so i am going down to the servants’ hall.”
“oh! could not you bring me up a little bit of something, jasper—even bread—even dry bread? i don’t mind how stale it is, for i am quite desperately hungry.”
“well, i’ll try if i can smuggle something,” said jasper; “but i do not believe i can, all the same.”
the woman departed, anxious for her meal.
she came back in a little over half an hour, to find evelyn sitting up in bed, her eyes red from all the tears she had shed, and her face pale.
“well,” she said, “have you brought up anything?”
“only hot water for your bath, my dear. i was not allowed to go off even with a biscuit.”
“oh dear! then i’ll die—i really shall. you don’t know how weak i am! aunt frances will have killed me! oh, this is too awful!”
“you had better get up now, miss evelyn. you are very fat and stout, my dear, and missing one meal will not kill you, so don’t think it.”
“i know what i do think, jasper, and that is that you are horrid!” said evelyn. 112
but she had scarcely uttered the words before there came a low but very distinct knock on the door. jasper went to open it. evelyn’s heart began to beat with a mixture of alarm and triumph. of course this was some one coming with her breakfast. or could it be, possibly—— but no; even lady frances would not go so far as to come to gloat over her victim’s miseries.
nevertheless, it was lady frances. she walked boldly into the room.
“you can go, jasper,” she said. “i have something i wish to say to miss wynford.”
jasper, in considerable annoyance, withdrew, but returned after a minute and placed her ear to the keyhole. lady frances did not greatly mind, however, whether she was overheard or not.
“get up, evelyn,” she said. “get up at once and dress yourself.”
“i—i don’t want to get up,” murmured evelyn.
“come! i am waiting.”
lady frances sat down on a chair. her eyes traveled slowly round the disorderly room; displeasure grew greater in her face.
“get up, my dear—get up,” she said. “i am waiting.”
“but i don’t want to.”
“i am afraid your wanting to or not wanting to makes little or no difference, evelyn. i stay here until you get up. you need not hurry yourself; i will give you until lunch-time if necessary, but until you get up i stay here.” 113
“and if,” said evelyn in a tremulous voice, “i don’t get up until after lunch?”
“then you do without food; you have nothing to eat until you get up. now, do not let us discuss this point any longer; i want to be busy over my accounts.”
lady frances drew a small table towards her, took a note-book and a letts’s diary from a bag at her side, and became absorbed in the irritating task of counting up petty expenses. lady frances no more looked at evelyn than if she had not existed. the angry little girl in the bed even ventured to make faces in the direction of the tyrannical lady; but the tyrannical lady saw nothing. jasper outside the door found it no longer interesting to press her ear to the keyhole. she retired in some trepidation, and presently made herself busy in evelyn’s boudoir. for half an hour the conflict went on; then, as might be expected, evelyn gingerly and with intense dislike put one foot out of bed.
lady frances saw nothing. she was now murmuring softly to herself. she had long—very long—accounts to add up.
evelyn drew the foot back again.
“nasty, horrid, horrid thing!” she said to herself. “she shall not have the victory. but, oh, i am so hungry!” was her next thought; “and she does mean to conquer me. oh, if only mothery were alive!”
at the thought of her mother evelyn burst into loud sobs. surely these would draw pity from that 114 heart of stone! not at all. lady frances went calmly on with her occupation.
finally, evelyn did get up. she was not accustomed to dressing herself, and she did so very badly. lady frances did not take the slightest notice. in about half an hour the untidy toilet was complete. evelyn had once more donned her crimson velvet dress.
“i am ready,” she said then, and she came up to lady frances’s side.
lady frances dropped her pencil, raised her eyes, and fixed them on evelyn’s face.
“where do you keep your dresses?” she said.
“i don’t know. jasper knows.”
“is jasper in the next room?”
“yes.”
“go and fetch her.”
evelyn obeyed. she imagined her head was giddy and that her legs were too weak to enable her to walk steadily.
“jasper, come,” she said in a tremulous voice.
“poor darling! poor pet!” muttered jasper in an injudicious undertone to her afflicted charge.
lady frances was now standing up.
“come here, jasper,” she said. “in which wardrobe do you keep miss wynford’s dresses?”
“in this one, madam.”
“open it and let me see.”
the maid obeyed. lady frances went to the wardrobe and felt amongst skirts of different colors, different materials, and different degrees of respectability. 115 without exception they were all unsuitable; but presently she chose the least objectionable, an ugly drab frieze, and lifting it herself from its hook, laid it on the bed.
“is there a bodice for this dress?” she asked of the maid.
“yes, madam. miss evelyn used to wear that on the ranch. she has outgrown it rather.”
“put it on your young mistress and let me see her.”
“i won’t wear that horrid thing!” said evelyn.
“you will wear what i choose.”
again evelyn submitted. the dress was put on. it was not becoming, but was at least quiet in appearance.
“you will wear that to-day,” said her aunt. “i will myself take you into town this afternoon to get some suitable clothes.—jasper, i wish miss evelyn’s present wardrobe to be neatly packed in her trunks.”
“yes, madam.”
“no, no, aunt frances; you cannot mean it,” said evelyn.
“my dear, i do.—before you go, jasper, i have one thing to say. i am sorry, but i cannot help myself. your late mistress wished you to remain with miss wynford. i grieve to say that you are not the kind of person i should wish to have the charge of her. i will myself get a suitable maid to look after the young lady, and you can go this afternoon. i will pay you well. i am sorry for this; it 116 sounds cruel, but it is really cruel to be kind.—now, evelyn, what is the matter?”
“only i hate you! oh, how i hate you!” said evelyn. “i wish mothery were alive that she might fight you! oh, you are a horrid woman! how i hate you!”
“when you come to yourself, evelyn, and you are inclined to apologize for your intemperate words, you can come down-stairs, where your belated breakfast awaits you.”
