mrs. tennant spent the afternoon out shopping. she told the girls at dinner that she would be home for tea, that she expected to be rather tired, and hoped that they would be as good as possible. the boys were always out during the afternoon, and as a rule never returned until after tea; but alice and kathleen were expected to be in for this meal. when mrs. tennant walked down the street, kathleen went to the window and looked after her.
"what are you going to do this afternoon?" said alice, who was lying back in an easy-chair with an open novel in her hand.
"i don't know," replied kathleen. "what a dull hole this is! how can you have grown up and kept well in a place like this?"
"opinions differ with regard to its dullness," said alice. "i think our home a very pleasant, entertaining place. i wouldn't live in your wild castle for all you could give me."
"nobody asked you, my dear," said kathleen, with a saucy nod of her head.
she left the room and went up to what she called her half of the bedroom on the next floor. she knelt down by the window and looked across over the ugly landscape. there were houses everywhere—not a scrap of real country, as she expressed it, to be found. she took out of her pocket the letter which the foundation girls had sent her, and opened and read it.
"the old quarry! i wonder where the old quarry is," she thought. "it must be a good way from here. we have such a place at home, too. i did not suppose one was to be found in this horrid part of the world. i am rather glad there is an old quarry; it was quite nice of little susy to suggest it, and she will meet me, the little colleen. that is good. what fun! i shall probably have to return through the bedroom window, so i may as well explore and make all in readiness. dear, dear! i should like david to help me. it isn't the naughtiness that i care about, but it is the fun of being naughty; it is the fun of having a sort of dangerous thing to do. that is the real joy of it. it is the ecstacy of shocking the prim alice! oh! there is her step. she's coming up, the creature! now then, i had best be as mum as i can unless i want to distract the poor thing entirely."
alice entered the room.
"do you greatly object to shutting the window?" she said to kathleen. "i have a slight cold, and the draught will make it worse."
"why, then, of course, darling," said kathleen in a hearty voice, as she brought down the window with a bang. "would you like me to shut the ventilator in the grate?" she then asked.
"no. how silly you are!"
"is it silly? i thought you had a cold. you are afraid of the draughts. why are you going out?"
"i want to see a school friend."
"you will be back in time for tea, won't you?"
"can't say."
"but your mother, the poor tired one, asked you to be back."
"i do wish, kathleen, that you wouldn't call mother by that ridiculous name. she is no more tired than—than other women are."
"if that is the case," said kathleen, "i heartily hope that i shall not live to be a woman. i wouldn't like us all to be as fagged as she is—poor, dear, gentle soul! she's overworked, and that's the truth."
kathleen saw that she was annoying alice, and proceeded with great gusto to expand her theory with regard to mrs. tennant.
"she's in the condition when she might drop any time," she said. "we have had old irishwomen overworked like that, and all of a sudden they went out like snuffs: that is what happens. what are you putting on your best hat for?"
"that is no affair of yours."
"oh, hoity-toity, how grand we are! do you know, alice, you haven't got at all nice manners. you think you have, but you haven't. we are never rude like that in ireland. we tell a few lies now and then, but they are only polite lies—the kind that make other people happy. alice, i should like to know which is best—to be horribly cross, or to tell nice polite lies. which is the most wicked? i should like to know."
"then i will tell you," said alice. "what you call a nice lie is just a very great and awful sin; and if you don't believe me, go to church and listen when the commandments are read."
"in future," said kathleen very calmly, "now that i really know your views, i will always tell you home truths. you can't blame me, can you?"
alice deigned no answer. she went downstairs and let herself out of the house.
"and that is the sort of girl i have exchanged for daddy and the mother and the boys," thought the irish girl. "oh, dear! oh, dear!"
kathleen flew downstairs. it was nearly three o'clock; tea was to be on the table at half-past four. quick as thought she dashed into the kitchen.
"maria," she said, "and cook, is there anything nice and tasty for tea this evening?"
"nice and tasty, miss!" said cook. "and what should there be nice and tasty? there's bread, and there's butter—dorset, second-class dorset—and there's jam (if there's any left); and that's about all."
"that sort of tea isn't very nourishing, cook, is it? i ask because i want to know," said kathleen.
"it's the kind we always have at myrtle lodge," replied cook. "i don't hold with it, but then it's the way of the missis."
"i have got some money in my pocket," said kathleen. "i want to have a beautiful, nice tea. can't you think of something to buy? here's five shillings. would that get her a nice tea?"
"a nice tea!" cried maria. "it would get a beautiful meal; and the poor missis, she would like it."
"then go out, maria; do, like a darling. i will open the door for you if anybody calls. do run round the corner and bring in—oh! i know what. we'll have sausages—they are delicious—and a little tin of sardines—won't they be good?—and some water-cress, and some shrimps—oh, yes, shrimps! be quick! and we will put out the best tea-things, and a clean cloth; and it will rest the poor tired one so tremendously when she comes in and sees a good meal on the table."
both cook and maria were quite excited. perhaps they had an eye to the reversion of the tea, the sausages, the sardines, the shrimps, and the water-cress.
maria went out, and kathleen stood in the hall. two or three people arrived during maria's absence, and kathleen went promptly to the door and said, "not at home, ma'am," in a determined voice, and with rather a scowling face, to these arrivals. some of the visitors left rather important messages, but kathleen did not remember them for more than a moment after they were delivered. maria presently came back and the tea-table was laid. kathleen gave maria sixpence for the washing of an extra cloth, and the well-spread table looked quite fresh and wonderfully like a school-feast.
when mrs. tennant returned (she came in looking very hot and tired), it was to see the room tidy, kathleen seated in her own special chair cobbling the boys' socks as hard as she could, and an appetizing tea on the table.
"what does this mean?" said mrs. tennant.
"it means," said kathleen, jumping up, "that you are to plant yourself just here, and you are not to stir. oh, i know you are dead tired. i will take off your shoes, poor dear; i have brought your slippers down on purpose, and you are to have your tea at this little table. now what will you have? hot sausages?—they are done to a turn, aren't they, maria?"
"that they are, miss."
"a nice hot sausage on toast, and a lovely cup of tea with cream in it."
"but—but," said mrs. tennant, "what will alice say?"
"maria and i don't care twopence what alice says. this is my tea, and maria fetched it. now then, dear tired one, eat and rest."
mrs. tennant looked at kathleen with loving eyes.
"did you buy these things?" she said.
"that she did, ma'am," cried maria. "i never did see a more thoughtful young lady."
"my dear child," said mrs. tennant, "you are too good."
kathleen laughed.
"if there is one thing i am, it is not that," she said. "i am not a bit good. i am as wild and naughty and——oh, but don't let us talk about me. i am so hungry. you know i didn't much like your dinner to-day. i am not fond of those watery stews. of course, i can eat anything, but i don't specially like them; so if you don't mind i will have a sausage, too, and a plateful of shrimps afterwards, and some sardines. and isn't this water-cress nice? the leaves are not quite so brown as i should like. oh, we did have such lovely water-cress in the stream at home! mrs. tennant, you must come back with me to carrigrohane some day, and then you will have a real rest."
mrs. tennant, feeling very much like a naughty child herself, enjoyed her tea. she and kathleen laughed over the shrimps, exclaimed at the fun of eating the water-cress, enjoyed the sausages, and each drank four cups of tea. it was when the meal had come to an end that kathleen said calmly:
"three or four, or perhaps five, ladies called while maria was out."
"who were they, dear?"
"i don't know. they left messages, and i have forgotten them. one lady was dressed in what i should call a very loud style. she was quite old. her face was all over wrinkles. she was stout, and she wore a short jacket and a big—very big—picture-hat."
"you don't mean," said mrs. tennant, "that mrs. dalzell has called? she is one of my most important friends. she promised to help me with regard to david's future. what did she say—can't you remember?"
"i am ever so sorry, but i can't. i kept staring at her hat all the time. i don't remember anything about her except that she was old and had wrinkles and a big picture-hat—the sort of hat that ruth craven would look pretty in."
mrs. tennant began to find the remembrance of her delightful tea a little depressing, for, question kathleen as she might, she did not remember anything about the ladies except a few fugitive descriptions. as far as mrs. tennant could make out, people who were of the greatest importance to her had left messages, and yet none of the messages could be attended to.
"i can't even imagine who the other ladies can be," she said. "but as to mrs. dalzell, she must not be neglected; i must go out and see her at once."
"then you will be more tired than ever, and i have not done a scrap of good."
"you meant very kindly, my dear child, and have given me a delicious and strengthening tea. only don't do it again, darling, for it is my place to give you tea, not yours to give it to me."
