the holidays came to an end on the whole satisfactorily. irene was by no means perfect; even agnes showed signs of being spoiled owing to the new régime. hughie expressed a strong desire to be back at school. miss frost never ceased to watch the two, and the struggle within her breast did not die out. lady jane alone was thankful for the marked improvement in her child. not that she saw very much of irene, for irene and agnes were together almost all day long; agnes the petted darling of the elder girl, irene yielding to her every whim, delighting in the daring spirit which slowly but surely began to awaken in the little one. nevertheless, the servants were unmolested, miss frost had a peaceful time, lady jane began to breathe freely, and even hughie turned to other occupations and more or less forgot irene and his little sister. he had never told any one of that awful time which he had spent with irene in the boat. that secret he kept confined within his own breast; but he never could forget it; the moment when his young manhood seemed to forsake him, when the spirit of cowardice arose before him, and he felt certain that he should die; the longing which arose to his lips to implore irene at any cost to save him; the way he kept back the words. then her test and his acceptance of it, the victory he had really won over her, the knowledge that in the future she would treat him with respect.
irene, with all her faults, was true to her word, and one day just when the long summer holidays were coming to an end, and when every one was talking and thinking again of school life and school affairs, and its joys and sorrows, irene went and sat down on a low stool by her mother's side.
"you are sending me next week to the merrimans'," she said. "i don't at all know whether i shall be able to endure it. you think me greatly improved, but i don't know that i am improved. be that as it may, however, i want to ask you a great favor, mothery."
"what is that, my darling?" asked lady jane.
"you, of course, mean to go away. rosamund said that you would. she said you would take a rest, and forget all the worries that your naughty, naughty child has given you all these years. you will do that, won't you, mothery darling?"
"yes, i will go away," said lady jane. "i have arranged it. but what is your request, irene?"
"well, it has something to do with hughie. you know about miss frost?"
"i know she is an excellent creature."
"she is; and you know how fond i am of little agnes."
"no wonder. she is a sweet little soul," said lady jane; "although, sometimes, irene"——
"please don't!" said irene, putting her hand to her mother's lips. "i have made a resolution. agnes is to be my child in the future. she is to live with me always and always, mother. i couldn't do without her. she is my doll, my baby, my plaything—the creature that keeps me human. with rosamund on one side and agnes on the other, i can be good, mothery. but if you were to take either or both of them away, i should be worse than ever. miss frost must give agnes up to me."
"i don't think she will be able to stand that. i don't see how you can expect it."
"well, i do expect it, and i don't mean to discuss the point now. agnes comes with me, does she not, to mrs. merriman's school?"
"she does. rosamund's mother is paying for her during this term."
"and miss frost goes, too?"
"yes, dear, certainly."
"well, now, there is hughie. miss frost says that she cannot give him the education sufficient to make a gentleman of him. but, mother, he is a nice boy—he is, really."
"he is quite a plain boy," said lady jane—"very different from his little sister—a little rough, i call him."
"but he is quite nice, all the same. anyhow, mother, i wish it—i want him to be made a gentleman. i want him to be sufficiently educated, and i want us to help miss frost. we needn't take all the burden off her shoulders, for i know you pay her very well indeed; but i want him to be left at school until he is old enough to take up some profession. i don't know what he would like. i'll run and ask him now; may i?"
"but, first of all, let me consider. why should i have this on me? i have—although you never seem to remember it, you naughty little irene—a great many expenses."
"yes, but you are rich, and i am your only child. i want hughie, just because he is agnes's brother, to be a gentleman. agnes's brother can't be a counter-jumper, can he, mothery?"
"what a horrid expression! where did you learn it, irene?"
"oh, i picked it up from one of the servants; her cousin was a counter-jumper. she always made me laugh when she spoke about it. she described how he doled out yards of ribbon, and she said that his figure was all gone to nothing, but he was very genteel-looking. i used to make her tell me about him, because i used to frighten her with spiders and wasps if she didn't. but i don't do that sort of thing now. i'll take to it again, though, if you don't do what i wish."
"then i am sure i will do what you wish, although i am rather puzzled."
"well, we'll settle it, and at once," said irene.
she ran out of the room and met miss frost, who was crossing the hall.
"frosty," said the little girl, going up to her governess, "i want to ask you a question. how much money do you pay a year for hughie's schooling?"
miss frost turned painfully red.
"that is scarcely your affair, is it, irene?" she said.
"i am not naughty, really; i want to know for a most serious, important reason. do you pay much, or do you pay little?"
"i pay what is really very little. i pay fifty pounds a year. it is not a good school, but it is the best i can afford. it is a commercial school. i trust to get hughie a place in a shop when he is sixteen—that is, in two years' time. i think i can manage his school for the present."
"thank you, miss frost. that is all i need."
irene then went out, and whistling in a boyish fashion, presently brought hughie to her side. he was quite at home with her now, and walked willingly along the gravel path listening as she spoke to him.
"hughie, you know the promise i made to you?"
"yes, i know," he said, his eyes dancing. "i am to be a gentleman. you said so."
"you are; but i must know all about it. your sister pays fifty pounds a year to keep you at school."
"it's an awfully low sort of place," said the boy. "i mean the fellows there aren't gentlemen, and it is frightfully difficult to be a gentleman when no one else is."
"well, it ought not to be. a gentleman ought to be a gentleman through everything," said irene. "however, that is not the point. what profession would you like best if, supposing you were rich, you could have your choice?"
"i'd like best in all the world," said hughie, "to be educated to become a lawyer—i mean a barrister. but there's no chance of that. i like arguing and disputing, and proving that other people are wrong, more than anything else in the world."
"you are not particularly amiable, hughie," said irene, with a laugh; "but i think i understand."
"well, that is all right. have you anything more to say?"
"not just at present, only i want to speak to mother."
lady jane was sitting just where irene had left her. irene went and laid her head on her mother's lap.
"frosty pays fifty pounds a year," she said, "and it's a horrid commercial school, so we'll have to pay a quarter's fees, for i think that is what is done generally, and hughie must go to a proper school at once—a really good one—and we will pay the difference between a really good school and frosty's fifty pounds. then, if hughie is clever and gets a scholarship, he can go to one of the 'varsities, and afterward he must study for the bar. you see, i have read up all about it, and i know. you must help me to do it, mother. i dare say he will make a very clever barrister, for he looks quite disagreeable enough to be so."
lady jane struggled against irene's whim. but irene, as she knew quite well, had the victory; for the next morning there was a serious conversation with miss frost, who left lady jane's presence in floods of grateful tears, the result of which was that hughie was sent to a first-class school on the very day that rosamund, irene, agnes, and miss frost went to the merrimans'.
"now, indeed, the world is beginning to go in the right direction," said irene, who considered herself one of the most important people in the whole of creation.
