at that moment a rush was heard on the stairs, and rose and may burst into their mother's room, rose at the last moment bethinking herself that she had left school, accordingly she must be grown up, or on the brink of it, if annie would but allow it, and therefore trying to moderate the headlong pace, which would have better become a troop of boys than a pair of girls.
"little may," who, in spite of her height, was still in frocks an inch from the ground, was not troubled by any such scruples. she scampered up to her mother, and hailed her breathlessly—"mother, we want you to let us—rose and me—go with ella and phyllis carey a walk to the beeches. ella says she saw some periwinkles and young ferns there, and we need, oh! ever so many fresh roots for the rockery. we should have gone without coming home to tell you, because you wouldn't mind, but we might have kept tea waiting, and we'll be horribly late. besides, we are
[73]
not coming home for tea; ella and phyllis say we must go up with them to the bank house."
"no, no, my dears, you can't do that," said mrs. millar, hurriedly but decidedly. "i am sorry that you should be disappointed, but you must not think of such a thing. ella and phyllis don't understand—don't know—that their mother is particularly engaged this afternoon. she will not wish to have people in the house, not even in the schoolroom."
rose and may looked in wonder at their mother, discomposed enough in her own person, sitting leaning back in her chair doing nothing; she whose motherly hands were wont to be busy with some little bit of sewing or knitting.
annie, too, was sitting idle at a short distance, with her hat thrown on the bed, but still wearing her jacket; and dora, in her walking dress, was standing like a lady-in-waiting, or a sentry, behind mrs. millar's chair.
annie and dora remained silent, looking at the intruders in a peculiar manner. at the same time the first pair did not tell the second more or less curtly, as the elder girls had been in the habit of doing not so very long ago, to go away and leave grown-up people to finish important discussions in peace.
what other new thing could have come about?
[74]
was there a fresh wooer in the field, a second offer of marriage to be laid at reluctant feet? was it annie, their beauty, who was in request this time? who was the lover? not cyril carey, with his plush waistcoat and gold chains and odious snuff-box? he had no means of keeping a wife, unless his father took him into partnership in the bank, and their father would not hear of cyril; besides, annie held him in supreme disdain. she had more patience with tom robinson and "the shop" than with the nineteenth century dandy, whom she pronounced a mistaken revival of one of the many curiosities of queen anne's reign.
but rose and may had no certainty that annie was the object of pursuit. she was pretty enough, they had all pinned their faith to her beauty, yet already dora had been preferred before her, though it was only by the head of "robinson's." was it possible that now it might be rose, unsuspecting, unconsulted? could her own mother and sisters be so unfair as to arrogate to themselves the settlement of her affairs without her consent or knowledge, without so much as admitting her into the conclave?
annie took the initiative, she was sufficiently quick to see both behind and before her. she had a head for directing and managing which her mother did not possess.
"mother, don't you see they had better be told
[75]
at once?" she said, with the aplomb of a girl who, however young and irresponsible, is capable of arriving at independent conclusions and reversing existing conditions. "they are, as rose says, all but grown up; indeed not so very much younger than dora and i. i think rose and may are entitled to be told."
annie was proceeding to act upon the permission implied in her mother's nod. she was not without some small sense of personal importance in being the mouthpiece which was to announce the calamity to her younger sisters. she did it in a very different fashion from that in which their mother had broken the news to her and dora.
"what we are going to speak to you about is not a thing that can be long concealed. it will not be a secret for more than a few days, if for so long. but that does not mean that you are not to shut this room door which you have left wide open. thanks, may. don't bang it! you are not to show that you know what is going to happen. and, after it has happened, you are not to chatter about it before the servants or to your companions. we are trusting you because you have almost come to the years of discretion, and ought to have a notion how to behave under the circumstances."
"well, this is too bad of you, annie!" cried rose, showing instant symptoms of revolt. "what
[76]
have may and i done that we should be spoken to as if we were a pair of tell-tales, or babies—and geese into the bargain? dora and you are not so much older, as you confess; neither are you so much wiser with all your pretensions. if something of so much consequence to everybody is on the eve of happening, i think we might have been told before. surely mother is not afraid that we should repeat anything which we ought not to mention," and she glanced with burning reproach at her mother.
rose was both high-spirited and touchy. she was not disposed to play the second part without a murmur like dora. she was not content, with her art as a balance to annie's beauty and may's budding scholarship. rose desired everybody to acknowledge her mother-wit and trustworthiness.
dora and mrs. millar spoke together in reply. "mother only told annie and me this afternoon," said the general peacemaker.
"it was not such a pleasant piece of information for me to give, or you to receive, child, that you and may should grudge my keeping it from you as long as i could, as i dared," was the mother's weary reply. "besides, your father did not wish it spoken about before; it would have been wrong, a great risk to many others as well as to ourselves, to have mentioned such a thing."
[77]
"then don't tell us now if you don't care to, mother, and if father disapproves of our hearing it," said rose magnanimously, for she was dying to be at the bottom of the mystery.
"no, don't, mother dear, please don't, if it will hurt you," said may affectionately, with something of a childish ring in her voice. her mother took her hand at the words and clasped it tightly.
"mother has made up her mind and father has given her leave to speak," said annie with determination, "because you must hear soon anyhow. there is something wrong with the bank, mr. carey's bank. we have all, even may, read and heard of bank failures, and have some idea how disastrous they are."
"the carey's bank!" cried rose, with sufficient intelligence in her astonishment. "i understand now why we were not to go home with ella and phyllis."
"then somebody must run over and tell them that we are not coming," interrupted may. "do let bella take the message, mother, in case i should look as if i knew something. poor mr. carey! he was always so kind to us. i am so sorry; but the bank has not anything to do with us; father is not the banker, he is just a doctor like grandfather," ended may composedly.
"o may, you are a baby, though you read the greek testament and have something to say to
[78]
tacitus in the original," exclaimed annie indignantly.
"your father has shares in the bank, my dear," explained her mother with patient reiteration. "he bought them with his savings, and he will get nothing for them. nobody will buy them from him again, they will be no better than waste paper. but that is not the worst. the shares make him responsible for the bank's debts—i am sure i cannot tell you how far; he told me, i daresay, but i was so grieved for him and for all of you, and so confused, i could not take it in. but he says that what he will have to pay up will be as much as he can do, with a hard fight, for the rest of his days."
"i am so sorry for father," murmured may in an awed tone, but with a little of a parrot note, just as she had pitied mr. carey, who was only an old acquaintance and the father of her friends. the fact was that the young girl, brought away suddenly from her girlish interests and her whole past experience, and plunged into the cares of older people, was thoroughly staggered and bewildered, in spite of a small head which was capable of construing latin and conjugating greek.
there was a moment's pause. "will it make a great difference to father and the rest of us?" asked rose, in spite of her quickness, and in spite of what her mother had said.
[79]
"certainly," annie took it upon her to answer, with a mixture of fire and conviction, "we'll all have to earn our living."
"oh, don't make such sweeping statements, annie, frightening your sisters," said their mother reproachfully; and unquestionably may looked scared, and dropped her gloves without noticing it. "you must do what you can to help your poor dear father, and i am sure you'll do that willingly, but so long as he is spared to work for all of us——" she stopped short, unable to say any more.
then her daughters closed round her, from the youngest to the eldest, and told her in concert that she was not to be concerned for them. they were ready for the occasion and equal to it, and they would not mind in the very least.
"mind!" declared rose, with her eyes beginning to shine and her cheeks to flush like annie's. "why, it is the one great comfort that we'll have to make our way in the world, and push our fortunes like boys. we'll have plenty of adventures and rise triumphant over them all, and be such a help to you and father. think of that, may, you little coward," appealing to her younger sister who, in spite of her small dabbling in masculine acquirements, did not look as if the prospect of pushing her fortune like a boy was full of unmixed charm
[80]
for her. but she brightened up at the visionary honour and delight of being a great help to their father and mother, and cried, "yes, yes, rose," with subdued enthusiasm.
dora also echoed the "yes" with a quiet intensity.
annie, on her part, graciously approved of her juniors, and rewarded them by patronizing them tremendously.
"that is right. i don't very well know yet what dora and i can do, but we'll find something. however, you two young ones are the geniuses of the family, and we'll look to you. i suspect dora and i will have to march under your wings. you, rose, must be quick and paint academy pictures, get them hung on the line, and have them sold before the opening day. may must pass all her examinations in no time, gain a scholarship, and be appointed classical mistress to a girls' day-school, of which she will eventually become the head. fancy 'little may' a full-blown school ma'am."
"dear! what creatures girls are! they are jesting and laughing already over their own and other people's misfortunes. it is little they know of life, it is little they guess what will befall them," sighed mrs. millar to herself. nevertheless, in the middle of her anxiety and sorrow, she was in some respects a happy woman, and she had a dim but consoling perception of the truth.
