CHAPTER VII.FAIRY RELENTS.
Now that, to every one’s intense relief, Fairy had changed her mind and withdrawn her claim, the question remained, Who was to go? Public opinion, her mother, Jessie—in short, every voice save one, said Honor. But Honor was indisposed to visit the East. She was not an enterprising young woman, and she was fond of home; and Fairy, when alone with her, shed showers of crocodile tears every time the subject was mentioned. She could not bear to part with her favourite sister; no, it was too cruel of people to suggest such a thing. Who, she asked herself, would dress her hair, and buttonher boots, and read her to sleep? And many of Honor’s hateful tasks would fall to her, such as arranging the flowers, dusting the drawing-room, housekeeping, going messages, for Jessie’s time meant money, and must be respected. Aloud, in the family circle, she said in authoritative tones, “Let Jessie go! As to looks,anylooks are good enough for India; even Jessie will seem handsome there. After all, why should any of them accept the invitation? England was a free country. She (Fairy) would send a nice, grateful little letter, and keep the cheque. Uncle Pelham would never be so mean as to take it back, and they would buy a pony instead of that maddening donkey, and make a tennis-ground, and take a fortnight’s trip to London, and enjoy themselves for once in their lives.”
A week elapsed. The mail had gone out without an answer to Mr. Brande. Jessie and her mother had both talked seriously to Honor, and she had listened with herpleasantest smile, whilst they pointed out the advantages she would personally reap from her Eastern trip. She made no attempt to argue the point, only asked in a playful way who was to drive the donkey? Who was to play the harmonium in church? for she flattered herself that she was the only person in the parish who could do either. And there was the garden and the poultry—the hens would be lost without her!
“We shallallbe lost without you,” rejoined Jessie; “but we can spare you for your own good.”
“I don’t want to be spared for my own good,” she answered. “I prefer staying at home. You think that I shall carry all before me out there! You are greatly mistaken. All your geese are swans.Iam a goose, and not a swan. I am just a country cousin, with a bad complexion and uncouth manners.”
“Honor! you have a beautiful skin, only not much colour; and as for yourmanners, they are as good as other people’s.”
“You have often said that mine are alarmingly abrupt, and that I have the habits of a savage or a child in the way I blurt out home-truths.”
“Oh, but only at home; and you must notalwaysmind what I say.”
“Then what about the present moment? When you say that I ought to go out to Uncle Pelham—how am I to know that I ought to mind what you say now?”
“Upon my word, Honor, you are really too provoking!”
Little did Mrs. Gordon and her friends suspect how their weighty reasons and arguments were nullified by Fairy, who nightly, with arms wound tightly round her sister’s neck, and face pressed to hers, whispered, “You won’t go; promise me, you won’t go.”
Jessie, the clear-sighted, at last began to suspect that Fairy was at the bottom of her sister’s reluctance to acquiesce. Fairywas so demonstratively affectionate to Honor. This was unusual. It was too bad, that Fairy should rule her family, and that her wishes should be law. Jessie conferred with her mother, and they agreed to try another plan. They would drop the subject, and see if feminine contrariness would be their good friend? The word “India” was therefore not uttered for three whole precious days; patterns and passages, etc., were no longer discussed, matters fell back into their old monotonous groove, save that Mrs. Gordon frequently gazed at her youngest daughter, and heaved unusually long and significant sighs.
One afternoon, ten days after the letter had been received which still lay unanswered in Mrs. Gordon’s desk, Honor met the rector as she was returning from practising Sunday hymns on the wheezy old harmonium.
“This will be one of your last practices,” he said. “I am sure I don’t knowhowwe are to replace you.”
“Why should you replace me?” she asked. “I am not going away.”
“Not going away,” he repeated. “I understood that it was all settled. Why have you changed your mind?”
“I never made up my mind to go.”
“Why not? Think of all the advantages you will gain.”
“Yes, advantages; that is what Jessie is always drumming into my head. I shall see the world, I shall have pretty dresses, and a pony, and plenty of balls and parties, and new friends.”
“And surely you would enjoy all these—you are only nineteen, Honor?”
“Yes, but these delights are for myself; there is nothing forthem,” nodding towards “Merry Meetings.” “I am the only person who will benefit by this visit, and I am sure I am more wanted at home than out in India. Jessie cannot do everything, her writing takes up her time; and I look after the house and garden. And then there is Fairy; she cannot bear me to leave her.”
“You have spoiled Fairy among you,” cried the rector, irritably. “Only the other day she was crazy to go to Indiaherself. She must learn to give up, like other people. It is very wrong to sacrifice yourself to the whims and fancies of your sister; in the long run they will become a yoke of dreadful bondage. Remember that you are not a puppet, nor an idiot, but a free, rational agent.”
“Yes,” assented the girl. She knew she was now in for one of Mr. Kerry’s personal lectures. It might be over in two or three minutes, and it might continue for half an hour.
“Now listen to me, Honor. I know you are a good, honest young woman, and think this plan will only benefit yourself. You are wrong. Your mother is in poor health; her pension dies with her. If you offend your only near relative, how are you to exist?”
“I suppose we can work. Every woman ought to be able to earn her bread—even if it is without butter.”
“Honor, I did not know that you held these emancipated views. I hope you won’t let any other man hear you airing them. As for work! Can Fairy work? Jessie, I know, can earn a few pounds, but she could barely keep herself; and if you fall sick, what will you do? It is best to survey matters from every standpoint. Your aunt and uncle have practically offered to adopt you. You will return in a year’s time; you will have made many friends for yourself and sisters, developed your own at present limited views of the world, and bring many new interests into your life. Your absence from home will be a considerable saving. Have you thought of that?”
“A saving!” she echoed incredulously.
“Of course! Don’t you eat? A healthy girl like you cannot live on air; and there is your dress.”
“I make my own dresses.”
“Nonsense!” with an impatient whirl of his stick. “You don’t make the material. How can you be so stubborn, so wilfullyblind to your own interests. If another girl had your chances, Honor Gordon would be the very first to urge her to go; and that in her most knock-me-down style. You have a much keener view where other people’s affairs are concerned than your own.”
“Of course, it is only for a year,” said Honor. “I shall be back among you all within twelve months.”
“Yes, if you are not married,” added the rector, rashly.
“It appears to be the general impression in Hoyle, that going to India means going to be married,” said the girl, firing up and looking quite fierce. “Please put that idea quite at one side, as far asIam concerned.”
“Very well, my dear, I will,” was the unexpectedly meek response.
Touched by his humility, she continued, “Then you really think Ioughtto go?”
“My good child, there can be no two opinions. Every one thinks you ought to go.”
“Except Fairy.”
“Fairy has no right to stand in your way, and your absence will be an excellent lesson for her. She will learn to be independent and useful. Now, here is my turn, and I must leave you. Go straight home and tell them that you are ready to start, and that the sooner your mother sees about your escort and passage the better.”
And he wrung her hand and left her. Honor walked home at a snail’s pace, thinking hard. If Fairy would but give her consent, she would hold out no longer against every one’s wishes. She would go—yes, without further hesitation. After all, it was only for one year. But, although she did not know it, Fairy had already yielded. Jessie and Mrs. Banks had been talking to her seriously in Honor’s absence, and she had been persuaded to listen to the voice of reason—and interest.
If she had gone to India, as she intended, she would have been parted from Honor, and of her own accord.
This fact, brusquely placed before her by Mrs. Banks, she was unable to deny, and sat dumb and sullen.
“Uncle Pelham is sure to take to Honor,” added Jessie, “and he will probably do something for us all, thinking that we areallas nice as Honor, which is not the case. She will be home in a year, and there will be her letter every week.”
“Yes, andpresents,” put in Mrs. Banks, significantly. “She will have plenty of pocket-money, and will be able to send you home no end of nice things.”
Fairy sniffed and sighed, dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief, and finally suffered herself to be coaxed and convinced, and when her sister opened the drawing-room door, with rather a solemn face, she ran to her and put her arms round her and said—
“Honor, darling, I have promised to let you go!”
That very day the important epistle was despatched to Shirani, and Fairy, to show that she did nothing by halves, actuallydropped it into the letter-box with her own hand. And during the evening she once more produced the bundles of patterns, and threw herself heart and soul into the selection of her sister’s outfit.