Peg was shown by the maid, Bennett, into a charming old-world room overlooking the rose garden. Everything about it was in the most exquisite taste. The furniture was of white and gold, the vases of Sevres, a few admirable prints on the walls and roses everywhere.
Left to her reflections, poor Peg found herself wondering how people, with so much that was beautiful around them, could live and act as the Chichester family apparently did. They seemed to borrow nothing from their once illustrious and prosperous dead. They were, it would appear, only concerned with a particularly near present.
The splendour of the house awed—the narrowness of the people irritated her. What an unequal condition of things where such people were endowed with so much of the world's goods, while her father had to struggle all his life for the bare necessities!
She had heard her father say once that the only value money had, outside of one's immediate requirements, was to be able to relieve other people's misery: and that if we just spent it on ourselves money became a monster that stripped life of all happiness, all illusion, all love—and made it just a selfish mockery of a world!
How wonderfully true her father's diagnosis was!
Here was a family with everything to make them happy—yet none of them seemed to breathe a happy breath, think a happy thought, or know a happy hour.
The maid had placed Peg's scanty assortment of articles on the dressing-table. They looked so sadly out of place amid the satin-lined boxes and perfumed drawers that Peg felt another momentary feeling of shame. Since her coming into the house she had experienced a series of awakenings. She sturdily overcame the feeling and changed her cheap little travelling suit for one of the silk dresses her father had bought her in New York. By the time she had arranged her hair with a big pink ribbon and put on the precious brown silk garment she began to feel more at ease. After all, who were they to intimidate her? If she did not like the house and the people, after giving them a fair trial, she would go back to New York. Very much comforted by the reflection and having exhausted all the curious things in the little Mauve-Room she determined to see the rest of the house.
At the top of the stairs she met the maid Bennett.
"Mrs. Chichester left word that you were not to leave your room without permission. I was just going to tell you," said Bennett.
All Peg's independent Irish blood flared up. What would she be doing shut up in a little white-and-gold room all day? She answered the maid excitedly:
"Tell Mrs. CHI-STER I am not goin' to do anythin' of the kind. As long as I stay in this house I'll see every bit of it!" and she swept past the maid down the stairs into the same room for the third time.
"You'll only get me into trouble," cried the maid.
"No, I won't. I wouldn't get you into trouble for the wurrld. I'll get all the trouble and I'll get it now." Peg ran across, opened the door connecting with the hall and called out at the top of her voice:
"Aunt! Cousins! Aunt! Come here, I want to tell ye about myself!"
"They've all gone out," said the maid quickly.
"Then what are ye makin' such a fuss about? You go out too."
She watched the disappointed Bennett leave the room and then began a tour of inspection. She had never seen so many strange things outside of a museum.
Fierce men in armour glared at her out of massive frames: old gentlemen in powdered wigs smiled pleasantly at her; haughty ladies in breath-bereaving coiffures stared superciliously right through her. She felt most uncomfortable in such strange company.
She turned from the gallery and entered the living room. Everything about it was of the solid Tudor days and bespoke, even as the portraits, a period when the family must have been of some considerable importance. She wandered about the room touching some things timidly—others boldly. For example—on the piano she found a perfectly carved bronze statuette of Cupid. She gave a little elfish cry of delight, took the statuette in her arms and kissed it.
"Cupid! me darlin'. Faith, it's you that causes all the mischief in the wurrld, ye divil ye!" she cried.
All her depression vanished. She was like a child again. She sat down at the piano and played the simple refrain and sang in her little girlish tremulous voice, one of her father's favourite songs, her eyes on Cupid:
"Oh! the days are gone when Beauty brightMy heart's charm wove!When my dream of life, from morn till night,Was love, still love!New hope may bloom,And days may come,Of milder, calmer beam,But there's nothing half so sweet in lifeAs Love's young dream!No, there's nothing half so sweet in lifeAs Love's young dream."
As she let the last bars die away and gave Cupid a little caress, and was about to commence the neat verse a vivid flash of lightning played around the room, followed almost immediately by a crash of thunder.
Peg cowered down into a deep chair.
All the laughter died from her face and the joy in her heart. She made the sign of the cross, knelt down and prayed to Our Lady of Sorrows.
By this time the sky was completely leaden in hue and rain was pouring down.
Again the darkening room was lit up by a vivid forked flash and the crash of the thunder came instantly. The storm was immediately overhead. Peg closed her eyes, as she did when a child, while her lips moved in prayer.
Into the room through the window came a young man, his coat-collar turned up, rain pouring from his hat; inside his coat was a terrified-looking dog. The man came well into the room, turning down the collar of his coat; and shaking the moisture from his clothes, when he suddenly saw the kneeling figure of Peg. He looked down at her in surprise. She was intent on her prayers.
"Hello!" cried the young man. "Frightened, eh?"
Peg looked up and saw him staring down at her with a smile on his lips. Inside his coat was her precious little dog, trembling with fear. The terrier barked loudly when he saw his mistress. Peg sprang up, clutched "Michael" away from the stranger, just as another blinding flash played around the room followed by a deafening report.
Peg ran across to the door shouting: "Shut it out! Shut it out!" She stood there trembling, covering her eyes with one hand, with the other she held on to the overjoyed "MICHAEL," who was whining with glee at seeing her again.
The amazed and amused young man closed the windows and the curtains. Then he moved down toward Peg.
"Don't come near the dog, sir. Don't come near it!" She opened a door and found it led into a little reception room. She fastened "MICHAEL" with a piece of string to a chair in the room and came back to look again at the stranger, who had evidently rescued her dog from the storm. He was a tall, bronzed, athletic-looking, broad shouldered young man of about twenty-six, with a pleasant, genial, magnetic manner and a playful humour lurking in his eyes.
As Peg looked him all over she found that he was smiling down at her.
"Does the dog belong to you?" he queried.
"What were you doin' with him?" she asked in reply.
"I found him barking at a very high-spirited mare."
"MARE?" cried Peg. "WHERE?"
"Tied to the stable-door."
"The stable-door? Is that where they put 'MICHAEL'?" Once again the lightning flashed vividly and the thunder echoed dully through the room.
Peg shivered.
The stranger reassured her.
"Don't be frightened. It's only a summer storm."
"Summer or winter, they shrivel me up," gasped Peg.
The young man walked to the windows and drew back the curtains. "Come and look at it," he said encouragingly. "They're beautiful in this part of the country. Come and watch it."
"I'll not watch it!" cried Peg. "Shut it out!"
Once more the young man closed the curtains.
Peg looked at him and said in an awe-struck voice:
"They say if ye look at the sky when the lightnin' comes ye can see the Kingdom of Heaven. An' the sight of it blinds some and kills others—accordin' to the state of grace ye're in."
"You're a Catholic?" said the stranger.
"What else would I be?" asked Peg in surprise.
Again the lightning lit the room and, after some seconds, came the deep rolling of the now distant thunder.
Peg closed her eyes again and shivered.
"Doesn't it seem He is angry with us for our sins?" she cried.
"With ME, perhaps—not with you," answered the stranger.
"What do ye mane by that?" asked Peg.
"You don't know what sin is," replied the young man.
"And who may you be to talk to me like that?" demanded Peg.
"My name is Jerry," said the stranger.
"JERRY?" and Peg looked at him curiously.
"Yes. What is yours?"
"Peg!" and there was a sullen note of fixed determination in her tone.
"Peg, eh?" and the stranger smiled.
She nodded and looked at him curiously. What a strange name he had—JERRY! She had never heard such a name before associated with such a distinguished-looking man. She asked him again slowly to make certain she had heard aright.
"Jerry, did ye say?"
"Just plain Jerry," he answered cheerfully. "And you're Peg."
She nodded again with a quick little smile: "Just plain Peg."
"I don't agree with you," said the young man. "I think you are very charming."
"Ye mustn't say things like that with the thunder and lightnin' outside," answered Peg, frowning.
"I mean it," from the man who called himself "Jerry."
"No, ye don't mane it," said Peg positively. "The man who MANES them things never sez them. My father always told me to be careful of the fellow that sez flattherin' things right to yer face. 'He's no good, Peg,' my father sez; 'He's no good.'"
Jerry laughed heartily.
"Your father is right, only his doctrine hardly applies in this instance. I didn't mean it as flattery. Just a plain statement of fact."
After a pause he went on: "Who are you?"
"I'm me aunt's niece," replied Peg, looking at him furtively.
Jerry laughed again.
"And who is your aunt?"
"Mrs. Chi-ster."
"Whom?"
Poor Peg tried again at the absurd tongue-tying name.
"My aunt is Mrs. Chi-sister."
"Mrs. Chichester?" asked Jerry in surprise.
"That's it," said Peg.
"How extraordinary!"
"Isn't it? Ye wouldn't expect a fine lady like her to have a niece like me, would ye?"
"That isn't what I meant," corrected Jerry.
"Yes, it is what ye meant. Don't tell untruths with the storm ragin' outside," replied Peg.
"I was thinking that I don't remember Alaric ever telling me that he had such a charming cousin."
"Oh, do you know Alaric?" asked Peg with a quick smile.
"Very well," answered Jerry.
Peg's smile developed into a long laugh.
"And why that laugh?" queried Jerry.
"I'd like me father to see Alaric. I'd like him just to see Alaric for one minnit."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, indade. Ye know ALARIC, do ye?—isn't it funny how the name suits him?—ALARIC! there are very few people a name like that would get along with—but fits HIM all right—doesn't it? Well, he didn't know I was alive until I dropped down from the clouds this mornin'."
"Where did you drop from?"
"New York."
"Really? How odd."
"Not at all. It's nearly as big as London and there's nothin' odd about New York."
"Were you born there?" asked Jerry.
"I was," answered Peg.
"By way of old Ireland, eh?"
"How did ye guess that?" queried Peg, not quite certain whether to be pleased or angry.
"Your slight—but DELIGHTFUL accent," replied Jerry.
"ACCENT is it?" and Peg looked at him in astonishment. "Sure I'VE no accent. I just speak naturally. It's YOU have the accent to my way of thinkin'."
"Really?" asked the amused Jerry. Peg imitated the young man's well-bred, polished tone:
"Wah ye bawn theah?"
Jerry laughed immoderately. Who was this extraordinary little person? was the one thought that was in his mind.
"How would you say it?" he asked.
"I'd say it naturally. I would say: 'Were ye borrn there?' I wouldn't twist the poor English language any worse than it already is."
Peg had enough of the discussion and started off on another expedition of discovery by standing on a chair and examining some china in a cabinet.
Jerry turned up to the windows and drew back the curtains, threw the windows wide open and looked up at the sky. It was once more a crystal blue and the sun was shining vividly.
He called to Peg: "The storm is over. The air is clear of electricity. All the anger has gone from the heavens. See?"
Peg said reverently: "Praise be to God for that."
Then she went haphazardly around the room examining everything, sitting in various kinds of chairs, on the sofa, smelling the flowers and wherever she went Jerry followed her, at a little distance.
"Are you going to stay here?" he reopened the conversation with.
"Mebbe I will and mebbe I won't," was Peg's somewhat unsatisfactory answer.
"Did your aunt send for you?"
"No—me uncle."
"Indeed?"
"Yes, indade; me Uncle Nat."
"NAT?"
"Nathaniel Kingsnorth—rest his soul."
"Nathaniel Kingsnorth!" cried Jerry in amazement
Peg nodded.
"Sleepin' in his grave, poor man."
"Why, then you're Miss Margaret O'Connell?"
"I am. How did ye know THAT?"
"I was with your uncle when he died."
"WERE ye?"
"He told me all about you."
"Did he? Well, I wish the poor man 'ud ha' lived. An' I wish he'd a' thought o' us sooner. He with all his money an' me father with none, an' me his sister's only child."
"What does your father do?" Peg took a deep breath and answered eagerly. She was on the one subject about which she could talk freely—all she needed was a good listener. This strange man, unlike her aunt, seemed to be the very person to talk to on the one really vital subject to Peg. She said breathlessly:
"Sure me father can do anythin' at all—except make money. An' when he does MAKE it he can't kape it. He doesn't like it enough. Nayther do I. We've never had very much to like, but we've seen others around us with plent an' faith we've been the happiest—that we have."
She only stopped to take breath before on she went again:
"There have been times when we've been most starvin', but me father never lost his pluck or his spirits. Nayther did I. When times have been the hardest I've never heard a word of complaint from me father, nor seen a frown on his face. An' he's never used a harsh word to me in me life. Sure we're more like boy and girl together than father and daughther." Her eyes began to fill and her voice to break.
"An' I'm sick for the sight of him. An' I'm sure he is for me—for his 'Peg o' my Heart,' as he always calls me."
She covered her eyes as the tears trickled down through her fingers. Under her breath Jerry heard her saying:
"I wish I was back home—so I do."
He was all compassion in a moment. Something in the loneliness and staunchness of the little girl appealed to him.
"Don't do that," he said softly, as he felt the moisture start into his own eyes.
Peg unpinned her little handkerchief and carefully wiped away her tears and just as carefully folded the handkerchief up again and pinned it back by her side.
"I don't cry often," she said. "Me father never made me do it. I never saw HIM cry but twice in his life—once when he made a little money and we had a Mass said for me mother's soul, an' we had the most beautiful candles on Our Lady's altar. He cried then, he did. And when I left him to come here on the ship. And then only at the last minnit. He laughed and joked with me all the time we were together—but when the ship swung away from the dock he just broke down and cried like a little child. 'My Peg!' he kep' sayin'; 'My little Peg!' I tell ye I wanted to jump off that ship an' go back to him—but we'd started—an' I don't know how to swim."
How it relieved her pent-up feelings to talk to some one about her father! Already she felt she had known Jerry for years. In a moment she went on again:
"I cried meself to sleep THAT night, I did. An' many a night, too, on that steamer."
"I didn't want to come here—that I didn't. I only did it to please me father. He thought it 'ud be for me good."
"An' I wish I hadn't come—that I do. He's missin' me every minnit—an' I'm missin' him. An' I'm not goin' to be happy here, ayther."
"I don't want to be a lady. An' they won't make me one ayther if I can help it. 'Ye can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,' that's what me father always said. An' that's what I am. I'm a sow's ear."
She stopped,—her eyes fixed on the ground.
Jerry was more than moved at this entirely human and natural outbreak. It was even as looking into some one's heart and brain and hearing thoughts spoken aloud and seeing the nervous workings of the heart. When she described herself in such derogatory terms, a smile of relief played on Jerry's face as he leaned over to her and said:
"I'm afraid I cannot agree with you."
She looked up at him and said indifferently: "It doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to me whether ye do or not. That's what I am. I'm a sow's ear."
He reasoned with her:
"When the strangeness wears off you'll be very happy."
"Do yez know the people here—the Chi-sters?"
"Oh, yes. Very well."
"Then what makes ye think I'll be happy among them?"
"Because you'll know that you're pleasing your father."
"But I'm all alone."
"You're among friends."
Peg shook her head and said bitterly: "No, I'm not. They may be me RELATIONS, but they're not me FRIENDS. They're ashamed of me."
"Oh, no!" interrupted Jerry.
"Oh, yes," contradicted Peg. "I tell ye they are ashamed of me. They sent me to the kitchen when I first came here. And now they put 'MICHAEL' to slape in the stable. I want ye to understand 'MICHAEL' is not used to that. He always sleeps with me father."
She was so unexpected that Jerry found himself on the verge of tears one moment, and the next something she would say, some odd look or quaint inflection would compel his laughter again. He had a mental picture of "MICHAEL," the pet of Peg's home, submitting to the indignity of companionship with mere horses. Small wonder he was snapping at Ethel's mare, when Jerry, discovered him.
He turned again to Peg and said:
"When they really get to know you, Miss O'Connell, they will be just as proud of you as your father is—as—I would be."
Peg looked at him in whimsical astonishment: "You'd be? Why should YOU be proud of ME?"
"I'd be more than proud if you'd look on me as your friend."
"A FRIEND is it?" cried Peg warily. "Sure I don't know who you are at all," and she drew away from him. She was on her guard. Peg made few friends. Friendship to her was not a thing to be lightly given or accepted. Why, this man, calling himself by the outlandish name of "Jerry," should walk in out of nowhere, and offer her his friendship, and expect her to jump at it, puzzled her. It also irritated her. Who WAS he?
Jerry explained:
"Oh, I can give you some very good references. For instance, I went to the same college as your cousin Alaric."
Peg looked at him in absolute disdain.
"Did ye?" she said. "Well, I'd mention that to very few people if I were you," and she walked away from him. He followed her.
"Don't you want me to be your friend?"
"Sure I don't know," Peg answered quickly. "I'm like the widdy's pig that was put into a rale bed to sleep. It nayther wanted it, nor it didn't want it. The pig had done without beds all its life, and it wasn't cryin' its heart out for the loss of somethin' it had never had and couldn't miss."
Jerry laughed heartily at the evident sincerity of the analogy.
Peg looked straight at him: "I want to tell ye that's one thing that's in yer favour," she said.
"What is?" asked Jerry.
"Sure, laughter is not dead in you, as it is in every one else in this house."
Whilst Jerry was still laughing, Peg suddenly joined in with him and giving him a playful slap with the back of her hand, asked him:
"Who are ye at all?"
"No one in particular," answered Jerry between gasps.
"I can see that," said Peg candidly. "I mean what do ye do?"
"Everything a little and nothing really well," Jerry replied. "I was a soldier for a while: then I took a splash at doctoring: read law: civil-engineered in South America for a year: now I'm farming."
"Farming?" asked Peg incredulously.
"Yes. I'm a farmer."
Peg laughed as she looked at the well-cut clothes, the languid manner and easy poise.
"It must be mighty hard on the land and cattle to have YOU farmin' them," she said.
"It is," and he too laughed again. "They resent my methods. I'm a new farmer."
"Faith ye must be."
"To sum up my career I can do a whole lot of things fairly well and none of them well enough to brag about."
"Just like me father," she said interestedly.
"You flatter me," he replied courteously.
Peg thought she detected a note of sarcasm. She turned on him fiercely:
"I know I do. There isn't a man in the whole wurrld like me father. Not a man in the wurrld. But he says he's a rollin' stone and they don't amount to much in a hard-hearted wurrld that's all for makin' dollars."
"Your father is right," agreed Jerry. "Money is the standard to-day and we're all valued by it."
"And he's got none," cried Peg. Thoughts were coming thick and fast through her little brain. To speak of her father was to want to be near him. And she wanted him there now for that polished, well-bred gentleman to see what a wonderful man he was. She suddenly said:
"Well, he's got me. I've had enough of this place. I'm goin' home now." She started up the staircase leading to the Mauve Room.
Jerry called after her anxiously:
"No, no! Miss O'Connell. Don't go like that."
"I must," said Peg from the top of the stairs. "What will I get here but to be laughed at and jeered at by a lot of people that are not fit to even look at me father. Who are they I'd like to know that I mustn't speak his name in their presence? I love me father and sure it's easier to suffer for the want of food than the want of love!"
Suddenly she raised one hand above her head and in the manner and tone of a public-speaker she astounded Jerry with the following outburst:
"An' that's what the Irish are doin' all over the wurrld. They're driven out of their own country by the English and become wandherers on the face of the earth and nothin' they ever EARN'LL make up to them for the separation from their homes and their loved ones!" She finished the peroration on a high note and with a forced manner such as she had frequently heard on the platform.
She smiled at the astonished Jerry and asked him:
"Do ye know what that is?"
"I haven't the least idea," he answered truthfully.
"That's out of one of me father's speeches. Me father makes grand speeches. He makes them in the Cause of Ireland."
"Oh, really! In the Cause of Ireland, eh?" said Jerry.
"Yes. He's been strugglin' all his life to make Ireland free—to get her Home Rule, ye know. But the English are so ignorant. They think they know more than me father. If they'd do what me father tells them sure there'd be no more throuble in Ireland at all."
"Really?" said Jerry, quite interestedly.
"Not a bit of throuble. I wish me father was here to explain it to ye. He could tell ye the whole thing in a couple of hours. I wish he were here now just to give you an example of what fine speakin' really is. Do you like speeches?"
"Very much—sometimes," replied Jerry, guardedly.
"Me father is wondherful on a platform with a lot o' people in front of him. He's wondherful. I've seen him take two or three hundred people who didn't know they had a grievance in the wurrld—the poor cratures—they were just contented to go on bein' ground down and trampled on and they not knowing a thing about it—I've seen me father take that crowd and in five minutes, afther he had started spakin' to them ye wouldn't know they were the same people. They were all shoutin' at once, and they had murther in their eye and it was blood they were afther. They wanted to reform somethin'—they weren't sure what—but they wanted to do it—an' at the cost of life. Me father could have led them anywhere. It's a wondherful POWER he was. And magnetism. He just looks at the wake wuns an' they wilt. He turns to the brave wuns and they're ready to face cannon-balls for him. He's a born leader—that's what he is, a born leader!" She warmed to her subject: she was on her hobby-horse and she would ride it as far as this quiet stranger would let her. She went on again:
"Ye know the English government are very much frightened of me father. They are indade. They put him in prison once—before I was born. They were so afraid of him they put him in prison. I wish ye could see him!" she said regretfully.
"I am sure I wish I could—with all my heart. You have really aroused my keenest interest," said Jerry gravely. "He must be a very remarkable man," he added.
"That's what he is," agreed Peg warmly. "An' a very wondherful lookin' man, too. He's a big, upstandin' man, with gold hair goin' grey, an' a flashin' eye an' a great magnetic voice. Everybody sez 't's the MAGNETISM in him that makes him so dangerous. An' he's as bold as a lion. He isn't frightened of anybody. He'll say anything right to your face. Oh, I wish ye could just meet him. He's not afraid to make any kind of a speech—whether it's right or not, so long as it's for the 'Cause.' Do yez like hearin' about me father?" she asked Jerry suddenly, in case she was tiring him—although how any one COULD be tired listening to the description of her Hero she could not imagine.
Jerry hastened to assure her that he was really most interested.
"I am not botherin' ye listenin', am I?"
"Not in the least," Jerry assured her again.
"Well, so long as yer not tired I'll tell ye some more. Ye know I went all through Ireland when I was a child with me father in a cart. An' the police and the constabulary used to follow us about. They were very frightened of me father, they were. They were grand days for me. Ye know he used to thry his speeches on me first. Then I'd listen to him make them in public. I used to learn them when I'd heard them often enough. I know about fifty. I'll tell ye some of them if I ever see ye again. Would ye like to hear some of them?"
"Very much indeed," answered Jerry.
"Well, if I STAY here ye must come some time an' I'll tell ye them. But it is not the same hearin' me that it is hearin' me father. Ye've got to see the flash of his eye hear the big sob in his voice, when he spakes of his counthry, to ralely get the full power o' them. I'll do me best for ye, of course."
"Ye're English, mebbe?" she asked him suddenly.
"I am," said Jerry. He almost felt inclined to apologise.
"Well, sure that's not your fault. Ye couldn't help it. No one should hold that against ye. We can't all be born Irish."
"I'm glad you look at it so broad-mindedly," said Jerry.
"Do ye know much about Ireland?" asked Peg.
"Very little, I'm ashamed to say," answered Jerry. "Well, it would be worth yer while to learn somethin' about it," said Peg.
"I'll make it my business to," he assured her. "It's God country, is Ireland. And it's many a tear He must have shed at the way England mismanages it. But He is very lenient and patient with the English. They're so slow to take notice of how things really are. And some day He will punish them and it will be through the Irish that punishment will be meted out to them." She had unconsciously dropped again into her father's method of oratory, climaxing the speech with all the vigour of the rising inflection. She looked at Jerry, her face aglow with enthusiasm.
"That's from another of me father's speeches. Did ye notice the way he ended it?—'through the Irish that punishment will be meted out to them!' I think 'meted out' is grand. I tell you me father has the most wondherful command of language."
She stood restlessly a moment, her hands beating each other alternately.
"I get so lonesome for him," she said.
Suddenly with a tone of definite resolve in her voice she started up the stairs, calling over her shoulder:
"I'm goin' back to him now. Good-bye!" and she ran all the way upstairs.
Jerry followed her—pleading insistently:
"Wait! Please wait!" She stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down at him.
"Give us one month's trial—one month!" he urged. "It will be very little, out of your life and I promise you your father will not suffer through it except in losing you for that one little month. Will you? Just a month?"
He spoke so earnestly and seemed so sincerely pained and so really concerned at-her going, that she came down a few steps and looked at him irresolutely:
"Why do you want me to stay?" she asked him.
"Because—because your late uncle was my friend. It was his last wish to do something for you. Will you? Just a month?"
She struggled, with the desire to go away from all that was so foreign and distasteful to her. Then she looked at Jerry and realised, with something akin to a feeling of pleasure, that he was pleading with her to stay, and doing it in such a way as to suggest that it mattered to him. She had to admit to herself that she rather liked the look of him. He seemed honest, and even though he were English he did show an interest whenever she spoke of her father and he had promised to try and learn something about Ireland. That certainly was in his favour—just as the fact that he could laugh was, too. Quickly the thoughts ran hot-foot through Peg's brain: After all to run away now would look cowardly. Her father would be ashamed of her. This stuck-up family would laugh at her. That thought was too much. The very suggestion of Alaric laughing at her caused a sudden rush of blood to her head. Her temples throbbed. Instantly she made up her mind.
She would stay. Turning to Jerry, she said: "All right, then. I'll stay—a month. But not any more than a month, though!"
"Not unless you wish it."
"I won't wish it—I promise ye that. One month'll be enough in this house. It's goin' to seem like a life-time."
"I'm glad," said Jerry, smiling.
"Ye're glad it's goin' to seem like a life-time?"
"No, no!" he corrected her hastily; "I am glad you're going to stay."
"Well, that's a comfort anyway. Some one'll be pleased at me stayin'." And she came down the stairs and walked over to the piano again.
Jerry followed her:
"I am—immensely."
"All right Ye've said it!" replied Peg, looking up and finding him standing beside her. She moved away from him. Again he followed her:
"And will you look on me as your friend?"
This time she turned away abruptly. She did not like being followed about by a man she had only just met.
"There's time enough for that," she said, and went across to the windows.
"Is it so hard?" pleaded Jerry, again following her..
"I don't know whether it's hard or aisy until I thry it."
"Then try," urged Jerry, going quite close to her: She faced him: "I never had anyone makin' such a fuss about havin' me for a friend before. I don't understand you at all."
"Yet I'm very simple," said Jerry.
"I don't doubt ye," Peg answered drily. "From what I've heard of them most of the English are—simple."
He laughed and held out his hand. "What's that for?" she asked suspiciously.
"To our friendship."
"I never saw the likes of you in all me life."
"Come—Peg."
"I don't think it's necessary."
"Come!"
She looked into his eyes: They were fixed upon her. Without quite knowing why she found herself giving him her hand.
He grasped it firmly.
"Friends, Peg?"
"Not yet now," she answered half defiantly, half frightenedly.
"I'll wager we will be."
"Don't put much on it, ye might lose."
"I'll stake my life on it."
"Ye don't value it much, then."
"More than I did. May you be very happy amongst us, Peg."
A door slammed loudly in the distance. Peg distinctly heard her aunt's voice and Alaric's. In a moment she became panic-stricken. She made one bound for the stairs and sprang up them three at a time. At the top she turned and warned him:
"Don't tell any one ye saw me."
"I won't," promised the astonished young man.
But their secret was to be short-lived.
As Peg turned, Ethel appeared at the top of the stairs and as she descended, glaring at Peg, the unfortunate girl went down backwards before her. At the same moment Mrs. Chichester and Alaric came in through the door.
They all greeted Jerry warmly.
Mrs. Chichester was particularly gracious. "So sorry we were out. You will stay to lunch?"
"It is what I came for," replied Jerry heartily. He slipped his arm through Alaric's and led him up to the windows:
"Why, Al, your cousin is adorable!" he said enthusiastically.
"What?" Alaric gasped in horror. "You've met her?"
"Indeed I have. And we had the most delightful time together. I want to see a great deal of her while she's here."
"You're joking?" remarked Alaric cautiously.
"Not at all. She has the frank honest grip on life that I like better than anything in mankind or womankind. She has made me a convert to Home Rule already."
The luncheon-gong sounded in the distance. Alaric hurried to the door:
"Come along, every one! Lunch!"
"Thank goodness," cried Jerry, joining him. "I'm starving."
Peg came quietly from behind the newell post, where she had been practically hidden, and went straight to Jerry and smiling up at him, her eyes dancing with amusement, said:
"So am I starvin' too. I've not had a bite since six."
"Allow me," and Jerry offered her his arm.
Mrs. Chichester quickly interposed.
"My niece is tired after her journey. She will lunch in her room."
"Oh, but I'm not a bit tired," ejaculated Peg anxiously. "I'm not tired at all, and I'd much rather have lunch down here with Mr. Jerry."
The whole family were aghast.
Ethel looked indignantly at Peg.
Mrs. Chichester ejaculated: "What?"
Alaric, almost struck dumb, fell back upon: "Well, I mean to say!"
"And you SHALL go in with Mr. Jerry," said that young gentleman, slipping Peg's arm through his own. Turning to Mrs. Chichester he asked her: "With your permission we will lead the way. Come—Peg," and he led her to the door and opened it.
Peg looked up at him, a roguish light dancing in her big expressive eyes.
"Thanks. I'm not so sure about that wager of yours. I think yer life is safe. I want to tell ye ye've saved mine." She put one hand gently on her little stomach and cried: "I am so hungry me soul is hangin' by a thread."
Laughing gaily, the two new-found friends went in search of the dining-room.
The Chichester family looked at each other.
It seemed that the fatal first day of June was to be a day of shocks.
"Disgraceful!" ventured Ethel.
"Awful!" said the stunned Alaric.
"She must be taken in hand and at once!" came in firm tones from Mrs. Chichester. "She must never be left alone again. Come quickly before she can disgrace us any further to-day."
The unfortunate family, following in the wake of Peg and Jerry, found them in the dining-room chattering together like old friends. He was endeavouring to persuade Peg to try an olive. She yielded just as the family arrived. She withdrew the olive in great haste and turning to Jerry said: "Faith, there's nothin' good about it but it's colour!" In a few moments she sat down to the first formal meal is the bosom of the Chichester family.
The days that followed were never-to-be-forgotten ones for Peg. Her nature was in continual revolt. The teaching of her whole lifetime she was told to correct. Everything she SAID, everything she LOOKED, everything she DID was wrong.
Tutors were engaged to prepare her for the position she might one day enjoy through her dead uncle's will. They did not remain long. She showed either marked incapacity to acquire the slightest veneer of culture—else it was pure wilfulness.
The only gleams of relief she had were on the occasions when Jerry visited the family. Whenever they could avoid Mrs. Chichester's watchful eyes they would chat and laugh and play like children. She could not understand him—he was always discovering new traits in her. They became great friends.
Her letters to her father were, at first, very bitter, regarding her treatment by the family. Indeed so resentful did they become that her father wrote to her in reply urging her, if she was so unhappy, to at once return to him on the next steamer. But she did NOT. Little by little the letters softened. Occasionally, toward the end of that first month they seemed almost contented. Her father marvelled at the cause.
The month she had promised to stay was drawing to an end. But one more day remained. It was to be a memorable one for Peg.
Jerry had endeavoured at various times to encourage her to study. He would question her, and chide her and try to stimulate her. One day he gave her a large, handsomely-bound volume and asked her to read it at odd times and he would examine her in it when she had mastered its contents. She opened it wonderingly and found it to be "Love Stories of the World."
It became Peg's treasure. She kept it hidden from every one in the house. She made a cover for it out of a piece of cloth so that no one could see the ornate binding. She would read it at night in her room, by day out in the fields or by the sea. But her favourite time and place was in the living-room, every evening after dinner. She would surround herself with books—a geography, a history of England, a huge atlas, a treatise on simple arithmetic and put the great book in the centre; making of it an island—the fount of knowledge. Then she would devour it intently until some one disturbed her. The moment she heard anyone coming she would cover it up quickly with the other books and pretend to be studying.
The book was a revelation to her. It gave all her imagination full play. Through its pages treaded a stately procession of Kings and Queens—Wagnerian heroes and heroines: Shakespearian creations, melodious in verse; and countless others. It was indeed a treasure-house. It took her back to the lives and loves of the illustrious and passionate dead, and it brought her for the first time to the great fount of poetry and genius.
Life began to take on a different aspect to her.
All her rebellious spirit would soften under the spell of her imagination; and again all her dauntless spirit would assert itself under the petty humiliations the Chichester family frequently inflicted upon her.
Next to Mrs. Chichester she saw Alaric the most.
Although she could not actively dislike the little man her first feeling of amusement wore off. He simply bored her now. He was no longer funny. He seemed of so little account in the world.
She saw but little of Ethel. They hardly spoke when they met.
All through the month Christian Brent was a frequent visitor.
If Peg only despised the Chichesters she positively loathed Brent, and with a loathing she took no pains to conceal.
On his part, Brent would openly and covertly show his admiration for her. Peg was waiting for a really good chance to find out Mr. Brent's real character. The opportunity came.
On the night of the last day of the trial-month, Peg was in her favourite position, lying face downward on a sofa, reading her treasure, when she became conscious of dome one being in the room watching her. She started up in a panic instinctively hiding the book behind her. She found Brent staring down at her in open admiration. Something in the intentness of his gaze caused her to spring to her feet. He smiled a sickly smile.
"The book must be absorbing. What is it?" he asked.
Peg faced him, the book clasped in both of her hands behind her back; her eyes flashing and her heart throbbing. Brent looked at her with marked appreciation. "You mustn't be angry, child. What is it? Eh? Something forbidden?" and he leered knowingly at her. Then he made a quick snatch at the book, saying:
"Show it me!"
Peg ran across the room and turning up a corner of the carpet, put the book under it, turned back the carpet, put her foot determinedly on it and turned again to face her tormentor.
Brent went rapidly across to her. The instinct of the chase was quick in his blood.
"A hiding-place, eh? NOW you make me really curious. Let me see." He again made a movement toward the hidden book.
Peg clenched both of her hands into little fists and glared at Brent, while her breath came in quick, sharp gasps. She was prepared to defend the identity of the book at any cost.
"I love spirit!" cried Brent.
Then he looked at her charming dress; at her stylish coiffure; at the simple spray of flowers at her breast. He gave an ejaculation of pleasure.
"What a wonderful change in a month. You most certainly would not be sent to the kitchen now. Do you know you have grown into a most attractive young lady? You are really delightful angry. And you are angry, aren't you? And with me, eh? I'm so sorry if I've offended you. Let us kiss and be friends." He made an impulsive movement toward her and tried to take her in his arms. Peg gave him a resounding box on the ear. With a muffled ejaculation of anger and of pain he attempted to seize her by the wrists, when the door opened and Ethel came into the room.
Peg, panting with fury, glared at them both for a moment and then hurried out through the windows.
Brent, gaining complete control of himself, turned to Ethel and, advancing with outstretched hands, murmured:
"My dear!"
Ethel looked coldly at him, ignored the extended hands and asked:
"Why did she run away?" Brent smiled easily and confidently:
"I'd surprised one of her secrets and she flew into a temper. Did you see her strike me?" He waited anxiously for her reply.
"Secrets?" was all Ethel said.
"Yes. See." He walked across to the corner and turned back the carpet and kneeling down searched for the book, found it and held it up triumphantly:
"Here!" He stood up, and opened the book and read the title-page:
"'Love Stories o f the World.' 'To Peg from Jerry.' Oho!" cried Mr. Brent. "Jerry! Eh? No wonder she didn't want me to see it."
He put the book back into its hiding-place and advanced to Ethel:
"Jerry! So that's how the land lies. Romantic little child!"
Ethel looked steadily at him as he came toward her. Something in her look stopped him within a few feet of her.
"Why don't you go after her?" and she nodded in the direction. Peg had gone.
"Ethel!" he cried, aghast.
"She is new and has all the virtues."
"I assure you" he began—
"You needn't. If there is one thing I am convinced of, it's your assurance."
"Really—Ethel—"
"Were you 'carried away' again?" she sneered.
"Do you think for one moment—" he stopped.
"Yes, I do," answered Ethel positively.
Brent hunted through his mind for an explanation. Finally he said helplessly:
"I—I—don't know what to say."
"Then you'd better say nothing."
"Surely you're not jealous—of a—a—child?"
"No. I don't think it's JEALOUSY," said Ethel slowly.
"Then what is it?" he asked eagerly.
She looked scornfully at him:
"Disgust!" She shrugged her shoulders contemptuously as he tried in vain to find something to say. Then she went on:
"Now I understand why the SCULLERY is sometimes the rival of the DRAWING-ROOM. The love of change!"
He turned away from her. He was hurt. Cut to the quick.
"This is not worthy of you!" was all he said.
"That is what rankles," replied Ethel. "It isn't. YOU'RE not."
"Ethel!" he cried desperately.
"If that ever happened again I should have to AMPUTATE YOU."
Brent walked over to the window-seat where he had left his automobile coat and cap and picked them up.
Ethel watched him quietly.
"Chris! Come here!"
He turned to her.
"There! It's over! I suppose I HAVE been a little hard on you. All forgotten?" She held out her hand. He bent over it.
"My nerves have been rather severely tried this past month," Ethel went on. "Put a mongrel into a kennel of thoroughbreds, and they will either destroy the intruder or be in a continual condition of unsettled, irritated intolerance. That is exactly MY condition. I'm unsettled, irritable and intolerant."
Brent sat beside her and said softly:
"Then I've come in time?"
Ethel smiled as she looked right through him:
"So did I, didn't I?" and she indicated the window through which Peg ran after assaulting Brent.
The young man sprang up reproachfully:
"Don't! Please don't!" he pleaded.
"Very well," replied Ethel complacently, "I won't."
Brent was standing, head down, his manner was crestfallen. He looked the realisation of misery and self-pity.
"I'm sorry, Chris," remarked Ethel finally, after some moments had passed. "A month ago it wouldn't have mattered so much. Just now—it does. I'd rather looked forward to seeing you. It's been horrible here."
"A month of misery for me, too," replied Brent, passionately.
"I'm going away—out of it. To-morrow!" he added.
"Are you?" she asked languidly. "Where?"
"Petersburg—Moscow—Siberia—"
"Oh! The COLD places" She paused, then asked "Going alone?" He knelt on the sofa she was sitting on and whispered almost into her ear:
"Unless someone—goes with me!"
"Naturally," replied Ethel, quite unmoved.
"Will—you—go?" And he waited breathlessly.
She thought a moment, looked at him again, and said quietly: "Chris! I wish I'd been here when you called—instead of that—BRAT."
He turned away up again to the window-seat crying:
"Oh! This is unbearable."
Ethel said quite calmly: "Is it? Your wife all over again, eh?"
He came back to her: "No. I place you far above her, far above all petty suspicions and carping narrownesses. I value you as a woman of understanding."
"I am," she said frankly. "From what you've told me of your wife, SHE must be too."
"Don't treat me like this!" he pleaded distractedly. "What shall I do?" asked Ethel with wide open eyes, "apologise? That's odd. I've been waiting for YOU to."
Brent turned away again with an impatient ejaculation. As he moved up toward the windows Alaric came in behind him through the door. "Hello, Brent," he called out heartily. "H'are ye?"
"Very well, thank you, Alaric," he said, controlling his surprise.
"Good. The dear wife well too?"
"Very."
"And the sweet child?"
"Yes."
"You must bring 'em along sometime. The mater would love to see them and so would Ethel. Ethel loves babies, don't you, dear?" Without waiting for Ethel to reply he hurried on: "And talkin' of BABIES, have you seen MARGARET anywhere?"
Ethel nodded in the direction of the garden: "Out there!"
"Splendid. The mater wants her. We've got to have a family meetin' about her and at once. Mater'll be here in a minute. Don't run away, Brent," and Alaric hurried out through the windows into the garden.
Brent hurried over to Ethel:
"I'm at the hotel. I'll be there until morning. Send me a message, will you? I'll wait up all night for one." He paused: "Will you?"
"Perhaps," replied Ethel. "I'm sorry if anything I've said or done has hurt you. Believe me it is absolutely and entirely unnecessary."
"Don't say any more."
"Oh, if only—" he made an impulsive movement toward her. She checked him just as her mother appeared at the top of the stairs. At the same moment Bennett, the maid, came in through the door.
Mrs. Chichester greeted Brent courteously:
"How do you do, Mr. Brent? You will excuse me?" She turned to the maid:
"When did you see my niece last?"
"Not this hour, madam."
"Tell Jarvis to search the gardens—the stables—to look up and down the road."
"Yes, madam," and the maid hurried away in search of Jarvis.
Mrs. Chichester turned again to her guest:
"Pardon me—Mr. Brent."
"I'm just leaving, Mrs. Chichester."
"Oh, but you needn't—" expostulated that lady.
"I'm going abroad to-morrow. I just called to say good-bye."
"Indeed?" said Mrs. Chichester. "Well, I hope you and Mrs. Brent have a very pleasant trip. You must both call the moment you return."
"Thank you," replied Brent. "Good-bye, Mrs. Chichester—and—Ethel—" He looked meaningly and significantly at Ethel as he stood in the doorway. The next moment he was gone.
Ethel was facing the problem of her future with no one to turn to and ask for guidance. Her mother least of all. Mrs. Chichester had never encouraged confidence between her children and herself, consequently, any crisis they reached they had to either decide for themselves or appeal to others. Ethel had to decide for herself between now and to-morrow morning. Next day it would be too late. What was she to do? Always loath to make up her mind until forced to, she decided to wait until night.
It might be that the something she was always expecting to snap in her nature would do so that evening and save her the supreme effort of taking the final step on her own initiative, and consequently having to bear the full responsibility. Whilst these thoughts were passing rapidly through her mind, Alaric hurried in through the windows from the garden.
"Not a sign of Margaret anywhere," he said furiously, throwing himself into a chair and fanning himself vigorously.
"This cannot go on," cried Mrs. Chichester.
"I should think not indeed. Running about all over, the place."
Mrs. Chichester held up an open telegram:
"Mr. Hawkes telegraphs he will call to-morrow for his first report. What can I tell him?"
"What WILL you?" asked Alaric.
"Am I to tell him that every tutor I've engaged for her resigned? Not one stays more than a week. Can I tell him THAT?"
"You could, mater dear: but would it be wise?"
Mrs. Chichester went on:
"Am I to tell him that no maid will stay with her? That she shows no desire to improve? That she mimics and angers her teachers, refuses to study and plays impish tricks like some mischievous little elf? Am I to tell him THAT?"
"Serve her jolly well right if you did. Eh, Ethel?" said Alaric. "It would," replied Ethel.
At that moment the footman and the maid both entered from the garden very much out of breath. "I've searched everywhere, madam. Not a sign of her," said Bennett.
"Not in the stables, nor up or down the road. And the DOG'S missin', madam," added Jarvis.
Ethel sprang up. "'PET'?"
"No, miss. SHE'S gnawin' a bone on the lawn. The OTHER."
"That will do," and Mrs. Chichester dismissed them.
As they disappeared through the door, the old lady said appealingly to her children:
"Where IS she?"
"Heaven knows," said Alaric.
"Oh, if I could only throw the whole business up."
"Wish to goodness we COULD. But the monthly cheque will be useful to-morrow, mater."
"That's it! That's it!" cried the unhappy woman.
"No one seems particularly anxious to snatch at MY services as yet," said Alaric. "Course it's a dull time, Jerry tells me. But there we are. Not tuppence comin' in and the butcher's to be paid—likewise the other mouth-fillers. See where I'm comin'?"
"Have I not lain awake at night struggling with it?" replied the poor lady, almost on the verge of tears.
"Well, I'll tell you what," said the hope of the family; "I'll tell you what we'll do. Let's give the little beggar another month of it. Let her off lightly THIS time, and the moment the lawyer-bird's gone, read her the riot-act. Pull her up with a jerk. Ride her on the curb and NO ROT!"
"We could try," and Mrs. Chichester wiped her eyes: "Of course she HAS improved in her manner. For THAT we have to thank Ethel." She looked affectionately at her daughter and choked back a sob. "Who could live near dear Ethel and NOT improve?"
"Ah! There we have it!" agreed Alaric.
"But I don't know how much of the improvement is genuine and how much pretended," gasped his mother.
"There we go again. She's got us fairly gravelled," said Alaric despondently.
"Of course I can truthfully tell him that, at times, she is very tractable and obedient."
"AT TIMES! About two minutes a week! When Jerry's around. How on earth he puts up with her I can't understand. She follows him about like a little dog. Listens to him. Behaves herself. But the moment he's gone—Poof! back she goes to her old tricks. I tell you she's a freak!" and Alaric dismissed the matter, and sat back fanning himself.
"Can I tell Mr. Hawkes that?" asked Mrs. Chichester.
"No," replied Alaric. "But I WOULD say that the thousand a year is very hardly earned. Nat ought to have made it ten thousand. Dirt cheap at THAT. Tell him that out of respect for the dead man's wishes, we shall continue the job and that on the whole we have HOPES. SLIGHT—BUT—HOPES!"
In through the open windows came the sound of dogs barking furiously. Ethel sprang up crying:
"'Pet!'" and hurried out into the garden.
Mrs. Chichester and Alaric went to the windows and looked out.
"Margaret!" cried Mrs. Chichester.
"And the mongrel! She's urgin' him on. The terrier's got 'Pet' now." Alaric called out to the little poodle: "Fight him, old girl! Maul him! Woa there! 'Pet's' down. There is Ethel on the scene," he cried as Ethel ran across the lawn and picked up the badly treated poodle.
"Go and separate them," urged Mrs. Chichester.
"Not me," replied Alaric. "Ethel can handle 'em. I hate the little brutes. All hair and teeth. I cannot understand women coddling those little messes of snarling, smelly wool."
Ethel came indignantly into the room soothing the excited and ruffled "Pet." She was flushed and very angry. How dare that brat let her mongrel touch the aristocratic poodle?
A moment later Peg entered with the victorious "Michael" cradled in her arms. She had a roguish look of triumph in her eyes. Down the front of her charming new dress were the marks of "Michael's" muddy paws. Peg was also breathing quickly, and evidently more than a little excited.
"Take that animal out of the room!" cried Mrs. Chichester indignantly the moment Peg appeared.
Peg turned and walked straight out into the garden and began playing with "Michael" on the grass.
Mrs. Chichester waited for a few moments, then called out to her:
"Margaret!" Then more sharply: "Margaret! Come here! Do you hear me?"
Peg went on playing with "Michael" and just answered: "I hear ye."
"Come here at once!"
"Can 'Michael' come in too?" came from the garden.
"You come in and leave that brute outside."
"If 'Michael' can't come in, I don't want to," obstinately insisted Peg.
"Do as I tell you. Come here," commanded her aunt. Peg tied "Michael" to one of the French windows and then went slowly into the room and stood facing her aunt.
"Where have you been?" asked that lady.
"Down to the say-shore," replied Peg indifferently.
"Haven't I told you NEVER to go out ALONE?"
"Ye have."
"How dare you disobey me?"
"Sure I had to."
"You HAD to?"
"I did."
"And WHY?"
"'Michael' needed a bath, so I took him down to the say-shore an' gave him one. He loves the wather, he does."
"Are there no SERVANTS?"
"There ARE sure."
"Isn't that THEIR province?"
"Mebbe. But they hate 'Michael' and I hate THEM. I wouldn't let them touch him."
"In other words you WILFULLY disobeyed me?"
"I did."
"Is this the way MY NIECE should behave?"
"Mebbe not. It's the wayIbehave though."
"So my wishes count for nothing?"
The old lady looked so hurt as well as so angry that Peg softened and hastened to try and make it up with her aunt:
"Sure yer wishes DO count with me, aunt. Indade they do."
"Don't say INDADE. There is no such word. Indeed!" corrected Mrs. Chichester.
"I beg your pardon, aunt. INDEED they do."
"Look at your dress!" suddenly cried Mrs. Chichester as she caught sight of the marks of "MICHAEL'S" playfulness.
Peg looked at the stains demurely and said cheerfully "'MICHAEL' did that. Sure they'll come off."
Mrs. Chichester looked at the flushed face of the young girl, at the mass of curly hair that had been carefully dressed by Bennett for dinner and was now hovering around her eyes untidily. The old lady straightened it:
"Can you not keep your hair out of your eyes? What do you think will become of you?"
"I hope to go to Heaven, like all good Catholics," said Peg.
Mrs. Chichester turned away with a gesture of despair.
"I give it up! I give it up!" she said, half-crying.
"I should say so," agreed Alaric. "Such rubbish!"
Peg shook her head the moment Mrs. Chichester turned her back, and the little red curls once more danced in front of her eyes.
"I do everything I can, everything," complained Mrs. Chichester, "but you—you—" she broke off. "I don't understand you! I don't understand you!"
"Me father always said that," cried Peg eagerly; "and if HE couldn't sure how could any one else?"
"Never mind your father," said Mrs. Chichester severely. Peg turned away.
"What IS it?" continued the old lady. "I say WHAT IS IT?"