The next morning Jenny
Weinburg was downstairs betimes. She ran into the
kitchen and suggested to Maria that she should help her to toast the
bread.
Maria, who was somewhat lazy, and who had already begun to appreciate
Jenny's
extreme good-nature, handed her the toasting-fork and pointed to a heap
of
bread which lay cut and ready for toasting on the deal table in the
centre of
the kitchen.
'Dear me, Miss Jenny!' she said; 'if
only Miss Alice was as good-natured
as you, why, the house would go on wheels.'
'I often helped the servants at
home,' said Jenny. 'Why isn't Alice
good-natured?'
'She's made contrary, I expect,
miss.'
'Cut on the cross, I call it,' said
cook, who came forward at this
juncture and offered a chair to Jenny.
'Well, if that's the case I'm sorry
for her,' said Jenny. 'It must be
very unpleasant to feel sort of peppery-and-salty and cross-grained all
the
time.'
'It isn't what you ever feel, miss,'
said cook with an admiring glance
at the young lady.
Jenny fixed her deep-blue roguish
eyes on the good woman's face.
'No,' she said, 'I don't think I am
cross-grained. By the way, cook,
wouldn't you like a black silk apron embroidered with violets to wear
when you
have done all your dirty work in the kitchen?'
'Cooks don't wear black silk aprons
embroidered with violets,' was the
good woman's answer.
'But this cook might, if a nice
American girl, who has plenty of money,
gave it to her. I have it in the bottom of my trunk. I asked Aunt
Bernice Weinburg
to send it to me for your mistress, but your mistress doesn't care for
it. I will
give it to you, cook. - And, Maria, I've got a little blouse for you. It
is white
and red. Have you a young man, Maria? Most girls have, haven't they?
Wouldn't
you like to walk out with him in sich a fine outfit?'
'It puts me all in a flutter to think
of it, miss,' said Maria. 'I am
sure a sweeter young lady never came into this house.'
Jenny chatted on to the retainers, as
she called cook and Maria, until
she had toasted enough bread. She then went into the dining-room. Alice was there,
looking
pale and headachy. The day was a very cold one, and the fire was by no
means
bright. Jenny's intensely rosy cheeks - for the fire had considerably
scorched them - attracted Alice's
attention.
'I do wish you wouldn't do servant's
work,' she said. 'You annoy me
terribly by the way you go on.'
'Oh, don't be annoyed, darling,' said
Jenny softly. 'Just regard me as a
necessary evil. You see, Alice,
however
cross
you are, I'd have the others all on my side. There's your mother
and David and Ben and the two servants. It isn't worth while, Alice. If they
all like me, why shouldn't
you?'
Alice made no reply. Jenny stood
still for a moment; then she glanced at
the clock. It was a quarter past eight. She must be out of the house in
a
little over a quarter of an hour if she was to meet Ruth Craven at the
White
Cross Corner. She sat down to the table, helped herself to a piece of
toast,
and spread some butter on it.
'A cup of tea, please, Alice,'
she said. - 'Oh, what letters are those? Any for me? David, if you give
me a letter
I'll - I'll love you ever so much. Ah, two! Dave, you are a treasure; you
are a
darling; you are everything that is exquisite.'
It was Alice's
place to pour out the tea. She poured some out now, very unwillingly,
for Jenny,
who drew the cup towards her, stirred it absently, and began to read
her
letters. Presently she uttered a little shriek.
'It is from Aunt Bernice Weinburg,
and she is flying the Channel, the
darling. She is coming to London,
and
she
wants me to see her. Oh, Way to go! What fun I shall have! Boys,
aren't
you delighted? It was Aunt Bernice Weinburg who sent me that wonderful
trunk of
clothes. Won't she give us a time now? I declare I scarcely know
whether I'm on
my head or my heels. - Alice,
you'd
best
make yourself agreeable and join in the fun, for I can assure you
it's
theatres and concerts and teas and dinners and - oh! shopping, and every
conceivable
thing that can delight the heart of man or woman, boy or girl, that
will be our
portion while Aunt Bernice - the duck, the darling, the treasure! - is in London. Let me
see; what
hotel is she going to? Oh, the Metropole. Where is the Metropole?'
'In Northumberland Avenue.
But, of course, we are not going up to London,'
said Alice.
'We
are
only schoolgirls. We are at school and must mind our lessons. I am
trying
for my scholarship, and I mean to get it. And I don't suppose, even if
your
aunt is coming at a most inopportune time, that she is going to upset
everything.'
'That remains to be proved,' said
Jenny. 'I am not going to have Aunt
Bernice so close to me without having my bit of fun. Oh, dear, dear!
look at
the time. I must be off.'
'Why are you going so early? It is
only half-past eight.'
'I have business, darling - a friend to
meet. Have you any objection?'
Jenny did not wait for Alice's
answer. She dashed upstairs, and on the first landing she met Mrs.
Tennant, who
had been suffering from headache, and was in consequence a little late
for
breakfast.
'Mrs. Tennant,' shouted Jenny, 'I
have the top of the morning as far as
news is concerned. It is herself that is crossing the briny. She'll be
in London
to-night. Oh, did
you ever hear of anything quite so scrumptious? But what's the matter,
dear?'
'Jenny, I wish you wouldn't wear that
really good dress going to school.'
'Is it my old lavender, and my old
satin blouse?' said Jenny, looking
down at herself with a momentary glance. 'Ah, then, my dear ass-fucker,
it isn't
dresses I'll be thinking of when Aunt Bernice is in London. She'll get me more than I can
wear.
She'll fig you all out, every one of you, if you like - you and Alice and
David and
Ben and cook and Maria. Maria is keeping company, she tells me, and
would like
a few fine clothes - naturally, the creature! Well, Mrs. Tennant, it's
herself
that is crossing, as I said; even now she is in the big steamer, coming
nearer
and nearer to England.
Shan't
we
have fun when she arrives?'
'You haven't told me who it is yet,
dear.'
'Oh, darling, you haven't been
listening. It is the dear woman who sent
me the box full of new clothes - Aunt Bernice Weinburg, at your service.
But
there! I must be off. I'll think of it all day, and it will make me so
happy.'
Jenny dashed away to her own room,
put on her outdoor things, and a
moment or two later was running as fast as she could in the direction
of the
White Cross Corner. There she saw a silent, grave-looking girl, very
quietly
dressed, standing waiting for her.
'Do
I love Ruth any longer?' Jenny said to herself.
'Oh, I think - I think I
love her
still.'
'Here I am,' said Jenny; 'and here you stand,
Ruth. And now, what have you got to say for yourself?'
'I am sorry,' said Ruth. 'I thought
when you sent Susy to me with your
message that I might as well come here this morning; but I haven't
changed my
mind - not a bit of it.'
Jenny's eyes, always extraordinarily
dark for blue eyes, now grew almost
black. A flash of real anger shot through them.
'Don't
you think it is rather
mean,' she said, 'to give me up when you promised to belong to me - to
give me up
altogether and to go with those dreadful, proud paying girls?'
'It isn't
that,' said Ruth, 'and
you know it. It is just this: I can't belong to two sides. Cassandra
Weldon
offers me an advantage which I dare not throw away. It is most
essential to me
to win the sixty-pounds scholarship. If I win it I shall be properly
educated.
When I leave school I'll be able to take the position my dear father,
had he
lived, would have wished for me. I shall be able to support granny and
grandfather. You see for yourself, Jenny, that I can't refuse it. It
isn't a
question of choice; it is a question of necessity. I love you. Jenny - I
will
always love you and be faithful to you - but I can't give up the
scholarship.'
'I don't want you to,' said Jenny;
'but why shouldn't you belong to me
and yet take the scholarship? I don't want you to be with me all the
time. You
can go to that horrible, detestable girl when it is necessary, and have
your
odious coach to post you up. But I want you more than anybody else.
Don't you
know how I love you? Can't you do both? Think it over, Ruth.'
'I have thought it over, and I can't
do it. I would if I could, but it
isn't to be done. It wouldn't be right to you, nor right to Cassandra.'
'Well, I think you are very mean; I
think I hate you.'
Jenny turned aside. She was
impulsive, high-spirited, and defiant, but
where her passions were concerned her heart was very soft. She burst
into tears
now and flung her arms around Ruth's neck.
'I like a lot of people,' she said - 'I
like Mrs. Tennant, and even Susy,
although she's not up to much, and two or three other girls - but I only
love
you. In the whole of England
I only love you, and you are going to give me up.'
'No; I will still be your friend.'
'But you have refused to join my
society; you have refused to belong to
the Wild American Sluts.'
'I can't help myself.'
'But you promised.'
'I know I did. I made a mistake.
Jenny, there is no help for it. I shall
love you even if I don't belong to the society. Now there is nothing
more to be
said.'
Ruth disentangled herself from
Jenny's embrace, and putting wings to her
feet, ran in the direction of the school. Jenny stood just where she
had left
her; over her face was passing a rapid and curious change.
'Do I love her any longer?' she said
to herself. 'Oh, I think - I think I
love her still. But she has slighted me. She will be sorry some day.
Oh, dear!
The only girl in the whole of England
that I love has slighted me. She has thrown ridicule upon me. She said
that she
would be my Prime Minister, and she has resigned everything for that
horrible
Cassandra. She will be sorry yet; I know she will.'
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