Under False Colours ... New edition

Front matter

CHERRY TERFORMS THE TABLEAU OF THE OLD OAK CHEST. UNDEE FALSE COLOUBS A STORY FROM TWO GIRLS' LIVES BY SARAH DOUDNEY, Author of "When We Two Parted;" "A Woman's Glory;" "Miss Willowburn'a Offer;" &c. WITH SIX PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. 67. KILBURNE. NEW EDITION. LONDON: BLACKIE & SON, Limited, 49 OLD BAILEY, E.C. GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND DUBLIN 1894. TO HER GRACE THE DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON, IN RECOGNITION OF HER INTEREST IN GIRLS' LIVES, AND WITH HER GRACE'S KIND PERMISSION, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK. CONTENTS. Chap. Page I. "Upon a summer's eve," 7 II. Plotting, 19 III. The Plot Prospers 29 IV. "Ye shall get gowns and ribbons meet," .... 39 V. "But there's no turning back," 49 VI. "She is not bred so dull but she can learn," . . 61 VII. Miss Dysart 70 VIII. "Her beauty made me glad," 80 IX. Tableaux, 89 X. In the Long Gallert, 98 XL The Delectable Mountains 107 XII.

"The star or that goodly company," 117 XIII. A Bitter Triumph, 127 XIV. "How now! what news?" 137 XV. "The weeping morn," 145 XVI. In Church Path, 153 XVII. Wounded and Healed 163 XVIII. Uncle Barnaby, 173 XIX. The Fourth Pupil 182 XX. Darkening Days, 194 XXI. The Scape-goat VI CONTENTS. Chap. Page XXII. "Thou art so near, and yet so far," 2l2 XXIII. Breaking Free, 221 XXIV. Drifting Away 231 XXV. The Haven, 239 XXVI. A Busy Night, 248 XXVII. Voices, 260 XXVIII. In London Again 270 XXIX. Through a Shop Window, 278 XXX. "The burden of unquiet life." 286 XXXI. "But it appears she lives," 294 XXXII. "Will you be ruled by me?" 302 XXXIII. "Is not this something more than fantasy?" . . 310 XXXIV. Found Out, 322 XXXV. Two Women 333 XXXVI. Disillusion, 343 XXXVII. Triumph and Resignation, 351 XXXVIII.

News, 359 XXXIX. "And this is Cissy's friend," 367 XL. Conclusion, ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Cherry performs the Tableau of the Old Oak Chest, Frontis. 124 Cherry and Cissy watching the Church-goers, 12 She stooped and begged a Kiss from the little Fellow, . . 170 Cherry makes a Startling Discovery, 217 Cherry's Secret revealed to Mr. Mornay, 304 Sir Reginald receives Cherry as his adopted Daughter, . . UNDER FALSE COLOURS

Chapter I

"UPON A SUMMER'S EVE." IT was a Sunday evening in July, golden and still ; bells were ringing for evensong, and two girls, sitting at one of the upper windows of Cedar House, were watching the people going to church. They could just get a distant glimpse of light summer gowns, flitting past the iron railings that divided the sloping lawn from the road; but Cherry Dent's grey eyes were keen and far-sighted, and let nothing escape them. The other girl took only a languid interest in the church goers. She sat in an arm-chair with a cushion at her back, and was evidently an invalid. The large, airy room was full of mellow sunlight. It contained two little white beds, and the walls were decor ated with book-shelves, and some photographs and water colour sketches in frames. A certain orderly primness UNPLEASANT PROSPECTS. about the arrangements showed that it was a school bed-room ; yet it looked cheerful and home-like, and seemed in this evening glow to be a very chamber of peace.

"What shall I do without you, Cherry, in the long Sunday evenings to come?" asked the sick girl with a sigh. "Just think how dull this old house will be when only Miss Noel and I are left here ! And I might have had a glorious midsummer if I had been as well as other people." "I wish I could stay with you, my dear;" said Cherry, with genuine feeling. "There is nothing self-sacrificing in the wish for I do not, by any means, anticipate a glorious midsummer. There are some pupils awaiting me at Alderport ; highly respectable little girls already found for me by my energetic step-mother. It does not matter that I have no capacity for teaching; — it does not matter that I would rather make the children's frocks than cultivate their minds. I am not allowed to choose my own vocation. It has already been chosen for me by Uncle Barnaby Goodall."

"But why can't you be guided by your own inclin ations ? " inquired her friend. " Surely you are free to make frocks if you like ! " " Free ! " cried Cherry, throwing up her hands with a pretty gesture of despair. "Do you forget that Uncle UNCLE BAKNABY'S ERROR. 11 Barnaby sent me here that I mights become, as he says, 'a 'ighly eddicated young woman'? He wishes his poor sister's child to get her living in a genteel way ; and he only knows of one genteel way. ' You must be 'ighly eddicated yourself, Cherry ; ' he remarked, ' and then you'll be able to eddicate others.' But it does not follow that I am able." " No ; it certainly does not follow." Cissy Dysart leaned back in her chair and laughed softly. " Do you remember the day when Miss Bowman fell ill, and you took her place ? It was great fun to hear the third class worrying you about the equator, and the zodiac, and all those things which you ought to be able to explain with such perfect ease !

I know you have crammed, and passed a really brilliant examination, my dear ; and we all feel you are a credit to the college. But you have not the gift of imparting the knowledge you have acquired; — this is spoken like Miss Noel, is it not ? Yet, Cherry, you are most thoroughly educated." " Tghly," said Cherry, gravely. " It strikes me," the other continued, " that if I had strength enough to do anything in the world I would rather scrub floors than teach. In teaching, you have to explain certain things that you don't understand yourself and never will. This is dreadful; and it is more dreadful still to answer children's wonderful questions, and be quite PHILOSOPHERS OF EIGHTEEN. sure that your answers will be remembered against you when they are grown up." "Worse than preaching sermons, Cissy?"

" Far worse. According to our experience, sermons do not attempt to answer any of the questions that children are sure to ask." Then these two profound philosophers of eighteen were silent for a bttle while, and the bells filled up the pause. " It is well for me," said the invalid at last, " that I have not got to earn my living in a genteel way, or in any other way. What would have become of me, I wonder, if I had chanced to belong to the working classes? How disgusted they would have been with a girl who was always fainting, and who could not even amuse herself in any natural, healthy fashion ! I was born a delicate Indian baby, and I have developed into a sickly English school-girl. My father will be disappointed in me, I am afraid, when I am sent back to him. I hope he does not expect to see a blooming British beauty ; Miss Noel and I have done all we can to prepare his mind.

But some minds never will be prepared ; and I can picture his dismay when he first beholds the feeble, emaciated ." " Don't, Cissy," interrupted Cherry, with quivering lips and tearful eyes. " No one can be disappointed in a girl as pretty as you are. And you will always be pretty, HERRY AND CISSY WATCHING THE CHURCH-GOERS. WONDERFULLY LIKE. dear, for yours is the kind of beauty that ill-health cannot take away." Although this little speech sounded like a bit of loving flattery, it was a simple truth. We can all recall faces (and happily they are not rare) that have retained their purity of outline and charm of expression through years of sickness and pain. Cecilia Dysart had a clearly-cut face, oval in shape ; beautiful lips that smiled readily, and large blue eyes that prolonged the smile.

At the first glance one saw that she was ill ; not merely delicate, but really ill. And looking at her more closely, one became aware that she accepted the fact of her illness with plea santness and cheerful patience. " You dear old Cherry," she said, with a well-pleased air, " there is nobody like you for putting me on good terms with myself. By the way, do you know that Miss Noel has actually begun to flatter me outrageously ? She says that I am wonderfully like your new portrait. Of course all the school used to see the resemblance be tween us, but I thought it had died out lately, did not n it you? " No ; I did not think so," Cherry answered honestly. " We are always together, you see, and we grow more and more alike, and when I saw my own portrait, Cissy, I seemed to be looking at your face.

As to your ways, and mode of speaking, my dear, I don't mind owning that I A VICE AND A VIRTUE. have copied all that. You have been my pattern ever since I first came here." Cissy Dysart smiled, but her eyes, too, were filled with tears. " I always longed to be with some one who was really and truly a lady," Cherry went on. " You know I don't use the word lady in my honoured Uncle Barnaby's sense. It was not the birthright itself that I desired, it was the blessing that comes with the birthright. I pined for a knowledge of books and art ; and I wanted, — oh, so much, — to be refined, and graceful with the grace of good breeding. Even as a child I could not be satisfied with the things around me. My step-mother often lectured me on the sin of discontent." " She was wrong, Cherry, " Not altogether wrong.

Did not Miss Noel say one day that discontent was a virtue with a dark side, and a sin with a bright side ? Now, I was quite unable to put my yearnings into sensible words, and so my step-mother only saw my dark side." " I wonder if she would have understood you better if you had been her own child ?" " I don't know ; very likely not. Her own child is perfectly easy to understand. Rhoda is a girl who would never puzzle any one ; she is a placid little thing, without uncomfortable aspirations. I have not found her a sym- THE CHAIN OF GENTILITY. 15 pathetic soul, but we have always got on well together. My home in Alderport has never been really an unhappy one, you know ; and I daresay it seemed hard to others that I was dissatisfied." " I am afraid you will never get satisfied while you stay there.

Everything is against you. It would be very difficult to make Mrs. Dent and Mr. Goodall give up their cherished plan. But they will have to give it up if you are to be a happy young woman," said Cissy, with decision. "Yes; but I hate the thought of being ungrateful to Uncle Barnaby. He will feel that he has wasted his money on me. And his wife and daughter will be quite furious if I am not a governess ; it is their fondest desire to make all their relations as genteel as themselves. They are so genteel, in fact, that they have forgotten that they ever lived over a shop, and are existing on the profits of their business at this very hour. I really believe they would like to do without all the things they used to sell, if that were possible. For instance, ham — Uncle Barnaby did a grand trade in hams ; and Mrs. Goodall never has one on her table.

She is afraid it might lead people's minds back to the past. Oh, it is an awful thing to be tied and bound by the chain of gentility ! " " Don't let yourself be tied and bound by any chain !" cried Cissy, laughing. " Only think what a good thing it is to have a special gift. Wasn't it the sage of Chelsea A STRIKING RESEMBLANCE. who said — 'Know what thou canst work at'? Most of his dark sayings are too deep for me, but I remember that." " It is quite as important to know what one can't work at," said Cherry, thinking of her future pupils with a sigh. There was another brief pause. The bells had ceased ringing, and the golden light had begun to wane a bttle. Cissy Dysart, with a musing look, was silently studying her friend's face. It was a face that was worth studying. With the supreme charms of strength and youth was combined that pure chiselling of the features which outlasts the beauty of girlhood.

The resemblance between the two friends was very striking ; but Cherry was taller and more stately than her companion ; and her eyes were not blue, like Cissy's, but deep grey, shaded by dark lashes. Cissy's hair, soft and wavy, was a light golden brown ; but Cherry's plentiful tresses had a deeper colour and a stronger ripple. There was a great likeness in the expression of the two young faces ; both wore in repose a look of thought ; both were quickly awakened to sudden animation. "Let me look at your portrait again, Cherry," said Cissy, abruptly breaking the silence. " There it stands on the mantelpiece in its pretty frame. I wonder what my father will say to it when he sees it in India !" THE UNATTAINABLE. 17 " Perhaps he will say that we ought to have been sisters," remarked Cherry, taking the picture from its place and handing it to her schoolfellow.

Cissy looked at it long and earnestly. " Yes," she said, " we ought to have been sisters. How did you come by my forehead and my nose, — and my mouth, too ? You have stolen my features, and greatly improved them ; in short, you are me very much beauti fied. I wish with all my heart that you could go to Heatherdown, and enjoy yourself in my stead ! " " Heatherdown ! Why, I would give ten years of my life to go there ! " exclaimed Cherry, rapturously clasping her hands. " Fancy the bliss of studying all those fashionable women in their lovely gowns, and storing up memories for the future ! But if I were indeed Miss Dysart, Cissy, I should not care half as much about going to Heatherdown as I do now. It is the unattainable that we always long for. Besides, a Dysart would not want to study costumes, because she would not be born with a dressmaker's instincts, I suppose."

" Why not ? A Bourbon was born with a locksmith's instincts." " My opportunities of seeing really well-dressed people have not been very many," continued Cherry, regretfully. "And unless I am emancipated from Alderport bondage, I shall never come to the Royal Academy and the (498) B A BOLD PROPOSAL. Grosvenor Exhibition any more. Ah, Cissy, what a tan talizing vision of de-light you have called up ! One would not only study the gowns, but the women inside them. I have a theory that you must find out something of the inner woman before you can make a fitting costume for the outer one. The dressmaker of the future will possess a profound knowledge of human nature." " If you are to be the dressmaker of the future you must have the necessary training," said Cissy, raising herself, and speaking with sudden animation.

" My dear, I must contrive to send you to Heatherdown by fair means or foul." " You have sent me there already in fancy, Cissy. " " That does not satisfy either of us. Listen; a glorious plan has just come into my head. You shall present yourself to the De Wiltons as Cissy Dysart ! "

Chapter II. Plotting

Cissy ! " " Hush ! Are you perfectly certain that no one is listening outside the door? But, of course not; Miss Grain has gone into the country for the day, and must be miles off. Only you remember the disastrous evening when she was supposed to be in church, and unexpectedly turned up in our corridor just when you were giving a beautiful and truthful description of her character. However, I think we are quite safe now." Cedar House was as happy a home for girls as could be found in the kingdom; but even this educational paradise was not without its serpent. Miss Grain was the Lady Blanche of the College. " Too jealous, often fretful as the wind Pent in a crevice ; " always suspecting the pupils of hatching mysterious plots VERY MUCH IN EARNEST. against the commonweal, and sometimes irritating them into open rebellion.

But on this Sunday evening the girls were indeed as safe as they fancied themselves to be. Now that there really was at last a wild and mischievous scheme about to be planned within the college walls, the ever-watchful Grain was far away. It was no unusual thing for Cherry to be Cissy's companion when the others were gone to church. Miss Noel was a mild ruler, and perhaps she was all the more indulgent because she saw that Cissy Dysart would not need indulgence long. Any how she could never find it in her heart to refuse the invalid's requests, and Cissy pleaded constantly for Cherry's company. " There is no one listening," said Cherry, going to the door and opening it. " But you are not in earnest, dear ? This idea of yours is only a joke ? " " I am very much in earnest indeed. And if I cannot carry out my design I shall be bitterly disappointed.

But it must, and shall be, carried out; sit down, child, and pay attention." " You do mean it, I see. Your eyes are quite eager. Oh, Cissy, you frighten me ! " " I shall frighten you still more before I have done. But now I will begin at the beginning. Yesterday, you know, I had Lady de Wilton's letter, asking me to spend my holidays at Heatherdown. She has been abroad for CISSY'S PROJECT. 21 years, wandering from one health resort to another, and that is why she has never seen me. And it is only a year ago that the old baronet died, and Sir Henry succeeded to the title." " Lady Dysart and Lady de Wilton were great friends, were they not ? " " They were inseparable till marriage parted them. My mother went to India with her husband, and never saw her old companion again. But my father tells me in his letters that she often spoke of her friend Laura de Wilton.

You see, Cherry, I was only a very Uttle girl when I said goodbye to mamma; and she died soon after I left India. I am always wishing that I had known her better." Cissy paused for a moment, and looked out at the dark foliage of the old cedars with dreamy eyes. What was she thinking of just then ? Cherry did not know ; she only felt that her schoolfellow's thoughts often took long flights over sea and land, and rested at last perhaps on a grave in India. " Of course, Miss Noel believes that I shall decline the invitation," Cissy continued. " I am not well enough to go anywhere. I know only too well what a nuisance I should be in a great house full of gay people. But, instead of declining, I mean to accept it." " Oh, you will not — you must not ! " cried Cherry, im ploringly. THE PLOT. " My dear, I am very obstinate , invalids always are.

I shall accept the invitation, and, as Lady de Wilton asks for my portrait, I shall send yours." " But why will you do these silly things ? " exclaimed Cherry, wringing her hands in sheer desperation. " What good wdl it do to send my portrait ? Later on the fraud will be found out." " It can't be found out. You forget that this is to be my first and last visit to Heatherdown. I am to go back to India in the autumn. No, Cherry, we need not be afraid of detection ; you may safely present yourself to Lady de Wilton as Miss Dysart, and enjoy yourself for five or six weeks. And you have only to tell your stepmother that you are going to stay for a time with your little dressmaking friend in South Molton Street. She never objects to your visiting Effie Comyn." " I have promised to spend a week or two with Effie before I return to Alderport."

" Delightful. You will be supposed to be with her when you are at Heatherdown. And now there is some thing else to be considered — your wardrobe, as Miss Noel calls it. That can be very easily arranged, my dear, if you will listen to reason." " I am listening, Cissy, just as I always do listen to your stories. This is a very interesting story indeed, and an impossible one." SILKS AND MUSLINS. 23 " It is not impossible ; it shall not be," replied Cissy, with calm determination " You will want some pretty gowns, you know, for Heatherdown. Well, there is the great box that came from India the other day ; it is full of soft silks and lovely muslins, just fit for a young girl to wear." " Just fit for Miss Dysart to wear. And she will wear them, I hope, some day." An indescribable look came into Cissy's face for a moment, but it passed away quickly, and she spoke with the half-playful imperiousness which Cherry knew so well.

" I can't possibly wear them all," she declared ; " and I am going to give some of them to you, as a parting gift, you know. You and Effie Comyn will make them up into costumes, which will be the envy of the De WUtons' guests. Dear Cherry, what have I done to see such a stern countenance turned upon me ? May I not have the pleasure of dressing my friend daintily ? " " You are too good to me," said Cherry, with misty eyes. " You know how well I like pretty things — almost too well, I am afraid. But I ought not to take them." " Why not ? Oh, don't tell me you are going to re nounce all the pomps and vanities of this wicked world at eighteen ! Wait till you are fifty, at least, before you begin to mortify the flesh. Does it not occur to you, A FEEBLE RESISTANCE. Cherry, that I want to enjoy myself by proxy ?

I really am not strong enough to dress, and go into society, and I want you to do it for me — just for this once. You must take my place at Heatherdown, and then I can see what I might have been if it had pleased heaven to make me a healthy girl instead of a sickly one." " But you will be healthy soon, dear. You must have patience." " I have — great patience," Cissy answered with a strange, swift smile. " Ah, Cherry, you must yield to my whim ; my heart is set on it. You must go to the De Wiltons, and make conquests, and do all that I would have done if I had been as strong as you are." " If I were sure that no mischief would come of it ! " faltered Cherry. " Mischief ! Why, it is the most harmless Uttle plot that ever was planned ! Who will be any the worse for it ? Certainly not the De Wiltons ; they wiU get a beautiful, clever girl into their house, who will amuse them far better than I could have done."

" But I shall get into that house under a false name. They would not have me there if they knew me as Cherry Dent. In some way or other I shall suffer if I do this thing. Stolen waters are sweet ; but the after-taste is bitter, Cissy." " Nonsense ; thousands have enjoyed their stolen waters PERSUASION. without being troubled with the bitter after-taste. Besides, if you go in for any kind of pleasure, you generaUy run some sort of risk. Don't you feel the very faintest inclina tion to carry out my plan, Cherry. You never were a hypocrite, my dear ; confess that this scheme is perfectly enchanting ! " " Well, I do confess it. Even the fear of being found. out would make it nicer, by adding to the excitement. And if once I were to launch my boat " " You would ride triumphantly over the waves.

Oh, Cherry, I have more confidence in you than you have in yourself ! You are the very girl to shine in society. The people at Heatherdown will pet you immensely ; and you will gain experience which will be very useful later on. I want you to yield to me, dear, and let me feel that I have made ' A lady of my own,' and sent her out into my own set. It amuses me to think that I am going to overthrow all their theories, and prove that one need not be well-born in order to be perfectly well-bred. What a splendid joke it wiU be to take them aU in ! " " But you won't undeceive them ? " said Cherry, nervously. " Have I not already told you that we shall never be found out ? The joke will be purely for my own selfish CHANGING NAMES. enjoyment, and you will have a good share of the fun. And now, from this very evening you wiU have to study your part.

When we are alone I shall persistently address you as Miss Dysart and Cissy. You must forget Cherry ; I wonder why they gave you that name ? " " Because they found it in the famdy Bible. It is a cow's name ; not a girl's." " I like it ; it is quaint and sweet ; but you mustn't remember it for a long time. Oh, how quickly this even ing has slipped away. They wiU soon come home from church, and we have a great deal to settle yet." " There is a fortnight before the holidays begin." " Time enough for you to have your gowns made. To morrow I will send a great parcel of silk and musUn to Effie Comyn, and on Tuesday afternoon I wiU get permis sion for you to go to South Molton Street and arrange about some costumes for me. Miss Noel always relaxes discipline in this warm weather, and Miss Bowman will be only too glad to go with you.

Poor Bowman, I sus pect she has a good reason for liking to take charge of the girls when they are shopping at the West End ! And I suspect her all the more because she tries to hide her satisfaction from the lynx-eyed Grain. Ah, is that the hall-door bell ? " " I fancy it is," Cherry answered, listening to a faint peal. A FACE IN THE DOORWAY. " Then Grain has come back. Talk of a an angel aud she is sure to appear. Cherry, don't sit there looking as if you had something on your mind. Make haste and get a book. You must be reading aloud in your best style when she comes in. Be quick, do, pray, be quick ! " Poor Cherry rushed to the nearest book-shelf and nervously grasped the first volume that came to hand. Then, opening it at random, she began to read in a high-pitched voice, ridiculously unlike her natural tone.

" But when the face of Sextus Was seen among the foes, A yell that rent the firmament From all the town arose." The door softly unclosed as she was finishing the fourth line, and Miss Grain's visage, flushed and sour, looked sud denly in upon the two girls. " Macaulay's ' Lays of Ancient Rome' are hardly suit able for Sunday reading, Miss Dent," she said severely. " You might have chosen something less sanguinary and more soothing. In Miss Dysart's present state of health it is most injudicious to present warlike scenes to her imagination. You should have endeavoured to lead her thoughts away from earthly things, and there are books which would have assisted you. I could have lent you a lovely little work on ' Early Dissolution.' " " FALSE SEXTUS." She shut the door, and they listened in silence to the sound of her retreating footsteps.

" Well," said Cissy, drawing a long breath, " I have often wondered what kind of face Sextus had, and now I know. He was exactly like Miss Grain." " Do you think she had been listening long ? " asked Cherry, anxiously. " The ring that we heard might have been someone else's. Oh, I hope she has not a vague suspicion of a plot ! " " You may be quite sure that she has," replied Cissy, equably. " She could not live without vague suspicions. However, it is wise to be on our guard, so don't mention the word plot again ; it has an ugly sound, you know. And put Macaulay away, for it is just possible that false Sextus may come back ! '