Red rose and tiger lily; or, In a wider world

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I. Nan’s Golden Mane .

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Chapter II Crushed

Sir John Thornton could be a very pleasant host. He was a reserved man with a really cold nature. He disliked fuss and what he called “ebullitions of affection ; ” he hated kissing and fondling. He liked to treat even his nearest and dearest with ceremony, but he was a perfect host — the little attentions, the small politenesses which the role of host requires, suited his character exactly. Hester and Nan, his only children, were his opposites in every respect. It is true that Hester inherited some of his pride, and a good deal of his reserve, but the fire underneath her calm, the passionate love which she could give so warmly to her chosen friends, she inherited from her mother, not from her father. Nan had never yet shown reserve to anyone. As far as any creature could be said to be without false pride, Nan was that individual — she was also absolutely devoid of fear. She believed that all the world loved her. Why not ? she was perfectly willing to love all the world back again. If it chose to hate her, she could and would hate it in return with interest ; but, then, why should it } The world was a good place to Nan Thornton up to the present.

Now, Sir John dreaded his impulsive younger daughter more than words can say. Perhaps somewhere in his heart he had a certain fatherly admiration for her, but if so it did not show itself in the usual fatherly way. Annie Forest was at the present moment absorbing his attention.

Annie was between sixteen and seventeen years of age ; she was still, of course, quite a child in Sir John’s eyes, but she was undoubtedly very pretty — she had winning ways and bright glances. Her little speeches were full of wit and repartee, and she was naturally so full of tact that she knew when a word would hurt, and therefore seldom said it.

When Nan entered the room in which a hasty supper had been prepared for the hungry travellers, she found her father and Annie talking pleasantly to one another at one end of the table, while Hester presided over the tea equipage at the other.

“ Here you are, little whirlwind,” said Sir John, slipping his arm round his younger daughter’s waist and drawing her for a moment to his side.

Nan looked at him soberly. She gazed into his eyes and examined the curves of his lips, and noted with satisfaction the wrinkles on his brow, the crows’ feet at the corner of each eye, and some strong line? which betokened the advance of years in the lower part of his face.

“You’re too old,” she said, in a contemplative voice. “ I’m so glad — you’re much too old.”

She stroked his deepest wrinkle affectionately as she spoke.

Now Sir John hated being considered old, and an angry wave of colour mounted to his forehead.

“ As usual, you are a most impolite little girl,” he said. “ I do not trouble myself to inquire what your sage remark means, nor why you rejoice in the fact | of my possessing the infirmities of years ; but I wish to repeat to you a proverb which I hope you will bear in mind, at least, when in my presence during the holidays, ‘ Little girls should be seen and not heard/ Now go to your seat.”

Sir John released his hold of Nan’s broad waist and turned to Annie.

“ Yes, a good deal of the country is flat,” he said,

** but we have some pretty drives. Are you fond of , riding V

“ I should be if I had a chance,” replied Annie ; “but the fact is, I never was on horseback since I was five years old, so I cannot be said to know much about it.”

“ I am sure you could quickly learn,” said Sir John. “ Hester has a very quiet pony which she can lend you while you are here. By the way, Hester, Squire Lorrimer called to-day. I said you would go to the Towers to-morrow morning — you can take Miss Forest with you. The Lorrimers are a very lively household, and it will amuse her to know them.”

“ I should think they are lively,” burst from Nan at the far end of the table. “ How is Kitty Lorrimer, and how is Boris } And have they got as many pets as ever } Oh, can you tell me, please, father, if the dormouse has awakened yet ? It was fast asleep when I was home at Christmas, and Boris said it mightn’t wake again until May. Boris was so sorry it wasn’t quite dead, because he wanted to stuff* it ; but he couldn’t if it was alive, could he ? That would be cruel, wouldn’t it Father, can you tell me if the dormouse is awake ^ ”

Crushed.

II Sir John fixed a cold eye upon Nan

‘‘ I am unacquainted with the state of the dormouse’s health,” he said — “disgusting little beasts,” he added, turning for sympathy to Annie, whose bright dark eyes danced with fun as she watched him.

“ They’re not disgusting ; they’re perfectly heavenly little darlings,” came from Nan in an indignant voice. “ Oh, and what about the white rats ? Boris had four in a box when I went last to the Towers, and Kitty had one all to herself, and Boris and Kitty were always fighting as to which were the most beautiful — the one rat or the four. Did you ever see a white rat, Annie ? They are pets, with long tails like worms.”

“Hester,” exclaimed Sir John, “will you induce Nan to hold her tongue and eat her supper in peace ? ”

Hester bent forward and whispered something to Nan, who shrugged her shoulders indignantly. Her face grew crimson.

“I can’t learn that proverb,” she said, after a pause. “ I can’t obey it, it’s no use trying. Father, do you hear ? I can’t be one of those seen-and-notheard girls. Do you hear me, father ? ”

“ I do. Nan. If we have finished supper, shall we go into the drawing-room ? ” he added, turning to Annie.

Nan lingered behind She slipped her hand through her sister’s arm and dragged her on to the terrace.

“ I feel so wicked that I think I’ll burst,” she exclaimed. “ Why is father always throwing a damp cloth over me ? ”

“ Nan, dear, you irritate him a good deal. Why do you talk in that silly way when you know he cannot bear it ? ”

“ Because I’m Nan,” answered the child, pouting her lips.

" But Nan can learn wisdom,” said Hester, in her sweet elder- sisterly tone. “ Even though you are the liveliest, merriest, dearest little girl in the world, and though it is delicious to have you back ” — here there came an ecstatic hug — “ you need not say things that you know will hurt. For instance, you are perfectly well aware that father does not like his age commented on.”

“ Oh, that'' said Nan, some of the trouble which nurse’s words had caused coming back to her eyes. “ Oh, but I really said what I meant, then — it was not mischief. I was so glad to see that he is old. I love those wrinkles of his — I adore them.”

“ What can you mean, you queer little thing ? ”

“ Why, you see, Hetty, he won’t be attractive, and there’ll be no fear.”

“No fear of what ? ”

“ Nurse said that perhaps he’d be having a wife, and giving us a stepmother.”

“ Oh, what nonsense ! ” said Hester, in a vexed tone. “ What a silly thing for nurse to say. I am quite surprised at her. As far as I can tell our father has no intention of marrying again ; but if he did ? ”

“ If he did,” repeated Nancy, “ nurse says that you wouldn’t be mistress of the Grange any longer.”

A wistful sort of look, half of pain, half of suppressed longing, filled Hester^s dark eyes for a moment.

“ I might go out into the world,” she said, “ and have my heart’s desire.”

Crushed.

“ But aren’t you happy here ? ”

“ Yes, oh yes ! I am talking nonsense. My duty lies here, at least at present Mrs. Willis has taught me always to put duty first Now, Nan, let us forget what is not likely to happen. It is nearly time for you to go to bed ; you look quite tired ; there are black rings under your eyes ; but first, just tell me about Mrs. Willis and the dear old school.”

“ Mrs. Willis is well,” said Nan, with a yawn, “and the school is in statu quo. I am in the middle school now, and perhaps I shall get a drawing-room to myself before long. I’m not sure though, for I never can be tidy.”

“ I wish you could be ; it’s a pity not to curb one’s faults.”

“ Oh, bother faults. I don’t want you to lecture me, Hetty.”

“ No, darling, I don’t wish to ; but I thought you were so fond of Mrs. Willis. I thought you would do anything to please her.”

“ Yes, of course. I think I do please her. She gave me two prizes at the break up — one for French and one for music. She kissed me, too, quite half-adozen times. Look here, Hetty, I don’t want you to ask Annie Forest a lot of questions about me. I can’t help having a romping time now and then at school ; and there are two new girls — Polly and Milly Jenkins ; they are so killingly funny ; nearly as good as Boris and Kitty Lorrimer. I always had a little bit of the wild element in me, and I suppose it must come out somehow. Annie was wild enough when she was my age, wasn’t she, Hester } ”

“ Annie will be gay and light-hearted to the end of the chapter I ” exclaimed Hester.

'‘But she was naughty when she was my age, wasn’t she ? ”

“ She is not naughty now.”

“ Well, no more will I be when I am sixteen. Now, good-night, Het. Am I to sleep in your room ? ”

“Yes.”

“ How scrumptious. Look out for a fine waking early in the morning.”

Nan hugged Hester in her usual rough-and-ready manner, and danced upstairs, singing as she went —

“ Old Daddy-lon^-legs wouldrCt say his prayers^

Catch him by his left leg and throw hhn downstairs^

This was one of Nan’s rhymes which Sir John detested. Her voice was loud and somewhat piercing. He heard it in the drawing-room, and went deliberately and shut the door.

“ Miss Forest,” he said to his young guest, “ there are moments when I feel extremely uneasy with regard to the fate of my youngest daughter.”

“About Nan’s fate.?” exclaimed Annie, raising her arched eyebrows ; “why, she is quite the dearest little thing in the world. I wish you could see her at school ; she is the pet of all the girls at Lavender House.”

“That may be,” said Sir John, with a slightly sarcastic movement of his thin lips ; “ but it does not follow that school pets are home pets. If my good friend, Mrs. Willis, finds Nan’s society so agreeable, I wish she would arrange to keep her for the holidays.”

Annie’s young face, so round, so fresh, so charming, was fixed in grave surprise on her elderly host.

Crushed.

“ Don’t you love Nan at all ?” she asked, wonder in her tone.

Sir John had been giving Miss Forest credit for great tact. Up to this moment, he had considered her a very pretty, agreeable little girl, who would be an acquisition in the house. Now he winced ; she had trodden very severely on one of his corns.

“ I naturally have a regard for my child,” he said, after a pause, “ and I presume that I show it best by having her properly educated and disciplined in her youth.”

“ Oh, no, I don’t think you do,” said Annie. “ You must forgive me for saying frankly what I really think. I used to be like Nan when I was a little girl, and I’d never have changed — never — never. I’d never have become thoughtful for others. I’d always have been an unmitigated horror to all my friends if my father had treated me like that. He’s not a bit like you. Sir John. I don’t mean to compare him to you for a moment. He is quite a rough sort of man, and he has led a rough life ; but, oh dear me, from the time he came back from Australia, and I knew that I had a living father, I cannot tell you what a difference there has been in my life. I have generally spent my holidays with him, and he has loved me so much that I have loved him back again, and have learnt to know exactly what will please him and make him happy. Nothing tamed me so much as the knowledge that I was necessary to my father’s happiness. I am sure,” added Annie in a low voice, and with a suspicion of tears in her eyes, “ that it would be just the same with dear little Nan.”

She broke down suddenly, half afraid of her own temerity. There was silence for nearly half a minute, then Sir John rose from his chair, and, going over to a lamp which was slightly smoking, turned it down.

“If your father has been in Australia,” he said, turning again and looking fixedly at his young visitor, “ you will be interested in books on that country. I have got all Henry Kingsley’s novels. You will find them in the library. Ask Hester to show you the book-case.”

He strode deliberately out of the room, and Annie had to own to herself that she felt crushed.

CHAPTER HI.

TWO PROVERBS.

Hester Thornton an(i Annie Forest had been educated at thesame school — the well-known Lavender House. The fame of this school, the noble character of its mistress, the excellent training which each girl who went there received, formed a recommendation for each young student in after life. Hester and Annie had gone through severe storms in these early days. Their friendship had been cemented under the influence of great trouble. It was exactly a year now since Hester had been suddenly sent for from her busy and happy school life to take care of her father through a dangerous illness. He found her company so sweet, her skill and tact in managing his house so great, that he resolved not to allow her to go back to school again. Annie Forest was now, therefore, the head girl at Lavender House. She was Mrs. Willis’s right hand ; her help and support in every way. Annie was as great a favourite as of old, and

Two Proverbs.

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as love and kindness had developed all the best side of her character, she was no longer the tomboy of the school, nor the one who was invariably the ringleader when mischief was afloat. She was still impulsive, however — eager, impatient — for such a nature as hers must fight on to the end of the chapter. She did not possess Hester Thornton’s steady principles, and would always be influenced, whether for good or evil, by her companions. She was only to spend one more term at school; the future, after that, was practically unknown to her.

“ I wish you’d tell me about Nan,” said Hester, on the first evening of Annie’s visit to the Grange. " I don’t know why, but I feel a little anxious about her.”

“ You need not be,” replied Annie. “ She is a dear, jolly little pet, and as open as the day.”

“ She seems to get wilder and wilder,” replied Hester. “You must have noticed, Annie, how she irritates my father.”

“ Of course I did,” replied Annie. “ Do you know, Het, that I had the unbounded cheek to give him a piece of my mind this evening ? ”

Annie was seated on the side of Hester’s bed. She was in a blu^ dressing-gown, and her dark hair, in a mass of rebellious curls, was falling about her shoulders.

“ I forgot that Nan was in the room,” she said, putting her finger to her lips and glancing in the direction of Nan’s small bed. “ The little monkey may be awake, and I don’t want her to hear my nonsense.”

“She is sound asleep,” replied Hester. “If she were awake, she would soon acquaint us with the fact.”

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“Shall I tell you what I really said to your father ? ” continued Annie.

“ I don’t know that I want to hear. I hope you did not shock him, for he is prepared to like you very much.”

“ I am prepared to like him. I think he is a delightful host ; but, oh, how I should hate him for a father.”

“Annie!”

Hester’s delicate face flushed crimson, her eyes flashed an angry light.

Annie jumped off the bed and ran to her friend’s side.

“ Now you are angry with me,” she said ; “ but if I told him the truth, I may surely tell you. I know you are as good as an angel, but I am quite certain that he ruffles you up the wrong way.”

“ Don’t, Annie,” said Hester, in a voice of pain.

She walked to the window as she spoke, drew up the blind, and looked out. The night was dark, but innumerable stars could be seen in the deep, unfathomable vault of the sky. Hester clenched one of her hands tightly together. Annie stood and watched her.

“ I would not hurt you for the world,” she said. “ 1 am sorry, very sorry ; the fact is, I love you with all my heart, but I don’t understand you.”

“Yes you do, too well,” replied Hester; “but there are some things I cannot and will not talk about even to you. Now let me take you to your roorn, the hour is very late.”

Annie’s pretty room was just on the other side of the passage. Hester took her to it, saw that she had every comfort, and wished her good-night. She then

Two Proverbs.

stood for a moment, with a look of irresolution on her face, in the corridor.

“ I don’t believe nurse is in bed ; I will go and speak to her,” she said to herself. “ I thought the day when I welcomed Nan back from school, and when Annie came to visit me, would be quite the happiest day of my life, but it would never do to make my father’s home uncomfortable for him.” She reached the baize door, opened it, and soon found herself in the old nursery. She was right, nurse was not yet in bed.

“ Well, now, my deary ! ” exclaimed the old woman, “ and why are you losing your beauty sleep in this fashion ? When I was young things used to be very different. Girls had to be in bed by ten o’clock sharp to keep away the wrinkles, but now they’re all agog to burn the candle at both ends. It don’t pay. Miss Hetty, my pet, it don’t pay.”

“ I’m all right, nursie,” replied Hester. “ I’m the quietest and most jog-trot girl in the world as a rule. Of course I’m excited to-night, because Nan has come back.”

“Bless her dear heart!” ejaculated nurse; “but I’m not to say satisfied about her hair. Miss Hetty. I don’t believe it’s pointed often enough. I found a lot of split ends when I was combing it out to-night.”

“ Oh, I think Nan is all right in every way,” replied Hester. “ No one could be kinder to her than Mrs. Willis, and she is very happy at school. Nurse, I’ve just come here for a moment to ask you to be very careful what you say to Nan about my father. You see, the object of my life is to make him happy, and to be a good daughter to him, and, in short, to try to take my mother’s place.”

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Red Rose and Tiger Lily.

“Eh, dear, we all know that,” replied nurse, “and a sweeter young mistress there couldn’t be. Why, there isn’t a servant in the house who wouldn’t do anything in the world for you, Miss Hetty ; and everything in apple-pie order, and the meals served regular and beautiful, and inside and out perfect order, and all because there’s an old head on young shoulders. There, perhaps it isn’t a compliment I’m paying you, my dearie, but in one sense it is.”

“ Do you really think I manage well?” asked the girl, an anxious tone in her voice.

“ Manage well ? You manage beautiful. Your own mother, if she were alive, couldn’t do better.”

“ I can never forget my mother,” replied Hester, tears rising to her eyes. “Well, nurse, you will be very careful what you say to Nan. The object of my life is to make my father happy. If I can do that, I am content”

“You do, you do,” replied the old woman. “No mortal can do more than their best, and you do that. Now, good-night. Miss Hester.”

Hester took up her candle and went away. Nurse stood and watched the pretty young figure as it disappeared down the corridor. »

“There,” she said to herself as she began to prepare for her own bed. “There’s another victim. Don’t I know what my mistress was, and don’t I know that Sir John’s coldness and sharpness and no-heartedness just hurried her into her grave? Never a bit of real hearty love could he give to anyone. Just as just could be — righteous as righteous could be, but hard as a flint. My mistress drooped and faded and died, and Miss Hester will follow in her footsteps if I don’t look

Two Proverbs.

after her. Sometimes I wish the master would marry again, and that he’d get a tartar of a wife. He might think of another wife if things were a bit uncomfortable here, but that they never will be while Miss Hetty is at the helm. She’s a born manager, bless her, with her gentle ways and her firm words and her pretty little dignity. Miss Nan’s business in life, it seems to me, is to set places all in a muddle, and Miss Hetty’s to smooth them out again. Of course it’s due to Miss Hetty to be mistress of the Grange, but sometimes I fear the life is too much for her, and she’ll fret and fade like her mother before her; if I really thought that, I’d set my wits to work, old as I am, to get a real selfish wife for the master, who’d teach him a thing or two, for that’s what he wants.”

At this stage in her meditations, nurse laid her head on her pillow and was soon fast asleep.

The next morning promised a perfect day, and Hester, Annie, and Nan met in high spirits in the breakfast-room. The post had not yet arrived, but a letter was lying on Hester’s plate.

“ That’s in dad’s writing,” said Nan, going up and examining it critically ; “ now what’s up ? ”

Hester took the letter and opened it. It contained a few brief words. She read them with a sinking of heart which she could not account for —

“My Dear Hetty, — Your young companions will make the house quite gay for you. I shall, therefore, take the opportunity of going from home for a few days. I will send you a line to let you know when you may expect me back. — Your affectionate father, John Thornton.

“ P.S. — I shall have left before you are down in the morning. Give my love to Nan, and wish Miss Forest good-bye for me. By the way, she is interested in Australia, so will you show her where Henry Kingsley’s novels are to be found in the library ?”

Nan, who had been peeping over Hester’s shoulder while she was reading, now suddenly clapped her hands, shouted “ hurrah ” at the top of her voice, and, running up to Annie, began to waltz round and round the breakfast-table with her.

Oh, oh ! ” she exclaimed, “ then little girls may be heard as well as seen. Annie, there are two proverbs which are the bane of my life. I wonder dad has not had them both illuminated and framed and hung up in my nursery. One of them is : ‘ Little girls should be seen and not heard.’ What a detestable old prig the person must have been who invented that proverb ! I ask you, Annie, what would life be without little girls and their chatter? The other proverb is nearly as objectionable. This is it : ‘ Make a page of your own age.’ According to dad, that only applies to little girls, and it means that they must always be fagging round, hunting for slippers and spectacles and newspapers and books for the older people who are past the age for paging, and that no one is ever to wait on them^ however tired or however disinclined to stir they may happen to b^. Now there’ll be no one to make me page, and no one to keep me silent. Oh, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah ! what a deal old dad to absent himself in this obliging manner.”

“ For my part, I am very sorry,” said Annie, for Hester had passed her on the letter to read.

Hester said nothing, and breakfast began. Nan wasting as usual a prodigal amount of energy and spirits even over the operation of eating, Hester looking a little pale and a little thoughtful, Annie in a state of suppressed high spirits, which a slight awe which she still felt at times for Hester Thornton kept rather in check.

Chapter IV. The Colts — Robin And Joe

The Towers was situated exafctly two miles away from the Grange. It was a large, old house, with a castellated roof and a high tower at one end. It was a very old family place, and the Lorrimers had lived there from father to son for several hundreds of years. Like many ancient families, their wealth had diminished rather than increased with the times. The luxurious living, which has been in vogue more or less during the whole of the present century, had obliged them to part with some of their fair acres. The present owner had married for love, not for money. More lands had to be sold to meet the wants of a large and vigorous family, and, at the time when this story opens, the Lorrimers were, for their position, decidedly poor, not rich.

Squire Lorrimer had one dread ever before his eyes. This was the fear of having to part with the dear old Towers itself. If this blow fell, he was certain that it would kill him. He trusted to be able to avert this calamity by putting down expenses in all possible ways. There were too few servants, therefore, for the size of the house, too few gardeners for the size of the gardens, too few horses for the size of the stables.

Nevertheless, there was not in the whole length and breadth of the county of Warwickshire, a jollier, happier, more rollicking household than the Lorrimers. There were ten children, varying in age, from Molly,

Red Rose and Tiger Lily.

who would be sixteen on her next birthday, to little Phil, who had not yet attained the dignity of two years. There were six girls in the family and four boys. The two elder boys went to a good grammar school in the neighbourhood ; the girls and Boris had a governess who taught them at home. Neither boys nor girls were educated quite up to the requirements of the times, but the father and mother were not going to worry themselves over this fact. Mr. Lorrimer had very strong views with regard to modern education. He had a hearty preference for big bodies instead of big brains. He was intensely old-fashioned as regards all modern views for the advancement of women, and said frankly that he would rather his sons emigrated than spent their lives as city clerks. He had a good deal of faith in things righting themselves naturally, and as his wife believed him to be the cleverest and wisest man in the universe, he was not tormented by any contrary opinions from her lips.

“ The children will do very well,” he used to say.

“ If I can only keep the la^d together, and the old house for Guy to inherit after me, I shall die a happy man. The girls are all pretty, unless we except pool little Elinor, and she, in some ways, has the sweetest face of the bunch ; they are sure to find husbands by-and-by, and the younger lads can fend for themselves in the colonies if necessary. You needn’t fret about the children, mother,” he would add.