Sophy Carmine

Front matter

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Chapter I

MES. FEKKEES’ AEKANGEMENTS.

It was getting near Christmas-time and the mistress of Ferrers Court was busily occupied in arranging her party for the festive season.

It was always a busy time with Mrs. Ferrers. There was her ovai not very small household to look after — her six children, and all the servants and dependents about the place to each of whom, in accordance with a time-honored custom established years and years ago when Captain Ferrers had been the most popular officer in the Scarlet Lancers, must be given a Christmas present, conveyed with some sort of surprise of her own invention, which should be a secret to everybody but the giver until the moment of giving it should come.

Then the house was always filled with visitors, and this year their party was one which in a manner had come by chance, for their nearest

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neighbors — the Landovers of Landover Castle, nine miles away — had had a misfortune with the drains of that palatial mansion, the entire organization having gone grievously wrong after the manner of large country houses and show places.

The Landovers had thus been prevented from having their usual gathering, and Captain Ferrers had suggested to his wife that they should put them up for a week or two.

“ Mignon does dislike Jane Landover so, Algy,” objected Mrs. Ferrers, who was rather by way of liking Mrs. Landover herself.

“ Well she did before she was married, darling,” answered Captain Ferrers — “ but then that was natural enough, for Jane Carmine really did make a bit of a set at Lucy, and of course Mignon couldn’t stand that. But now that they’re both married it will be quite different — Mrs. Landover of Landover will look down on Major Lucy’s wife Fve no doubt, all the more because she once had a fancy for being Major Lucy’s wife herself.”

“Well, of course. I’ll ask them if you wish it, Algy,” Mrs. Ferrers said, cheerfully — “ I always get on very well with Jane Landover. Anyway I have already written to Sophy — I ‘wrote at oncewhen I found that Jane had been obliged to put the visit off, and she comes to us on the same day she would have gone to them.”

“ That’s all right. And who are you going to

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ask besides?” asked Captain Ferrers with interest.

“ Well, there will be General Coles, and Captain Brookes, and j^our friend Colonel Kerr, and Mr. Alleyne ; and I think that is all, Algy.”

General Coles was just home after five years’ service in India, and was an old friend of Captain Ferrers, or, as everyone called him, “ Booties.” Colonel Kerr was also an old friend, in fact, an older friend, though he was a younger man than the General, and, like him, was just home from India, having come on sick-leave and sorely against his inclinations. Brookes was not very far up the list of Captains in the Black Horse ; and Tommy Alleyne was an exceedingly popular juan in Town, who had been in the service for a few months, and, having got sick of the sameness and dreariness of life in country quarters, had, one fine morning, after an extra hard time in the riding-school, sent in his papers, drifted to London, and gone on the stage, where he had found a calling, which, to use his own language, suited him down to the ground.

Then, in addition to these, were Major and Mrs- Lucy, who almost always spent their long leave at the Court, which to Mrs. Lucy meant home — for before her marriage, two years previously, she had been Mignon Ferrers, though she was not Captain Ferrers’ own daughter, but the child of his wife by a former marriage.

G

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“But I say, my dearest,” said Booties to his wife, when she had thus counted her chickens, “ aren't you going to ask any more girls ? ”

“ Not just yet, dear,” said Mrs. Booties, gently, yet with decision.

“ But, darling,” Booties ejaculated, in utter dismay, “ all these fellows — Coles, Kerr, Brookes, and Alleyne — and nobody but Sophy Carmine to meet them ? ”

“Yes, I know,” said Mrs. Booties, evidently not prepared to alter her plans in the least.

“ If it had been any ordinary girl,” Booties went on, blankly, “ of course it wouldn’t matter — but Sophy Carmine ! Why — why, it’s downright cruelty.”

“ But, Algy dear, I do want to do something for poor Sophy,” Mrs. Booties explained. “ She really has never had a chance before, for Jane always took care that she didn’t get one before she was married, and she has never done anything for her since. And a great shame it is, with her income and such a husband as Geoffry Landover, and no children or anything; and so I thought, as Sophy was coming to us for Christmas this year, I would see what I could do to get her settled.”

Captain Ferrers burst into a great goodhumored laugh. “You’ve set yourself a nice task, little woman,” he cried — “ a nice task. I wonder how it will work ? ”

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“ Oh, we shall see,” Mrs. Ferrers answered. “ I don’t despair at all. Sophy is ver^ nice when you get to know her ; she is worth fifty Jane Landovers any day. And, somehow, Algy, I don’t know what she has been doing to herself, but, really, I thought she looked quite pretty the last time she was in Hill Street.”

“ I didn’t see her,” said Booties, with meaning.

“Well, but I did, and I couldn’t tell what it was, but there’s something different about her — she is improved anyway. And, poor girl, she must have a very uncomfortable time now that their mother is married. I really should like to see Sophie settled in a good home of her own.”

“ And which of them is to be the victim ? ” Booties asked teasingly. “ I don’t suppose old Coles will have altered very much since we were quartered together at Blankhampton — he used to have a deuce of an eye for a pretty face. Kerr won’t marry — at least, I hardly think so — and Lester Brookes has seen Sophy Carmine before. So there’s only Tommy Alleyne left, and if you think a man with Tommy’s opportunities is likely to fall a victim to Sophy Carmine’s charms, well, all I can say is, that I don’t believe it is very likely.”

“Oh! well, we shall see,” returned Mrs. Booties, not in tlie least shaken by his arguments or convinced that her little arrangements would

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probably all be made in vain. “ And if the men do seem to find it a little dull, it will give me the chance of asking Fraulein and Miss Maitland down now and then. They are really both of them very good, and they don’t get much of a time on the whole.”

“ Oh ! well, of course you know best,” cried Booties with a laugh. “It won’t make an}'- difference to me — not the very least in the world.”

Well, the days went on and the twenty-second of December came round; it was soft muggy weatlier such as made the men wild about hunting and set the women wondering if measles or scarlatina might not very soon become the order of the day. There was no meet, however, within reach of Ferrers Court that day, and Captain Ferrers came down to breakfast at nine o’clock wearing ordinary light-colored clothes.

“Is there a letter from Mignon, darling? ” he inquired of his wife who sat fair and serene opposite to him.

“Yes” — Mrs. Ferrers answered — “they will be at Eccles at four o’clock, dear.”

“ Are you going to meet them ? ”

“ I don’t think so — my throat feels a little sore still,” she replied. “But I believe Pearl and Maud are dying to go.”

“ All right. By the by, what day are the handovers coming ? ”

“ To-morrow, dear.”

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“All right. Well, I shall be rather busy this morning — I’ve got to hear all Terry’s arrangements.”

“ I have plenty to do myself,” said Mrs. Ferrers smiling.

The door was pushed open and the two eldest of the six Ferrers children came in — Pearl twelve years old, Maud a step younger, both tall, handsome, sweet-faced and sweet-mannered children, fair and blue-eyed, with ruddy golden curls.

“ Father,” said Pearl, — Pearl was always the spokeswoman — “ you’ve got a new hunter, haven’t you ? ”

“ Yes, my woman — what about it ? ” Booties asked.

“Well, Maud and I want to go and see it. Can we? Are you going to the stables? Can we go with you ? ”

“ To be sure. Ah ! ” — with a make-believe groan — “ it’s an awful thing when a man suffers from misfortunes of flesh as I do. I’m half a stone heavier than I was when Mignon was married — and my hunters cost me fifty guineas apiece more in consequence.”

“Well, but father, you shouldn’t laugh so much,” said Pearl in a very wise tone.

“ I don’t know that I do laugh more then the ordinary run of people,” Captain Ferrers replied. “ But supposing I do, what has that to do with it.”

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“ Humphie says that laughing makes you grow fat,” Pearl informed him.

“ No, Humphie says,” — broke in Maud, who was always ready to give chapter and verse in support of any argument put forward by her sister — “ whenever any of us laugh more than usual, Humphie says always ‘ Laugh and grow fat, my lamb.’ That’s exactly what Humphie says.”

“ And what a lot Humphie must have laughed in her time,” chuckled Booties, thinking of the vast expanse round the old nurse’s waist and the general extensiveness of her person.

“We went into Sophy’s room on our way down, mother,” said Pearl, “and she slept very well and is enjoying her breakfast enormously^

“ That is all right,” said Mrs. Ferrers,

“And she is coming down for luncheon” — Pearl went on, “ she is very tired this morning — Stop, stop, father, wait for us,” she broke off as Booties went out of the room.

In a moment the three had departed, and Mrs. Ferrers went off for a consultation with the housekeeper and to attend to other matters which would keep her well occupied till lunch-time. And upstairs, Sophy Carmine was taking a judicious rest after her ten hours’ journey from the far north, not wishing — although she knew that she was no beauty — to appear at greater disadvantage than need be against her sister, Mrs. Land-

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over, when slie arrived the following clay ; for Mrs. Lanclover had at all times on her side the advantages of youth, to the extent of three years, a certain prettiness of person and an enormous allowance for dress — advantages, let me tell you, that are none of them to be despised in that race wherein “ Trifles make^ perfection.”

Chapter II. Sophy Carmine

When Sophy Carmine made her appearance at luncheon. Booties found himself scanning her curiously every now and then, having his wife’s little plans for the young lady’s future in his mind.

He admitted to himself that Mrs. Booties had been quite right in her declaration that Sophy had improved in the liiatter of looks ; that certainly was so, though he could not tell how or in what partioular feature the improvement was. Yet without doubt there was an improvement, Sophy looked brighter and less acid than he had been accustomed to fancy her, and her figure too looked rounder and more pliable than of yore.

“ Shouldn’t wonder if Nell doesn’t manage it after all,” said Booties within himself — “ I dare

SOPHY CARMINK say it is getting from under Madam Jane’s thumb. It must have made a wonderful difference to her, Jane marrying a man like Landover.”

Yet he kept looking at her again and again — surely there was something more material than mere expression that had wrought this change in Mrs. Landover’s sister. He could not make it out. It was not paint — no, for slie was sitting full in the not very becoming light of the wintry day and, beyond a little powder perhaps, he could see that her face was innocent of that kind of beauty ; the previous evening at dinner he had fancied that the improvement must be due to that — now, however, in the full light of day, he acknowledged that there must be some other cause for the change. “ And I wonder now,” he chuckled to himself, “ which of them it will be.”

“Mignon and Major Lucy come to-day, do they not ? ” Sophy asked at that moment.

“ Yes — at four o’clock,” Mrs. Ferrers answered.

“ Do you care to come with me to meet them. Miss Carmine ? ” asked Booties, civilly.

Sophy looked doubtful. “Are you going, INIrs. Ferrers?” she asked.

“No, dear, my throat is scarcely quite the thing yet.”

“We are going, Maud and I,” struck in Pearl.

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“ Who said you were going ? ” laughed her father.

“ Well, I don’t think anybody said we were,” Pearl replied, “ but nobody said we were not.”

“ A clear case of logical deduction,” laughed Booties gayly.

“What is logical deduction, father?” Pearl demanded.

“ Logical deduction — oh ! well, it’s — ”

“ It’s what Mignon has in her handwriting.” put in Maud —“Oh ! yes, father, I do know, because the very last time Mr. Landover and Jane were staying here, mother was saying one day that Mignon very seldom took a dislike to anyone, but that when she did there was always a good reason for it, even when the dislike came before the reason. And Jane Landover said — ‘Oh ! logical deduction is a great quality with Mignon — her handwriting shows it plainly !, I said at once to Jane that it was all nonsense, for Mignon writes a beautiful hand. But Jane said that had nothing whatever to do with it.”

The child’s tone was so exact an imitation of the Mistress of Landover’s tart accents, that Booties got up in haste and went to get himself some more bread at the sideboard, although there were two servants in the room who could have brought it in answer to a look. Sophy, on the contrary, laughed immoderately.

“ Why, what a little quiz Maud is — it was

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Jane’s tone to the very life, Jane’s tone when she is not altogether in her very best humor either. I see I shall have to mind my P’s and Q’s when you are about, young lady.”

“ But Jane did say that exactly,” cried Maud, who liad not intended to imitate Mrs. Landover by any means, but only wished to give an exact account of what she had said on the subject of logical deduction.

“ Of course Jane said just that — we none of us dispute it,” cried Sophy Carmine with a goodnatured laugh.

Maud looked wonderingly at her with her big honest blue eyes, and shook her ruddy golden curls in genuine perplexity — “ Do you think she knows what she’s talking about? ” she murmured in an undertone to Pearl.

“ She was the cat’s mother,” said Pearl with severity.

At the other end of the table the master of the house was speaking — “ Then you don’t care for the drive to-day, Miss Carmine ? ”

“ I think I would rather stay quietly at home,” she answered. “I was so awfully tired yesterday, it was such a long journey; yes, I should like to get rested before Jane and her husband come.”

So in due time Captain Ferrers went off with the break — the omnibus that is — to meet Mignon and Major Lucy, and beside him on the box

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instead of Sophy Carmine, he had liis two charming little daughters, who were wild with excitement at the prospect of seeing their sister again.

It was always a great joy to Captain Ferrers to have his children about him. He loved listening to tlieir wise remarks and hearing their childish philosophy, often such wise philosophy, oh, my friends. They were talking then.

“ I can’t think,” said Maud, “ why Mr. Landover wanted to go and marry Jane Carmine. Sophy is ever so much nicer, and she isn’t much worse looking than Jane, is she? ”

“Not much,” answered Pearl, tucking her hands more comfortably under the bearskin rug. “ After a bit I shouldn’t wonder if she doesn’t get much the prettiest of the two. She’s got two new teeth since she was here before.”

“ By Jove, that’s it,” exclaimed Booties in an ecstasy of discovery.

“ /She was the cat’s mother,” remarked Maud with withering scorn, not having forgotten the same rebuke administered to her at luncheon tliat day.

“Yes, I know — I told you that,” returned Pearl with quiet disdain — Pearl could be very disdainful when she chose — “ But I meant Sophy Carmine, of course. Sophy used to have much uglier teeth than Jane, at least those two at the front stuck out much further — but, somehow, I think when Jane gets liers changed, they won’t

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be as much improvement to her as Sophy’s are.”

“ Father,” cried Maud in a puzzled tone and without staying to answer Pearl’s remarks — “ Do you know where people buy sets of eyelashes ? ”

“ Sets of eyelashes,” repeated Booties in astonishment — “ What do you mean ? ”

“ Well, you go to the dentist’s for sets of teeth ” — she replied — “ Mr. Carpenter told me so the very last time I liad a tooth pulled out myself, for I asked him what any one would do if he pulled out all their teeth, and he said — ‘ Put a new set in, little lady. But all the same, I can’t think where people go to buy sets of eyelashes.”

“ Who does have sets of eyelashes ? ” asked Booties, not gathering any idea of her meaning.

“ Oh ! Sophy Carmine has several sets,” explained Maud blandly.

“ What?” said Booties.

“Yes, she has ! For I saw Margaret this morning taking her letters up to her room — Margaret waits on Sophy, you know — and I offered to take them in to her. And Margaret said — ‘ Thankyou, Miss INIaud, I’m sure,’ and so I took the letters in to Sophy’s room ; one was from Jane handover, and Sophy just looked at it and said — ‘ Oh ! lor ! What next I wonder? ’ — and the other was from Redfern’s to say her new gown would be here to-morrow at the latest— Sophy told me so. It’s a blue velvet gown with cut

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steel buttons. I think Sophy will look lovely in it.”

“ And about the eye-lashes,” put in Booties, finding that Maud had wandered away from the subject wliich had most interest for him just then.

“ Oh ! Sophy was wearing a set of white ones,” Maud replied in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone.

“ Eh ? ” Booties ejaculated blankly.

“Yes, white ones — at least yellowish white,” Maude explained with great accuracy. “ And when she came down to lunch she had put on black ones. She looks much better in black ones ; if I were Sophy I would never wear white ones again — they don’t suit her at all.”

For a moment Booties was strongly tempted to go off into agonies of laughter ; but he had a chivalrous nature and the bread-and-salt feeling was always very strong in him. Besides he felt that it would not do to set his little quick-witted daughters the example of turning his guest’s personal appearance into ridicule ; yet to tell the truth it was a hard struggle, and for a few minutes he could not trust himself to speak. Maud, n the contrary, who had not the very smallest idea of ridiculing Sophy Carmine or anybody else, and was bent only on giving him an exact account of what had taken place concerning her eyelashes, went innocently on.

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“ If I was Sophy Carmine, I would never wear white ones again, not even to sleep in ; but perhaps they’re cheaper you know.”

“ I’ll tell you what I think,” said Booties, finding his voice at last and putting on the most proper, not to say severe, manner he could assume — “ and that is, that you had better not say anything or think anything about it at all. Miss Carmine would not be very pleased if she knew that she was being talked about like this and all the secrets of her toilette were being brought to light.”

“ But it isn’t a secret at all,” objected Pearl, who had now got the reins and was giving most of her attention to the horses — “ because I was telling Fanchette about it this morning and she seemed to know all about it — ‘ Pooh ! Mad’moiselle Pair!,’ she said quite contemptibly — ‘ Zare is nozing in zat — it is quite easy — put a ’air-pin in ze gas and zare you are.’ I did put a hairpin in the gas, but it didn’t do anything to my eyelashes — they aren’t a bit different to what they were yesterday ” — and then she gave her attention to the horses again and had evidently nothing further to say upon the subject.

Booties positively roared ! But when he had had his laugh, the chivalrous bread-and-salt feeling began to come back, and he made haste to — as he put it — “shove a moral in.”

“Well, you’d better not talk about it to any

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one else, not even to Fanchette,” he said. “It isn’t exactly polite, you know, to go and talk about what you see in people’s bedrooms — nobody is supposed to know anything about it ; you see you might just get hold of a wrong idea or a wrong story and happen to tell it to the wrong person, so if I were you both, I would just keep on the right side and not say a word to a single soul.”

“Then we won’t, father — not to a single soul,” they cried in one breath.

They were by that time within, sight of the station and Booties held out his hands for the reins.

“ 1 can manage it,” Pearl said, confidently.

“Can you? Pull in a little then,” he answered.

In two minutes they had turned out of the main road into the short one leading to the station, and Pearl had triumphantly brought the horses to a stand-still.

“ Uncommonly well handled,” was her father’s comment, whereupon Pearl gravely got down and went on to the platform feeling quite proud of herself.

The first person she saw was Mr. Callum, the station-master, with whom she and Maud were great favorites, and to him she addressed herself.

“ Good afternoon, Mr. Callum,” she remarked —

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“ I suppose the train won’t be very long now ? ”

“ Not very long', mem,” returned Mr. Callum — “I hope the Mistress is braw and bonny 'the day?”

“ Yes, thank you, Mr. Callum — Mother is quite well,” returned Pearl politely.

“ But mother’s tliroat is not at all well,” said Maud, aghast at Pearl’s inaccuracy.

“ Mother has had a sore throat ” — said Pearl with dignity — “ but she only stayed in because she thought it was a risk to come out. Nobody could call mother ill to-day, Maud.”

“ Eh, but I’m sorry the Mistress has been out of sorts, mem,” put in the station-master with much concern. “ Eh, but I think the weather is most consairned in it. I bear in mind, the auld saying — “ A green yule-tide maks a full kirkyaird. Noo, if I might mak a suggaastion to the Mistress ”

“ There’s the train,” exclaimed Pearl, pointing along the line.

“ May I inquire if it is Miss Mignon that you’re expecting, mem ? ” asked Mr. Callum, who, like every one else about the neighborhood of Ferrers Court, fairly worshipped Mignon —

“ Mrs. Lucy, I should say.”

“ Yes — and Major Lucy too. They are coming . for two months,” Pearl replied.

“Well, not exactly two months — leave is always measured by days,” corrected Maud.

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“ Major Lucy’s last long leave was fifty-six days, and I should think this will be the same.”

“ But they always call it two months,” Pearl declared.

Chapter III. The Price Of Experience

Mignon, dear child,” said Captain Ferrers to Mrs. Lucy, “I wonder if you would mind waiting twenty minutes for the down-train ?”

“Not a bit, dear,” returned Mignon promptly. “ I’ll go in and see Mrs. Callum. Who is coming by the down-train ? ”

“General Coles — old Coles, you know. You’ll remember him at Blankhampton,” he answered.

“ What, ‘ Ta, Ta? ’ ” laughed Mignon.

“ The same,” cried Booties, laughing too.

“ That was the old chap who invawriably wremembered everything the day before yesterday,” remarked Major Lucy.

“ But how could he remember anything the day before yesterday,” said Pearl rather blankly, while IMaud stood by with wide-eyed amazement wondering how anybody could explain the truth of such an assertion as this.

Lucy laughed good-naturedly.

“ Ah ! I see I am going to be on the gwrill for the next two months with you two accu-

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wrate young ladies. I meant to say that Colonel Coles had always heard evewrything the day before yesterday — Genewral Coles I mean.”

“ But how could he hear if it only happened to-day ? ” exclaimed Pearl, thoroughly puzzled.

“ Oh ! that makes no diffewrence,” explained Major Lucy blandly.

“ Things that don’t make any difference are very awkward to understand,” observed Maud plaintively. “ Seems to me it's like Mignon’s handwriting — it is and it isn’t. Pearl, I vote we go and see Mr. Callum’s dog.”

So the two little ladies went off to see Mr. Callum’s dog, and Mrs. Lucy (how odd it seems to call Mignon “ Mrs. Lucy ”) went in to have a chat with the station-master’s wife, to drink a glass of sweet and sticky port, and to have the real home-made Christmas-cake cut in her honor, and, whether she would or no, have a great wedge thereof pushed on to her plate and, Mrs. Callum being a North-country woman, also a generous helping of cheese from a prime Cheshire, to eat with it.

Now Mignon knew Mrs. Callum's Christmas-cake of old, and tried hard to get off the honor thus unexpectedly thrust upon her.

“ Half — no, a quarter of that, Mrs. Callum, please^'" she entreated. “ Remember I’m not the great hungry child I used to be. No, not any

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cheese, Mrs. Callum — -I know it’s just lovely, but I’d so much rather eat the cake by itself.”

“ Oh ! I couldn’t let you pay me a visit at Chris-a-mas time. Miss Mignon,” the stationmaster’s wife said hospitably, “ and not cut the cake for you — I’m only proud to have the chance. It won’t hurt you. Miss Mignon — there, what am I saying? Mrs. Lucy, ma’am, I should say. I’m sure I ask your pardon.”

“ It doesn’t matter, Mrs. Callum,” Mignon protested — “ but no cheese, please, and do take half this cake back.”

“It won’t hurt you, ma’am ; its Jiome-made^' returned Mrs. Callum, with a proud air. “ I can recommend it, for I made it myself ; so I know just what’s in it.”

So did Mignon — from a bitter, or, I should more correctly say, a stodgy experience of the past ; but she saw that Mrs. Callum was determined to make her partake of a full measure of her hospitality ; so she resigned herself to the inevitable, and, with an inward shudder, set her pretty white teeth into the uncompromising wedge of cake reposing on a very gaudy dessertplate before her. Suddenly a bright idea came into her mind. She knew that it would be useless to explain that there would be afternoon tea when they reached the Court, and that her mother would certainly be disappointed if she were able to eat nothing ; but if she could nibble at her cake

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instead of eating it, and could put the time on until the down-train came into the station ; she could plead not liking to keep the horses waiting any longer, and eat the rest on the way home. Bright idea! Happy thought!

“Are the little ladies here?” Mrs. Callum asked, in surprise, as Pearl and Maud went past the window. “ Eh ! but I must fetch them in for a bit of cake,” and away she bustled to the door, all excitement at having so many distinguished visitors.

Mrs. Lucy, I must confess, took the opportunity of disposing of the piece of cheese, which she dropped into an old envelope, and slipped into the pocket of her sealskin coat.