A summer siege; a story for girls

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I A Foreign Invasion 1

II The Home of the Stranger . . .11

Chapter I

It was a warm June day, and the way train from Middleford Junction to Nomono was uncomfortably crowded. Perhaps the coolest looking people in the common car were two young girls who were dressed alike in dark gingham frocks, one of whom had taken off her plain shade hat.

“ Take off your hat, Emmie, and be comfortable, why don’t you.? ” she asked her companion, who was far too much like her in looks and dress to be anything but a sister. “ There ! I thought before that you were the only girl here who wasn’t sensible, except that girl at the end of the car with that queer looking woman who asks the conductor something whenever he comes through and has guide books enough to carry her to Alaska. I should think that girl would ruin her eyes, reading through two veils ! ”

“ Perhaps they are going to the mills here, like every one else,” said Emeline softly.

“ Except us, you mean. But if we were going to the mills, we’d be better dressed for them than any one else here. If a benevolent philanthropist 1 were on board, he’d give us a medal for being model young factory girls.”

Charlotte Gassett laughed, as she did very often, but the adage, ‘‘ Laugh and grow fat,” was not true in her case. Both she and Emeline were slender girls, and both had dark hair and hazel eyes. Emeline smiled, but did not answer. She was looking at a wild, picturesque sheet of water which the train was passing. She liked to see the world from a car window, and liked a wild landscape a great deal better than the cheap houses which clustered round the little stations. She was enjoying her moment of quiet when her sister clutched her arm.

“ Emmie, I guess something ! What do you think ” Then before Emeline had time to answer, “ I think that girl is Blanche, and that woman with her is her governess. You know they might be coming today.”

“ But they wouldn’t be alone. Cousin Archie would be with them.”

“ Perhaps he couldn’t leave New York. It must be Blanche. If there’s another girl on this continent who is taken care of the way that girl is, all I can say is, I pity her. Look at them, Emmie ! ”

Emeline waited till Charlotte was looking in another direction and then looked for herself. The unfortunate girl was indeed to be pitied. She wore at least two veils, as well as a hat, and leather travelling gloves.

“ There are more than two of them,” said Erneline in an undertone. “ They are talking to that nice looking woman who sits behind them. Is she the maid.^ She looks like a lady.”

“ She looks like a roasted lady,” said Charlotte, “ but I’m going to find out if that isn’t Blanche. Aren’t her eyebrows just like Uncle Jonathan’s? I tell you what I’ll do. I’ll offer them fans and begin that way.”

Emeline looked again shyly at the strangers. She had some curiosity herself about their half- English cousin who was to make her first visit to Nomono at the same time that she and Charlotte returned there after a winter’s schooling in Boston, but to be in a crowd affected her and her sister in totally different ways. While Charlotte was pleasurably excited, Emeline shrank into herself. Emeline was sometimes attracted by the girls she met, and if she had been alone would have made advances in her own way ; but then, she never was left alone.

Charlotte rose and walked carefully down the central aisle of the swaying car. Without speaking, she held out a broad palm leaf fan to the one of the three strangers who sat behind the others.

“ Thank you, miss,” was the response in a sweet toned English voice, but the speaker made no effort to possess herself of the fan.

“ Do take it,” said Charlotte. “ Don’t you want to fan yourself this hot day? ”

“ No, thank you, miss.” The speaker’s voice was still sweet, and though perspiration was starting from every pore, she remained outwardly as calm as if she were sitting on a snow bank.

The elder of the two ladies on the seat in front turned round and looked at Charlotte.

“ This person is travelling with me,” she remarked gravely. Her voice had a foreign sound, which yet was not exactly English.

Unawed, Charlotte continued to inspect the party, especially the girl of about her own age whom the elder lady had placed next to the window, behind a barricade of baskets, bags and shawls. She was a pretty girl, with lovely fair coloring, blue eyes and rich auburn hair. Her eyes, through her veils, met Charlotte’s with a look of intelligence, a look which seemed to imply that they were both girls and had something in common.

“ Are you Blanche ” asked Charlotte suddenly.

There was no answer in words, but a smile and an affirmative motion.

“ How splendid ! ” exclaimed Charlotte, grasping her hand, “ and you,” turning to her companion, “ must be Miss Eslin, the governess. Of course you’re going to Nomono. We’re the cousins, you know, Blanche. I’ll sit right down here a minute behind you, with your friend.”

“ Lowe, you may make room for the young lady,” said the leader of the party.

“ No, thank you,” said Charlotte, as Miss Lowe, instead of merely making way for her, rose so as to allow her to take the seat by the window. “ I guess I can’t stay; I must go back to my sister Emeline. We’re going to Nomono, too. We spend the summer with Uncle Jonathan, you know, whenever we can, we love Nomono so much. We came down here as soon as we could when school was over. Father’s the partner who lives on the Pacific Coast, and mother likes to be with him all she can, because he isn’t very strong. We’ve been in California twice, so we’re great travellers. Now, Miss Eslin, isn’t that your right name? I tell you what would be fine. Let Blanche come and sit with us ; there’s lots of room for her. I’ll sit on my suit case, and we’ll get acquainted right ofF.”

Charlotte was not so eager about her own plans that she did not see the dismay on the face of the governess. Had she known the extent of the stranger’s troubles she might have felt some pity for her. Poor Miss Eslin, for Charlotte had guessed rightly as to the lady’s identity, had refused a position of the highest respectability in the family of an English barrister to take what she considered the still more advantageous post of governess and companion to the young and beautiful heiress of an American millionaire. Of course he was a millionaire, all Americans were wealthy, that is, all Miss Eslin had ever known. She had felt perfectly competent to conduct the heiress to America, as she was an old traveller both in England and on the Continent. But since she had landed in this torrid country she had met with nothing but trouble and annoyance.

After undergoing what she had considered a barbarous examination of her luggage by the custom house officers, and having been duly frightened by the chaotic New York sky-scrapers, she had been put on board a train by Blanche’s New York uncle. With all her experience as a traveller she had found changing cars at the Junction, after which there was no drawing-room car, a difficult matter. Now a new problem confronted her in this strange, forward girl of whom she had never before heard, as Blanche had said little during the voyage of her American relations. Miss Eslin knew that she was bound for the house of Mr. Jonathan Gassett, a wealthy manufacturer, but she knew nothing more of the grandfather of her charge. She had looked forward to his house as a haven of refuge from the hot car and the strange people, but now she felt that even this hope might be disappointed.

She feared that her party were exciting the American curiosity of which she had read, and glanced about her. All the travellers in her neighborhood appeared to be absorbed in their own affairs. Everyone looked so odd to Miss Eslin that one oddity more or less didn’t count. A family of strange, pale, dark-haired and darkeyed children were crowded into the seats in front.

eating lunch out of . a basket and chewing gum. They did not disturb Charlotte, who knew in a moment that their parents were French Canadians bound for the Sharpstone River mills. She knew, too, that the men behind them with swarthy faces and red handkerchiefs round their necks were Italian laborers for the new railroad cutting; while Miss Eslin, who looked upon all New Englanders as descended from the Pilgrim Fathers, must have thought, if she had had time to consider the matter, that they had greatly changed from their ancestral stock.

While Miss Eslin hesitated, Charlotte went on talking and laughing, a merry laugh though not a loud one, which brought out the dimples round a pretty little mouth. Also, plainly as she was dressed, there was a neatness and suitability in her whole costume that pleased Miss Eslin’s travelled eye. At last, weighing her words carefully, the governess spoke.

“ Miss Gassett had better not take the trouble of changing her seat now, thank you. We will meet your sister at the end of the journey. But you must not stand ; pray sit down. Why doesn’t the guard come through the carriage again I want to ask him — ”

“ I can tell you everything about the road you want to know,” said Charlotte amiably ; “ we’ve been over it so many times.”

There was little for her to point out at the moment. The lake was passed and the train was now going through a wild tract of stunted trees and undergrowth.

“Where are we.?^ ” asked Miss Eslin patiently.

“ In Crossbrook ; we’re just coming to Nomono.”

“ Then we are in the right county, — state, I should say.? ”

“ You’re in the State of Massachusetts,” said Charlotte proudly.

“ I always thought,” said Miss Eslin doubtfully, “ that Massachusetts was a populous and cultivated country.”

“ Oh,” said Charlotte, unheeding the disapproval in the tone, “ railroads always do go through queer places, but you’ll like it when you get to Nomono. I’ve travelled a great deal, and I think it’s the nicest place in the world.”

“How far does this beautiful forest extend.?” asked Miss Eslin, trying to speak in a cheerful tone. Before she had left England she had been warned by her only acquaintance who had ever been in “ The States ” that Americans could not bear the slightest criticism of their scenery, political institutions or social habits.

“ It just goes a little round the edges of the town, and there aren’t any Indians in it now.”

“ Indians, natives, you mean? ”

“ Yes,” said Charlotte cheerfully ; “ you know Nomono is famous for its Indian history. We’ll show you Slaughter Hill, where the Indians were killed. They wanted to change the name to ‘ Crystal Rock,’ because crystals are found there sometimes, but Uncle Jonathan wouldn’t let them. He said it would spoil the historical association. It happened in 1703. Four hundred Indians, with French Canadians, you know, came on a cold winter night and overpowered the English settlers at the old garrison house, but they were captured in their turn when they got to the hill by Major Adoniram Huckins with his Rangers, or whatever they were called, who marched over from Crossbrook. They set all the captives free and scalped seventy-three Indians. Major Huckins did most of them ; he was famous for scalping. You’re descended from him ; haven’t you heard of him, Blanche.? ”

Blanche smiled; and Charlotte, giving her no time for further answer, continued,

“ Now, if you won’t come and sit with us. Erneline, my sister, must come and see you. Emmie, Emmie, here’s Blanche ! ”

Emeline rose from her seat, was hastily introduced, then, as she did not like to stand up so conspicuously in the car, pulled Charlotte back with her. The train whisked out of the woodland into a wide, elm-shaded village street and suddenly stopped at a good sized station. Seeing that their cousin’s party were overladen with hand luggage, Charlotte and Emeline seized all the bags and shawlstraps they could lay their hands on, and all were soon on the platform, where they were greeted by a lady who was on the watch for them. She had a fresh complexion and a fine figure, and her sweet face was young, though her hair was gray.

“ My dear girls, how glad I am to see you ! And this is Blanche.? And you are Miss Eslin.? The carriage is just round the corner. Lottie, dear, I know you and Emmie won’t mind walking, if we take your bags in the carriage.”

“We won’t mind at all. Cousin Kate. Won’t Blanche come with us.? She has been sitting still all day.”

“ Wouldn’t you like to walk with the girls, dear.? ” asked Blanche’s aunt.

“ I think she had better come with us, had she not .? ” said Miss Eslin.

“ Oh, the girls will like to get acquainted,” said Miss Katherine Gassett easily. “ Run off, children, through the field. You’ll find your grandfather waiting for you, Blanche.”

Charlotte gave Blanche a pull, and before Miss Eslin could object further the three girls had run off together.

Chapter II

The Gassett House on the High Street of Nomono might have served as a model of the old-fashioned country seat which contained the “ Old Clock on the Stair,” only that, instead of “ tall poplar trees,” the portico was shaded by a fine group of American elms and maples. The house was not really an old one, but had been well built in the most stately style of Colonial architecture. It was large and roomy and had a wing on each side.

In a cool, airy room and refreshed by a bath. Miss Eslin began to take a more cheerful view of her American surroundings. She had been relieved, too, by her introduction to old Mr. Gassett. She did not know exactly what she had expected an aged American millionaire to be like, but she had been agreeably disappointed to find that he looked something like the ideal of an old-fashioned English country squire, hale and hearty in spite of his years, his only infirmity appearing to be a decided deafness.

If it were not for the two young cousins. Miss Eslin really thought that her situation might be 11 quite a pleasant one, but here were these two girls over whom she had no authority and who were apparently allowed to do exactly as they pleased. They were nice looking girls and perhaps she could interest them in study or music. She was ready to give them some help in languages, which perhaps their aunt would appreciate if they did not. So Miss Eslin ordered Lowe, the maid, to put on Miss Gassett’s white muslin, and descended with her charge to a meal which might have been called a “ high tea,” suppressing her surprise that the family were in the habit of taking that unheard of meal, a midday dinner.

“ Blanche,” said Charlotte, in a tone which showed that the girls had become pretty well acquainted in their walk together, “ I shall be jealous of you, because you’re going to sit next to Uncle Jonathan and that’s always been my place. He doesn’t like an ear trumpet. You must scream to him and tell him what everybody says, or he’ll miss me terribly. Won’t you miss me. Uncle J onathan ? ”

“No, I shan’t, Lottie, dear,” responded her uncle, with a twinkle of the eyes under his bushy gray brows ; “ I can hear you perfectly well across the table.”

Not at all put out by this plain speaking, Charlotte sat down in her new place between her cousin Kate and Miss Eslin, who was placed at her host’s left hand. After the first general formalities, Mr. Gassett devoted himself to his granddaughter, of whom he had heard all her life, but had never seen, and who had been brought across the ocean solely for his benefit, as since his deafness had developed he had not cared to travel.

Blanche’s father, the oldest son of the family, had lived for some years in England for business reasons, and though he had made occasional flying trips to his native country he had never yet been able to bring his daughter with him. After her mother’s death, and even after her father’s second marriage, Blanche had been under the care of her English aunt. Lady Dorwych. This Lady Dorwych appeared to be a formidable personage. She it was who had opposed one obstacle after another to her niece’s visit to America. Once Blanche had just had the measles and it would not be safe for her to travel ; at another time her aunt wished her to have the advantages of a foreign tour with her cousin. Lady Dorwych’s own daughter, which her ladyship seemed to think would of course take the precedence of a trip to “ The States ” ; then it was not convenient for her father to bring her. But at last the elder Mr. Gassett would bear no more delay; Blanche must come, with or without her father.

And now here was Blanche, as pretty as a picture, the model of a sweet rosebud-like English girl. Nothing could be nicer and more respectful than her manner to her grandfather, though she did not address him as “ sir,” as her cousins did. When she saw that it was difficult for him

14 * to hear her, she raised her voice, coloring prettily as she made the effort. But nothing could be less satisfactory than the information she had to give. She answered every question in her pretty voice in such a final manner that one subject did not lead to another. The sum of her information was that her father was well. She didn’t know how soon he could come to America. Her mother, as she very properly called her step-mother, was well, too. With her two little half-brothers she hardly seemed to be acquainted; their photographs that she had brought with her were not yet unpacked, and there were none of the baby anecdotes for which the grandfather eagerly sought. Little John (he had been named for both father and grandfather, though Mr. Gassett had particularly requested that he should not bear through life the name of Jonathan) was well and sturdy. Wilfrid was a still larger and finer boy. Did they know anything about their grandfather in America Blanche confessed that she didn’t know.

Miss Eslin was at first almost equally uncommunicative. Beyond the fact that she had been “ really quite ill ” on the voyage, little could be got out of her experiences. The truth was that she was anxiously afraid of doing the wrong thing, and perceived that she had already made a mistake in being overdressed. As her charge’s companion she had expected to attend her at every meal, but was it for this that she had taken all the trouble of carrying a low-necked light silk gown in a suit case? She was sure that all Americans dressed a great deal, and had supposed that for a late meal full dress would be required, and here was Miss Gassett in a high necked lilac muslin, both pretty and becoming, it was true, but somewhat faded and cut in the fashion of a few years back. Charlotte and Emeline had merely put on pretty white blouses with their plain white linen skirts. Miss Eslin wished that she could hide a necklace of rhinestones which she had been so deluded as to wear, but as the meal progressed she tried to take heart and think of something to say.

“ You must go round with the girls and see all the pretty places in town,” said Mr. Gassett, as a last effort to make his granddaughter talk. “ Some time they can take you up Crystal Rock to see the sun set.”

“ Slaughter Hill, Uncle Jonathan, Slaughter Hill ! ” shouted Charlotte.

“ What ? Oh, we won’t give anything in our town such a bad name just at first.”

“ I think Slaughter Hill is a lovely name,” said Charlotte, “ a great deal better anyway than ‘ Rattlesnake Mountain,’ as the boys call it.”

“ There are no rattlesnakes there now, if there ever were,” said Miss Katherine.

“ Rattlesnakes, they are venomous reptiles, are they not? ” asked Miss Eslin, with the air of one in quest of useful information.

“ Oh, yes ; they kill you if you don’t drink a bottle of whiskey right off,” said Charlotte, while

Mr. Gassett was asking Miss Eslin to repeat her question. “ Last time we all went up the hill, Blanche, Roger Collamore had a rattle he kept rattling all the time to scare us.”

“ What a nasty little boy ! ” exclaimed Miss Eslin, in a tone of forced sociability. But she feared she had made another mistake when she saw that Miss Katherine and Emeline smiled, while Charlotte laughed outright.

“ What is it, Lottie.?^ ” asked her uncle, who had found his evening meal not as lively an occasion as usual.

Cousin Kate shook her head, and Charlotte, who appeared to be intensely amused, gulped down something with her chocolate ; while, what puzzled Miss Eslin more than anything else, her own pupil, Blanche, smiled in answer to her cousins,. Perhaps Miss Gassett had not approved of the word “ nasty,” and, afraid of any more ventures in conversation. Miss Eslin relapsed into a silence so depressing that Miss Kate was glad to adjourn the company to the wide piazza. There Miss Eslin hoped her pupil would take refuge by her side, but as they left the table Blanche was drawn to the other girls as naturally as iron to a magnet.

Mr. Gassett retreated into the house, to an armchair in his study and the evening paper, and his daughter was left to a tete-a-tete with Miss Eslin. Miss Gassett wanted to be friendly and perhaps apologize for the laughter of which her guest had been the cause, but she hardly knew how to begin and was much relieved when a brisk looking little lady with dark eyes and hair, and a dress so extremely plain that Miss Eslin would have called it a morning gown, walked up the path towards the piazza. Charlotte and Emeline were apparently as glad to see her as their cousin was, and she was soon introduced to the strangers as “ Miss Marvin.” Miss Marvin first went into the house, where she chatted a little with Mr. Gassett in a peculiarly distinct but pleasant voice. She then inspected Blanche and remarked, as Charlotte had before on the train, on the real resemblance that the girl bore to her grandfather. She greeted Miss Eslin in a friendly manner, with a sort of camaraderie implying that she and the stranger had some interest in common, a manner that even Miss Eslin seemed to feel. She explained that she was so anxious to welcome the newcomers she couldn’t help coming in when she saw the family on the piazza, but she couldn’t stay.

“ You’re not working now surely, when school is over,” said Miss Kate.

Oh, no, I finished my work for the year yesterday, but I promised Roger Collamore I’d give him a lesson in Greek every evening. The poor boy must pass off his condition.”

“We heard he had two conditions this year,” said Miss Kate sadly.

“ Yes,” said Miss Marvin, “ Greek and mathematics. He had better have kept to fancy courses, but his father wanted him to take Greek. I teach in our High School,” she explained to Miss Eslin. “ We grow interested in our boys and girls, you know, and Roger Collamore is a valuable boy.”

“ Do you — do you have male pupils ? ” asked Miss Eslin doubtfully. “ Is it like an endowed school ”

“ No,” said Miss Marvin, “ it is a public school, what you would call a National School, I suppose. All the town boys and girls go to it. Charlotte and Emeline went for a while before they went to Boston. But Roger Collamore graduated three years ago. He is in Harvard now, and it is very important that he should stay there.”

“ Poor boy,” said Miss Kate, “ it must have been so hard for him to lose the race, too ! ”

There was a general groan.

“ O Miss Hope,” exclaimed Charlotte, “ is Roger going to your house.? Ask him to come here, won’t you, on his way home.? He ought to call on Blanche and he might just as well come now as any other time.”

Cousin Kate wished she had some hidden machinery with which she could repress Charlotte. She didn’t wonder at Miss Eslin’s amazement. Charlotte saw it too, but like most things in life Miss Eslin’s expression affected her ludicrously and she could hardly keep from laughing.

Miss Marvin rose to take her leave, promising

Miss Eslin that she would make a more formal call some afternoon. Miss Kate could not but be pleased by hearing Miss Eslin ask Blanche if she wasn’t tired and wouldn’t like to go upstairs. Blanche thanked her, but wasn’t at all tired.

“ You mustn’t go to bed now! ” exclaimed Charlotte ; “ why, Roger Collamore is coming to call on you.”

“ That’s no matter,” interposed Cousin Kate hastily ; “ there’ll be plenty of chances for him to come later.”

“ I should think he ought to go to bed after his lesson,” said Miss Eslin. She seemed to be keeping back something more; indeed she felt a very proper disapproval of what she supposed to be the American habit of schoolboys making evening calls.

“ Wouldn’t you like to go upstairs yourself. Miss Eslin.f^ ” asked Miss Kate. “Let me come with you and see if your room is comfortable.”

Miss Eslin, however, insisted on staying up, declaring that she was not so tired after all.

“ What does she mean to do,” thought poor Aunt Kate ; “ watch Blanche every moment as if she were a babe in arms.^^ ”

An hour passed which would have been a weary time to Aunt Kate and Emeline had it not been for Charlotte’s happy faculty of talking in every possible situation. She ran cheerfully on about California and New England, travelling in general and what was to be seen in Nomono, till at last Blanche consented to go upstairs and went to wish her grandfather good night.

“ Why, here’s Roger ! ” exclaimed Charlotte, slipping out on to the porch with Emeline. “Rod, how awfully glad I am to see you! We won’t talk about that dreadful race. You’re just in time to see Blanche before she goes to bed.”

“ Oh, don’t bother her now,” said Roger modestly. “ I’ll be coming again.”

“ But you must see her, she’s expecting you soon. Do you know, Emmie and I met her on the train with her governess. Miss Eslin, and her maid, Something-or-other Lowe — ‘ Lowe,’ they call her.'’ Isn’t it dreadful to call a woman such a name.? I thought she was the governess at first, or I pretended I did. Really, she’s nicer looking than Miss Eslin.”

Roger showed that he was not too depressed with ill fortune by being amused by this simple account.

“ But I think,” interposed Emeline, “ that Miss Eslin is quite pretty. She has lovely eyes.”

“ Yes, but she looks so queer. In the train she was dressed as if she was going to Nova Zembla, and now, just think! she has a low necked dress on with a diamond necklace, only I know they are just rhinestones.”

“ And does Blanche have a governess with a diamond necklace, and a maid (in uniform, I suppose) after her all the time.? ” asked Roger.

“ Roger ! ” called Mr. Gassett from the house, with his strong, unmodulated voice, “ are you out there ? Come right in here ! ”

Roger rose, stepped in through the long window and advanced to Mr. Gassett’s chair, carefully avoiding as he went any contact with a lowhung crystal chandelier.

“ This is Mr. Roger Collamore, Miss Eslin,” said Miss Katherine. “ This is Roger, Blanche.”

Charlotte, who was behind, disappeared on to the piazza for another laugh. Miss Eslin’s countenance as Roger bowed might have upset the gravity of a person less inclined to hilarity than was Charlotte. Had the lady really expected a little boy in short trousers and an Eton jacket.? Roger Collamore was six feet two and well proportioned for his height.

“ Roger,” said Mr. Gassett, ‘‘ tell me about this race you lost. How was it.? ”

“ I guess it was because they had me on board, sir.”

“ Well, but was it true, as they had it in the papers — ”