Betty Vivian: A Story of Haddo Court School Page 4

  CHAPTER IV

  RECEPTION AT HADDO COURT

  Having made up her mind to receive the Vivian girls, Mrs. Haddo arrangedmatters quite calmly and to her entire satisfaction. There was no fussor commotion of any kind; and when Sir John appeared on the followingmorning, with the six deal boxes and the three girls dressed in theircoarse Highland garments, they were all received immediately in Mrs.Haddo's private sitting-room.

  "I have brought the girls, Mrs. Haddo," said Sir John. "This is Betty.Come forward, my dear, and shake hands with your new mistress."

  "How old are you?" asked Mrs. Haddo.

  "I was sixteen my last birthday, and that was six months ago, and onefortnight and three days," replied Betty in a very distinct voice,holding herself bolt upright, and looking with those strange eyes fullinto Mrs. Haddo's face. She spoke with extreme defiance. But shesuddenly met a rebuff--a kind of rebuff that she did not expect; forMrs. Haddo's eyes looked back at her with such a world of love,sympathy, and understanding that the girl felt that choking in herthroat and that bursting sensation in her heart which she dreaded morethan anything else. She instantly lowered her brilliant eyes and stoodback, waiting for her sisters to speak.

  Sylvia came up a little pertly. "Hetty and I are twins," she said, "andwe'll be fifteen our next birthday; but that's not for a long time yet."

  "Well, my dears, I am glad to welcome you all three, and I hope you willhave a happy time in my school. I will not trouble you with rules oranything irksome of that sort to-day. You will like to see your cousin,Fanny Crawford. She is busy at lessons now; so I would first of allsuggest that you go to your room, and change your dress, and get tidyafter your journey. You have come here nice and early; and in honor ofyour arrival I will give, what is my invariable custom, a half-holidayto the upper school, so that you may get to know your companions."

  "Ask Miss Symes to be good enough to come here," said Betty, but Bettywould not raise her eyes. She was standing very still, her hands lockedtightly together. Mrs. Haddo walked to the bell and rang it. A servantappeared.

  "Ask Miss Symes to be good enough to come here," said Mrs. Haddo.

  The English governess with the charming, noble face presently appeared.

  "Miss Symes," said Mrs. Haddo, "may I introduce you to Sir JohnCrawford?"

  Sir John bowed, and the governess bent her head gracefully.

  "And these are your new pupils, the Vivians. This is Betty, and thislittle girl is Sylvia. Am I not right, dear?"

  "No; I am Hester," said the girl addressed as Sylvia.

  "This is Hetty, then; and this is Sylvia. Will you take them to theirroom and do what you can for their comfort? If they like to stay therefor a little they can do so. I will speak to you presently, if you willcome to me here."

  The girls and Miss Symes left the presence of the head mistress. Themoment they had done so Mrs. Haddo gave a quick sigh. "My dear SirJohn," she said, "what remarkable, and interesting, and difficult, andalmost impossible girls you have intrusted to my care!"

  "I own they are not like others," said Sir John; "but you have admittedthey are interesting."

  "Yes," said Mrs. Haddo, speaking slowly. "I shall manage them yet. Theeldest girl, Betty, is wonderful. What a heart! what a soul! but, oh,very hard to get at!"

  "I thought, perhaps," said Sir John, fidgeting slightly, "that you wouldobject to the rough way they are clothed. I really don't like it myself;at least, I don't think it's quite the fashion."

  "Their clothes do not matter at all, Sir John."

  "But the less remarkable they look the better they will get on in theschool," persisted Sir John; "so, of course, you will get what isnecessary."

  "Naturally, Miss Symes and I will see to that."

  "They led a very rough life in the country," continued Sir John, "andyet it was a pure and healthy life--out all day long on those greatmoors, and with no one to keep them company except a faithful oldservant of Miss Vivian's and his wife. They made pets of dogs andhorses, and were happy after their fashion. You will do what you can forthem, will you not, Mrs. Haddo?"

  "Having accepted them into my school, I will do my utmost. I do not mindsimple manners, for the noblest natures are to be found among suchpeople; nor do I mind rough, ungainly clothing, for that, indeed, onlybelongs to the outward girl and can quickly be remedied. I will keepthese girls, and do all that woman can for them, provided I see nodeceit in any of them; but that, you will clearly understand, Sir John,is in my opinion an unpardonable sin."

  "Do they look like girls who would deceive any one?" was Sir John'srejoinder.

  "I grant you they do not. Now, you must be very busy, so you must castthe girls from your mind. You would like to see Fanny. I know she isdying to have a talk with you."

  Meanwhile Miss Symes had conducted the girls upstairs. The room theyentered was much grander than any room they had ever seen before. It waslarge--one of the largest bedrooms in the great house. It had threenoble windows which reached from floor to ceiling, and were of Frenchstyle, so that they could be opened wide in summer weather to admit thesoft, warm air. There was a great balcony outside the windows, where thegirls could sit when they chose. The room itself was called the blueroom; the reason of this was that the color on the walls was pale blue,whereas the paint was white. The three little beds stood in a row, sideby side. There was a very large wardrobe exactly facing the beds, also achest of large drawers for each girl, while the carpet was blue to matchthe walls. A bright fire was burning in the cheerful, new-fashionedgrate. Altogether, it would have been difficult to find a more charmingapartment than the blue room at Haddo Court.

  "Are we to sleep here?" asked Betty.

  "Yes, my dear child. These are your little beds; and Anderson, theschoolroom maid, will unpack your trunks presently. I see they have beenbrought up."

  Miss Symes slightly started, for the six wooden trunks, fastened bytheir coarse ropes, were standing side by side in another part of theroom.

  "Why do you look at our trunks like that?" asked Sylvia, who was notspecially shy, and was quick to express her feelings.

  But Betty came to the rescue. "Never mind how she looks," remarkedBetty; "she can look as she likes. What does it matter to us?"

  This speech was so very different from the ordinary speech of theordinary girl who came to Haddo Court that Miss Symes was nonplussed fora moment. She quickly, however, recovered her equanimity.

  "Now, my dears, you must make yourselves quite at home. You must not beshy, or lonely, or unhappy. You must enter--which I hope you will dovery quick--into the life of this most delightful house. We are allwilling and anxious to make you happy. As to your trunks, they will beunpacked and put away in one of the attics."

  "I wish we could sleep in an attic," said Betty then in a fierce voice."I hate company-rooms."

  "There is no attic available, my dear; and this, you must admit, is anice room."

  "I admit nothing," said Betty.

  "I think it's a nice room," said Hester; "only, of course, we are notaccustomed to it, and that great fire is so chokingly hot. May we openall the windows?"

  "Certainly, dears, provided you don't catch cold."

  "Catch cold!" said Sylvia in a voice of scorn. "If you had ever livedon a Scotch moor you wouldn't talk of catching cold in a stuffy littlehole of a place like this."

  Miss Symes had an excellent temper, but she found it a trifle difficultto keep it under control at that moment. "I must ask you for the keys ofyour trunks," she said; "for while we are at dinner, which will be inabout an hour's time, Anderson will unpack them."

  "Thanks," said Betty, "but we'd much rather unpack our own trunks."

  Miss Symes was silent for a minute. "In this house, dear, it is not thecustom," she said then. She spoke very gently. She was puzzled at thegeneral appearance, speech, and get-up of the new girls.

  "And we can, of course, keep our own keys," continued Betty, speakingrapidly, her very pale face glowing with a faint tinge of color;"because M
rs.----What is the name of the mistress?"

  "Mrs. Haddo," said Miss Symes in a tone of great respect.

  "Well, whatever her name is, she said we were to be restricted by norules to-day. She said so, didn't she, Sylvia? Didn't she, Hetty?"

  "She certainly did," replied the twins.

  "Then, if it's a rule for the trunks to be unpacked by some one else, itdoesn't apply to us to-day," said Betty. "If you will be so very kind,Miss----"

  "Symes is my name."

  "So very kind, Miss Symes, as to go away and leave us, we'll begin tounpack our own trunks and put everything away by dinner-time."

  "Very well," said Miss Symes quite meekly. "Is there anything else I cando for your comfort?"

  "Yes," remarked Sylvia in a pert tone; "you can go away."

  Miss Symes left the room. When she did so the two younger girls lookedat their elder sister. Betty's face was very white, and her chest wasworking ominously.

  Sylvia went up to her and gave her a sudden, violent slap between theshoulders. "Now, don't begin!" she said. "If you do, they'll all comeround us. It isn't as if we could rush away to the middle of the moors,and you could go on with it as long as you liked. Here, if you howl,you'll catch it; for they'll stand over you, and perhaps fling water onyour head."

  "Leave me alone, then, for a minute," said Betty. She flung herself flaton the ground, face downwards, her hair falling about her shoulders. Shelay as still as though she were carved in stone. The twin girls watchedher for a minute. Then very softly and carefully Sylvia approached theprone figure, pushed her hand into Betty's pocket (a very coarse,ordinary pocket it was, put in at the side of her dress by Jean's ownfingers), and took out a bunch of keys.

  Sylvia held up the keys with a glad smile. "Now let's begin," she said."It's an odious, grandified room, and Betty'll go mad here; but we can'thelp it--at least, for a bit. And there's always the packet."

  At these words, to the great relief of her younger sisters, Betty stoodupright. "There's always the packet," she said. "Now let's begin tounpack."

  Notwithstanding the fact that there were six deal trunks--six trunks ofthe plainest make, corded with the coarsest rope--there was very littleinside them, at least as far as an ordinary girl's wardrobe isconcerned; for Miss Frances Vivian had been very poor, and during thelast year of her life had lived at Craigie Muir in the strictesteconomy. She was, moreover, too ill to be greatly troubled about thegirls' clothing; and by and by, as her illness progressed, she left thematter altogether to Jean. Jean was to supply what garments the youngladies required, and Jean set about the work with a right good will. Sothe coarsest petticoats, the most clumsy stockings, the ugliest jacketsand blouses and skirts imaginable, presently appeared out of the littlewooden trunks.

  The girls sorted them eagerly, putting them pell-mell into the drawerswithout the slightest attempt at any sort of order. But if there werevery few clothes in the trunks, there were all sorts of other things.There were boxes full of caterpillars in different stages of chrysalisform. There was also a glass box which contained an enormous spider.This was Sylvia's special property. She called the spider Dickie, andadored it. She would not give it flies, which she considered cruel, butused to keep it alive on morsels of raw meat. Every day, for a quarterof an hour, Dickie was allowed to take exercise on a flat stone on theedge of the moor. It was quite against even Jean Macfarlane's advicethat Dickie was brought to the neighborhood of London. But he was here.He had borne his journey apparently well, and Sylvia looked at him nowwith worshiping eyes.

  In addition to the live stock, which was extensive and varied, therewere also all kinds of strange fossils, and long, trailing pieces ofheather--mementos of the life which the girls lived on the moor, andwhich they had left with such pain and sorrow. They were all busyworshiping Dickie, and envying Sylvia's bravery in bringing the hugespider to Haddo Court, when there came a gentle tap at the door.

  Betty said crossly, "Who's there?"

  A very refined voice answered, "It's I;" and the next minute FannyCrawford entered the room. "How are you all?" she said. Her eyes werered, for she had just said good-bye to her father, and she thoroughlyhated the idea of the girls coming to the school.

  "How are you, Fan?" replied Betty, speaking in a careless tone, justnodding her head, and looking again into the glass box. "He is veryhungry," she continued. "By the way, Fan, will you run down to thekitchen and get a little bit of raw meat?"

  "Will I do what?" asked Fanny.

  "Well, I suppose there is a kitchen in the house, and you can get a bitof raw meat. It's for Dickie."

  "Oh," said Fanny, coming forward on tiptoe and peeping into the box,"you can't keep that terror here--you simply won't be allowed to haveit! Have you _no_ idea what school-life is like?"

  "No," said Betty; "and what is more, I don't want you to tell me. Dickiedarling, I'd let you pinch my finger if it would do you any good.Sylvia, what use are you if you can't feed your own spider? If Fan won'toblige her cousins when she knows the ways of the house, I presume youhave a pair of legs and can use them? Go to the kitchen at once and geta piece of raw meat."

  "I don't know where it is," said Sylvia, looking slightly frightened.

  "Well, you can ask. Go on; ask until you find. Now, be off with you!"

  "You had better not," said Fanny. "Why, you will meet all the girlscoming out of the different classrooms!"

  "What do girls matter," said Betty in a withering voice, "when Dickie ishungry?"

  Sylvia gathered up her courage and departed. Betty laid the glass boxwhich contained the spider on the dressing-table.

  If Fanny had not been slightly afraid of these bold northern cousins ofhers, she would have dashed the box out on the balcony and released poorDickie, giving him back to his natural mode of life. "What queer dressesyou are wearing!" she said. "Do, please, change them before lunch. Youwere not dressed like this when I saw you last. You were neverfashionable, but this stuff----"

  "You'd best not begin, Fan, or I'll howl," said Betty.

  "Hush! do hush, Fanny!" exclaimed Hester. "Don't forget that we are inmourning for darling auntie."

  "But have you really no other dresses?"

  "There's nothing wrong with these," said Hester; "they're quitecomfortable."

  Just at that moment there came peals of laughter proceeding from severalgirls' throats. The room-door was burst open, and Sylvia entered first,her face very red, her eyes bright and defiant, and a tiny piece of rawmeat on a plate in her hand. The girls who followed her did not belongto the Specialities, but they were all girls of the upper school. Fannythanked her stars that they were not particular friends of hers. Theywere choking with laughter, and evidently thought they had never seen sogood a sight in their lives.

  "Oh, this is too delicious!" said Sibyl Ray, a girl who had just beenadmitted into the upper school. "We met this--this young lady, and shesaid she wanted to go to the kitchen to get some raw meat; and when Itold her I didn't know the way she just took my hand and drew me alongwith her, and said, 'If you possessed a Dickie, and he was dying ofhunger, you wouldn't hesitate to find the kitchen.'"

  "Well, I'm not going to interfere," said Fanny; "but I think you knowthe rules of the house, Sibyl, and that no girl is allowed in thekitchen."

  "I didn't go in," said Sibyl; "catch me! But I went to the beginning ofthe corridor which leads to the kitchen. _She_ went in, though, boldlyenough, and she got it. Now, we do want to see who Dickie is. Is he adog, or a monkey, or what?"

  "He's a spider--_goose_!" said Sylvia. "And now, please, get out of theway. He won't eat if you watch him. I've got a good bit of meat, Betty,"she continued. "It'll keep Dickie going for several days, and he likesit all the better when it begins to turn. Don't you Dickie?"

  "If you don't all leave the room, girls," said Fanny, "I shall have toreport to Miss Symes."

  The girls who had entered were rather afraid of Fanny Crawford, andthought it best to obey her instructions. But the news with regard tothe newcomers s
pread wildly all over the house; so much so that when, incourse of time, neat-looking Fanny came down to dinner accompanied byher three cousins, the whole school remained breathless, watching theVivians as they entered. But what magical force is there about certaingirls which raises them above the mere accessories of dress? Could therebe anything uglier than the attire of these so-called Scotch lassies?And was there ever a prouder carriage than that of Betty Vivian, or amore scornful expression in the eye, or a firmer set of the little lips?

  Mrs. Haddo, who always presided at this meal, called the strangers tocome and sit near her; and though the school had great difficulty in notbursting into a giggle, there was not a sound of any sort whatever asthe three obeyed. Fanny sat down near her friend, Susie Rushworth. Hereyes spoke volumes. But Susie was gazing at Betty's face.

  At dinner, the girls were expected to talk French on certain days of theweek, and German on others. This was French day, and Susie murmuredsomething to Fanny in that tongue with regard to Betty's remarkablelittle face. But Fanny was in no mood to be courteous or kind about herrelatives. Susie was quick to perceive this, and therefore left heralone.

  When dinner came to an end, Mrs. Haddo called the three Vivians into herprivate sitting-room. This room was even more elegant than the beautifulbedroom which they had just vacated. "Now, my dears," she said, "I wantto have a talk with you all."

  Sylvia and Hester looked impatient, and shuffled from one ungainly cladfoot to the other; but Mrs. Haddo fixed her eyes on Betty's face, andagain there thrilled through Betty's heart the marvelous sensation thatshe had come across a kindred soul. She was incapable, poor child, ofputting the thought into such words; but she felt it, and it thawed herrebellious spirit.

  Mrs. Haddo sat down. "Now," she said, "you call this school, and, havingnever been at school before, you doubtless think you are going to bevery miserable?"

  "If there's much discipline we shall be," said Hester, "and Betty willhowl."

  "_Don't_ talk like that!" said Betty; and there was a tone in her voicewhich silenced Hetty, to the little girl's own amazement.

  "There will certainly be discipline at school," said Mrs. Haddo, "justas there is discipline in life. What miserable people we should bewithout discipline! Why, we couldn't get on at all. I am not going tolecture you to-day. As a matter of fact, I never lecture; and I neverexpect any young girl to do in my school what I would not endeavor to domyself. Above all things, I wish to impress one thing upon you. If youhave any sort of trouble--and, of course, dears, you will haveplenty--you must come straight to me and tell me about it. This is aprivilege I permit to very few girls, but I grant it to you. I give youthat full privilege for the first month of your stay at Haddo Court. Youare to come to me as you would to a mother, had you, my poor children, amother living."

  "Don't! It makes the lump so bad!" said Betty, clasping her rough littlehand against her white throat.

  "I think I have said enough on that subject for the present. I am verycurious to hear all about your life on the moors--how you spent yourtime, and how you managed your horses and dogs and your numerous pets."

  "Do you really want to hear?" said Betty.

  "Certainly; I have said so."

  "Do you know," said Hetty, "that Sylvia _would_ bring Dickie here.Betty and I were somewhat against it, although he is a darling. He isthe most precious pet in the world, and Sylvia would not part with him.We sent her to the kitchen before dinner to get a bit of raw meat forhim. Would you like to see him?"

  Mrs. Haddo was silent for a minute. Then she said gently, "Yes, verymuch. He is a sort of pet, I suppose?"

  "He is a spider," said Betty--"a great, enormous spider. We captured himwhen he was small, and we fed him--oh, not on little flies--that wouldbe cruel--but on morsels of raw meat. Now he is very big, and he haswicked eyes. I would rather call him Demon than Dickie; but Sylvia namedhim Dickie when he was but a baby thing, so the name has stuck to him.We love him dearly."

  "I will come up to your room presently, and you shall show him to me.Have you brought other pets from the country?"

  "Oh, stones and shells and bits of the moor."

  "Bits of the moor, my dear children!"

  "Yes; we dug pieces up the day before yesterday and wrapped them inpaper, and we want to plant them somewhere here. We thought they wouldcomfort us. We'd like it awfully if you would let one of the dogs come,too. He is a great sheep-dog, and such a darling! His name is Andrew. Ithink Donald Macfarlane would part with him if you said we might havehim."

  "I am afraid I can't just at present, dear; but if you are really goodgirls, and try your very best to please me, you shall go back to DonaldMacfarlane in the holidays, and perhaps I will go with you, and you willshow me all your favorite haunts."

  "Oh, will you?" said Betty. Her eyes grew softer than ever.

  "You are quite a dear for a head mistress," said Sylvia. "We've alwaysread in books that they are such horrors. It is nice for you to say youwill come."

  "Well, now, I want to say something else, and then we'll go up to yourroom and see Dickie. I am going to take you three girls up to townto-morrow to buy you the sort of dresses we wear in this part of theworld. You can put away these most sensible frocks for your next visitto Craigie Muir. Not a word, dears. You have said I am a very nice headmistress, and I hope you will continue to think so. Now, let us come upto your room."