The Rectory Children Part 15

'And have you seen Miss Neale?' asked Mrs. Vane after a little pause.

'She came to see me yesterday, and I think it can be nicely arranged.

She is a very good girl: I feel sure you will be pleased with her. The only difficulty would have been her promise about Celestina, which she would not have liked to give up; but what you have so kindly proposed puts this all right of course. It will be a great pleasure and interest to Celestina to learn with a companion. I feel that I cannot thank you enough.'

'On the contrary,' said Mrs. Vane, 'I have to thank you. I am in hopes that your little daughter's companions.h.i.+p will be of great good to Bridget.'

Mrs. Fairchild's gentle face grew a little red.

'I think I may at least a.s.sure you of this,' she said, 'little Miss Bridget will learn no harm from Celestina.'

'I am sure of it,' said Mrs. Vane warmly. 'By the bye,' she added, 'Celestina is a very uncommon name. I have never heard it except in its French form of "Celestine."'

'Celestina was named after a French lady,' said Mrs. Fairchild--'a lady who was very kind to my sisters and me when we were young. She happened to be living near the town where our home was for some years. Her husband had an appointment there. They had only one child, a daughter named Celestine like her mother, who died, and my mother helped to nurse her in her last illness, which made Madame d'Ermont very fond of her.

Indeed, I think she was very fond of us all,' she added with a little smile, 'and I think I was a special pet of hers. Through her kindness I had many advantages in my education. But when she and Monsieur, as we always called him, went back to France troublous times came on. We lost sight of them altogether. Still, I have never forgotten the dear lady, and I determined to give my little girl her name.'

Mrs. Vane listened with the greatest interest.

'"Madame d'Ermont," did you say?' she asked eagerly, and on Mrs.

Fairchild's answering 'Yes'--'It must be the same,' she went on; 'our Madame d'Ermont's name was Celestine too. She was, or is, for I hope she is still living, a great friend of ours too, Mrs. Fairchild. We spent two winters in the south of France near her home, and we saw a great deal of her. It is a pity for you not to have kept up writing to her; she is very kind and very rich and childless--she might be a good friend to her little name-daughter.'

Mrs. Fairchild's face flushed again: I rather think Biddy had inherited something of her habit of hasty speech from her mother, kind-hearted and good as Mrs. Vane was.

'It would not be from any motive of _that_ kind I should like to hear from Madame d'Ermont again,' said Celestina's mother. 'It is true our child has no one to look to but ourselves, and neither her father nor I can boast of very strong health--but still----'

'Oh, I _beg_ your pardon,' interrupted Mrs. Vane impulsively; 'I quite understand your feeling, and I did not mean to say anything you could dislike. But still I will look out Madame d'Ermont's address, or get it from my mother, and when I write to her I may tell her of you, may I not?'

'I should be very grateful if you would do so,' Mrs. Fairchild replied.

Then they went on to speak of the details of the arrangement they had been making, and soon after Mrs. Vane left.

That afternoon she called Bridget to her.

'Bride,' she said, 'I have something to say to you.'

'Yes, mamma,' Biddy replied, but without giving much attention. It was probably, she thought, only to reprove her for her way of sitting at table, or for having been cross to Jane, or for one of the hundred and one little misdemeanours she was always being guilty of. And Biddy was in a queerish mood just now: there was a good deal of battling and pulling two ways going on in her baby heart. Was the lazy little _soul_ beginning to grow, I wonder?

'Yes, mamma,' she said indifferently, with her peevish 'I didn't mean,'

quite ready to trot out on the smallest provocation.

'You must give your attention, my dear,' said Mrs. Vane; 'it is something rather particular I want to tell you about.'

'I _am_ giving my attention,' said Biddy, though it did not look very like it.

'Well, then,' her mother went on, determined not to notice Bride's evident wish to pick a quarrel, 'listen. You know that Miss Millet cannot come back to us for a good long while. Alie's lessons do not matter so much as yours, for she is very well on for her age and a little rest will do her no harm; besides, she will have some lessons with papa and some with me. But we have not time for you too.'

'And you couldn't manage me if you had,' said Biddy gloomily.

Mrs. Vane took no notice--'And besides, at your age it is most important to be very regular. So I have engaged a daily governess for you, my dear Biddy--that means a governess who will come every morning for three hours, just to teach you. But she won't live in the house with us as Miss Millet does.'

'Won't she take us walks?' demanded Biddy.

'Not every day, for some days she is engaged in the afternoons. But twice a week she will come back in the afternoons and take you a walk and stay to have tea with you. Her name is Miss Neale; she is very nice, though she is younger and--less experienced than Miss Millet.

I hope you will be very good with her, Bride.'

Bride gave herself a little shake.

'No, mamma,' she said. 'I don't want to be naughty, but I can't help it.

I'm sure I shall be very naughty with her.'

Mrs. Vane kept her patience. She looked at Biddy quietly.

'Why, Biddy?' she asked. 'You are old enough to understand that I have taken a good deal of trouble about this for you.'

'I needn't have lessons till Miss Millet comes back; I'd be quite good without. I don't like having lessons quite alone without Alie or n.o.body,' said Biddy.

'Would you like it better if you had some one to learn with you--some one nearer your age than Alie, who would do the very same lessons?'

asked her mother.

Biddy's eyes sparkled.

'I should think I would,' she said, 'but there isn't n.o.body'--then she gave a sort of gasp. 'Oh, if only--if Celestina could do lessons with me,' she exclaimed. 'She knows lots, mamma, all about up at the top of the world, where there isn't _really_ that stick I thought there was, but lots of snow and always light--no, always dark, I forget which. I'll ask her--the old lighthouse man told her. I'm sure she'd help me with my jography, mamma, and she'd teach me to dress dolls and----' Biddy stopped, quite out of breath.

Mrs. Vane smiled; she looked very pleased.

'I am very glad you have thought of it yourself, Biddy,' she said, 'for it is the very thing I have planned. Celestina _is_ going to have lessons with you. Her mother had already settled for Miss Neale to give her lessons, as they don't care about Celestina going to school, so it would not have been fair for Miss Neale to give her up to come to us.

And besides, both papa and I thought it would make our little girl happier to have a companion--eh, Biddy?'

Mrs. Vane had hardly time to finish her sentence before she felt her breath nearly taken away by a pair of fat little arms hugging her so tightly that she could scarcely free her head.

'Mamma, mamma,' cried Biddy, 'I love you, I do really love you now. I never thought I did so much. Oh, I am so glad. Thank you, dear mamma.'

Never in her life had Biddy been so affectionate; never, at least, had she shown her affection so much. Mrs. Vane kissed her warmly.

'I am very pleased too, dear,' she said. 'I do think you will be a good and happy little girl now.'

'I'll try to be good, mamma, I will really. But it would take me a dreadfully long time to be as good as Celestina, I'm afraid.'

CHAPTER IX

A SECRET

'If the sun could tell us half That he hears and sees, Sometimes he would make us laugh, Sometimes make us cry.'

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.