CHAPTER V.
THE USUAL SORT OF SCRAPE.
On the following evening Loftus Bertram made his appearance at RosendaleManor. Catherine and Mabel were both waiting for him under the shade ofthe great oak tree which commanded a view of the gate. His train was dueat Northbury at seven o'clock. He was to come by express from London,and the girls concluded that the express would not be more than fiveminutes late. Allowing for this, and allowing also for the probabilitythat Loftus would be extremely discontented with the style of hackneycoach which alone would await him at the little station and might inconsequence prefer to walk to the Manor, the girls calculated he mightput in an appearance on the scene at about twenty minutes past seven.They had arranged to have dinner at a quarter to eight, and sat side byside now, looking a little forlorn in the frocks they had grown out of,and a little lonely, like half-fledged chicks, without their mother'saugust protection.
"Loftie will wonder," said Mabel, "at mother going off to Manchester insuch a hurry."
It was the cook who had told Mabel about Manchester, Clara havinginformed her.
"There's Loftus!" suddenly exclaimed Catherine. "I knew he'd walk. Isaid so. There's the old shandrydan crawling after him with the luggage.Come, Mabel. Let's fly to meet the dear old boy."
She was off and away herself before Mabel had time to scramble to herfeet. Her running was swift as a fawn's--in an instant she had reachedher brother--threw herself panting with laughter and joy against him,and flung one arm round his neck.
"Here you are!" she said, her words coming out in gasps. "Isn't itjolly? Such a fresh old place! Lots of strawberries--glad you'll see itin the long days--give me a kiss, Loftie--I'm hungry for a kiss!"
"You're as wild an imp as ever," said Loftus, pinching her cheek, butstooping and kissing her, nevertheless, with decided affection. "Why didyou put yourself out of breath, Kitty? Catch May setting her preciouslittle heart a-beating too fast for any fellow! Ah, here you come, lazyMabel. Where is the mater? In the house, I suppose? I say, Kate, what ahole you have pitched upon for living in? I positively couldn't ridedown upon the thing they offered me at the station. It wasn't even_clean_. Look at it, my dear girls! It holds my respectablebelongings, and not me. It's the scarecrow or ghost of the ordinarystation-fly. Could you have imagined the station-fly could have aghost?"
"No," retorted Mabel, "being so scarecrowy and ghost-like already.Please, driver, take Captain Bertram's things up to the house. He heardyou speak, Loftie. These Northbury people are as touchy as if they weresomebodies. Oh, Loftus, you will be disappointed. Mother has gone toManchester."
"To Manchester?" retorted Loftus. "My mother away from home! Did sheknow that I was coming?"
"Yes," answered Kate, "I told her about your letter last night."
"Did you show her my letter?"
"No."
"Why didn't you? If she had read it she wouldn't have gone. I said I wasin a scrape. I was coming down on purpose to see the mater. You mighthave sent me a wire to say she would not be at home, or you might havekept her at home by showing her my letter. You certainly did not actwith discretion."
"I said you'd begin to scold the minute you came here, Loftie," remarkedMabel. "It's a way you have. I told Kitty so. See, you have made poorKitty quite grave."
Loftus Bertram was a tall, slim, young fellow. He was well-made,athletic, and neat in appearance, and had that upright carriage andbearing which is most approved of in her Majesty's army. His face wasthin and dark; he had a look of Kate, but his eyes were neither so largenor so full; his mouth was weak, not firm, and his expression wanted theopenness which characterized Catherine's features.
He was a selfish man, but he was not unkind or ill-natured. The newswhich the girls gave him of their mother's absence undoubtedly worriedand annoyed him a good deal, but like most people who are popular, andLoftus Bertram was undoubtedly very popular, he had the power ofinstantly adapting himself to the exigencies of the moment.
He laughed lightly, therefore, at Mabel's words, put his arm round hisyounger sister's unformed waist, and said, in a gay voice:
"I won't scold either of you any more until I have had something toeat."
"We live very quietly at the Manor," remarked Mabel, "Mother wants tosave, you know. She says we must keep up our refinement at any cost, butour meals are very--" she glanced with a gay laugh at Catherine.
"Oh, by Jove! I hope you don't stint in the matter of food," exclaimedthe brother. "You'll have to drop it while I'm here, I can tell you. Ithought the mater would be up to some little game of this kind when sheburied you alive in such an out-of-the-way corner. She makes a greatmistake though, and so I shall tell her. Young girls of your age oughtto be fed up. You'll develop properly then, you won't otherwise. That'sthe new dodge. All the doctors go upon it. Feed up the young to anyextent, and they'll pay for it by-and-bye. Plenty of good English beefand mutton. What's the matter, Kate? What are you laughing in thatimmoderate manner for?"
"Oh, nothing, Loftie. I may laugh, I suppose, without saying why. I wishyou would not put on that killing air, though. And you know perfectlythere is no use in laying down the law in mother's house."
The three young people were now standing in the hall, and Clara trippedtimidly forward.
"We want dinner as quickly as possible, Clara," said Mabel. "Come,Loftus, let us take you to your room."
That night the choicely served repast was less meagre than usual. Callerherring graced the board in abundance, and even Loftus did not despisethese, when really fresh and cooked to perfection. The hash of NewZealand mutton, however, which followed, was not so much to thisfastidious young officer's taste, but quantities of fine strawberries,supplemented by a jug of rich cream, put him once more into a goodhumor. He did not know that Kate had spent one of her very scarcesixpences on the cream, and that the girls had walked a mile-and-a-halfthrough the hot sun that morning to fetch it.
The decanters of wine did not only do duty as ornaments that evening,and as the black coffee which followed was quite to Loftus' taste, heforgot the New Zealand mutton, or, at least, determined not to speak onthe subject before the next morning.
After Mabel went to bed that night Kate asked her brother what the freshscrape was about. He was really in an excellent humor then; theseclusion and almost romance of the old place soothed his nerves, whichwere somewhat jaded with the rush and tear of a life not lived tooworthily. He and Kitty were strolling up and down in the moonlight, andwhen she asked her question and looked up at him with her fine,intelligent, sympathetic face, he pulled her little ear affectionately,and pushed back the tendrils of soft, dark hair from her brow.
"The usual thing, Kitty," he responded. "I'm in the usual sort ofscrape."
"Money?" asked Catherine.
"Confound the thing, yes. Why was money invented? It's the plague ofone's life, Catherine. If there was no money there'd be no crime."
"Nonsense," answered Catherine, with shrewdness. "If there wasn't moneythere would be its equivalent in some form or other. Are you in debtagain, Loftie?"
"How can I help it? I can't live on my pittance."
"But mother gives you three hundred a year."
"Yes--such a lot! You girls think that a fine sum, I suppose! That's allyou know. Three hundred! It's a pittance. No fellow has a right to gointo the army with such small private means."
"But, Loftie, you would not accept Uncle Roderick Macleod's offer. Hewrote so often, and said he could help you if you joined him in India."
"Yes, I knew what that meant. Now, look here, Kate. We needn't rake upthe past. My lot in life is fixed. I like my profession, but I can't beexpected to care for the beggary which accompanies it. I'm in a scrape,and I want to see the mater."
"Poor mother! I _wish_ you weren't going to worry her, Loftie."
"It doesn't worry a mother to help her only son."
"But she has helped you so often. You know it was on account of you thatwe came down here, because mother had given you so much,
and it was theonly way left to us to save. It wasn't at all a good thing for Mabel andme, for we had to leave our education unfinished. But mother thought itbest. What's the matter, Loftie?"
"Only if you're going on in this strain I'm off to bed. It is hard on afellow when he comes once in a while to see his sisters to be calledover the coals by them. You know I'm awfully fond of you, Kitty, andsomehow I thought you'd be a comfort to me. You know very little indeedof the real worries of life."
Loftus spoke in a tone of such feeling that Catherine's warm heart wasinstantly touched.
"I won't say any more," she answered. "I know it isn't right of me. Ialways wished and longed to be a help to you, Loftie."
"So you can. You are a dear little sis when you like. You're worthtwenty of May. I think you are going to be a very handsome girl, Kate,and if you are only fed up properly, and dressed properly, so that thebest points of your figure can be seen--well--now what's the matter?"
"Only I won't have you talking of me as if I were going to be put up toauction."
"So you will be when you go to London. All girls are. The mothers arethe auctioneers, and the young fellows come round and bid. Goodgracious, what a thunder-cloud! What flashing eyes! You'll see what afamous auctioneer mother will make! What is the matter, Kitty?"
"Nothing. Good-night. I'm going to bed."
"Come back and kiss me first. Poor little Kit! Dear, handsome,fiery-spirited little Kit! I say though, _what_ a shabby frockyou've got on!"
"Oh, don't worry me, Loftie! Any dress will do in the country."
"Right, most prudent Catherine. By the way, when did you say motherwould come back?"
"Perhaps on Monday."
"What did she go to Manchester for?"
"I can't tell you."
"Well, I trust she will be back on Monday evening, for I am due at theDepot on Tuesday. Lucky for me I got a week's leave, but I didn't meanto see it out. It will be uncommonly awkward if I cannot get hold of themater between now and Tuesday, Kate."
"Loftus--_are_ you going to ask her to give you much money?"
"My dear child, you would think the sum I want enormous, but it isn'treally. Most fellows would consider it a trifle. And I don't want herreally to give it, Kate, only to lend it. That's altogether a differentmatter, isn't it? Of course I could borrow it elsewhere, but it seems apity to pay a lot of interest when one's mother can put one straight."
"I don't know how you are to pay the money back, Loftus."
Loftus laughed.
"There are ways and means," he said. "Am I going to take all the bloomoff that young cheek by letting its owner into the secrets of VanityFair? Come Kitty, go to bed, and don't fret about me, I'll managesomehow."
"Loftus, how much money do you want mother to lend you?"
"What a persistent child you are. You positively look frightened. Well,three fifty will do for the present. That oughtn't to stump anyone,ought it?"
"I suppose not," answered Kate, in a bewildered way.
She put her hand to her forehead, bade her brother good-night, andsought her room.
"Three hundred and fifty pounds!" she murmured. "And mother won't buyherrings more than eightpence a dozen! And we scarcely eat any meat, andlately we have begun even to save the bread. Three hundred and fiftypounds! Well, I won't tell Mabel. Does Mabel really know the worldbetter than I do, and is it wrong of me in spite of everything to loveLoftus?"