A City Schoolgirl and Her Friends

  CHAPTER XX.

  VAVA ON FRIENDS.

  Both the sitting-rooms at 2 Heather Road were rarely used at the sametime, for Vava learnt her lessons either with Doreen or with Mrs.Morrison in the kitchen, which, the girl declared, was 'the mostcomfortable room in the house,' and which, at any rate, was alwaysspotlessly clean, and had a bright fire burning, and certainly lookedinviting enough with the kindly, gray-haired woman sitting in the woodenarm-chair at the table knitting stockings for her 'young leddies' ormending their clothes. So that Stella would have been alone if she hadnot sat with the two others, who were only too glad to have her, notonly because they both liked her, but because they did not care to beleft alone either.

  It was a sad fact which Amy had come to realise, that Eva no longer madea friend of her, but shut herself up within herself, and only opened outto Mrs. Morrison, and even to her she only spoke about her life beforeshe came to London, since which, she explained, she had only existed.She never spoke of the present time.

  As for Vava, she avoided Eva's society rather than sought it. Stellaallowed her to be as much with Doreen as she liked, and she tookadvantage of the permission not only to do her lessons with her, but toinvite her to learn knitting or hear tales of the Highlands from Mrs.Morrison, when, if she liked, Eva was free to join them, and waswelcomed.

  This seemed quite natural; but when Vava had spent two or three wholeSaturdays with Doreen, for she did not often go to the City on that daynow, Stella woke up to the fact that Eva was rather out of it. She andAmy were great friends, and though they always invited Eva to come withthem on their outings, they knew that she felt it dull, for theirconversation was all of books which Eva had never read. So Stella tookVava to task.

  'How is it you never go out with Eva, Vava? She has two or three timeshad to go for a walk by herself, because you were busy, so she said, andthen you go off a little later with Doreen!' she protested.

  'Of course I go with Doreen; she is in my class, and we do everythingtogether, and I have more to say to her,' said Vava.

  'But that is rather selfish; Eva is living in the same house with you,and yet you take no notice of her except at meal-times, and the poorgirl is lonely,' expostulated Stella.

  'She can go out with you and Amy. Amy was her friend before she came tolive with us, why shouldn't she be friends with her still?' argued Vava.

  'I am afraid I have rather taken possession of Amy; but I thought as youtwo were much of an age you would fraternise, and I find Amy's societyvery congenial,' said Stella.

  'And so do I find Doreen's society very congenial, and you can't befriends with people just because it is convenient; but I don't mindasking her to come with Doreen and me next Saturday,' replied Vava.

  Fortunately Eva did not hear this condescending remark, and accepted theinvitation, and the three went botanising some miles out of town.

  Stella elected to stay at home, as Amy had letters to write, and she wassitting alone in their pretty sitting-room when a motor drove up to thedoor, and looking out of the bow-window in which she was sitting she sawMrs. Montague Jones alight. As she had been seen, there was nothing forit but to receive her visitor civilly when Mrs. Morrison ushered her in.But before the old Scotchwoman did this, she stopped to have quite ananimated conversation in the hall with the visitor. Stella had neverbeen annoyed with her old nurse before, but she felt quite cross at thisodd behaviour. The motor was throbbing so noisily outside that she couldnot hear what they were saying, but they were evidently on very goodterms with each other.

  This may have helped to make her manner colder than usual; for Mrs.Montague Jones almost made up her mind to give up any further attemptsto be friendly with this unfriendly girl. However, she had strongreasons besides kind-heartedness for persevering, and persevere she did.Fortunately Stella, who, to do her justice, was quite unaware of hercold manner, remembered that it was to Mrs. Jones's kind thoughtfulnessthat she had that pretty sitting-room, and she hastened to thank her.

  'Indeed we were only too glad for you to have it, as we have plenty ofsitting-rooms besides that, and we had settled, my husband and son andI, that we would not use your rooms at Lomore--yours and Vava's,' saidMrs. Jones.

  The Joneses were showing very kindly feeling, which surprised Stella,who answered lamely, 'You are very kind; but it does not matter, as theyare not our rooms now.'

  'But we hope to see you there some day; in fact, you will always be mostwelcome to occupy them. At any rate, my son would not have them used,and insisted on the furniture being sent down here,' said Mrs. Jones.

  'It is very kind of your son; but please explain to him that the placeis no longer ours, nor have we any connection with it now, and that weare never likely to see it again. I hope you will not think me rude,Mrs. Jones, but I could never go to Lomore again,' Stella said; and shecould not help the tears rising to her eyes, much to her annoyance.

  'Indeed I understand that, and I feel that you must hate us, and if itwere not that my husband is so taken with Vava and with you, if you willforgive my saying so, I would not intrude my acquaintance upon you; butI must give you his message. He wants me to ask if you and your sisterwill not come home with us and dine after the breaking-up at the Cityschool on Friday week, and let us go and see _Henry VIII._ actedafterwards; Vava is studying it at school. My husband has to take thechair and make a speech at the breaking-up, and I shall have to go withhim. You are going of course?'

  'I do not know, but I dare say I shall be able to get away from theoffice. I am not a free agent, you know; but I will ask my employer'sleave to have the afternoon off,' said Stella.

  'Of course you can have the afternoon, and you will come back and dinewith us, won't you--you and your sister? I should like you to know myson better,' Mrs. Jones begged her.

  Stella thought this rather an odd way of speaking, as she did not knowthe aforesaid son, 'better or worse,' nor had she any desire to knowhim, and was sure that she could picture him as a young edition of hisbullet-headed, commonplace-looking father; but she felt that she couldnot refuse the invitation to dinner, and accepted it with her prettysmile, which made Mrs. Jones forgive a good deal.

  'My son will be very pleased,' was her reply, which made Stella almostrepent of her acceptance, and she was surprised at Mrs. Jones'scontinual and tactless references to her son and heir, as Stellabitterly felt. She understood, or thought she understood, that in a wayMrs. Jones and this son felt that they had ousted her from herinheritance, and wanted to make amends to her. 'As if they could!' shesaid with some scorn.

  However, it was impossible to remain untouched by such kindness, andwhen Mrs. Morrison brought in hot scones she said quite friendlily,'This is in your honour, Mrs. Jones; nursie does not make scones forevery one, and I don't think I should have been favoured this afternoon,as Vava is out.'

  So Mrs. Jones went away quite satisfied with her visit, and told herhusband, with a sigh of relief, 'She's actually coming; but upon myword, Monty, I doubt if the game's worth the candle. It's moreexhausting to try and get on with that young woman than any number ofhaughty dowagers, and really I should be sorry for our boy to fall inlove with her; it would be slow work having a statue for a wife.'

  'She would not be a statue if she were a happy wife; the City haspetrified her,' said Mr. Jones.

  'I don't remember that she was particularly unbending at Lomore beforethe City had time to chill her,' said Mrs. Montague Jones dryly.

  'No, but adversity had done that,' her husband reminded her; and he wasas pleased as his wife at Stella's acceptance of their invitation.

  But this was nothing to Vava's delight. 'And you actually are going? Iam so glad, and you are going to see _Henry VIII._ also! Nursie mustmake haste and finish my black embroidered silk, and I must finishreading the play. Mr. Jones says it's splendidly staged!' she exclaimed.

  'When did you see Mr. Jones?' inquired Stella.

  'In the office yesterday, when I came to fetch you. He told me where togo botanising this afternoon,' e
xplained Vava.

  'Oh,' said Stella, 'that Mr. Jones!' and it flashed across her mind thatthe two Joneses certainly knew each other, and very probably wererelated, and that, also very probably, at the office Mr. Jones hadmentioned the fact of Vava's interest in _Henry VIII._ and that she wasgoing botanising without her (Stella), who would consequently be at homealone. Well, after all, it did not matter; they meant to be kind, andshe would accept their kindness in the spirit it was given.

  'Do you know life's very funny? I mean, the way things happen arefunny,' observed Vava, breaking in upon her sister's thoughts.

  'What is that apropos of?' inquired her elder sister, smiling.

  'Why, this afternoon. I thought it was going to be spoilt for me becauseEva was coming with us for our walk, and then I come home and find adelightful invitation waiting for me--a motor drive, a dinner-party, andthe theatre; and I dare say we shall go and have ices at some nicerestaurant afterwards. Mr. Jones knows I love ices,' observed Vava.

  'Don't be greedy, Vava; I think you are getting spoilt. Why should Eva'sgoing with you spoil your walk? I hope Doreen is not making mischiefbetween you? You liked Eva at first, I thought?' said Stella in a toneof reproof.

  'Doreen is above such a thing; it's Eva's own fault; besides, I do likeher, only I don't always like the way she talks,' said Vava ratherhotly.

  'She talks a great deal better than Doreen, as a matter of fact. Whathas she done to offend you? You had better tell me, for I think shefeels that you avoid her, and it is very unkind unless you have somegood reason,' persisted Stella.

  'I haven't anything against her; it is just that Doreen and I don'tapprove of her,' announced Vava.

  'Pray, what business have you and Doreen to judge other people?'exclaimed Stella. 'What do you disapprove of? I insist upon knowing.'

  'You don't approve of her yourself, Stella,' said Vava.

  'I don't remember ever having said so.'

  'You said you did not approve of her buying that suite of furniture,'Vava reminded her.

  'I beg your pardon, I said I did not approve of getting furniture on thehire-system for myself; but I never criticised Eva. I know nothing ofher private affairs, nor do I wish to pry into them, and you and Doreenhave nothing to do with them either; so if that is all you have againsther you had better put it out of your mind.'

  'It isn't only that. She never goes to church'----began Vava.

  'Vava, I am ashamed of you! Eva may well say that churchgoing does notseem to make people better. What right have you to set yourself up tojudge other people in that pharisaical manner? It is a most unchristianspirit. I know I am not a very good example, for I am not at all humble;but I think if we want Eva to go to church and be better we shall onlydo it by being very nice to her, and not by treating her unkindly andmaking her feel that we think ourselves superior,' said Stella verygravely.

  Vava listened with equal gravity, but made no reply. If she had spokenwhat was in her mind she would have said that those were not the onlytwo reasons for disapproving of Eva; but she abstained, and when she sawDoreen that evening she informed her that she was going to be nice toEva.

  'I think we are nice to her; we took her for a walk with us on Saturday,though she doesn't care a bit about botany, and wanted to be at theskating-rink or the pictures, and talked bosh.' She paused, and thenadded, 'By the way, does your sister know what silly stuff she talks?'she asked.

  'No, I did not tell her. Stella is particular, and if she knew some ofthe things Eva says she would be very angry; in fact, she would probablynot let me speak to her at all; and then I don't know what would happen,for we could not go on living in the same house like that,' remarkedVava.

  'Anyway, I don't believe my mother would let me be friendly with her ifshe knew. I don't know what to do,' said Doreen.

  'We must reform her,' announced Vava.

  Doreen laughed. 'I don't think we should have much influence upon her.She thinks she's very clever because she has read some silly books whichsay that one should get all the enjoyment one can out of this lifebecause it's all that's certain, and you can't argue with a person likethat, who says you have a right to be happy, and that things are rightthat you know quite well are wrong, only you can't prove it. Fatherwould be horrified if he heard her; he'd say she was dangerous.'

  'She's only silly,' said Vava in a superior tone. Then they were bothsilent, until she exclaimed suddenly, 'Doreen, I have it. I'll tellnursie all about it!'

  'She'll be worse than father; she's awfully strait-laced,' protestedDoreen.

  'Yes, but she's very charitable too, and she likes Eva. If any one cando anything with Eva, nursie can,' declared Vava.

  'Well, tell Mrs. Morrison, then, because I think some one ought to know,and to tell her that she ought not to talk to us like that; we don'tlike it, and it muddles one up,' said Doreen with a laugh.

  'It does not muddle me; it's against the Bible, and I'd rather go bythat than by Eva,' said Vava; and that ended the conversation.