CHAPTER XXVIII.
VAVA GETS A SHOCK.
The days flew by until the eventful Friday when there was theprize-giving, the play of Dante, in which Vava had the role of heroine,and, to wind up, the dinner-party and theatre afterwards.
'I'm glad we have had all this to look forward to,' said Vava on Fridaymorning as they both, in very pretty black embroidered frocks, weregoing up to the City.
'Yes,' agreed Stella, not too cordially, for though she was glad to goto the prize-giving and see the play, since Vava was in it, stillneither of these things gave her unalloyed pleasure. At the prize-givingshe would be surrounded by the parents of these girls, whom she did notexpect to be very refined. As to the play, she, as a student and loverof Dante, objected to its being acted, though she did not say so toVava. And as for the two other pleasures to which Vava was lookingforward so eagerly, Stella did not care for them at all, and was onlygoing to please Vava, whose great day it was.
'It has taken our mind off other worries,' announced Vava; and Stella,looking at her sister, noticed with a pang that the bright young facewas paler and graver than it usually was, and realised that this weekhad been a trying one for her, though quite how trying she did not know,for Vava had not told her of her own private worry with Miss Briggs atschool.
'We are going to have a very nice day, quite a long day of pleasure,'said Stella, smiling kindly at her sister.
'Yes,' agreed Vava, and she brightened up, for she had half-feared thatStella would either back out of the dinner on some excuse or another, orelse go against her will and be stiff.
'I am afraid I shall be late for the prize-giving, for I cannot verywell ask to be let off an afternoon the very first week I am with thesepeople,' observed Stella.
'What a pity! But never mind, I will keep a seat for you,' replied Vavaas she said good-bye.
However, the first thing her new employer said to her was, 'I shall notbe here after lunch, Miss Wharton, so shall be glad if you will do thiswork for me before I go, and the rest of the day will be at yourdisposal, and next week I am taking a holiday, so I shall not requireyour services until Tuesday week.'
There had not been any arrangement made about Easter holidays, andStella had quite made up her mind that she would only have the BankHolidays, and was rather surprised. However, she did not imagine it wasanything but a coincidence, or that her afternoon, like the Easterholidays, had been arranged by Mr. James Jones; which perhaps was justas well, or the perverse girl might not have enjoyed it as much.
As it was, she went off at one o'clock, having got through her work,shaking hands cordially with old Mr. Murchison, whom she liked verymuch; and, having had lunch, arrived at the City school just in time.The porter in his gorgeous City livery was so impressed by Stella'sbeauty and dignified carriage that he took her for some importantperson, and showed her up to one of the front seats, which were reservedfor patrons and patronesses, and she found herself sitting next a verypleasant woman, who took a great interest in education, and told Stellawhat a high opinion she had of this school and its staff; and a littlefarther up was Mrs. Montague Jones, talking in a friendly way to a ladywhom Stella had met once and knew to be a society woman, but had notexpected to meet here.
The proceedings were rather lengthy. There was the usual school concert,which it is difficult to say who dislike most, performers or audience;then came the play, and Stella was converted on the spot.
'What a delightful Beatrice!' cried her neighbour; 'she has a nobleface.'
Stella smiled as she replied, 'I am glad you approve of her, for she ismy sister.'
This broke the ice still more, and the two had become quite friendly bythe time Vava came up for her two prizes, which Mr. Montague Jonespresented to her with a specially friendly hand-shake.
Then there were speeches, congratulations, and refreshments, and afterthat Mr. Jones said, 'These are very delightful functions, no doubt; butthey are a little long, and somehow they always make me very hot andtired and headachy. What do you ladies say to taking a run out into thecountry for a couple of hours, and getting home just in time for dinner?You can't dress to-night, thank goodness, and so you can't expect me toeither.'
As all three were willing, he gave the order to the chauffeur, and theywent off, Stella in front with Mr. Jones, and Vava behind with his wife.
'Miss Wharton,' said the old man, when they had got some way out, 'Idon't want to bother you with business out of business hours; but I musttell you how sorry I am you have left our firm.'
'Your firm, Mr. Jones?' exclaimed Stella in surprise.
'Yes! Surely James told you?' he replied.
'No, but it would have made no difference; I prefer to be where I am. Ido not wish to be rude, Mr. Jones; but I think we had better not discussthe subject,' said Stella.
So Mr. Jones, finding he could do no good, changed the conversation, andtalked so well on all sorts of topics that Stella, who had beenexcellently educated, and had been used to the society of a literaryfather, found her companion very entertaining.
Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava noted this with satisfaction. 'They aregetting on very well,' said the former with a nod of her head.
'That's a blessing. Stella really is a very great trial to me,'announced Vava quite gravely.
Mrs. Montague Jones laughed heartily. 'I wonder what she would say ifshe heard you?' she replied.
'She would ask me quite solemnly what I meant, and I should not be ableto tell her,' observed Vava.
'You ought to be proud to have such a beautiful sister; every one wasasking me to-day who she was,' said Mrs. Jones.
'Beauty is a snare and a delusion for a City clerk, didn't they all saywhen you told them who she was?' asked Vava.
'I did not say what she did. I told them she was the daughter of aScotch laird, and that you were her sister. They did not ask me heroccupation; we are not so rude in the City,' answered Mrs. Jones.
Vava sighed. 'It was much nicer before,' she remarked.
Mrs. Jones looked sympathetically at Vava; she had no daughters, onlythe one son, and she would have liked nothing better than to adopt thisgirl if it had been possible; but as she knew it to be impossible shedid not even speak of a plan she had in her head of taking them away forEaster, which silence cost her some self-denial.
When they arrived at Belgrave Square, Vava, who as usual had madeherself quite at home, went off with Mrs. Jones to get some flowers fromthe conservatory, and Stella was left in the drawing-room; but she hadnot been there two minutes when the door opened, and a tall, gentlemanlyyoung man in evening-dress came in, saying to the footman who opened thedoor, 'Has Lord Rothery not come, then?'
Stella, shaken out of her reserve, started up as the junior partner ofBaines, Jones & Co. came forward and shook hands gravely with her.
'Miss Wharton, you look surprised; surely you expected to see me here?'he asked.
'No, I did not; it was only this afternoon that I knew that Mr. MontagueJones had any connection with your firm. I did not know you were to beinvited to meet me,' said Stella.
'Invited! I need no invitation to my father's house; but if you objectto my presence I can easily dine at my club. I particularly told mymother to ask you if it made any difference, and I understood her to sayit did not;' and then he wound up hotly, 'I do not know what I have doneto make you think me such a cad as to intrude my presence upon you whenI see it is so distasteful.'
Ten minutes later, when Mrs. Montague Jones and Vava came in laden withflowers, Stella was sitting on the sofa, and at their entrance Mr. JamesJones, who was sitting beside her (as Vava noted with surprise), rose,and taking Stella's hand brought her to his mother, saying, 'Mother,this is my future wife.'
'It isn't! How dare you? Leave her hand alone!' cried Vava, startingforward, and then, as it dawned upon her that _it was_, she stood stilland stared at them all; for Mrs. Jones, with a cry of delight, wentforward to Stella, and Mr. Jones, who came in then, seemed to be just asdelighted and not a bit surpris
ed, though he said it was a pleasantsurprise; and, oddest of all, Lord Rothery--who had cared for Stellahimself once--now arrived on the scene, congratulated them both mostheartily, and said, 'I was a true prophet. I guessed this would be thenext news.'
This caused Vava to exclaim with indignation, 'How could you possibly,when _I_ knew nothing about it, nor how they met--or anything? They'dquarrelled for ever a week ago!'
'Ah! that's a sure sign,' said Lord Rothery, teasing her. He had leftthe Jones family to make much of Stella, and took Vava to a window toconsole her, for he saw that she was more angry than pleased.
'I believe it's an awful mistake,' she confided to him.
'Not a bit of it; they are frightfully in love with each other. He's asplendid fellow, and quite a gentleman,' declared the young lord.
'Then they've been horridly deceitful about it, for Stella never wouldbe decently civil to him while I was there, and left him last week; andnow I suppose they have been meeting all this week and falling in love,'said Vava in tones of disgust.
'Not they, that was done before; it's what they call a Scotch wooing,and you ought to be glad about it, instead of being so disagreeable,' heprotested.
A tear stole down Vava's face, but she would not give way, and onlysaid, 'I don't see what is the use of her having taken a house when shemeant to go and do this.'
'These are things one cannot foresee; one does not mean to do them; theydo themselves. You'll do just the same when your time comes.'
'I shall not. If I were in love with you I should be civil to you, andlet you see that I liked you,' declared Vava.
'All right; I'll remember that, and in the meantime I think you might becivil to your sister and Jamie.'
Vava made a little grimace. 'It's a hideous name, Jamie Jones!' shedeclared.
But that gentleman, thinking he had given his former friend time to getover her shock, came forward, and very soon managed to win her back toher old friendliness, as he gave her his arm to take her in to dinner.Poor Vava! she had so looked forward to this dinner; it had turned outso very different to what she had expected, and no one said anythingabout the play; so she made up her mind that they were going to 'fuss'over Stella all the evening and give up the play.
But Lord Rothery came to the rescue. 'I propose an amendment to theevening's programme. I suppose Jamie is going to cry off his engagementwith me, so I vote you take me to the theatre in Stella's place, andleave her to rest here.'
This seemed a very good plan, and evidently suited the two mostconcerned; and to Vava's relief they started in good time for _HenryVIII._, and in spite of a little sore feeling at heart, she managed toenjoy it very much.
The Joneses drove Vava home after the theatre, and there she found'nursie' and Stella sitting by the kitchen fire; and even Vava, muchthough she had admired her sister, thought she had never seen her lookso beautiful as she did to-night.
'All's well that ends well, my bairns, and he's a braw young laddie,'said old nursie, lapsing into Scotch.
'Has he been to see you?' asked Vava.
'Yes, and wanted to know if I would trust him with my bairn. Eh, that Iwould!' she said.
'And what am I to do?' cried Vava, and burst into tears.
Stella had her arms round her sister in a moment. 'It won't make anydifference, and we are going to stay where we are till the end of theyear, and then you and nursie shall come and live with us,' sheexplained.
'We shall see,' put in nursie, who had her own ideas upon the subject,and proved to be right.