Volume I Part 6 (1/2)
”I have quite spoilt Isabella's temper for to-day,” began Julia. ”She will remember that romp, as she calls it, for ages to come. I cannot help laughing either, when I think of the figure I must have been when I met her. Now confess, Miss Neville, did I not look a perfect fright?”
”You looked warm and tired, certainly,”
”Warm and tired! Now do not speak in that measured way, so exactly like Isabella, when I was as red as this,” and she pointed to the scarlet feather in her hat, ”and as for tired, I was panting for breath like that dreadful old pet dog of hers. Well, I am glad I have made you laugh; but do not, please, Miss Neville, if we are to be friends, speak so like Isabella again. I hate it, and that's the truth.”
”I will not, if I know it, but will say yes or no, if you like it best, and wish it.”
”And I do wish it, and that was not said a bit like Isabella, so I will forgive you, and we will make up and be friends, as the children say,”
and she gave her hand to Amy. ”And now tell me, Miss Neville, by way of changing the subject, where, when, and how you became acquainted with my cousin.”
”I am governess to her children,” replied Amy, quietly.
Julia stopped suddenly, and looked at her in surprise.
”And are you really the governess of whom Edith and f.a.n.n.y have talked to me so much? Why, you cannot be much older than I.”
”Do you not consider yourself old enough to be a governess?”
”Well, yes, of course I do; but you are so different to what I always pictured to myself a governess ought to be. They should be ugly, cross old maids, odious creatures, in fact I know mine was.”
”Why so?” asked Amy.
”Oh, she did a hundred disagreeable things. All people have manias for something, so there is, perhaps, nothing surprising in her being fond of _bags_. She had bags for everything; for her boots and shoes, thimble and scissors, brushes and combs, thread, b.u.t.tons,--even to her india-rubber. A small piece of coloured calico made me literally sick, for it was sure to be converted into a bag, and a broken needle into a pin, with a piece of sealing-wax as the head.”
”She was not wasteful,” said Amy, who could not forbear laughing at the picture drawn.
”Wasteful! Truly not. It was 'waste not, want not,' with her; she had it printed and pasted on a board, and hung up in the school-room, and well she acted up to the motto.”
”But I dare say she did you some good, notwithstanding her peculiarities.”
”Well! 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating,' another of her wise sayings; and it is early days to ask you what you think of me, so I shall wait until we are better acquainted, which I hope will be soon.
How glad I was to get rid of her! I actually pulled down one of the bells in ringing her out of the house, and would have had a large bonfire of all the backboards and stocks, if I had dared. I could not bear her, but I am sure I shall like you, and we will be friends, shall we not? do not say no.”
”Why should I? I will gladly have you as my friend.”
”That is right; you will want one if Frances Strickland is coming: how she will hate you. She likes me, so she says, so there is something to console me for not being born a beauty; so proud and conceited as she is too, everything she says and does is for effect. Her brother is as silly as she is proud, and as fond of me as he is of his whiskers and moustaches.”
”I need not ask you if you like him.”
”I shall certainly not break my heart if you are disposed to fall in love with him.”
”Nay, your description has not prepossessed me in his favour. And who are the other guests?”
”I cannot tell you, for their name is legion, but you will be able to see them soon, and review them much better than I can,” and Julia turned out of the shrubbery into one of the garden walks leading up to the house.
”Here is Anne,” added she, in a tone of surprise, ”all alone too, for a wonder. See!” and she pointed to a young girl seemingly intent on watching John the gardener, who was raking the gravel, and digging up a stray weed here and there.
”Look here, John,” cried she, as they approached unperceived, ”here is a weed you have overlooked. Give me the hoe, and let me dig it up. What fun it is!” added she, placing a tiny foot on the piece of iron, ”I declare I would far rather do this than walk about all by myself. There!
see! I have done it capitally; now I'll look for another, and just imagine they are men I am decapitating, and won't I go with a vengeance at some of them,” and then turning she caught sight of Julia and Amy.