Part 7 (1/2)

It might have been half an hour after that she heard a whispering in the hall outside, and then a knock at her door. She ran to open it, and stood amazed. There was Peggy, blus.h.i.+ng and smiling, looking as pleased as a little child, arrayed in the rose-coloured tea-gown whose existence she had endangered on the night of her arrival; and there beside her, holding her hand, was Rita, in pale blue and swansdown,--Rita, also smiling, but with the mockery for once gone from eyes and mouth, and with traces of tears on her beautiful face. She now led Peggy forward, and presented her formally to Margaret, with a sweeping courtesy.

”Miss Montfort,” she began, ”this is my sister. I desire for her the honour and privilege of your distinguished acquaintance. She kisses your hands and feet, as do I myself.”

Then suddenly she threw herself upon Margaret's neck, still holding Peggy's hand, so that all three were wrapped in one embrace.

”Marguerite,” she cried, ”behold this child! I have been a brute to her, you know it well--” and Margaret certainly did. ”A brute, a devil-fish, what you will! and she--she has saved my life! You saw it, you heard it; another moment, and I should have gone--” she shuddered. ”I cannot speak of it. But now, Marguerite, hear me swear!”

”Oh my!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Peggy, in some alarm.

”Hear me swear!” repeated Rita pa.s.sionately; ”from this moment Peggy is my sister. You are not jealous, no? You are also my own soul, but you are sufficient to yourself; what do you need, piece of Northern perfection that you are? Peggy needs me; I take her, I care for her, I form her! so shall it be!” And once more she embraced both cousins warmly.

Margaret's eyes filled with happy tears.

”Dear Peggy! Dear Rita!” was all she could say at first, as she returned their embraces. Then she made them come in and sit down, and looked from one to the other. ”It is so good!” she cried. ”Oh, so good! You can't imagine, girls, how I have longed for this! It did seem so dreadful that you should not have the pleasure of each other--but we will not speak of that any more! No! and we will bless the black bog for bringing you together.”

But Rita shuddered again, and begged that she might never hear of the bog again.

”Do you observe Peggy's hair?” she asked. ”What do you think of it?”

The fair hair was brought smoothly up over the well-shaped head, and wound in a pretty, fluffy Psyche knot. The effect was charming in one way, but--

”It makes her look too grown-up,” Margaret protested. ”It is very pretty, but I want her to be a little girl as long as she can. You don't want to be a young lady yet, do you, Peggy?”

”Oh, no!” cried Peggy. ”Indeed I don't! But Rita thought--”

”Rita thought!” cried that young lady, nodding her head sagely. ”Rita thought wrong, as usual, and Margaret thought right. It is too old; but what of that? We will try another style. Ten, twenty ways of dressing hair I know. Often and often Conchita and I have spent a whole day dressing each other's hair, trying this effect, that effect. Ah, the superb hair that Conchita has; it sweeps the floor,--and soft--ah, as a bat's wool!”

A few hours ago, Peggy would have sniffed scornfully at all this; but now she listened with interest, and something of awe, as her beautiful cousin discoursed of braids and puffs, and told of the extraordinary effect that might sometimes be produced by a single small curl set at the proper curve of the neck. It sounded pretty frivolous, to be sure, but then, Rita looked so earnest and so lovely, and it was so new and delightful to be addressed by her as an equal,--and a beloved equal at that; Peggy's little head was in evident danger of being turned by the new position of affairs.

Margaret, feeling that there were limits, even to the subject of hairdressing, presently proposed a visit to Aunt Faith, and for once neither cousin made any objection. Peggy was mortally afraid of the white old lady, and Rita said frankly that she did not like old people, and saw no reason why she should put herself out, simply because her uncle, whom she had never seen, had chosen to saddle himself with the burden of a centenarian. But to-day, Rita was shaken and softened out of all her waywardness, and she readily admitted the propriety of telling Mrs. Cheriton what had happened.

Aunt Faith listened with deep interest, and was as shocked and distressed as heart could desire. The peat-bog, she told them, did not belong to their uncle; he had in vain tried to buy the land, in order that he might drain or fence it, but the proprietor refused to sell it.

There was a terrible story, she said, of a man's being lost there, many years ago; it was a dreadful place.

Then, seeing Rita shudder again, she changed the subject, and spoke of the charming contrast of the pale blue and rose-colour, in the two girls' dresses. ”The pink suits you well, little Peggy,” she said. ”I have not seen you in a delicate colour before.”

”This isn't mine,” said honest Peggy; ”it is Rita's--” but Rita laid her hand over her mouth.

”It _is_ hers!” she said; ”a nothing! a tea-gown of last year! One is ashamed to offer such a thing, not fit to scour floors in--”

”Certainly not!” said Mrs. Cheriton, laughing. ”Ah, Rita! you have the Spanish ways, I see. I have heard nothing of that sort since I was in Spain sixty years ago.”

”What, you have been in Spain!” cried Rita, with animation. ”Ah, I did not know! Please tell us about it.”

”Another time. You would like to hear, I think, about the winter I spent in Granada, close by the Alhambra. But now I have something else to say.

Your pretty dresses remind me that there is a chest of old gowns here that it might interest you to look over. Some of them are quite old, two hundred years or more.”

Then, while the girls uttered cries of delight, she called Janet and bade her open the cedar chest in the next room.

”This way, my dears!” and she led the way into a bedroom, as white and fresh and dainty as the sitting-room. Janet was already on her knees before a deep chest, quaintly carved, and clamped with bra.s.s. Now, at her mistress's request, she began to lift out the contents.