Silverthorns

"There, children," he said, "you have your wish. There is Silverthorns in full moonlight."

His voice softened a little as he spoke, and something in it made an unexpected suggestion to Gervais.

"Papa," he said, "you speak as if you were thinking of long ago. Did you ever see Silverthorns like that before--in the moonlight, just as it is now?"

"Yes," his father replied. "I had almost forgotten it, I think. I remember standing here one night, when I was quite a little fellow, with my grandmother, and seeing it just like this."

"How curious!" said Charlotte. "But I don't wonder it has come back to your mind now. It is so beautiful."

She gave a deep breath of satisfaction. She was right. The old house looked wonderfully fine. It was of the quaintly irregular architecture of some so-called "Elizabethan" mansions, though in point of fact some part of it was nearly two hundred years older than the rest, and the later additions were, to say the least, incongruous. But the last owner's predecessor had been a man of taste and intelligence, and by some apparently small alterations--a window here, a porchway there--had done much to weld the different parts into a very pleasing if not strictly correct whole. Ivy, too, grew thickly over one end of the building, veiling with its kindly green shadow what had once been an unsightly disproportion of wall; the windows were all latticed, and a broad terrace walk ran round three sides of the house, while here and there on the smooth, close-cut lawn just below stood out, dark and stiff, grotesquely-cut shrubs which had each had its own special designation handed down from one generation to another.

"See," said Mr Waldron, pointing to these with his whip, as he walked old Dolly slowly on towards the front entrance, "there are the peacocks, one on each side, and the man-of-war at the corner, and--I forget what they are all supposed to represent. They look rather eerie, don't they?--so black and fierce; the moonlight exaggerates their queer shapes. But it is lovely up there on the windows--each little pane is like a separate jewel."

"Yes," repeated the children, "it is lovely."

"We always say," Charlotte added, "that Silverthorns is like an old fairy castle. It must be one of the most beautiful houses in the world!--don't you think so yourself, papa? What would it be to live in a house like that! Just fancy it, Jerry!"

But by this time Mr Waldron had got down, and throwing the reins to Jerry, was ringing. He was not kept long waiting; the door flew open, and a flood of light--lamplight and firelight mingled, for there was a vision of blazing logs on an open hearth in the hall!--poured out, looking cheery enough certainly, though coarse and matter-of-fact in comparison with the delicate radiance outside.

"Her ladyship? Yes, sir--Mr Waldron, I believe? Yes, her ladyship is expecting you," said a very irreproachable sort of person in black, who came forward as soon as the footman had opened. He was busy washing his hands with invisible soap while he spoke, and as he caught sight of the dog-cart and its occupants, he made some further observation which Charlotte and Jerry did not distinctly catch. But their father's clear decided tones rang back sharply in answer:

"No, no--no need to put up. My son will wait for me. It is all right."

Apparently, however, the butler, or major-domo, or whoever he was, had some twinges on the score of hospitality, for the door, already closed, was re-opened, and the footman looked out.

"Mr Bright says, sir," he said, addressing Jerry in the first place, then stammering somewhat as he caught sight of Charlotte; "I beg your pardon, Miss, he says as I'm to leave the door a little open, and if you find it too cold, I'll be here in the 'all, and 'appy to call some one, sir, to 'old the 'orse."

"Thank you, it's all right," said Jerry, well knowing that neither he nor Charlotte would have ventured to enter without their father's permission and protection, even if the proverbial cats and dogs had suddenly begun to fall from the sky.

"Who's Mr Bright, do you think, Jerry?" Charlotte whispered.

"That fellow in black--the butler, I suppose," Jerry replied.

"Don't you wonder papa ventured to speak so sharply to him?" Charlotte went on. "Oh, Jerry! it must be awfully grand in there. I do wish they had left the door a little more ajar. We might perhaps have caught sight of _her_--she might have happened to be crossing the hall, the sort of way one always reads of in storybooks, you know."

"Her?--who?" said Jerry, in bewilderment. "Lady Mildred, do you mean?"

"Lady Mildred," Charlotte repeated. "Of course not. You can't have forgotten--the girl I mean, the girl who has come to live with Lady Mildred, and who's coming to Miss Lloyd's."

"Oh," said Jerry, "I had forgotten all about her."

"How could you?" Charlotte exclaimed. "I have been thinking about her all the time. It was so queer that just after hearing about her, and speaking about her, it should happen for us to come out here, where we hadn't been for so long. I began thinking of it at dinner, immediately papa said he was going to Silverthorns."

"I wonder you didn't tell mamma about her," said Jerry.

"I shall afterwards, but I was thinking over what you said. I want to get my mind straight about her, and then I'll tell mamma. But do you know, Jerry, I think I feel worse about her since coming here. It does not seem fair that one person should have everything. Just think what it must be to live here, and have all those grand servants waiting on her, and--"

"I shouldn't much care about that part of it," interrupted Jerry, "and I don't think you would either, Charlotte. You'd be frightened of them. You said just now you wondered papa dared speak so sharply to that undertaker-looking fellow."

"Ah, yes, but then he's not _his_ servant. One would never be frightened of one's own servants, however grand they were," said Charlotte innocently. "Besides, even if one was a little, just at the beginning, one would soon get accustomed to them. Jerry, I wonder which is _her_ room. There must be a lovely room at that corner, in that sort of tower, where the roof goes up to a point--do you see? I dare say her room is there. The French governess said that Miss Lloyd said that evidently Lady Mildred makes a tremendous pet of her, and doesn't think anything too good for her."

Jerry was getting rather tired of the nameless heroine. His eyes went roaming round the long irregular pile of building.

"I wonder," he said, "if there's a haunted room at Silverthorns. Doesn't it look as if there should be?"

The wind was getting up a little by now; just as he spoke there came a gusty wail from the trees on one side, dying away into a flutter and quiver among the leaves. It sounded like an answer to his words. Charlotte gave a little start and then pressed closer to her brother, half laughing as she did so.

"Oh, Jerry," she said, "you make me feel quite creepy. I shouldn't like to hear the wind like that at night. I certainly don't envy the girl if there is a haunted room and she has to sleep anywhere near it."

"There now--you have found out one thing you don't envy her for," said Jerry, triumphantly. "But the door's opening, Charlotte. There's papa."

Papa it was, accompanied to the steps by the amiable Mr Bright, who seemed really distressed at not having been allowed to make himself of any use. For Mr Waldron cut him short in the middle of some elaborate sentences by a civil but rather abrupt "Thank you--exactly so. Good evening," and in another moment he was up in his place, and had taken the reins from Jerry's hands.

"You're not cold, I hope," he said. "Dolly all right, eh? Well, Gipsy"--his pet name for Charlotte--"you've had enough of Silverthorns by moonlight, I suppose?"

Charlotte gave a little sigh.

"It was very nice," she said. "I wish it were ours, papa."

"My dear child," he exclaimed in surprise.

"I do, papa. I think it would be delightful to be as rich as--as that. I just don't believe people who pretend that being rich and having lovely houses and things like that is all no good."

Mr Waldron hesitated. He understood her, though she expressed herself so incoherently.

"My dear child," he said again, "if it were not natural to wish for such things, there would be no credit in being contented without them. Only remember that they are not the best things. And if it is any comfort to you, take my word for it that the actual having them gives less than you would believe, when you picture it in all the glow of your imagination."

"Still," said Charlotte, "I think one might be awfully good, as well as happy, if one were as rich and all that as Lady Mildred. Think what lots of kind things one might do for other people--I wonder if she does--do you think she does, papa?"

"I believe she does some kind things," said Mr Waldron; "but I scarcely know her. As a rule rich people do _not_ think very much about doing things for others, Charlotte. I don't say that they mean to be selfish or unkind, but very often it does not occur to them. They don't realise how much others have to go without. I think it would be terrible to be thus shut off from real sympathy with the mass of one's fellows, even though I don't altogether blame the rich for it. But this is one among several reasons why I am not sorry not to be rich."

"But, papa--" Charlotte began.

"Well, my dear?"

"If--if rich people aren't good--if they are selfish without its being altogether their fault as you say, doesn't it seem unfair on them? Wouldn't it be better if there were no rich people--fairer for all?"

Mr Waldron gave a little laugh.

"You are treading on difficult ground, Gipsy. Many things would be better if many other things did not exist at all. But then this world would no longer be this world! As long as it exists, as long as we come into it human beings and not angels, there will be rich and poor. Why, if we were all started equally to-morrow, the differences would be there again in a month! I give Arthur and Ted exactly the same allowance, but at this moment Arthur has some pounds in the Savings' Bank, and Ted not only is penniless, but probably owes all round."

"He borrowed threepence from me this afternoon," said Jerry laughing.

"Just so. No--it has been tried many times, and will be tried as many more perhaps, but with the same result. I don't say that the _tremendous_ disproportions that one sees might not be equalised a little without injustice. But I don't want to give you a lecture on political economy. Only don't mistake me. All I mean is, that in some ways the narrow road is harder for rich people than for others. But when they do walk in it, they are not seldom the best men and women this world knows. Still you can perhaps understand my meaning when I say that the possession of great riches would make me afraid."

"Thank you, papa," said Charlotte. "I think I do understand a little. I never thought of it like that before." She was silent for a few minutes; then with the pertinacity of her age she returned to the subject with which her thoughts were really the most occupied.

"I don't fancy somehow that Lady Mildred Osbert is one of the _best_ rich people. Is she, papa? You don't speak as if you liked her very much?"

"I don't think one is justified in either liking or disliking `very much' any person whom one scarcely knows," Mr Waldron replied. "I have told you that I believe she does kind things. I believe she has done one lately. But if you ask me if I think--she is an old woman now--she is the sort of woman your mother would have been in the same circumstances, well no--certainly I don't."

And Mr Waldron laughed, a happy genial little laugh this time.

"That's hardly fair upon Lady Mildred, papa," said Jerry. "We all know that there never _could_ be any woman as good as mamma."

"My dear boy, what would mamma say if she heard you?"

"Oh, she'd quote some proverb about people thinking their own geese swans, or something like that, of course," said Jerry unmoved. "That's because she's so truly modest. And if she wasn't truly modest she wouldn't be so good, and then--and then--she wouldn't be herself. But I agree with you, papa," he went on in his funny, old-fashioned way, "it is a good thing mamma isn't rich. She'd worry--my goodness, wouldn't she just!--she'd worry herself and all of us to death for fear she wasn't doing enough for other people."

"That would certainly not be charity beginning at home, eh, Jerry?" said his father, laughing outright this time.

"Papa," said Charlotte, "what is the kind thing Lady Mildred has done lately? Is it about--the girl?"

"What girl?--what do you know about it?" said Mr Waldron, rather sharply.

But Charlotte was not easily disconcerted, especially when very much in earnest.

"A girl she has adopted. They say she is going to leave this girl all her money, so she--the girl--will be a great heiress. And she is awfully pretty, and--and--just everything. I heard all about it this morning at school," and Charlotte went on to give her father the details she had learnt through the French governess's gossip. "She is to drive herself in every morning in her pony-carriage, except if it rains, and then she is to be sent and fetched in the brougham. Fancy her having a pony-carriage all of her own!"

Mr Waldron listened without interrupting her. He understood better than before his little daughter's sudden curiosity about Silverthorns and Lady Mildred, and her incipient discontent. But all he said was:

"Ah, well, poor child! It is to be hoped she will be happy there."

"Papa, can you doubt it?" exclaimed Charlotte.

"Papa isn't at all sure if Lady Mildred will be very good to her, whether she makes her her heiress or not," said Jerry bluntly.

"I don't say that, Jerry," said his father. "I don't know Lady Mildred well enough to judge. I said, on the contrary, I had known of her doing kind things, which is true."

"Papa only said Lady Mildred wasn't a woman like mamma," said Charlotte. "She might well not be _that_, and yet be very good and kind. Of course we are more lucky than any children in having mamma, but still if one has everything else--"

"One could do without a good mother? Nay, my Gipsy, I can't--"

"Papa, papa, I don't mean that--you know I don't," exclaimed Charlotte, almost in tears.

"No, I know you don't really. But even putting mamma out of the question, I doubt if Lady Mildred--however, it is not our place to pass judgment."

Suddenly Charlotte gave a little scream.

"Jerry, don't. How can you, Jerry?"

"What's the matter?" asked Mr Waldron.

"He pinched me, papa, quite sharply, under my cloak," said Charlotte, a little ashamed of her excitement. "Jerry, how can you be so babyish?"

"I didn't mean to hurt you," said Jerry penitently. "It was only--when papa said that--I thought--there's another thing."

"Has the moonlight affected your brain, Jerry?" asked his father.

"No, papa; Charlotte understands. I thought perhaps she'd rather I didn't say it right out. It makes three things, you see--being stupid-- and _perhaps_ the haunted room and Lady Mildred being horrid to her. You see, Charlotte?"

But Mr Waldron's face--what they could see of it, that is to say, for the clouds seemed to be reassembling in obedience to some invisible summons, and a thick dark one, just at that moment, was beginning to veil the moon's fair disc--expressed unmitigated bewilderment.

"He means what we were talking about this afternoon, papa. Jerry, you are too silly to tell it in that muddled way," said Charlotte, laughing in spite of her irritation. "I said it seemed as if that girl had _everything_, and Jerry thinks nobody has. He said perhaps she's not very clever, and it's true one _kind_ of pretty people are generally rather dull; and perhaps there's a haunted room at Silverthorns, and she may be frightened at night; and now he means that perhaps Lady Mildred isn't really very kind. But they're all perhapses."

"One isn't," said Mr Waldron. "There is a haunted room at Silverthorns--that, I have always known. If the poor girl is nervous, let us hope she doesn't sleep near it! As to her being `dull'--no, I doubt it. She hasn't the kind of large, heavy, striking beauty which goes with dullness."

"Papa, you have seen her," exclaimed Charlotte in great excitement. "And you didn't tell us."

"You didn't give me time, truly and really, Charlotte."

"And what is she like? Oh, papa, do tell me."

"I only saw her for an instant. Her aunt sent her out of the room. She did seem to me very pretty, slight, and not _very_ tall, with a face whose actual beauty was thrown into the shade by its extremely winning and bright and varying expression. All that, I saw, but that was all."

"Is she fair or dark?" asked Charlotte. "You must have seen that."

"Fair, of course. You know my beauties are always fair. That is why I am so disappointed in you, poor Gipsy," said Mr Waldron teasingly.

But Charlotte did not laugh as she would usually have done.

"Charlotte," said Jerry reprovingly, "of course papa's in fun. Mamma is darker than you."

"I don't need you to tell me that papa's in fun," said Charlotte snappishly. "Besides, mamma isn't dark, except her hair and eyes--her skin is lovelily white. There's nothing fair about me, except my stupid light-blue eyes."

"My blue-eyed gipsy," said her father, using a pet name that had been hers as a baby.

"Dear papa," said Charlotte; and the sharpness had all gone out of her voice.

They were almost at home by now. There had not been much temptation to look about them in returning, for the clouds were getting the best of it, and the moon had taken offence and was hiding her face.

"My little girl," whispered her father, as he lifted her down, "beware of the first peep through the green-coloured spectacles."

"Papa!" said Charlotte, half reproachfully.

But I think she understood.

"Jerry," she said, as her brother and she stood waiting at the door, their father having driven round to the stables, "just compare this door, this house, with Silverthorns."

"What's the good?" said Jerry.

CHAPTER THREE.

A FAMILY PARTY.

A hearty but somewhat unnecessarily noisy welcome awaited them. Arthur, Ted, and Noble were all in the drawing-room with their mother. She had insisted on the muddy boots being discarded, but beyond this, as the boys were tired, and it was late when they came in, she had not held out; and Charlotte glanced at the rough coats and lounging-about attitudes with a feeling of annoyance, which it was well "the boys" did not see. "Mamma" herself was always a pleasant object to look upon, even in her old black grenadine; _she_, thought Charlotte, with a throb of pride, could not seem out of place in the most beautiful of the Silverthorns' drawing-rooms. But the boys--how can they be so rough and messy? thought the fastidious little sister.

"It is all with being poor--all," she said to herself.

But she felt ashamed when Arthur drew forward the most comfortable chair for her to the fire, and Ted offered to carry her hat and jacket up-stairs for her.

"No, thank you," she said. "I'll run up-stairs, and be down again in a minute. It's messy to take one's things off in the drawing-room," and so saying, she jumped up and ran away.

"What a fuss Charlotte always makes about being messy, as she calls it," said Ted. "She's a regular old maid."

"Come, Ted, that's not fair. It's not only for herself Charlotte's tidy!" Arthur exclaimed.

"No, indeed," said Noble, chiming in.

"You needn't all set upon me like that," said Ted. "I'm sure I always thank her when she tidies my things. I can't be tidy, and that's just all about it. When a fellow's grinding at lessons from Monday morning till Saturday night."