"I need hardly tell you, children, that the Riversleys were, or are, n.o.bodies of whom we know nothing--never can know anything."

"Whatever," a.s.sented Miss Isabella.

"To us they do not exist--neither will they for you, my dears. We believe that Mr Julian had a sister who married a Mr Huish; that is all we know."

"All we know," a.s.sented Miss Isabella.

"I will say nothing of the tax it has been upon us in connection with our limited income. A grateful country, recognising the services of papa, placed these apartments at our disposal. In consideration of the thoughtfulness of the offer, we accepted these apartments--thirty-five years ago, I think, Isabella?"

"Thirty-five years and a half, sister."

"Exactly; and we have been here ever since, so that we have been spared the unpleasantry of paying a rent. But I need not continue that branch of my subject. What I wish to impress upon you, children, is the fact that in spite of your poor mamma's _mesalliance_, you are of the family of Dymcoques, and that it is your duty to endeavour to raise, and not degrade, our n.o.ble house. I think I am following out the proper line of argument, Isabella?"

"Most accurately, sister."

"In the event, then, of either of you--at a future time, of course-- receiving a proposal of marriage--"

Miss Isabella reopened her fan, and began to use it in a quick, agitated manner.

"It would be your duty to study the interest of your family, children, and to endeavour to regain that which your poor mamma lost. To a lady, marriage--"

Miss Isabella's fan raised quite a draught in the chilly room, and the white tissue-paper chimney-ap.r.o.n rustled in the breeze.

"Marriage is the means by which we may recover the steps lost by those who have gone before; and I would have you to remember that our position, our family, our claims to a high descent, warrant our demanding as a right that we might mate with the n.o.blest of the land."

For a moment a curious idea crossed Clotilde's brain--that her aunts had some thought of entering the married state; but it pa.s.sed away on the instant at the next words.

"Your aunt Isabella and myself might at various times have entered into alliance with others--"

Miss Isabella's fan went rather slowly now. "But we knew what was due to our family, and we said 'No!' We sacrificed ourselves in the cause of duty, and we demand, children, in obedience to our teaching, that you do the same."

"Yes, aunt," said Clotilde demurely.

"An impecunious, poverty-stricken alliance," continued Miss Philippa, "is at best a crime, one of which no true woman would be guilty; while an alliance that brings to her family wealth _and_ position is one of which she might be proud. You understand, my children?"

"Yes, aunt," in chorus.

"We--your aunt Isabella and I--of course care little for such things; but we consider that young people of birth and position should, as a matter of duty, look forward to having diamonds, a town house, carriages and servants, pin-money. These are social necessities, children.

Plebeians may perhaps consider that they are superfluities, but such democratic notions are the offspring of ignorance. Your grandfather devoted himself to the upholding of Church and State; he was considered worthy of the trust of the Premier of his day; and it is our duty, as his descendants, to hold his name in reverence, and to add to its l.u.s.tre."

Marie, as her aunt stopped for breath, wondered in what way her grandfather had benefited his country, and could not help wishing that he had done more to benefit his heirs. Then she half wondered that she had ventured to harbour such a thought, and just then Miss Philippa said blandly:

"I think that will do, Isabella?"

"Yes, I think that will do," said that lady, dropping her fan.

"You may retire to the schoolroom, then, my dears," continued Miss Philippa. "Clotilde, come here."

The dark girl, with an unusual flush beneath her creamy skin, crossed the room to her aunt, who laid her hands upon her shoulder, gazed wistfully in her eyes, and then kissed her upon either cheek.

"Wonderfully like your papa, my child," she said, and she pa.s.sed her on to Miss Isabella. "But the Dymcoques' carriage."

"Ah, yes! wonderfully like your papa," sighed Miss Isabella, and she, too, kissed Clotilde upon either cheek. "But the Dymcoques' carriage."

"Marie," said Miss Philippa, "come here, child."

Marie rose from her chair, crossed to her aunt, received a hand upon each shoulder and a kiss upon either cheek.

"Yes, your papa's lineaments," sighed Miss Philippa, pa.s.sing her on also to Miss Isabella.

"Wonderfully like indeed," a.s.sented Miss Isabella sadly.

"You may retire now, children," said Miss Philippa. "You had better resume your practice and studies in the schoolroom. Well, Ruth, why do you not go?"

Poor Ruth had been expecting a similar proceeding towards her, but it did not come about, and she followed her cousins out of the room after each had made a formal curtsey, which was acknowledged by their aunts as if they were sovereigns at a state reception.

"It will cost a great deal, Isabella," said Miss Philippa, as soon as they were gone. "Yes, dear; but, as Lady Littletown says, it is an absolute necessity; and it is time they left the schoolroom for a more enlarged sphere."

The young ladies went straight to the apartment, where they had pa.s.sed the greater part of their lives, in company with a green-baize-covered table, a case of unentertaining works of an educational cast, written in that delightfully pompous didactic style considered necessary by our grandfathers for the formation of the youthful mind. There were also selections from Steele and Addison, with Johnson to the extent of "Ra.s.selas." Mangnall was there, side by side with Goldsmith, and a goodly array of those speckled-covered school books that used to have such a peculiar smell of size. On a side-table covered with a washed-out red and grey table-cover of that charming draughtboard pattern and cotton fabric, where the grey was red on the opposite side, and in other squares the reds and greys seemed to have married and had neutral offspring, stood a couple of battered and chipped twelve-inch globes, one of which was supposed to be celestial, and the other terrestrial; but time and mildew had joined hand in hand to paint these representations of the spheres with entirely fresh designs, till the terrestrial globe was studded with little dark, damp spots or stars of its own, and fungoid continents had formed themselves on the other amid seas of stain, where nothing but aerial s.p.a.ce and constellations should have been.

Ruth entered the schoolroom last, to cross over to where stood on its thin, decrepit legs the harp of other days, in the shape of a most unmusical little piano, which, when opened, looked like some fossil old-world monster of the toad nature, squeezed square and squatting there in a high-shouldered fashion, gaping wide-mouthed, and showing a row of hideous old yellow teeth, the teeth upon which for many a weary hour the girls had practised the "Battle of Prague," "Herz Quadrilles,"

and the overture to "Masaniello," cla.s.sical strains that were rather out of tune, and in unwonted guise, consequent upon so many notes being dumb, while what seemed like a row of little imps with round, flat hats performed a kind of excited automatic dance _a la Blondin_ upon the wire in the entrails of the fossil toad.

As Ruth crossed and stood leaning with one hand upon the old piano, with her eyelids drooping, and the great tears gathering slowly beneath the heavily-fringed lids, a deep sigh struggled for exit. It was not much to have missed that cold display of something like affection just shown by the ladies to her cousins; but she felt the neglect most sorely, for her tender young heart was hungry for love, and all these many sad years that she had pa.s.sed in the cheerless schoolroom, whose one window looked out upon the dismal fountain in the gloomy court, she had known so little of what real affection meant.

If she could only have received one word of sympathy just then she would have been relieved, but she was roused from her sad reverie by a sharp pat upon the cheek from Clotilde.

"Tears? Why, you're jealous! Here, Rie, the stupid thing is crying because she was not kissed."

"Goose!" exclaimed Marie. "She missed a deal! Ugh! It's very horrid."

"Yes," cried Clotilde. "Bella's teeth-spring squeaked, and I thought Pip meant to bite. Here, Ruthy, come and kiss the places and take off the nasty taste."

She held out one of her cheeks, and Ruth, whose face still tingled with the smack she had received, came forward smiling, threw her arms round her cousin, and kissed her cheeks again and again.

"Ah, I feel sweeter now!" said Clotilde, pushing Ruth away. "Make her do you, Rie."

Marie laughed unpleasantly as, without being asked, Ruth, smiling, crossed to her chair and kissed her affectionately again and again, her bright young face lighting up with almost childish pleasure, for she was of that nature of womankind whose greatest satisfaction is to give rather than receive.

"There, that will do, baby," cried Marie, laughing. "What a gushing girl you are, Ruth!" but she kissed her in return all the same, with the effect that a couple of tears stole from the girl's eyes. "Mind you don't spoil my lovely dress. Now then, Clo, what does all this mean?"

"Mean?" cried her sister, placing one hand upon the table and vaulting upon it in a sitting position. "It means--here, Ruth, go down on your knees by the door, and keep your ear by the keyhole. If you let that old hyaena Markes, or either of those wicked old cats, come and hear what we say, I'll buy a sixpenny packet of pins and come and stick them in all over you when you're in bed."

Ruth ran to the door, knelt down, and placed her ear as she was ordered to do, while her cousin went on:

"It means that the wicked old things are obliged to own at last that we have grown into women, and they want to get us married. Whoop! Lucky for them they do. If they didn't, I'd run away with one of the soldiers. I say, Rie, wasn't that big officer nice?"

"I don't know," said her sister pettishly. "I didn't taste him."