Niece Catherine.

by Mary Hampden.

CHAPTER I

The Heroine

'Catherine!--_Catherine!_'

Mrs. Arderne stood at the foot of the staircase, looking upward, and calling her companion. Though her voice sounded impatient there was an amused smile on her face, because she could hear merry laughter from the night-nursery, where 'Catherine' was helping nurse to put Ted and Toddie into bed.

The last call produced the effect desired. A tall slim young woman came running downstairs, explaining and apologising.

'Oh, I am really very sorry! Have you been trying to make me hear? I didn't know that you were calling, not until a minute ago; and then Ted was on my lap, and made himself _so_ heavy when I tried to lift him back into his cot!'

'You spoil my children.'

The mother was still smiling. Catherine laughed aloud, and very musically, the laugh of a girl to whom people had always been kind.

'If you seriously meant that accusation, Mrs. Arderne, I should have to try to prove my innocence; but as I am sure you didn't, I will only tell you what a darling Ted has been to-night. He said his hymn right through, and afterwards composed a dear little prayer for "mother's wicked headache to be taken right away." Now could I refuse to tell him about _Jack and the Beanstalk_ after that?'

Catherine was trying to smooth back her brown hair with her hands as she spoke, for several curly locks were fluttering round her equally brown eyes, Toddie having 'rumpled dear Carr's head all up,' as the little girl herself would have expressed it.

'Kiss the tiny fellow "good-night" for me, dear,' said Mrs. Arderne, leading the way into the villa drawing-room. 'I called you down that you might fasten this flower in my dress, your fingers are so deft.'

After having performed the task Catherine stood back a few paces to survey the effect.

'You look delightful,' she remarked. 'But I'm not certain that it's a "companion's" place to tell you so!'

'The remark might be flattery. "Companions" are supposed to flatter.'

Catherine made a grimace. This was a bad habit she had, a trick copied unconsciously from her boy cousins in Melbourne.

'I won't ever be a first-rate "companion" then. Mrs. Arderne, it was tremendously good of you to take me, to give me a home, and a salary.

Until I came to England I hadn't the least idea how ignorant, and peculiar, and--and--and independent a creature I am!'

'You were just going to use a stronger term of opprobrium!'

'Yes, dreadful slang. I checked myself for once, just because I am in real earnest. Oh, I _am_ grateful to you! I want to learn to be of use to you,--to repay some of your goodness to me; please teach me to be a satisfactory companion in every way but that of flattery!'

There were tears sparkling in the brown eyes now, and a sweet pleading expression on the whole face. Mrs. Arderne, being a woman of the world, did not show how much she was touched, and answered laughingly,--

'Catherine, you are beautiful! Why did you spoil all my best plans for you by getting engaged to Brian North?'

A series of dimples played round the girl's lips. She put her hands behind her back, dropped a curtsey, after the manner of charity children before a benefactress, and blushed.

'Please, ma'am, I think it was because--I love him.'

'Romantic nonsense! My dear, you could as easily have loved another man.

Mr. North is not a paragon of every virtue and charm. He happened to love you, and so, soft-heartedly, you tried to pay him back for love, just as you want to pay me back because I offered you a home when you were in want of one.'

'You didn't try to patronise me. You came to me, and spoke like the dear true woman you are, as a sister might have spoken; and you burdened yourself, or rather let me burden you, with an untrained, wild, hot-tempered girl, an individual who knew simply nothing of etiquette, whose manners were all learned in the Bush! That is a gentle description of me,--you know it is! And I don't believe you needed a companion at all!'

'I have learned to appreciate the advantages of possessing one, then.

But seriously, Catherine, have you no expectations at all? Who is this uncle, who lives in this neighbourhood, to whom you were writing this afternoon?'

'Uncle Ross, or Uncle Jack--which do you mean? I wrote to them both. Oh, Uncle Ross, I suppose, for he is the elder. He is Ross Carmichael, Esq., of Carm Hall, Beverbridge, and he used to be very nice to me when I was a child. He and Uncle Jack came out to Australia once, years ago, before they quarrelled, and I have written to them every Christmas ever since.... Uncle Jack was quite a darling!'

'Why did they quarrel?'

'About an adopted nephew, named Loring Carmichael, whom they both loved.

Uncle Ross wanted to make a business man of him; Uncle Jack wished him to go into the army. I never heard quite the rights of the matter, for I never met Loring, though my Melbourne cousins knew him well; in fact, one of them was in Egypt at the time he was. He became a soldier, but only a "private," for he enlisted; he left home hoping that his absence would heal the feud between his uncles.'

'Whereabouts _is_ Carm Hall?'

'I asked the stationmaster when we arrived this afternoon, and he said, "It's four miles straight up the road from Woodley Villa, miss." So I shall walk up to see my uncles to-morrow morning, with your consent.

Four miles are nothing!'

'Since they have quarrelled, they maybe living in different places, not in the old home.'

'Oh, I hope not. The stationmaster said "Yes," when I asked if they were both well. He looked as though he wanted to talk a lot about them, but of course I could not allow him to gossip about my own relatives.'

'But is the adopted nephew dead? There is the "fly" at the door, and I must go, but I want to find out first what expectations you have, my dear. Tell me, in a few words!'

Catherine's face was quite grave now.

'Yes, he died in battle, in the third year after he left home. Uncle Ross means to leave all his fortune to charities, and Uncle Jack never had any money to speak of, so my "expectations" are _nil_, Mrs. Arderne, dear. I shall earn my own living until Brian can afford to get married.

If uncle's intentions had not been fully explained to me in one of his own letters, I should not have expected any part of his fortune, for my Melbourne cousins are nearer kin to him than I.... Now let me help you on with your cloak.... Wasn't it wonderful that you should have taken a furnished house in this very neighbourhood?'

'I've many friends here, you see. After to-night you must come out with me, child. A little gaiety will do you good.'

The expressive face lit up with smiles again, as Catherine cried,--

'How kind you are! But please, please, don't worry over me. I believe you are often quite unhappy for my sake, just because my stepfather squandered all my money. Dear Mrs. Arderne, _money doesn't matter_, it really doesn't. If I were delicate, unable to earn my living, I might merit pity, but not as I am. Why, I've never been ill in my life, and I'm _so_ happy always, that it's not the least bit of a wonder that I feel I must thank G.o.d every minute for all His goodness to me!'

Mrs. Arderne gave an impatient shrug, and hastily kissed her companion's rosy cheeks.

'Child, you are rather ridiculous sometimes. There, good-night. That "fly" has been at the door five minutes, and I shall be late for Mrs.

Dumbarton's dance.'

Catherine ran out into the hall to wave a hand as her employer and friend was driven away, then went upstairs again to peep at the children, to whom she was devotedly attached. Six-year-old Ted was slumbering quite peacefully, his usually mischievous expression having given place to a seraphic smile. As the girl bent above him he laughed in his sleep, so she dared not linger by his side, lest he might wake to clamour for the history of _Jack and the Beanstalk_ all over again.

Pa.s.sing into the inner room, she found 'Toddie' (otherwise Nora) likewise wrapped in slumber, and not in danger of being disturbed by a kiss. Toddie was a very calm, sensible little person, a model of deportment and good conduct, compared with that enchanting rebel Ted, who was but one year her junior.

Presently Catherine stole away, into the sanctum of her bedroom; and there, kneeling on the hearth, with her hands stretched out to the blaze of a glorious fire, she gave herself up to pleasant thoughts, many of which were connected with the portrait of Brian North, which occupied the place of honour on the mantelpiece.