Beechcroft at Rockstone | Page 9

preceding even Aunt Adeline's
inquiries after Mysie, and the full explanation of the particulars of the
family dispersion. Aunt Ada's welcome was not at all like that of Kunz.
She was very tender and caressing, and rejoiced that her sister could
trust her children to her. They should all get on most happily together,
she had no doubt.
True-hearted as Gillian was, there was something hopeful and
refreshing in the sight of that fair, smiling face, and the touch of the
soft hand, in the room that was by no means unfamiliar, though she had
never slept in the house before. It was growing dark, and the little fire
lighted it up in a friendly manner. Wherever Aunt Jane was, everything
was neat; wherever Aunt Adeline was, everything was graceful. Gillian
was old enough to like the general prettiness; but it somewhat awed Val
and Fergus, who stood straight and shy till they were taken upstairs.
The two girls had a very pretty room and dressing-room---the guest
chamber, in fact; and Fergus was not far off, in a small apartment
which, as Val said, 'stood on legs,' and formed the shelter of the porch.
'But, oh dear! oh dear!' sighed Val, as Gillian unpacked their evening
garments, 'Isn't there any nice place at all where one can make a mess?'
'I don't know whether the aunts will ever let us make a mess,' said
Gillian; 'they don't look like it.'

At which Valetta's face puckered up in the way only too familiar to her
friends.
'Come, don't be silly, Val. You won't have much time, you know; you
will go to school, and get some friends to play with, and not want to
make messes here.'
'I hate friends!'
'Oh, Val!'
'All but Fly, and Mysie is gone to her. I want Mysie.'
So in truth did Gillian, almost as much as her mother. Her heart sank as
she thought of having Val and Fergus to save from scrapes without
Mysie's readiness and good humour. If Mysie were but there she should
be free for her 'great thing.' And oh! above all, Val's hair---the brown
bush that Val had a delusion that she 'did' herself, but which her 'doing'
left looking rather worse than it did before, and which was not
permitted in public to be in the convenient tail. Gillian advanced on her
with the brush, but she tossed it and declared it all right!
However, at that moment there was a knock. Mrs. Mount's kindly face
and stout form appeared. She had dressed Miss Ada and came to see
what she could do for the young people, being of that delightful class of
old servants who are charmed to have anything young in the house,
especially a boy. She took Valetta's refractory mane in hand, tied her
sash, inspected Fergus's hands, which had succeeded in getting dirty in
their inevitable fashion, and undertook all the unpacking and arranging.
To Val's inquiry whether there was any place for making 'a dear
delightful mess' she replied with a curious little friendly smile, and
wonder that a young lady should want such a thing.
'I'm afraid we are all rather strange specimens of young ladies,' replied
Gillian; 'very untidy, I mean.'
'And I'm sure I don't know what Miss Mohun and Miss Ada will say'
said good Mrs. Mount.

'What's that? What am I to say?' asked Aunt Jane, coming into the
room.
But, after all, Aunt Jane proved to have more sympathy with 'messes'
than any of the others. She knew very well that the children would be
far less troublesome if they had a place to themselves, and she said,
'Well, Val, you shall have the boxroom in the attics. And mind, you
must keep all your goods there, both of you. If I find them about the
house, I shall---'
'Oh, what, Aunt Jane?'
'Confiscate them,' was the reply, in a very awful voice, which
impressed Fergus the more because he did not understand the word.
'You need not look so much alarmed, Fergus,' said Gillian; 'you are not
at all the likely one to transgress.'
'No,' said Valetta gravely. 'Fergus is what Lois calls a regular old
battledore.'
'I won't be called names,' exclaimed Fergus.
'Well, Lois said so---when you were so cross because the poker had got
on the same side as the tongs! She said she never saw such an old
battledore, and you know how all the others took it up.'
'Shuttlecock yourself then!' angrily responded Fergus, while both aunt
and sister were laughing too much to interfere.
'I shall call you a little Uncle Maurice instead,' said Aunt Jane. 'How
things come round! Perhaps you would not believe, Gill, that Aunt Ada
was once in a scrape, when she was our Mrs. Malaprop, for applying