by L. T. Meade
CHAPTER XX.
THE ORDERLY-BOOK.
The children returned to the house only just in time to dress for latedinner, for while in the country Mrs. Richmond had the four youngpeople to dine with her. As they walked up through the shrubbery theone topic of conversation was the guests who had just picnicked withthem.
"I don't believe mother will like it," said Nora. "We ought not tohave done it without asking her permission. It was your fault,Augusta; you should not have done it."
"Nonsense!" said Augusta. "I could not help myself. Americans are notso frightfully formal and stuck-up as we English. For my part, I thinkthe Asprays are the most charming girls? Nancy, don't you agree withme?"
"I don't know anything about them," replied Nancy.
"Well, dear, you can know all about them if you like," said Augusta ina very marked tone.
Kitty opened her eyes in bewilderment. What did Augusta mean? Nancywas colouring again painfully. As they reached the house the firstthing they saw was a pile of travelling-cases in the hall.
"Uncle Peter must have come," cried Kitty. "Now everything will be allright. How glad I am!" But the next moment she saw her mother, whoseface was very grave and disturbed.
"My darlings," she said, "since you went out I have had a telegramfrom my special friend in the north, Mrs. Rashleigh. She has just losther only son, and is in the most terrible grief. She has begged me togo to her. I shall have to go up to town to-night, and shall go downto Yorkshire to-morrow. I am terribly sorry to leave you four to yourown devices, particularly as Miss Roy is away. But fortunately UnclePeter arrives in the morning, and I have no doubt that you will all beas good as possible under your uncle's care."
"Isn't Uncle Peter coming to-night?" said Nancy, speaking very slowly,and with great anxiety in her tone.
"Oh, you thought so because his luggage has arrived!" said Mrs.Richmond. "No. I have had a wire from him. He has sent his luggage on,but is staying with an old friend at Tiverton till the morning."
"Oh mother, how we shall miss you!" here exclaimed Kitty.
"And I you, my darlings; but I am so shocked at my dear friend'strouble that I cannot really stay away from her. Now, my own twolittle girls, will you come upstairs and help mother to finish herpacking?"
Kitty and Nora both quickly complied. Their mother's room was in agreat state of confusion. Her maid was strapping boxes and writinglabels, and looking very much put out. Mrs. Richmond tied on herbonnet; then she turned to the girls.
"You will find the orderly-book," she said, "in the chiffonier in thedrawing-room; here is the key. I have just entered your marks forto-day. When Uncle Peter comes, give him the book. He will beresponsible for it and for you until I come back. Now I hear thewheels of the carriage on the gravel. I must be off."
"Oh mother! one word first," said Nora.
"It must be a very brief word, then, Nora, or I shall miss mytrain"----
"We met the Asprays on the beach, mother."
"The Asprays, dear? I don't understand."
"If you please, mum," said the parlour-maid at this moment, "Harrissays that unless you come at once you won't catch your train."
"I am quite ready," said Mrs. Richmond. "Come, Merton, you cannot wasteany more time over the packages.--Darlings, the Asprays, whoever theyare, must keep. Good-bye, my pets--good-bye."
In two minutes more the carriage was bowling down the avenue, Mrs.Richmond was gone, and the four girls looked at each other.
"It is most provoking," said Nora. "She never told us anything aboutthe Asprays. What are we to do?"
"To do!" said Augusta. "To take all the fun we can out of them. Whatelse could we do?"
"All the same, I don't think they are a bit the sort of girls thatmother would like," said Kitty. "But there! it doesn't matter, forwhen Uncle Peter comes he will know what we ought or ought not to do."
The rest of the evening passed somewhat sadly. Not only Kitty andNora, but Nancy, too, missed the gentle presence of kind Mrs. Richmond.Augusta's mind, too, was full of many things, and she was as silent asher cousins. Nancy was the first to suggest an early retirement tobed, and the others quickly followed her example.
Fairleigh was a large, rambling, old-fashioned house. It had belongedto the Richmonds for many generations, and had been added to andaltered from time to time. The bedrooms were numerous but small.Augusta had been given a very tiny room leading out of Mrs. Richmond'slarger bedroom. Kitty, Nora, and Nancy had also bedrooms apiece, buttheir rooms were in the opposite wing of the house.
Augusta was tired and her head ached. The day through which she hadjust lived had been anything but to her taste. It is true there hadbeen a certain amount of excitement, which had carried her through thelong hours. But her mind was ill at ease. That bad mark in theorderly-book came between her and her rest. To receive a bad mark forconduct in Captain Richmond's orderly-book would, she knew, be all butfatal for her chance of the Royal Cross. He was anxious and particularwith regard to physical training and intellectual training, but firstof all came conduct--conduct straight and conduct honourable. Augustaadmired him very much, but at the same time she was afraid of him; forthe Captain had a look in those blue eyes of his which caused her ownto drop. She had an uncomfortable sensation when she saw him lookingat her that he was reading right down into her heart. When he saw thebad-conduct mark he would not rest until he found out all particularswith regard to it. Mrs. Richmond, if she had given it at all, had givenit for cruelty--for cruelty to Nancy, who was a special favourite ofthe Captain's. But had Mrs. Richmond given that mark? That was thequestion which tormented Augusta and kept her from sleep. She got intobed, it is true, but instead of dropping off, as was her usual custom,into happy and healthy slumber, she tossed from side to side, thinkingand thinking of Captain Richmond, and the bad mark. He would arrive inthe morning, and would naturally inquire how his battalion wasprogressing--how his soldiers were conducting themselves. He would bevery jolly, very agreeable, and a great acquisition, but at the sametime he would come on Augusta at that moment of her career as a sortof Nemesis. "Notwithstanding all his agreeableness," she said toherself, "I do wish he would not come just now. He is certain to makea fuss, too, about the Asprays; and from what Flora and Constance tellme, we are likely to have a splendid time with them--that is, _I_shall have a splendid time. Brilliant, handsome, gay sort of girlslike Constance and Flora are not likely to meet with my painfullyold-fashioned cousins' approval. And as to Nancy, of course, shedoesn't count. But _I_ should enjoy their society, and if UnclePeter were not coming _I_ should have it. Oh! I know they won'tsuit him. Dear, dear! what a nuisance and worry everything is!"
At this juncture in her thoughts Augusta dropped into an uneasy doze,but she awakened in an hour or two to see the moonlight streaming intoher room, and to find herself more awake than ever.
"I wonder if Aunt Jessie has given me that bad mark," she thought. "Ido wish I could see for myself. It is quite possible that in the hurryof her departure she forgot to make the entry. What a rare bit of luckit would be if such were the case!--for she is certain to forget allabout it when she returns. I wish I could see the book; it would besuch a tremendous rest to my mind?"
The more Augusta thought over this suddenly conceived idea, the moreshe longed to put it into execution. Sleep would not again visit her.It was dull beyond words to lie awake all night. Now that Mrs. Richmondwas away, she was in a part of the house quite away from the rest ofthe family. If she got up no one would hear her. She would get up. Shewould go downstairs and examine the orderly-book, and find out thetruth for herself.
She jumped out of bed, put on her dressing-gown and slippers, andgoing very softly up the three steps which communicated with Mrs.Richmond's room, opened the door and went in. This room was alsobright with moonlight. Augusta crossed the room and opened the doorwhich led on to the landing, and a moment later found herself in thedrawing-room. She knew where Mrs. Richmond kept the orderly-book. Therewas a very pretty old Sheraton chiffon
ier in one corner of the room,which contained many old-world drawers and queer hiding-places. Itslegs were thin and spindly. It was a frail piece of furniture, butvery good to look at. Mrs. Richmond was charmed with it, and as it wasa recent acquisition she made use of it to keep her letter-paper andwriting materials, and many other things, besides the orderly-book.But Augusta had quite forgotten that the drawer in which this book wasalways kept was locked, and she tugged and tugged now with a feelingof great irritation. To go so far and risk so much and to meet failureafter all was anything but to her mind. She could be at times almostreckless in her desire to carry out her own wishes. She entered thedining-room now, opened a drawer in the sideboard, and taking out astout knife, she returned to the Sheraton chiffonier. The chiffonierwas old, and the locks not of the strongest. A little manipulationwith the knife caused the hasp to go back, and without seriouslyinjuring the piece of furniture, Augusta managed to open the drawer.
While upstairs she had not dared to strike a match, but in thedrawing-room she was too far away to run any risk of being overheard.Accordingly she lit a couple of candles, and taking the heavy book,she laid it on Mrs. Richmond's desk. Never before had she beenpermitted to see the entries made in the orderly-book, and she wasdeeply interested now. In particular the pages devoted to "AugustaDuncan" claimed her attention. After all she need not have beennervous, for Augusta had done well--very well--and, oh, wonder ofwonders, delight of delights! there were so far no bad marks setagainst her name. On the contrary, the words "Good--good--good"appeared as she turned page after page.
"What a blessing!" she said to herself. "Aunt Jessie did forget; andnow I can face the whole world with an easy mind."
She was about to shut the book when it occurred to her to see whatsort of marks the other girls had got. Captain Richmond had soarranged his orderly-book that day by day each girl had a page devotedto herself. These pages might be filled up or left blank according tothe wishes and inclination of the person who entered the daily record.But for Kitty, for Nora, for Augusta, and for Nancy there was for eachday a complete and separate page. Upon that page stood the record ofthe young life which had been lived during that special day. Now, theday which had just gone by was the 24th of August. Augusta amusedherself reading the different remarks with regard to her cousins. BothNora and Kitty had scored high. Their industry was considerable; theyhad risen early; they were neat in their persons and with regard totheir rooms. Finally, the conduct of each girl was excellent. Yes,that was the word.
Augusta turned back to the page which recorded her own life on thisspecial day. She too had "excellent" put against her conduct. She hadnot noticed this before.
"It is too funny!" she thought. "Nancy must have been very persuasivealthough she knew it not. Aunt Jessie has never spoken of my conductbefore as excellent. Dear, dear! I could hug the dear old aunty wereshe here. Why, she could not have said better of Nancy herself. Shewas evidently in a hurry, for she has not filled up the page. But myconduct is excellent. I declare it is a huge joke. Well, this sets mymind absolutely at rest. I will just glance at Nancy's page. If AuntJessie considered my conduct excellent to-day, what will she have tosay with regard to the little favourite?"
Augusta turned the leaves of the book, and soon arrived at Nancy'spage. It looked strangely empty. There were no remarks about earlyrising, nor intelligence, nor order, nor neatness. There were onlyblanks there, and under the heading "Conduct" Augusta read, "_Badconduct_--_guilty of cruelty_."
Augusta nearly fell back as she read the words.]
She nearly fell back as she read the words. The colour rushed in acrimson tide to her face, and just for an instant she felt strangelygiddy. Then she shut the book, and putting it back into thechiffonier, stole softly and quietly upstairs to bed. She knew, ofcourse, exactly what had happened. Aunt Jessie in her hurry had madean extraordinary and inexplicable mistake. She had written Nancy'srecord on Augusta's page.
"Well, I never!" said Augusta to herself. She quite panted in herexcitement and flurry. When she first lay down in bed she was cold andtrembling, and her impulse was to explain the matter to every one andclear Nancy.
But, alas! to do this required some nobility of nature, and Augustawas not noble enough. To expose herself, to show herself in her truelight in the eyes of Captain Richmond, was more than she could stand;and she had not been half-an-hour in bed before she began tocongratulate herself on her lucky--most lucky--escape.
"They will never, never know that I know," she said to herself. "Ihave but to remain quiet and allow things to run their course. Nochance of the Royal Cross for you, little Miss Nancy; but there aregreat chances of my obtaining the longed-for prize. I am in luck. Ideclare I am quite sleepy, the relief is so great."
She turned on her side, and a moment later was sleeping as innocentlyas a baby.
