CHAPTER XVI.
LULU'S PROTEST.
Lulu's self-upbraidings were broken in upon by a gentle tap at her door,followed by Grace's voice saying in glad, eager tones, "Come, Lulu, mammais going to read us some of her letter from papa. And you shall see minetoo, if you want to."
"Yes, I'll be there in a minute," Lulu replied, jumping up, hastilyfolding her letter, slipping it into its envelope, and that into herpocket.
This done, she hurried into Violet's dressing-room and joined Max andGrace as listeners to the reading of her father's letter to his wife.
At its conclusion Max offered the one he had received, saying, "Nowplease read mine aloud, Mamma Vi; I'm sure you would all like to hearit."
"Mine too," Grace said, laying hers in Violet's lap.
When these had been read, both Max and Grace turned expectantly to Lulu.
"Mine is just a nice little talk meant only for me," she said.
"Then, dear, we won't ask to see it," Violet answered pleasantly; and theothers seemed satisfied with the explanation.
"Of course papa hadn't heard about the school. I wonder what he wouldthink of our being sent to it," remarked Lulu.
"I have no doubt he would approve of anything done for you by my motherand grandfather," Violet answered gently.
"When do we begin there?" asked Max.
"Next Monday. But you are to be taken over this afternoon for apreliminary examination, so that you may be assigned your places andlessons, and be all ready to set to work with the others on Mondaymorning."
"Will you go with us, Mamma Vi?" asked Lulu.
"No, dear; but mamma and grandpa will."
"I must go and tell Eva, so she will be ready," exclaimed Lulu, startingup and hurrying from the room.
Evelyn had wandered to a distant part of the grounds and seated herselfupon a little grassy mound that encircled the roots of a great oak-tree.
With the sight of Lulu's joy at receiving a letter from her absent fathera fresh sense of her own heavy bereavement had come over her, and herheart seemed breaking with its load of bitter sorrow; its intenselonging for
"the touch of a vanished hand,And the sound of a voice that is still!"
She sat with her hands clasped in her lap, her eyes gazing far out overthe bayou, while tears coursed freely down her cheeks and her bosomheaved with sobs.
It was her habit to go away and weep in solitude when calmness andcheerfulness seemed no longer within her power.
Presently a light step approached, but she did not hear it, and deemedherself still alone till some one sat down beside her and, passing an armround her waist, tenderly kissed her forehead.
"Dear child," said her Aunt Elsie's sweet voice, "do not grieve so; thinkhow blest he is--forever freed from all earth's cares and troubles, painsand sicknesses, and forever with the Lord he loved so well."
"Yes; oh, I am glad for him!" she cried; "but how, oh, how shall I everlearn to live without him?"
"By getting nearer to Him who has said, 'I will be a Father of thefatherless: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'
"Dear child, Jesus loves you with a purer, deeper, stronger love than anyearthly parent can feel for his child.
"And He will never suffer any trial to visit you which shall not be foryour good; He will give you strength to bear all that He appoints, andwhen the work of grace is done will take you to be forever with Himselfand the dear ones gone before."
"Yes, Aunt Elsie, thank you; it is very sweet and comforting to know andremember all that.
"And He has given me such a good home with you and uncle; and everybodyis so kind to me, I ought to be happy; and I am most of the time, but nowand then such a longing for papa comes over me that I am compelled to goaway by myself and indulge my grief for a little. Do you think it iswrong to do so?"
"No, dear, Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, and did not rebuke thesisters for indulging their grief, so I cannot believe our kind heavenlyFather would forbid us the relief of tears."
The conversation gradually drifted to other themes, and when Lulu joinedthem they were talking of the studies Evelyn should pursue at Oakdale.
Lulu made her communication; then she and Evelyn went into the house todress for dinner and the drive which was to be taken immediately after.
Each rejoiced that they were to be together in this new experience, andthey were greatly pleased when, having examined them in their studies,Professor Manton assigned them to the same classes and to adjoiningdesks.
They were pleased, too, with Oakdale. It had been a very fine placebefore the war, the residence of a family of wealth and standing; andthough now in a measure fallen into decay, was still an attractive spot,not destitute of beauty.
The rooms appointed to study and recitation were of good size, airy, andwell lighted; with a pleasant outlook--here upon lawn and lakelet, thereon garden, shrubbery, or orange orchard.
"I think it is a beautiful place for a school," Lulu remarked as theywere on their homeward way; "we shall enjoy wandering around the grounds,or sitting under the trees on the lawn, at recess."
"Or having a game of ball," said Max.
"Do you like Professor Manton, Eva?" asked Lulu, with a look of disgustas she mentioned his name.
"I don't know him yet," Evelyn replied, half smiling. "I intend to try tolike him."
"I don't!" cried Lulu with vehemence; "he's too pompous and too--what isit?"
"Fawning," supplied Max. "I'm just certain he has heard that GrandpaDinsmore and Grandma Elsie are very rich, and I guess he thinks we aretheir own grandchildren."
"Perhaps it is just as well, if it will make him treat you all thebetter," remarked Rosie; "therefore I shall not enlighten him. I haveformed the same opinion of him that you and Lulu have, Max."
"But don't let us judge him too hastily," said Evelyn. "Thinking ill ofhim will only make it hard to treat him with the respect we should whilewe are his pupils."
"Very sage advice, Miss Leland," laughed Rosie. "But seriously, I am sureyou are quite right."
"So am I," said Max; "and I, for one, intend to try to behave and studyexactly as if he were as worthy of respect as even Grandpa Dinsmorehimself."
"I too," said Evelyn; "and as if all the teachers were."
"Very good resolutions," said Rosie; "so I adopt them for myself."
"Well," sighed Lulu, "resolutions don't seem to amount to much with me,but I haven't the least intention of misbehaving or wasting my time andopportunities."
She said it earnestly, really meaning every word of it.
The children would probably not have expressed themselves quite so freelyin the presence of their elders; but they were alone in the carriage, Mr.Dinsmore and his daughter having prepared to take the trip on horseback.
Rosie, however, reported to her mother that part of the conversationrelating to their intended good conduct, and so greatly rejoiced herheart, for she had been somewhat anxious in regard to the impressionmade upon the children--especially Lulu, who was a keen observer ofcharacter--by the professor, and its effect upon their behavior towardhim. She had feared that Lulu, who never did anything by halves, wouldconceive a great contempt and dislike for the man, in which case therewould be small hope of her conducting herself at all as she should whileattending the school.
Mr. Dinsmore and Violet had shared her fears, and they had consultedtogether as to the measures it might be wise to take in hope of avertingthe unpleasant and trying occurrences which they dreaded.
"Do you think I should talk with her about it?" asked Violet. "Oh, if Ionly knew what it would be best to say!"
"Perhaps the less the better," her grandfather said, with a smile; "Ishould advise you not to prepare a set sermon, but to say nothing unlessupon the spur of the moment, when something she does or says may leadnaturally to it."
"No, do not let us disgust her with long lectures," said Elsie; "she is achild that will not endure a great deal in the way of reproof oradmonition."
"But
perhaps, papa, a few words from you, who are certainly much wiserthan either Vi or myself, might have a good effect."
"No," he said, "because she respects you quite as much as she does me,and loves you far better. You are the one whose words will be most likelyto benefit her."
"Then I will undertake it, asking for wisdom from above that I may do hergood and not harm," Elsie replied in a low, earnest tone.
The task thus devolving upon her, she seized a favorable moment, whenalone with Lulu, to remind her that she now had an opportunity toestablish a character for diligence and good behavior, as she was takinga new start among strangers; while home friends were quite ready tobelieve that she had turned over a new leaf and would henceforth striveto be and to do just what would please her heavenly Father and the dearearthly one who loved her so fondly.
The words were accompanied by a tender caress; and Lulu, looking upbrightly, lovingly into the kind face bending over her, impulsively threwher arms round Elsie's neck, saying, "Yes, indeed, dear Grandma Elsie, Ido mean to try with all my might to be a good girl, and to learn all Ipossibly can.
"I am not at all sure of success, though," she added, her face cloudingand her eyes seeking the floor.
"Dear child," Elsie said, "remember that the Lord says to us, 'In Me isthine help.' Look to Him for help and strength in every time of trial,and you will come off at last more than conqueror."
"How kind you are, Grandma Elsie!" Lulu said gratefully. "I think you dobelieve in me yet--believe that I do really want to be good; though Ihave failed so often."
"My dear little girl, I have not a doubt of it," was the kind response;and Lulu's heart grew light: the trustful words gave her renewed hope andcourage for the fight with her besetting sins.
And she, and the others also, made a very fair beginning, winning goldenopinions from their teachers.
Both Max and the girls found pleasant companions among their newschoolmates, while the principal of the institution was less disagreeablethan they had at first esteemed him, though they all agreed amongthemselves that it would be quite impossible ever to feel any affectionfor him, his wife, or Miss Diana, with whom the little girls had most todo.
They all liked Miss Emily best, but Walter was the only one of theirnumber belonging to her department, and she seldom came in contact withany of the others.
They all took lessons in French; and as Signor Foresti had the reputationof being a very fine music-teacher, it had been arranged that the threelittle girls should be numbered among his pupils. But the first day,Lulu, on coming home from school, went to Violet with a strong protestagainst being taught by him.
"Mamma Vi," she said, "the girls in his class say he has a dreadful,dreadful temper, gets angry and abusive when they make the slightestmistake, and sometimes strikes them with a whalebone pointer he alwayshas in his hand; that is, he snaps it on their fingers, and it hurtsterribly. I shouldn't mind the pain so much; but it would just make mefurious to be disgraced by a blow from anybody, especially a man--unlessit were papa, who would have a right, of course," she added, with a vividblush. "So, Mamma Vi, please save me from having him for my teacher."
Violet looked much perplexed and disturbed. "Lulu, dear, it doesn't restwith me to decide the matter, you know," she said, in a soothing,sympathetic tone; "if it did, I should at once say you need not. But Iwill speak to grandpa and mamma about it."
"Well, Mamma Vi, if I must try it, won't you tell him beforehand that heis never to strike me? If he does, I'll not be able to restrain myselfand I'll strike him back; I just know I shall. And then we'll all besorry I was forced to take lessons of him."
"Oh, Lulu, my dear child, I hope you would never do that!" cried Violetin distress. "How would your father feel? what would he say when he heardof it?"
"I don't know, Mamma Vi, but I don't believe he would allow that man tostrike me; and I dare say he would think I served him right if I struckhim back. However, I don't mean to be understood as having formed thedeliberate purpose of doing so; only I feel that that's what I should dowithout waiting a second to think."
Violet thought it altogether likely, and after a moment's cogitationpromised that the signor should be told that he could have Lulu for apupil only with the distinct understanding that he was never, on anyaccount, to give her a blow.
"And, Lulu, dear," she added entreatingly, "you will try not to furnishhim the slightest excuse for punishing you, will you not?"
"Yes, Mamma Vi; but I do want to escape taking lessons of him, for fearwe might fall out and have a fight," returned the little girl, laughingto keep from showing that she was almost ready to cry with vexation atthe very idea of being compelled to become a pupil of the fiery littleItalian.
He was a diminutive man of rather forbidding aspect.
"I fear that in that case you would get the worst of it," Violetremarked, with a faint smile.
"He is only a little man, Mamma Vi," Lulu said, shaking her head indissent; "the professor would make two of him, I think,"
"And you are only a little girl, and men and boys are, as a rule, farstronger than women and girls," replied Violet. "But aside from thatconsideration it would be a dreadful thing for you to come to acollision; and I shall certainly do what I can to prevent it."
In pursuance of that end she presently went in search of her mother andgrandfather.
She found them and Mrs. Dinsmore seated together on the lawn; the ladiesbusied with, their needlework, Mr. Dinsmore reading aloud.
As Violet approached, he paused, and laying the open book down on hisknee, made room for her by his side.
"Don't let me interrupt you, grandpa," she said, accepting his muteinvitation.
"Perhaps grandpa is ready to rest," remarked her mother; "he has beenreading steadily for more than an hour."
"Yes; I am ready to hear what my little cricket has to say," he said,looking inquiringly at Violet.
"It will keep, grandpa," she answered lightly.
"No," he said, "let us have it now; I see something is causing youanxiety and you have come to ask counsel or help in some direction."
"Ah, grandpa," she responded, with a smile, "you were always good atreading faces;" then went on to repeat the conversation just held withLulu.
"What do you say, grandpa, grandma, and mamma," she wound up, "shall weinsist on her taking music-lessons of Signor Foresti?"
"Yes," said Mr. Dinsmore, with decision; "he is an uncommonly fineteacher, and it is desirable that she should enjoy, or rather profit by,his instructions; also it is high time she should become thoroughlyconvinced of the necessity of controlling that violent temper of hers.She needs to be taught submission to lawful authority too; and indulgingher in this whim would, in my judgment, be likely to have the veryopposite effect. What do you say, Rose and Elsie?"
"I presume you are right, Horace, as you usually are," replied his wife.
"I prefer to leave the question entirely to your decision, papa," saidElsie. "But shall we not yield to the child's wishes so far as to warnthe man beforehand that he is never, upon any pretext, to give her ablow? I will not have him strike Rosie," she added with heightened color;"if he ventured such a thing I should take her immediately away."
Her father regarded her with an amused smile. "I have seldom seen you soexcited, so nearly angry, as at that thought," he remarked. "But Rosie isnot at all likely to give him any pretext for so doing; nor is Evelyn;they are both remarkably even-tempered and painstaking with theirstudies.
"However, I shall warn Signor Foresti in regard to his treatment of allthree of the little girls sent by us to the school; telling him that ifthey are idle or wanting in docility and respect, he is simply to reportthem for discipline at home. Will that answer, Violet?"
"Nicely, thank you, grandpa," she said, with a sigh of relief.
Lulu looked but half satisfied when her mamma reported the result of herintercession with those higher in authority; but seeing there was nothingmore to be gained, quietly submitted to the inevitable.<
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The Two Elsies Page 16
