by L. T. Meade
accompaniedby Annie, she went out of the play-room, across the stone hall, andthrough the baize doors until she reached her own delightful privatesitting-room.
There were heaps of pretty things about, and Nan gazed round her withthe appreciative glance of a pleased connoisseur.
"Pitty 'oom," she said approvingly. "Nan likes this 'oom. Me'll stayhere, and so will Annie."
Here she uttered a sudden cry of rapture--on the floor, with its leavestemptingly open, lay a gayly-painted picture-book, and curled up in asoft fluffy ball by its side was a white Persian kitten asleep.
Mrs Willis whispered something to Annie, who ran out of the room, andNan knelt down in a perfect rapture of worship by the kitten's side.
"Pitty tibby pussy!" she exclaimed several times, and she rubbed it sopersistently the wrong way that the kitten shivered and stood up, archedits beck very high, yawned, turned round three times, and lay downagain. Alas! "tibby pussy" was not allowed to have any continuousslumber. Nan dragged the Persian by its tail into her lap, and when itresisted this indignity, and with two or three light bounds disappearedout of the room, she stretched out her little hands and began to cry forit.
"Turn back, puss, puss--turn back, poor tibby puss--Nan loves 'oo.Annie, go fetch puss for Nan." Then for the first time she discoveredthat Annie was absent, and that she was alone, with the exception ofMrs Willis, who sat busily writing at a distant table.
Mrs Willis counted for nothing at all with Nan--she did not considerher of the smallest importance, and after giving her a quick glance ofsome disdain she began to trot round the room on a voyage of discovery.Any moment Annie would come back--Annie had, indeed, probably gone tofetch the kitten, and would quickly return with it. She walked slowlyround and round, keeping well away from that part of the room where MrsWillis sat. Presently she found a very choice little china jug, whichshe carefully subtracted with her small fingers from a cabinet, whichcontained many valuable treasures. She sat down on the floor exactlybeneath the cabinet, and began to play with her jug. She went throughin eager pantomime a little game which Annie had invented for her, andimagined that she was a little milkmaid, and that the jug was full ofsweet new milk; she called out to an imaginary set of purchasers, "Wantany milk?" and then she floured some by way of drops of milk into thepalm of her little hand, which she drank up in the name of her customerswith considerable gusto. Presently, knocking the little jug with somevehemence on the floor she deprived it with one neat blow of its handleand spout. Mrs Willis was busily writing, and did not look up. Nanwas not in the least disconcerted; she said aloud--
"Poor tibby zug b'oke," and then she left the fragments on the floor,and started off on a fresh voyage of discovery. This time she draggeddown a large photographic album on to a cushion, and, kneeling by it,began to look through the pictures, flapping the pages together with aloud noise, and laughing merrily as she did so. She was now much nearerto Mrs Willis, who was attracted by the sound, and looking up hastenedto the rescue of one of her most precious collections of photographs.
"Nan, dear," she said, "shut up that book at once. Nan mustn't touch.Shut the book, darling, and go and sit on the floor, and look at yournice-coloured pictures."
Nan, still holding a chubby hand between the leaves of the album, gaveMrs Willis a full defiant glance, and said--
"Me won't."
"Come, Nan," said the head-mistress.
"Me want Annie," said Nan, still kneeling by the album, and, bending herhead over the photographs, she turned the page and burst into a peal oflaughter.
"Pitty bow vow," she said, pointing to a photograph of a retriever; "oh,pitty bow woo, Nan loves 'oo."
Mrs Willis stooped down and lifted the little girl into her arms.
"Nan, dear," she said, "it is naughty to disobey. Sit down by yourpicture-book, and be a good girl."
"Me won't," said Nan again, and here she raised her small dimpled handand gave Mrs Willis a smart slap on her cheek.
"Naughty lady, me don't like 'oo; go 'way. Nan want Annie--Nan do wantAnnie. Me don't love 'oo, naughty lady; go 'way."
Mrs Willis took Nan on her knee. She felt that the little will must bebent to hers, but the task was no easy one. The child scarcely knewher, she was still weak and excitable, and she presently burst intostorms of tears, and sobbed and sobbed as though her little heart wouldbreak, her one cry being for "Annie, Annie, Annie." When Annie did joinher in the play hour, the little cheeks were flushed, the white browached, and the child's small hands were hot and feverish. Mrs Willisfelt terribly puzzled.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
UNDER THE LAUREL-BUSH.
Mrs Willis owned to herself that she was nonplussed; it was quiteimpossible to allow Annie to neglect her studies, and yet little Nan'shealth was still too precarious to allow her to run the risk of havingthe child constantly fretted.
Suddenly a welcome idea occurred to her; she would write at once toNan's old nurse, and see if she could come to Lavender House for theremainder of the present term. Mrs Willis dispatched her letter thatvery day, and by the following evening the nurse was once more inpossession of her much-loved little charge. The habits of her babyhoodwere too strong for Nan; she returned to them gladly enough, and thoughin her heart of hearts she was still intensely loyal to Annie, she nolonger fretted when she was not with her.
Annie resumed her ordinary work and though Hester was very cold to her,several of the other girls in the school frankly confided to theirfavourite how much they had missed her, and how glad they were to haveher back with them once more.
Annie found herself at this time in an ever-shifting mood--one momentshe longed intensely for a kiss, and a fervent pardon from Mrs Willis'slips; another, she said to herself defiantly she could and would livewithout it; one moment the hungry and sorrowful look in Hester's eyeswent straight to Annie's heart, and she wished she might restore herlittle treasure whom she had stolen; the next she rejoiced in herstrange power over Nan, and resolved to keep all the love she could get.
In short, Annie was in that condition when she could be easilyinfluenced for good or evil--she was in that state of weakness whentemptation is least easily resisted.
A few days after the arrival of Nan's nurse Mrs Willis was obligedunexpectedly to leave home; a near relative was dangerously ill inLondon, and the school-mistress went away in much trouble and anxiety.Some of her favourite pupils flocked to the front entrance to see theirbeloved mistress off. Amongst the group Cecil stood, and several girlsof the first-class; many of the little girls were also present, butAnnie was not amongst them. Just at the last moment she rushed upbreathlessly; she was tying some starry jasmine and some blueforget-me-nots together, and as the carriage was moving off she flungthe charming bouquet into her mistress's lap.
Mrs Willis rewarded her with one of her old looks of confidence andlove; she raised the flowers to her lips and kissed them, and her eyessmiled on Annie.
"Good-bye, dear," she called out; "good-bye, all my dear girls; I willtry and be back to-morrow night. Remember, my children, during myabsence I trust you."
The carriage disappeared down the avenue, and the group of girls meltedaway. Cecil looked round for Annie, but Annie had been the first todisappear.
When her mistress had kissed the flowers and smiled at her, Annie dartedinto the shrubbery and stood there wiping the fast-falling tears fromher eyes. She was interrupted in this occupation by the sudden cries oftwo glad and eager voices, and instantly her hands were taken, and somegirls rather younger than herself began to drag her in the oppositedirection through the shrubbery.
"Come, Annie--come at once, Annie, darling," exclaimed Phyllis and NoraRaymond. "The basket has come; it's under the thick laurel-tree in theback avenue. We are all waiting for you; we none of us will open ittill you arrive."
Annie's face, a truly April one, changed as if by magic. The tearsdried on her cheeks; her eyes filled with sunlight; she was all eagerfor the coming fun.
"Then we won't lo
se a moment, Phyllis," she said; "we'll see what thatduck of a Betty has done for us."
The three girls scampered down the back avenue, where they found five oftheir companions, amongst them Susan Drummond, standing in differentattitudes of expectation near a very large and low-growing laurel-tree.Everyone raised a shout when Annie appeared; she was undoubtedlyrecognised as queen and leader of the proceedings. She took her postwithout an instant's hesitation, and began ordering her willing subjectsabout.
"Now, is the coast clear? yes, I think so. Come, Susie, greedy as youare, you must take your part. You alone of all of us can cackle withthe exact imitation of an old hen: get behind that tree at once andwatch the yard. Don't forget to cackle for your life if
