Aunt Mary

by Sophie May

  CHAPTER VII.

  THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.

  It was a lovely day, this 10th of August; there was scarcely a cloud tobe seen in the sky. The trees, it is true, were beginning to put ontheir russet tints here and there, but this only added to the beauty oftheir colouring; there certainly was at present no disagreeableappearance of coming changes.

  It had been agreed, on the preceding evening, that Mr. and Mrs. Nortonshould call for Mabel and Julia, as Mr. Ellis had declared that he couldnot spare time for a day's pleasure, and poor Mrs. Ellis said that shefelt too weak at present to undertake the task of wandering about in theGardens.

  This was a great disappointment to their friends the Nortons, who werenot quite sure that Mrs. Maitland would be able to accompany her youngpeople, as she had intimated a doubt on the subject before they badeadieu on the preceding evening: however, they made up their minds thatit would be a pleasant day for the juveniles. Mr. Ellis had stronglyobjected to Mabel's making one of the party; he insisted that it wouldbe only a proper punishment to deprive her of the pleasure on accountof the recent delinquency. He was, however, over-ruled in his opinion,both by his wife and his friends, and so, very reluctantly, he wasinduced to give up the point.

  As usual, Mabel's first consideration in the morning, after her papa hadgone out, was what she should wear on this eventful day; and on hermamma's suggesting that she and Julia should put on their grey dresses,she was vehemently opposed by that young lady, who declared she wouldrather stay at home than go to the Gardens with Mr. and Mrs. Norton insuch a dowdy dress.

  Julia, on the contrary, was quite content to follow her mamma's advice,as she very wisely agreed that if they put on their light silk dresses,they might have them soiled, or perhaps spoiled. This idea, however, wastreated with contempt by Mabel, and the young lady waxed so warm in thediscussion, that the too indulgent, peace-loving Mrs. Ellis gave way,and gave permission to her daughters to do as they thought proper, onlyshe warned them that they had no time to lose.

  Away tripped the sisters to make ready--Julia with a determination tofollow her mamma's advice, Mabel with the intention of keeping her ownfoolish resolve of pride and vanity.

  An obstacle, however, presented itself on the first putting on of thesilk dress: it had not been worn for some time, as during the summermuslins had superseded silk, and Mabel found, to her great disgust, thatthe sleeves were too short. She had certainly known of this before, butas she was by no means remarkable for provident care of her clothes, intaking pains to keep them in order, a button wanting, or a rentunmended, or a sleeve too short, were things not at all to be wonderedat in Mabel's wardrobe.

  'How provoking!' she exclaimed, as she looked at her wrists; 'I cannotpossibly go out unless I have under-sleeves, and I haven't a pair.'

  'Oh, do as mamma wished,' said Julia; 'put on your grey frock. You willbe much more comfortable, because you won't be afraid of spoiling it.'

  'Hold your tongue, you foolish little thing,' replied Mabel. 'I tell youI wouldn't be seen out with Mr. and Mrs. Norton, with such a dress asyou are wearing; besides,' she continued, 'Harry Maitland will be withhis cousins.'

  'And what of that?' exclaimed Julia, in astonishment; 'surely you don'tmind what he thinks about your dress!'

  There was no direct answer to this remark, but Mabel declared she wasnot going to submit to her younger sister's dictation; and as a capitalidea seemed just then to strike her, she went to one of the smalldrawers which indeed belonged to her mamma, and took from thence a pairof beautiful lace sleeves and proceeded to put them on.

  'Oh, don't, don't!' cried Julia; 'pray do not wear those beautifulsleeves of mamma's! you know dear Aunt Mary gave them to her, and asthey are her work, mamma values them so much! Pray remember the brooch,'she added; 'or if you will persist in putting them on, go and ask leavefirst.'

  'I mean to ask mamma when we go downstairs,' said Mabel, 'but you know Ihave not time now. I wish you would not be so officious with your adviceand your cautions, just as if I didn't know how to act as well as youdo.'

  With the promise that mamma should be spoken to, Julia was obliged to besatisfied, as a loud tapping at the front-door betokened the arrival oftheir friends Mr. and Mrs. Norton; and the two girls hastily finishedtheir dressing and their discussion, and went down to join theirfriends.

  Whether, in the hurry of salutations and leave-taking, Mabel actually_forgot_ her promise to speak to her mamma about the sleeves, we shallnot undertake to say; certain it is, that there was no mention made ofthem. And the party set off in high spirits to join their young friendsthe Maitlands, as had been agreed, at the gate of the ZoologicalGardens.

  There had been strict punctuality on both sides, for neither party hadto wait.

  But great was Mabel's mortification to find Dora and Annie had, like hersister Julia, dressed themselves in their plain grey frocks, so _she_looked like a golden pheasant among a set of barn-door fowls: andhowever much vanity she possessed, her common sense taught her that shehad laid herself open to ridicule; though of course no one spoke of herdress, and even the beautiful sleeves seemed at the time to attract noattention.

  In a very short time, the whole party were intently gazing with wonderand admiration on the marvels of creation.

  The elephants, the giraffe, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, etc., allpassed in review, and elicited remarks of wonder and astonishment fromthe young visitors, such as their monstrous size and great strength werewell calculated to draw forth. The lions, tigers, leopards and bearscame in for a share of applause; but as the strength of these animals isnot evidenced by their size, I must acknowledge they were taken lessnotice of than either the huge creatures or the smaller and more elegantand delicate quadrupeds, which, generally speaking, won the admirationof the party. The bipeds, we may be sure, were not neglected; but thecongregated tribe of them kept up such an incessant clatter, that havingborne it for some little time, Harry Maitland was fain to stop his earsand run out of their house, declaring that 'their noise was worse thancould be made by a hundred scolding women.' A very ungallantdeclaration, certainly, for a young gentleman, and one that he had not,and was never likely to have, the opportunity of proving the truth of.Harry was soon joined by the young ladies, whom the noise of theparrot-house had nearly deafened, and a general resolution was put, andcarried by the whole party, Mabel herself not excepted, that fineplumage did not at all make amends for disagreeable propensities.

  'And now,' said Harry Maitland, with just one sly glance at the brightsilk frock, whose wearer was standing beside him, 'suppose we go and paya visit to our friends the monkeys? That is to say, young ladies,' headded, 'if you don't think it would be jumping out of the frying-paninto the fire, and can endure smell better than noise.'

  'Oh yes!' was the general exclamation; 'do let us go and see themonkeys.'

  'Who has got any biscuits or nuts?' inquired Dora Maitland. 'I haven'tgot anything.'

  'I have some pieces of biscuit left from what I bought for theelephants,' said Mabel.

  'And I have nuts in my pocket,' said Harry; 'while the monkeys arecracking them, we can be cracking our jokes.' But these proved to berather unpleasant ones, to one at least of the party, who, nevertheless,as she could not foresee what was coming, was the first to laugh atHarry's silly speech.

  The monkey-house proved, as they thought it would, anything butagreeable to the olfactory nerves of our young friends; though theirattention was soon diverted from what was offensive, by the very amusinggymnastics of the monkeys, who, while they performed their various featsof skill, had evidently an eye to the main chance, and kept a vigilantlook-out for something more substantial than applause.

  'Give this old fellow a bit of your biscuit, Mabel,' said Dora Maitland;'he is evidently expecting some from us.'

  Now we know that monkeys, though they are anxious expectants, are notvery gracious receivers, which poor Mabel, who seemed to, be the doomedperson, found to her cost, when, on stretching out her arm to give ther
equired morsel, the ungrateful recipient caught hold of the beautifullace sleeve, tore it from her arm, doubled it up in an instant, andthrust it into his mouth, clambering with great rapidity to the verytop of his habitation, as if afraid of pursuit, and looking down with ahideous grin on the astonished and disgusted parties below.

  'Oh, poor mamma's beautiful lace sleeve!' ejaculated Julia, to the greatannoyance of the trembling and affrighted Mabel, on whom all eyes werenow turned.

  'Oh, what a pity! what a pity!' sounded on every side; but there was noredress, and Mabel, unable to restrain her tears, or to give vent to hervaried feelings of anger, scorn, and vexation, rushed out of themonkey-house, leaving Julia to explain, and her friends to condole. Allthe party except Harry Maitland had before seen, and very greatlyadmired, these sleeves of Mrs. Ellis's, which, as I said before, wereAunt Mary's work; and sorry, very sorry, were both Dora and AnnieMaitland to hear that Mabel had put them on without her mamma's leave.'Well, it's no use being sorry now,' cried Harry Maitland; 'we can'trestore the sleeve, that's certain. I wonder how girls can be so foolishas to dress themselves up, when they come to such a place asthis--especially,' he added sarcastically, 'in other people's finery.'

  'I am glad Mabel was not near enough to hear your remarks, Harry,' saidhis cousin Dora; 'I am sure she must be quite enough troubled, withoutour saying anything disagreeable.'

  'Yes, but she brought the trouble upon herself, and therefore shedeserves to suffer,' persisted Harry; 'the worst of it is,' he added,'she makes innocent people suffer for her fault.'

  'Let us go and see after Mabel,' said the kind-hearted Annie; 'I thinkwe have all had enough of the monkeys to-day.'

  'Yes, one young lady has had rather too much of them,' said Harry, 'orrather, I should say, the monkey has had too much of her; though the oldfellow appears to be quite satisfied with the trick he has played.'

  'There is Mabel,' cried Julia, as they came out of the monkey-house.'Poor thing, don't let us say anything more about the sleeve; I am sureshe must feel very uncomfortable.'

  'I wonder where we shall find Mr. and Mrs. Norton,' said Dora; 'we havebeen a long time away from them: perhaps they are looking after us.'

  'I'll tell you where I think they are,' said Harry; 'it is about thetime for the sea-lion to exhibit himself, and we had better bend oursteps that way, for we are almost sure of finding the lady and gentlemanthere;' and it proved to be the fact, for among the numerous spectatorswhich the sea-lions had attracted, our young friends soon singled outMr. and Mrs. Norton. The flushed face and tear-swollen eyes of Mabel didnot escape the notice of the lady, but seeing that she turned away, andappeared anxious to avoid observation, Mrs. Norton made no remark, andsoon all the party were interested spectators of the various exploits ofthe marine prodigy.

  Suddenly, however, a violent plunge of the animal into the water, on theside near which our friends were standing, sent a rather unpleasantshower-bath among the crowd, and caused a sudden retreat, though it didnot take place in time for all of them to avoid a wetting. I am sorry tosay that Mabel's silk frock came in for a share; but this would notreally have mattered much, if, in her hurry to get out of the way, shehad not unfortunately set her foot on the skirt of it, which made herfall on one knee, and thus come in contact with the wet soil and gravel,which, however harmless they might have proved to a grey dress, by nomeans improved the colour of a light silk one. 'Misfortunes never comealone,' it is said; and though I am not myself a firm believer in thisproverb, it certainly proved true with regard to Mabel Ellis, thoughthese misfortunes were entirely the results of her pride and self-will,so she does not deserve our commiseration.

  It was evident, too, that she did not wish for sympathy just then, forbrushing off the soil from her dress, and making very light of thematter, she seemed to say: 'I don't want your sympathy; please to keepit to yourselves.'

  Of course my readers will not suppose that the young lady really wasindifferent to the spoiling of her dress, but she had so much sillypride in her composition, that she thought to appear sorry would lowerher in the eyes of her companions. She certainly did not judge _them_correctly, nor had she as yet, poor girl, reached the climax of hertroubles; but for this we must go a little further, and see the partycomfortably seated at one of the marble tables in the elegantrefreshment-rooms, where tea, and sandwiches, and buns are plentifullyprovided, and highly appreciated by the young ramblers after their longwalk and sight-seeing, which are both very exhausting, and requirerefreshment, and relaxation, and rest. Seated round this pleasant table,and in the enjoyment of the good things that were placed thereon, thespirits of the young ones of the party rose considerably; and HarryMaitland, who was quick-witted and fond of joking, created plenty ofjuvenile mirth by his remarks upon the monkey tribe, though of course heavoided saying anything that might lead to unpleasant inquiries.

  It happened, unfortunately, that when the lace sleeve had been soruthlessly torn from Mabel's arm by the audacious monkey, it did notoccur to that young lady to make sure of the other sleeve by taking itoff and putting it into her pocket. Instead of acting thus prudently,she contented herself with tucking the lace up under its elastic band--avery treacherous safeguard, as it proved.

  Our friend Harry, as the young squire of the party, was very attentiveto the ladies, as indeed he always was; but it happened unfortunatelythat in handing a plate of buns to his opposite neighbour, Mabel, hebecame the innocent cause of another disaster to that most lucklessdamsel, for the lace that had been so unceremoniously tucked out ofsight, having escaped from the elastic band, attached itself to thehandle of Mabel's cup, as she reached out her hand to take the offeredbun, and upset the whole of its contents, which, though the greater partof the fluid went into the saucer, quite sufficient found its way intoMabel's dress to put the finishing stroke to her misfortunes.

  Hastily jumping up, and without waiting for any condolence orassistance, the excited girl rushed out of the room, followed by Julia,whose kind heart really ached to see her sister so distressed.

  'Don't follow them out, my dears,' said Mrs. Norton to Dora and AnnieMaitland, who had risen from their chairs to do so. 'I am sure,' shecontinued, 'that Mabel would much rather be without your sympathy, andyou cannot possibly render her any assistance. Poor foolish girl,' addedthe lady, 'I cannot say I am sorry for _her_; but I well know whattrouble she must give her mamma, whom I really am sorry for.'

  'But, Laura dear,' inquired Mr. Norton, 'don't you suspect that someblame must attach itself to the young lady's mother? Faults, you know,like ill weeds, grow apace if they are not corrected; and the weeds, ifsuffered to grow rank, will destroy the beautiful flowers which weexpected to see in our gardens. Is it not so, do you think?'

  'Yes, you are quite right, no doubt,' replied the lady; 'and I fear thatmy poor friend, Mrs. Ellis, will find it very difficult, if notimpossible, to correct faults, which, through weak indulgence, seem tohave taken deep root. But,' added Mrs. Norton, rising to go, 'this is noplace for sermonising. We have had a pleasant day, notwithstanding thetroubles of our young friends; we had better look after them now, andwend our way homewards.'