“mrs. sawyer says she will be proud and pleased to let us use her kitchen for nothing,” sydney said, “but we must pay her for the fire. she doesn’t have one in the afternoons, as a rule. how much does a fire cost, miss osric?”
the girl was puckering her brows over a business-like account book open on the table before her. miss osric stood opposite, driving a great pair of squeaking scissors through a double fold of flannel.
“we should want it for about two hours, shouldn’t we?” she said, in answer to sydney’s question. “it would probably cost about sevenpence a time, but that depends upon the sort of coal mrs. sawyer has, and how big a fire you mean to keep.”
“fourteen pence—one and twopence a week,” sydney said, noting the fact down in her
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account book. “and then there is the tea,” she went on. “i wonder how much that will cost? and i don’t suppose the people will be able to pay much at first towards the stuff they use. they are so poor, and one wants to help them.”
“let them pay something towards it, sydney,” said miss osric; “don’t make paupers of them—that is a mistake. say they pay half expenses.”
“well, perhaps,” the girl said. “how many petticoats will that roll of flannel make, do you think?”
“not very many, and flannel is so dreadfully expensive; you will have to use flannelette, i think.”
“no, it must be flannel,” said sydney. “i asked dr. lorry, and he said rheumatic people should wear flannel. and you know how dreadfully rheumatic they are here.”
there was another anxious calculation of accounts, which lasted until sydney, pulling out the lovely little gold watch which had been her cousin’s present to her on her birthday, a day or two ago, found that it was time to dress for going out with lady frederica.
the girl had lost no time on her return from that christmas visit at the deanery in
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starting on her plans. miss osric proved a willing helper, and lady frederica, approached judiciously at a favourable moment on the subject, had raised no objection to the projected working-party. “oh, yes, amuse yourself as you like, my dear,” she said, “as long as you don’t go about alone, or damage your complexion.”
and sydney had joyfully availed herself of the permission to drive in to dacreshaw and order such materials as miss osric thought would be most useful to the women of the village.
sydney had no difficulty in persuading them to come, though at first they found it hard to believe that anybody from the castle was really going to take an interest in their troubles. but sydney’s bright face, as she brought soup or invalid fare of some kind, coaxed out of mrs. fewkes, the castle cook, had grown familiar already in cottages where there was illness, and they were beginning slowly to realize that the future lady st. quentin held very different views from her cousin on the subject of the tenantry who would be hers some day.
“there’ll be a good time coming when that little lady’s mistress here,” they said to one
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another, and welcomed the idea of the working-parties with enthusiasm.
all was to be as far as possible on the lines of miss morrell’s, and sydney set about buying just the same materials as those used by her friend. but flannel, long-cloth, wool, and serge cost money, and she found the small remains of her quarter’s allowance quite inadequate. her extensive christmas purchases had reduced the amount, which had seemed at first so inexhaustible, to a very small remnant by the time she set about the shopping for this new scheme. hence the anxious discussion with miss osric over ways and means.
it never struck sydney for one moment to apply for help to her cousin. he had said he could do nothing for the cottages; clearly what was done must be done by herself alone.
how did girls in story-books make money? she cast her mind over those that she had read. the heroines of fiction seemed to have a habit of painting the picture of the year, or writing a novel that took all london by storm. sydney felt quite certain of her inability to follow either example.
sometimes they were adopted by wealthy old gentlemen or ladies in search of deserving
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heirs, but sydney thought she had had enough of changing her home! sometimes they discovered treasure in places where even newspaper editors would never think of hiding it. “it would be a great deal easier if some of them did little things,” poor sydney thought.
no solution of the problem had occurred to her by the date fixed for the first working-party; when a plain but plentiful tea was spread on mrs. sawyer’s dresser, and a somewhat meagre pile of unmade flannel petticoats adorned the table.
sydney received her guests a little shyly, but with so much real pleasure in her face that they had no doubt of their welcome. she and miss osric helped them to take off their shawls and jackets, which mrs. sawyer, a sickly looking woman in a very clean apron, put away in the ill-drained and ill-ventilated cupboard which she called the back kitchen.
then came the distribution of garments to be made for themselves or their children by the workers, and here poor sydney found the demand for flannel petticoats far exceeding her supply.
the women were exceedingly polite about it, and assured her that it did not matter, but
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the girl felt she would have given anything to have had enough for their wants.
needlework, an accomplishment lady frederica had not asked for, was one that sydney had learnt “at the doctor’s,” and miss osric had had plenty of experience in the cutting-out line in old days at her father’s vicarage. so everything went smoothly: conversation was much easier than sydney had expected it to be, and the women seemed to thoroughly enjoy their tea. all would have been quite delightful to the girl, even though the ill-ventilated kitchen was very close with so many people sitting in it, and the damp of the uneven stone floor made her feet, in their delicate parisian boots, extremely cold, if it had not been for the haunting thought of how she should procure the money necessary for the carrying on of her scheme.
“only the sixth of january,” she said dismally to miss osric, as the two hurried down the village to the second working-party. “only the sixth of january to-day, and quarter day isn’t till the twenty-fifth of march. what shall i do?”
“i wish i could help you,” said miss osric, “but you know i must send all i can spare to them at home. it costs so much to send my
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brother jack to oxford, and there are dorothy and hilda who ought to go to school as soon as we can manage it.”
“oh, i know!” cried sydney. “i wouldn’t have you help in the money way for anything; just think what an amount of the other kind of help you are giving!” and they went into mrs. sawyer’s cottage and discussed the money question no more.
an observation of lady frederica’s next day gave sydney the idea for which she was longing. sir algernon, who had been in town since sydney’s return from the deanery, came back that morning, and announced at luncheon that the castle clocks were all behind london time. sydney, eager to establish the perfections of her new watch, pulled it out triumphantly to inform the company that in that case her treasure was correct, for st. quentin had declared it only that morning to be rather fast.
its beauty caught lady frederica’s eye. “dear me, child!” she said, “is that the watch st. quentin gave you on your birthday. what a little beauty! but how extravagant of him, when he was speaking to me quite seriously only a day or two ago about retrenching!”
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“poor old chap, is he feeling pinched?” sir algernon said lightly. “there are moments, lady frederica, when i bless the luck that gave me a title unencumbered by a property to keep going. may i see the watch, miss lisle?” he spoke with a new inflection in his voice which did not escape lady frederica. “yes, it is a beauty and no mistake. i expect they rooked old quin something heavy for that.”
“it was very kind of st. quentin,” sydney said, and sir algernon murmured, “lucky beggar!” in a tone the girl found hard to understand.
the conversation turned on other topics, but sydney did not forget it, and, after much screwing up of her courage, went into the library a day or two later, having previously watched sir algernon off on a ride.
“st. quentin,” she said, feeling very much astounded by her own daring, “i’ve come to ask a favour of you; and please—please be very kind, and don’t ask any questions or be angry when you hear what i want. do say you’ll be kind!”
“well, that’s a nice modest request, anyhow,” her cousin said, smiling a little. “what awful things have you been doing? oh, of
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course, i’m not to ask. if you were a boy i should guess you to be in a scrape, but girls keep clear of those things, don’t they?”
“don’t laugh,” said sydney; “at least, i would rather you laughed than were angry. st. quentin, please don’t think me horribly ungrateful, but may—can i change the watch you gave me on my birthday?”
“what, don’t you like it?” said st. quentin slowly.
“oh, i do! i do!” she cried; “but, please, you said you wouldn’t ask questions, and i want to change it!”
“who will do the job for you?” her cousin said. “i ordered the watch from oliver’s in donisbro’, if you wish to know; but mind, i won’t have you poking about changing things yourself.”
“miss osric said she knew her father would change it for me, if you gave permission,” said sydney. “st. quentin, i can see you are vexed.”
“no, i’m not,” he said, a little bit impatiently, “but i should like to get at the bottom of this, sydney. can’t you tell me straight out what’s wrong?”
“no, i couldn’t,” she assured him, “and
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nothing is wrong really, on my honour! miss osric knows all about it, and she is ever so wise and experienced!”
“a methuselah of twenty-three years, isn’t she?” st. quentin said, smiling despite his vexation. “well, sydney, i suppose i must let you go your own way. put the matter into the hands of your mentor’s father, and have nothing personally to do with it, that’s all.”
if it cost sydney a pang to part with her treasured watch, and it did undoubtedly, she was more than repaid by the look upon the women’s faces as they saw the noble pile of flannel garments laid out for their benefit. mr. osric had done his part well, and obtained for sydney very nearly the full value of the watch, after some argument with mr. oliver, who declared that he “never took back an article when sold.”
he was, however, speedily rewarded for yielding by a gentleman with light blue eyes and a monocle, who had been turning over scarf pins at the other end of the shop during mr. osric’s transaction.
this gentleman came closer to oliver, when mr. osric had gone out, and requested to be allowed to examine the little watch the clergyman
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had left behind him. after a brief but careful examination he asked the price, and bought it, leaving mr. oliver, who knew sir algernon bridge well enough by sight, to shrewdly surmise that a “single gentleman who bought a lady’s watch must shortly be intending to be married.”
