The Moat House: Sir Jasper's Favourite Niece
9781465678867
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
JOY, I wish you'd put down that stupid book, and talk! You can't think how curious I feel! And how you can sit there reading so quietly when mother's in the next room with that strange gentleman, I can't imagine! I wonder what he's saying to her! I don't believe you're in the least curious to know! Joy, whose real name was Joyce, shut her book, and looked at the speaker—her sister Celia—with thoughtful, grey eyes. Her mind was still occupied with the entrancing story she had been reading; and it took her several minutes to realise that her companion was in a state of feverish impatience to ascertain the business of the visitor who had requested a private interview with their mother, and still kept her in earnest conversation in the drawing-room. Joy had admitted the stranger into the house nearly half an hour before. Mrs. Wallis, whose husband had been a doctor, in the town of A—, had been left a widow some years previously; and she was rearing her family on a small income which had to be portioned out most carefully to make both ends meet. The family consisted of three children—Eric, a handsome lad of fifteen, who was at boarding-school; Celia, aged fourteen; and Joyce, two years younger. When her husband had died, Mrs. Wallis had at once vacated the large, roomy house in the main street of the town for the small villa where she was living at present. She was a brave woman, and a capital manager, but she found her income very inadequate for the requirements of her family. The two girls attended a day-school where the fees were not large; but Eric's school bills were heavy, and to meet them his mother was obliged to exercise the strictest economy at home. "That's right!" Celia exclaimed, when she saw she had gained her sister's attention. "Tell me again what the gentleman was like." "He was tall, and thin, and he stooped rather," was the reply. "I didn't take particular notice of him." "Oh, how silly you were! I wish I'd gone to the door instead of you. But I do hate answering the door bell," Celia acknowledged, frankly. "Oh, I don't mind. Jane was upstairs changing her dress, so that was why I went to the door this evening; and you know she often looks so untidy that mother doesn't like her to answer the bell. Of course she has all kinds of dirty work to do," Joyce proceeded excusingly, for Jane, the maid-of-all-work of the establishment, was a favourite of hers; "we shouldn't be spick and span ourselves if we had to clean boots, and black-lead stoves, and scrub and clean like poor Jane." Celia made no reply, but a look of decided discontent crept over her face. She was a very pretty little girl, with fair hair, blue eyes, and a delicate pink and white complexion. Her sister was a pale, sallow child whose one beauty was a pair of large grey eyes, which rendered her otherwise plain countenance remarkably attractive. Both girls were neatly attired in serviceable blue serge dresses, somewhat the worse for wear; but whereas Joy wore no ornament whatever, the neck of Celia's frock was fastened by a cheap brooch, set with imitation brilliants, which she had saved her pocket-money to purchase, and her golden locks were tied back with a bright blue ribbon. Celia was the greater favourite of the sisters with people, as a rule, for she was invariably good-tempered before strangers, and eager to please; it was only at home that she ever allowed her discontent with the circumstances of her life to be apparent, and then, when her mother's face saddened at her grumblings, she would become repentant, and declare that she had not meant all she had said, that she was quite happy really, only it would be so nice to have a little more money to spend.
