One October noon, in her long blue habit, with her spirit and her eyes looking up out of her flaming hair, June was lifted from her pony at the stable door.
“That pony’s artful, Miss June; don’t you give him more than two carrots, or ‘e’ll think he can do what ‘e likes with you.”
“Darling!” said June in a voice strangely deep for a small child. Having given the pony four carrots she remained standing beside it in the stall, fervently stroking its nose. In the next stall the groom was hissing while he wisped down Betty, preferred by Betters as a mount to Brownie—“an ‘oss that did that not throw you up.”
“George, which do you think is the most beautiful, Brownie or Betty?”
The groom jerked his head at the loose box.
“That ‘oss is the best-lookin’, Miss June.”
“Then I shall give Brownie one carrot and Betty two—it isn’t her fault, is it, poor darling?”
Having given the carrots and had her capped head nuzzled, she went out and stood in the yard. Betters had disappeared up the stairway to his rooms, whence a smell of onions indicated that Mrs. Betters, a small pale puckered woman, was cooking steak.
The yard was deserted but for a pigeon, towards which June ran so that the pigeon at once left for the roof. Hurt in her feelings June had gathered up her tail, and was moving towards the house when round the corner came a little girl blubbering into her sleeve.
“Susie Betters, what are you crying for?”
The little girl, who was plain and thin, blubbered the louder.
“They pinched me; they said I was a thief ‘cos I only took the top what belonged to me.” She displayed some pinch marks on her arms and some mud stains on her frock.
“Who pinched you?”
“The boys and girls I go to school with.”
“Did you pinch them back?”
“Nao.”
“Then I will. Horrid little children. Don’t cry, Susie. I’ll protect you.”
Susie looked down half a head and her mouth opened.
“We’ll go and look for them. I’ve got my whip. They won’t dare touch you again. You aren’t brave, are you?”
“Nao,” said Susie.
June swished the whip, which had the thickness of the top joint of a fishing rod. “Come on!”
They went round the corner, followed by June’s tail.
There was no sign of any children.
“We’ll go and tell the teacher.”
“Nao.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll larrup me proper, if we do.”
“Why don’t they like you, Susie? Is it because you’re ugly?” Susie wailed again. “Don’t cry! It’s not your fault that you’re ugly.”
Susie wailed the louder.
Two small boys and a girl had suddenly appeared and stood pointing in a somewhat vulgar manner. June raised her whip.
The children nudged each other.
“Ill-bred little children!” said June, quoting from her governess.
One of the boys emitted a piercing whistle.
“Did you pinch little Susie Betters?”
The children laughed in a still more vulgar manner.
“You’re dirty little morkins,” cried June; “and I’m going to larrup you.”
The children gave before the onslaught, skipping sideways with uncouth noises; one of the boys shoved June so that she tripped over her tail, and sprawled, a small blue figure, on the ground. The children, then, pinching Susie warmly, yelled in unison, and vanished.
June rose, her habit dirty, her whip gone, her cheeks crimson. Susie was wailing as she had not yet wailed.
“Don’t! It’s babyish to cry.”
“They pinched me again.”
“Where?”
“On my ba-ase.”
“Come with me, and show my Gran,” said June. “He’ll soon astonish their weak nerves. You shall have my pudding, too. Come on!” And she dragged the reluctant Susie to the mansion of old Jolyon.
“François,” said June to the Swiss servant, “this is Susie Betters; she’s been pinched, and she’s to have my pudding. She isn’t brave, so she’s not to be frightened. I want my Gran to see her pinches. Come on, Susie!”
Still tugging Susie, she passed into the dining-room.
Old Jolyon, who never went to the City on Saturdays, was in his armchair by the fire, reading The Times and waiting for lunch to be announced. Across the dining table laid for five he looked at the two small figures, and his eyes twinkled.
“Well, my ducky, what have you got there?”
“Susie Betters, Gran; she’s been pinched behind. I wanted you to see.”
She pulled Susie round to the chair, whence old Jolyon looked shrewdly at his coachman’s daughter.
“H’m!” he said: “you’re a thin little toad.”
“Yes; she’s going to have my pudding. She’s too thin altogether, and she’s too pale. Her face is dirty, too, but it isn’t her fault.”
“What’s come to your habit?” said old Jolyon. “Did you fall off?”
“Oh! no; I just sat down in the street while I was larruping those morkins and they took my whip and ran away.”
“H’m! Pretty pair of shoes altogether!”
He stretched out and rang the bell.
“Take this little girl downstairs, François, and have her face washed, and give her a good dinner; and tell that page chap to run over and let Betters know she’s here. You go and get brushed,” he added to June, “before your mother sees you, and don’t say anything about it.”
The two children went out. In the hall June said:
“I want to see her face washed, François.”
“Veree well, Mees June.”
During lunch June fidgeted, with difficulty prevented by old Jolyon’s eyes from telling her story.
When her mother and governess had withdrawn, she approached her grandfather, who had lighted his after-lunch cigar, and stood between his knees.
“I’m going to be Susie Betters’ friend, Gran.”
“Oh!” said old Jolyon. “Mite like you—picking up lame ducks.”
“Is Susie a lame duck?”
Old Jolyon nodded. “Shouldn’t be surprised if they pinched her more than ever now. She looks to me a poor thing.”
“Well, I’m going to protect her.”
“How?” said old Jolyon, twinkling.
“I shall dare them to pinch her.”
“First catch your hare—”
“I know,” said June, suddenly. “She can do lessons with ME, Gran, instead of going to school.”
Old Jolyon shook his head.
“That cock won’t fight. Coming to the Zoo?”
June clapped her hands, then said at once:
“No. I must look after Susie.”
Old Jolyon stared. It was his first introduction to the real nature of his little grand-daughter.
“She’s a poor timid little stick,” he said; “and you’ll never make anything of her.”
When June had gone, he sat contemplating the ash of his cigar. Children! What things they thought of! She would learn some day that you couldn’t go ‘protecting’ everything you came across. Sooner the better, perhaps! Generous little thing—though; giving up the Zoo. Lessons! “What would her mother say to that? She was such a good woman—that you never knew.” And old Jolyon sighed. If his son hadn’t married such a good woman, it might all have turned out very different; and Jo—Well, well! A nap! Just forty winks. And, crushing out his cigar, he leaned back with eyes fixed on ‘Dutch Fishing Boats at Sunset’; and his thin hand with pointed nails depending over the arm of his old chair. A warmhearted little thing! Lame ducks!…
In spite of the misgivings of the good woman afraid of the effect on her accent, and the opposition of her governess, too deep for words, June had her way. Susie Betters, almost unnecessarily clean, sat every morning at the schoolroom table shedding tears over her vowels and aitches. Delivered from pinches, and advanced in all material things, soap, pudding, and frocks, she seemed at first to exude as much water per day as ever, for June frequently protected her from the governess.
“You oughtn’t to make Susie cry, Miss Pearson, just because she speaks commonly. She doesn’t know any better. You can’t help being common, can you, Susie?”