"Uncle John won't give one for YOU!" said Sam.
"Come, boys, I can't have this bickering," said Miss Fosbrook. "I can't see you trying which can be most provoking. Stand up. Now, David, say grace. There, Annie, finish that bit of bread out of doors. Go out, and let us have no more of this."
She spoke now with much less fear of not being minded; and having seen one of the quarrelsome parties safe out of the school-room, she went to fetch from her own room a glove that wanted mending; and on her return found Sam alone there, curled up over his lesson-books on the locker, looking so gloomy, that she was afraid she had made him sulky, for which she would have been very sorry, since she had a respect for him.
"What is the matter?" she asked; and his "Nothing" did not at all assure her that he was in a right mood. She doubted whether to leave him alone; but presently thought he looked more unhappy than ill- tempered, and ventured to speak. "Have you a hard piece to learn? Perhaps I could help you."
He let her come and look at his book; but, to her surprise, he had before him a very easy problem in Euclid.
"Indeed, if you only gave your mind to this," she said, "you would soon make it out."
"Stupid stuff!" exclaimed Sam. "It is all along of that, and the rest of it, that I have got to be a land-lubber!" and he threw the book to the other end of the room.
"Have you no chance?" said Miss Fosbrook, without taking notice of this rudeness, for she saw that the boy could hardly contain himself.
"No! The Admiral did take notice of Hal; and one day when I was slow at a proposition, my father said I was too block-headed to beat navigation into, and that Hal is a smart fellow, worth two of me. I know he is! I know that; only if he would not make such an intolerable crowing--"
"Then you wish it very much?"
"Wish it! Of course I do. Why, my father is a sailor; and I remember the Fury, and I saw the Calliope--his ship that he had in the war time. Before I was as big as little George I always thought I should be a sailor. And now if Papa goes out with Admiral Penrose, and Hal too--oh! it will be so horrid home!"
"But can't you both go?"
"No; my father said he couldn't ask to have two of us put down, unless perhaps some younger one had a chance by and by. And Hal is the sharpest, and does everything better than I can when he has a mind. My father says, among so many all can't choose; and if this place is to be mine, Hal may want to be in the navy more than I. Yes, it is all right, and Hal must go. But--but--when my father is gone--"and Sam fairly burst out crying. "I didn't hardly know how different it is with him away till this month. I was such a little fellow when he went to the Black Sea; but now--never mind, though!" and he stamped his foot on the floor. "Papa said it, and it must be. Don't tell the others, Miss Fosbrook;" and he resolutely went and picked up his Euclid, and began finding the place.
"You will do your duty like a man, wherever you are, Sam," said Christabel heartily.
Sam looked as if he had rather that she had not said it, but it was comfortable to him for all that; and though she kept further compliments to herself, she could not but think that there was no fear but that he would be a man, in the best sense of the word, before Hal, when she saw him so manfully put his sore grievance out of his head, and turn to the present business of conquering his lesson. Nor did she hear another word from him about his disappointment.
It made her dislike Henry's boasts more than ever; and she used to cut them short as fast as she could, till the young chatterer decided that she was "cross," and reserved all his wonderful "at leasts" for his sisters, and his proofs of manliness for the Grevilles.
The Gibraltar man did not come on Saturday; and Miss Fosbrook had been the saving of several stamps by sending some queer little letters in her own to Mrs. Merrifield, so that on Monday morning the hoard was increased to seven-and-sixpence; although between fines and "couldn't helps," Henry's sixpence had melted down to a halfpenny, which "was not worth while."
On this day arrived a servant from the Park, bringing a delicate little lilac envelope, stamped with a tiny rose, and directed to Miss Merrifield. There was another rose on the top of the lilac paper; and the writing was in a very neat hand.
My dear Susan, Mamma desires me to say that she hopes you and Bessie and Annie will come to dine early to-morrow, and play with me, and that Miss Fosbury will come with you. She hopes your Mamma is better, and would be glad to have her address in London. I am your affectionate IDA ARABELLA GREVILLE.
"Oh! Miss Fosbrook, may we go?" cried the girls with sparkling eyes.
Mrs. Merrifield had written that one or two such invitations might be accepted, but she had rather it did not happen too often, as visits at the Park were unsettling to some of the children. So as this was the first, Christabel gladly consented, rather curious and rather shy on her own account.
Elizabeth begged for the rose, to copy it, and as there were no little ones present to seize it, she was allowed to have it; while Susan groaned and sighed over the misfortune of having to write a "horrible note" just at play-time; and the boys treated it as a sort of insult to the whole family that Ida should have mistaken their governess's name.
"Tell her you won't go till she has it right," said Sam; at which Annie made a vehement outcry of "No, no!" such as made them all laugh at her thinking him in earnest.
Susan's note began -
My dear Ida, We shuold -
But then perceiving that something was the matter with her word, Susan sat and looked at it, till at last, perceiving that her u and o had changed places, she tried putting a top to the u, and made it like an a; while the filling up the o made it become a blot, such as caught Bessie's eye.
"O Susie, you won't send such a thing as that up to Ida?"
"No--that WOULD be a 'horrible note,'" said her governess; and she ruled the lines again.
"Dear me," said Susan impatiently; "can't one send a message up by the man that we'll all come, without this fuss?"
But Miss Fosbrook said that would be very uncivil; and Susan, groaning, stretched every finger till the lines were finished, and began again, in her scraggy round-hand--getting safely through the "should," and also through "like to come very much;" but when Miss Fosbrook looked up next, she saw that the rest of the note consisted of -
Mamma is at Grandmamma's, No. 12, St., Grovensor Place. I am your affectionate SUSANNA MERRIFIELD.
"My dear, I am very sorry."
"What! won't that do?" sighed Susan, beginning to get into despair.
Miss Fosbrook pointed to the word "Grovensor."
"Oh dear! oh dear! I thought I had got that tiresome word this time. Why can't it put its ss and ns into their proper sensible places?" cried poor Susan, to whom it was a terrible enemy. She used to try them in different places all the way round, in hopes that one might at last be right.
"Can't you remember what I told you, that the first Grosvenor was the grand huntsman? Grosveneur in French; that would show you where to put the s--gros, great."
But Susan never wished to remember anything French; and Sam observed that "the man deserved to be spelt wrong if he called himself by a French name. Why couldn't he be content to be Mr. Grandhunter?"
"But as he is not, we must spell his name right, or Mrs. Greville will be shocked," said Miss Fosbrook.
"Please can't you scratch it out?" said the disconsolate Susan.
"_I_ should not like to send a note with a scratch in it. Besides, yours is hardly civil."
"No, indeed," said Elizabeth; "don't you know how people answer invitations, Susie? I'll tell you. 'Miss Susanna, and Miss Elizabeth, and Miss Annie Merrifield will be very happy to do the honour of dining with--' Sam, why do you laugh at me always?"
"Why, you are telling Ida you will do her honour by dining with her."
"People always do honour when they dine," said Elizabeth. "I know they do."
"They profess to receive the honour, not confer it, Bessie," said Miss Fosbrook, laughing; "but I don't think that is the model for Susie's note. It would be as much too formal as hers was too blunt."