She had caught sight, in the paddock beyond the rose-garden, of a little rough-coated animal which Audrey had found in the stables when she took “The Briars”. And nothing would satisfy the girls but seizing the pony by the mane, and indulging in impromptu gallops over the field. They were in a state of joyous excitement during luncheon, and afterwards they took Audrey between them, twined their arms round her and walked with her in the pretty shady grounds, bubbling over with happiness at their unexpected holiday, and determined to take advantage of Audrey’s offer to have them with her again on the first opportunity.
The delight of the girls at this very simple pleasure was a revelation to Audrey, who had taken it for granted that Mr. Candover, who was so rich and so generous, would have treated his daughters with more consideration for youthful impulses.
Having already made Audrey’s acquaintance, the girls now looked upon her as an old friend, and they confided to her the utter loneliness of their lives, and the uncertainty they were in as to their future.
“You know I’m eighteen, and I want to ‘come out,’ ” said Pamela. “And Miss Willett herself thinks it is time I should. But when she writes about it to papa, he doesn’t answer, and although he’s always kind, he has a way of putting aside any question he doesn’t care to answer, so that I’ve never been able to talk it out with him myself.”
“Shall I speak to him for you?” asked Audrey.
“Oh, you darling, I wish you would! It’s quite true that I’m dying to leave school now, and to—to—well, I don’t exactly know what it is I want to do, except that it isn’t lessons!” cried Pamela, whose brilliant beauty and lively manners indeed showed her to be ready to take her first plunge out of the school seclusion into the waters of life.
“And am I to be left all alone?” cried poor Babs plaintively. “It’s bad enough with you, Pam, but it will be worse if I’m left with Miss Willett all through the holidays alone, while I know you are enjoying yourself with Mrs. Angmering!”
Audrey caressed her pretty head.
“Supposing,” she said, in a voice almost as full of suppressed excitement as that of the girls themselves, “I were to ask Mr. Candover to let you both go away with me somewhere for the Christmas holidays! How would you like that?”
Their answer was such a tumultuous outburst of gratitude and delight that she was, as it were, taken off her feet by it, and the three sat down on a garden seat under a knot of trees, and discussed the idea with noisy and merry comments and peals of laughter which made them all deaf to the sound of approaching footsteps over the gravel paths and the lawn behind them.