“No,” said Sylvia.
“Not poor! And yet, why are you almost in rags? And you did eat up your lunch so greedily!”
“I will answer nothing more, Evelyn. If you do not like me as I am, let me go now, and I will try to forget the beautiful, comfortable Castle, and the lovely meals, and you and your queer maid Jasper, and the beautiful girl Audrey; for if you do not want me as I am, you can never get me any other way. I am a lady, and we are not poor. Now are you satisfied?”
“I burn with curiosity,” said Evelyn; “and if mothery were alive, would she not get it out of you! But if you wish it—and your eyes do look as if they were daggers—I will change the subject. What shall we do for the rest of the day? Shall we go out and take a walk in the dark?”
“Yes; that would be lovely,” cried Sylvia.
Evelyn shouted in an imperious way to Jasper.
“Bring my fur cloak,” she said, “and my goloshes. I won’t wear anything over my head. I am going out with Miss Sylvia Leeson.”
Jasper brought Evelyn’s cloak, which was lined with the most lovely squirrel inside and covered with bright crimson outside, and put it over her shoulders. Sylvia in her very shabby black cloth jacket, much too short in the waist and in the arms, accompanied her. They ran down-stairs and went out into the grounds.
Now, if there was one thing more than another which would hopelessly displease Lady Frances, it was the idea of any of her relations wandering about after dusk. But luckily for Evelyn, and luckily also for poor Sylvia, Lady Frances was some miles from Wynford Castle at that moment. The girls rushed about, and soon Evelyn forgot all her restraints and shouted noisily. They played hide-and-seek amongst the trees in the plantation. Sylvia echoed Evelyn’s shouts; and the Squire, who was returning to the house in time to meet his guests, paused and listened in much amazement to these unusual sounds of girlish laughter. There came a shrill shriek, and then the cry, “Here I am—seek and find,” and then another ringing peal of girlish merriment.
“Surely that cannot be Audrey!” he said to himself. “What extraordinary noises!”