“I shall suggest that the child is sent to a good-natured governess, who will take her to the seaside and train her for a year or so, and at the end of that time she’ll have got over the worst of her gaucherie, and be fit to associate with your family.”
“I wish you would, Lucretia; and I do trust, my dear, that your advice will be listened to, but I very much doubt it. You don’t know Paul as well as I do. When he takes the bit between his teeth nothing can move him.”
“Well, I am sorry for you,” said Miss Fox Temple. “All the same,” she added, “it is very fine of Paul; it isn’t every man who would act as he is doing.”
The two ladies had a little further talk together. Miss Fox Temple suggested that if the new-comer proved quite unbearable, Molly and Jessie should spend the remainder of their holidays with her at Mulberry Court. This proposition Mrs. Wyndham hailed with delight, although, as she did so, she doubted whether her husband would permit it. She lunched with her friend and went back in the cool of the evening.
“Mother,” said Molly, rushing to meet her, as the time approached for the travellers to appear, “what dresses shall we wear? Don’t you think we ought to put on something very quiet?”
“No, I don’t think so at all,” said Mrs. Wyndham; “you will dress as you dress for the evening, my dear Molly. Now go upstairs and get Ford to put out your frocks. Nothing, after all, can be simpler than pure white. I should like you to be in the hall when your father and that poor child arrive.”
Molly and Jessie ran up to their room. Ford arrayed them in simple and very pretty white silk frocks with high necks and long sleeves, they wore round their waists sashes of pale blue, their stockings were silk, and they had white satin shoes. Altogether, two more elegant looking girls it would have been difficult to find.
Molly and Jessie Wyndham had from their earliest days been brought up with extreme care by a devoted father and mother. They had never come across evil or even eccentricity in any form. Their lives were spent in the greatest happiness, all that money could bestow was lavished upon them. But they were also taught the best things; for both Wyndham and his wife were people of high principle. For the first years of their young lives they had a governess, to whom they were devoted. Her name was Miss Sherwood; she was gentle, kind, and very amiable. She was well informed, and, above all things, she had the highest principles.
Molly was a little easier to guide than Jessie, who had a slight crank in her nature; it was a curious crank and did not often appear. Jessie—and her most intimate friends knew it—was in reality consumed with intense vanity. She was not so very vain of her appearance as she was of her position in life. The first thing she noticed with regard to any new friend was how was that friend born, how much money had that friend, how many chances had that friend to make a mark in society? At school one or two of her greatest friends observed this failing in her character; it was just the very failing which would be certain to come to the surface when poor little Peggy Desmond appeared on the scene.
Jessie was a fair-haired, tall, slender girl. Her features were long, her face very pale, her eyes wide-open and of a pale shade of blue-gray. She was slightly aristocratic-looking, and was a contrast in every way to Molly. Molly was rather dark, with quantities of thick dark hair, brown eyes, a brown complexion, very rosy cheeks, and a round face. She had a merry and careless laugh, she had the kindest heart in the world, she was not a scrap vain or conceited. She looked forward with the deepest interest to the arrival of Peggy Desmond. At school Molly was the greater favourite; but Jessie had one or two sworn friends who would almost die for her. These girls appear later on in the story.