All the others rose in a body and fell upon her. But she had started a happy idea, and in consequence, Mrs. Ricketts’ youngest son and daughter, and the three very naughty and disreputable sons of Mrs. Jones, the laundress, were invited to partake of the coming feast.
The rest of the day passed to all appearance very soberly. Helen was away. The Doctor’s carriage neither came nor went; the Doctor himself, with his kindly voice, and his somewhat brusque, determined manner, awoke no echoes in the old house. Nurse was far away in the nursery wing, with the pretty, brown-eyed baby and the children; all the girls and the little boys were remarkably good.
To those who are well acquainted with the habits and ways of young folks, too much goodness is generally a suspicious circumstance. There is a demure look, there is an instant obedience, there is an absence of fretfulness, and an abnormal, although subdued, cheerfulness, which arouses the watchful gaze of the knowing among mothers, governesses, and nurses.
Had Nurse been at dinner that day she might have been warned of coming events by Bunny’s excellent behavior; by Bob’s rigid refusal to partake twice of an unwholesome compound, which went by the name of iced pudding; by Firefly’s anxiety to be all that a good and proper little girl should be. But Nurse, of course, had nothing to say to the family dinner. Helen was away, the Doctor was nearing the metropolis, and the little boys’ daily governess was not dining with the family.
These good children had no one to suspect them, and all went smoothly; in short, the wheels of the house machinery never seemed more admirably oiled.
True, had any one listened very closely there might have been heard the stealthy sound of shoeless feet ascending the rickety step-ladder which led to the large front garret. Shoeless feet going up and down many, many times. Trays, too, of precious crockery were carried up, baskets piled with evergreens and flowers were conveyed thither, the linen cupboard was ruthlessly rifled for snowy tablecloths and table napkins of all descriptions. Then later in the day a certain savory smell might have been perceived by any very suspicious person just along this special passage and up that dusty old ladder. For hot bread and hot pastry and hot cakes were being conveyed to the attic, and the sober twins themselves fetched the cream from the farm, and the ginger beer from the grocer’s.
No one was about, however, to suspect, or to tell tales if they did suspect.
Helen came home about seven o’clock, rather tired, and very much interested in her purchases, to find a cozy tea awaiting her, and Polly anxious to serve her. The twin girls were supposed to be learning their lessons in the schoolroom, Katie was nowhere to be seen, and Helen remarked casually that she supposed the young ones had gone to bed.
“Oh, yes,” said Polly, in her quickest manner.
She turned her back as she spoke, and the blush which mantled her brown face was partly hidden by her curly dark hair.