“Too proud?”
“Much!”
“Good for you! I’d feel the same. Come on, then; let’s set to work and get it over. He’ll be wondering what you are doing. Where are the things?”
“Mary has taken up some already, and the rest are in the pantry. I’ll tell you what I want, and you can carry up a trayful at a time while I set the cloth. I know exactly how I want everything laid, you see!”
“Don’t apologise, my love. I know I’m no good at finnicky work, but I’ll fetch and carry with the best. Knives—yes! Glass—yes! Plates—yes! Leave the plates till the last, and bring up the rest first. Yes’um! I understand! Knives and tumblers for seven. They shall be yours before you can say ‘Jack Robinson.’”
“Not too quick, now!” cried Maud warningly; but Nan was off, leaping downstairs in a succession of daring bounds, swinging round corners at break-neck speed, and singing at the pitch of her voice, after the usual decorous and ladylike manner in which she was wont to descend to the lower regions.
Left to herself, Maud took a couple of steps towards the window, turned back resolutely, spread the cloth over the table, and went back at a run to peer behind the curtains and see what was going on in the garden. Chrissie and Agatha were strolling about arm in arm; Elsie walked apart, bowed in thought; Lilias flitted among the flower—beds, gesticulating with graceful abandon as she called Ned’s attention to the choicest blooms. Maud could hear her pretty ecstasies as plainly as though she had been standing by her side.
“The little dears! Aren’t they just too sweet? Don’t you love the first spring flowers? They seem so full of hope and promise!”
She had heard it all before, every time that a visitor was taken round the garden; and just for a moment a wish passed through Maud’s mind that her beautiful sister were not quite so fond of acting a part for the benefit of strangers! As a matter of fact, Lilias took less interest in the garden than any of the girls, yet she always gushed the most! The next moment she pulled herself up sharply, abashed to have cherished such uncharitable sentiments, and went on resolutely with the laying of the table. Spoons and forks had been neatly laid in their places before Nan’s approaching footsteps could be heard ploughing upstairs to an accompaniment of jingling glass and steel. She had taken the warning to heart, apparently, for there was a noticeable pause between each footstep; but, alas! when the top of the stair was reached, there came a sudden and violent change in her procedure. Maud heard a gasp, and then, even as she started forward to investigate the cause, in rushed Nan, head foremost, the contents of the tray raining on the ground, while she stumbled helplessly forward, and finally collapsed on the floor in a nest of knives and broken glass, to lift up her voice in a wail of anguish.
“Oh, oh, oh! I caught my foot! That horrid braid tripped me up at the very last step, and sent me flying forward. What shall I do?”