“Mother, need I change? Can’t I go as I am, and be happy? I might want to climb over a fence, and it’s such spiky work.”
“Mother, I think we should all go dressed alike in white dresses and blue ties, and march across the road in a crocodile. Do let’s! It would be such fun!”
Mrs Rendell pressed her hands to her head in distracted fashion.
“If every single one of you is not out of this room in two minutes from now, I’ll retract, and send a refusal instead! Get away to your work! I’ll see you separately later on, if you want instructions, but surely girls of your age ought to be able to dress without my assistance! The only thing I bargain for is that you are not alike, for that would only accentuate your number, and as it is I feel ashamed to appear with such a battalion.”
“Lilias, need we go?” Ned Talbot slid his hand through his fiancée’s arm, and drew her into the garden. “If the party is too large, why should we not reduce it by two, and have a quiet little lunch by ourselves? I must leave before four o’clock, and if we go to the Grange it will mean that we have no more time together, for we cannot run away immediately after lunch. Mr Vanburgh would understand our position if we sent an excuse.”
“Oh, Ned!” cried Lilias, and the tone of reproach was so eloquent that there could be no mistaking her wishes on the subject. “Oh, Ned, the first time we have been asked! Our first invitation! You couldn’t really wish me to refuse it. I should be so dreadfully disappointed. You don’t know how much we have longed to be asked, or what castles in the air we have built about this day!”
“Very well, dear; don’t trouble yourself. We will do just as you please,” said Ned wearily. He tried to convince himself of the reasonableness of Lilias’s position, and to show no sign of resentment; but the jar was there all the same, and seemed to set up a barrier between them in all they did and said. If any one had foretold that he should feel time drag heavily in Lilias’s company, and cast about in his mind for subjects on which to talk, how he would have derided the idea! yet, alas, it had come true, for he felt a distinct sense of gratitude towards Nan when she thrust her head out of a bedroom window and summoned Lilias to her assistance. When there is no sympathy in the great principles of life, small talks become increasingly difficult, as this poor fellow was discovering to his cost.
Punctually at one o’clock the door of Thurston House was thrown open, and Mrs Rendell was discovered standing upon the threshold, issuing final directions to her flock.
“Stop talking! My dear, good girls, if you insist upon speaking all together, how am I to make myself heard? Pray calm yourselves, and behave like reasonable beings. Don’t let me have the humiliation of taking about a crowd of excited children who might never before have been outside their own gate!” Then she marched majestically ahead, with the demure Elsie as her companion, while the engaged couple followed, and each of the three remaining girls fell back in turns to cast a critical glance at her companions. Half-way across the road Nan’s belt was discovered to have parted company with the skirt, and the most strategic measures were necessary in order to secure it before her mother reached the door of the Grange.
“And remember, all of you, not to put your arms round her waist! The pin will stick out, whatever I do with it,” said Christabel darkly; then the door was thrown open, and the butler led the way across the hall towards the entrance to the garden. Each member of the visiting party was consumed with curiosity to examine the beautiful objects on either side, but had too much ado to keep her footing on the slippery oak floor to have any attention to spare. Lilias clung to Ned’s arm, Mrs Rendell and Elsie minced along with tiny footsteps, and Nan waited until no one was looking, and then gave giant strides from one mat to another, or clung to a friendly rail to help her round slippery corners. Then at last the garden was reached, and there, beneath the trees, stood an enchanted table, laden with everything that was beautiful in the way of glass and china, and banked up with a wealth of pink roses.