“I saw Mr Vane once, and he looks a regular grey man,” said Ethel in reply. “Clothes, and hair, and eyes, and skin—all the same washed-out grey. I don’t wonder Lottie is in awe of him, and I’m thankful I am not mixed up in the business, so that he can’t ask to interview me. I believe he will want to see Pixie, though. It would seem only natural. I wouldn’t say so to her for the world, but don’t you think Miss Phipps will send for her when he comes?”
Some of the girls thought no, others thought yes, and events proved that the latter were in the right; for the next afternoon Pixie was summoned to the drawing-room in the middle of her packing, and entered to find Miss Phipps in earnest conversation with a tall, grave-looking man, while Lottie stood miserably by the window. She looked tall and womanly in her travelling-cloak, and the pained glance which Mr Vane turned from her to the new-comer showed that he felt all an Englishman’s horror at the idea of cruelty to the weak.
“Is this—this surely can’t be Pixie?” he asked anxiously. “I did not expect to see anyone so—small. She is surely very young!”
He was really speaking to Miss Phipps, but as he held Pixie’s hand in his, she felt it her duty to answer for herself.
“No—I’m really quite old, but I’m stunted. I’m twelve!” she said, smiling up at him, with the confiding look which was her best introduction to a stranger. She was about to enlighten him still further as to the respective heights of the different members of her family, but a curious quiver passed over the grey face, and scared her into silence.
“Twelve, are you, and Lottie is sixteen! I sent for you, Pixie, to tell you how bitterly grieved Mrs Vane and I are to think of all you have suffered through our daughter’s cowardice. I wish it were in our power to do something for you in return, but I hope at least that Lottie has expressed her regret before leaving, and begged your forgiveness!”
“No, she didn’t beg anything. She just cried, and hugged me, and I cried, and hugged her back. I knew she was sorry from the beginning; and it was worse for her, because she knew all the time that she was wrong, and I was quite comfortable inside. And she was very kind to me before that. I liked her very much. She gave me an elegant little brooch that she didn’t want any longer.”
Mr Vane turned aside, and looked into Miss Phipps’s face, and Miss Phipps looked back at him with a glance half smiling, half tearful, and withal wholly proud, as though justified in something about which she had previously been inclined to boast.
“Pixie finds no difficulty in forgiving, Mr Vane, and I think the best thanks you could give her would be an opportunity of befriending Lottie still further, and helping her to regain her position in the school. I think it is an encouraging omen for the future that it is the girls themselves who have persuaded me to take her back.”
“They are very good! You are all very good,” he said sadly. “I need hardly say how much I appreciate your kindness. Good-bye, then, little Pixie O’Shaughnessy, and I hope we may meet again under happier circumstances. May you have happy holidays!”