“Don’t dare to come here again!” said the haughty eyes. “Don’t imagine you will get the laugh over me,” said the haughty head, and Geoffrey Hilliard read the signals, and smiled unperturbed—a happy, self-confident smile.
“I assure Miss O’Shaughnessy that I should be honoured by an invitation,” he said blandly, “if I may accept in advance. Nothing will give me greater pleasure than to join your gathering.”
Chapter Twenty One.
Bridgie’s Confession.
After Mr Hilliard’s departure, Mademoiselle was treated to an exhibition of what was known in the family as “Esmeralda’s tantrums.” Hardly had her father turned from the door than she had rushed towards him, and begun pouring out the story of her wrongs. Eyes flashed, head tossed, arms waving about in emphatic declamation, little foot tapped the floor all a-quiver with excitement, while Pixie stood in the background faithfully imitating each gesture, and Pat gazed at the ceiling with an expression of heart-broken innocence. Esmeralda called upon all present to witness that she was despised and ridiculed by the members of her own family; that by this evening’s work she had been made the laughing-stock of the county; and announced her intention of leaving home by the first train that steamed out of the station. She would earn her own living, and if necessary, wander barefoot through the world, rather than submit any longer to insults from her own kith and kin, and when she died a beggar’s death, and lay stretched in a pauper’s grave, they might remember her words, and forgive themselves if they could!
The invective was originally directed against Pat alone, but as she warmed to her work it grew ever more comprehensive, until at last it seemed as though the whole household were in conspiracy against her. Then suddenly the climax was touched and passed; the last stage of all was announced by a tempest of tears, and the Major tugged miserably at his moustache, nerving himself to the task most difficult in the world to his easy-going nature,—that of finding fault!
“Pat, ye rascal, what’s this I hear about you? Mark my words, now. I’ll not have your sisters made the subject for practical jokes! If you can’t keep yourself out of mischief, I’ll find a way to occupy you with something you’d like worse. Can I have no peace in me own home for the complaints of you and your doings? If ye can’t carry yourself as a gentleman, I’ll apprentice ye to a trade, and wash me hands of you once for all. Mind what I’m telling ye, for there’s truth in it! Will I be giving him a punishment now, Esmeralda? Is it your wish I should punish him?”
“It is so! And the harder the better!” sobbed Esmeralda; and the Major heaved a sigh of ponderous dimensions.