Ruth heaved a sigh, half convinced, half reluctant.
“That’s what you always say! I see such crowds of objections. To begin with, I hate the position; it’s awkward and humiliating. To stay here on approval, studied like specimens in a case; being on one’s good behaviour, and ‘acting pretty’ to try to get a fortune for oneself, away from other people—bah! It makes me hot even to think of it. I should feel a hypocrite!”
“Don’t be high-flown, dear; it’s quite unnecessary. You couldn’t be a hypocrite if you tried; you are too ridiculously ‘proud,’ I suppose you would say. I call it quick-tempered! If Uncle Bernard snubs you, you will flare out, fortune or no fortune, and if you feel mopey, mope you will, if he disinherits you the next moment. I shall be honest, too, because I’m too lazy to be anything else; besides, you know, there is always the pleasing reflection that he may prefer us to be crotchety! Everything is possible where everything is vague. Imagine how maddening it would be if we kept our tempers, and smiled sweetly from morning till night, and in the end he left everything to that cross Mr Melland, because he considered it necessary for the owner of wealth to have a will of his own!”
Ruth laughed involuntarily.
“You are a goose! Not much chance of your being the chosen one, I am afraid. Uncle Bernard is not in the mood for appreciating nonsense; he is too sad and ill, poor old man! That’s another hateful thing. I should love to nurse and coddle him, and read aloud, and be good to him generally; but if one does, it will seem— Oh, you know— you understand! It’s a loathsome position!”
“If I feel affectionate, I shall act affectionate! He will probably loathe it, so there’s just as much chance of injuring one’s chance as of bettering it. In fact, if we are to get on at all, we had better try to forget the wretched money, and behave as if it did not exist. If anyone had told us a month ago that we should be staying in a big house with two quite good-looking young men as fellow-guests, and carte blanche to enjoy ourselves as much as we pleased, we would have thought it too impossibly good to be true; but now that it has come true, we shall be idiots if we don’t make the most of it. I hope Uncle Bernard keeps to his idea of making us each master of the ceremonies in turn. Won’t I make the money fly when it comes to my turn! Picnics and luncheons by day, dances and theatricals by night—one giddy whirl of excitement the whole time long. I’ll take the old dear at his word, and give no thought to expense, and entertain the whole countryside until the name of Mollie Farrell is immortalised for ever in grateful hearts. I have always credited myself with a genius for social life; now for the first time you will behold me in the halls of the great, and gaze with surprise at your sister reigning as queen over the assembled throngs?”
“In your one black dress?”
“Certainly not! I’ve thought of that, too. Suitable equipments must, of course, be part of the carte blanche.”
“I am sure nothing was further from Uncle Bernard’s thoughts. He looks to me like a man who would never notice clothes, or care what we looked like, so long, of course, as we were respectable. He has more important things on his mind.”
“Humph!” Mollie tossed her saucy head. “If he doesn’t notice of his own accord, his eyes must be gently, but firmly opened. We stay at his special request; at his special request we entertain and are entertained; it is only reasonable that he should bear the expense of making our appearance do him credit. I’ll tell him so, too, if he doesn’t see it for himself.”