“It is only trains and traction engines Bob is frightened of,” Miss Merivale said. “And coaxing is best, I am sure. There, we shall have no more trouble with him now. He is a dear little fellow.”
Pauline said nothing, but she had some difficulty in keeping herself from shrugging her shoulders. She thought both Miss Merivale and Rose deplorably weak and silly. A smart stroke with the whip was what the pony wanted. But she had come down determined to be on her best behaviour, and she made some smiling remark on the beauty of the country.
“Rose has been pining for fresh air like a lark in a cage,” she said. “Are you content now, Rosie?”
“Tom said she looked pale,” Miss Merivale said, giving Rose an anxious, loving glance. “I wish you would come down again next week, dear. I can’t let a fortnight pass again without seeing you; it is much too long.”
“Time goes faster in London,” said Pauline, without allowing Rose to answer. “It seems only yesterday that Rose came to me. How quiet it is here! Don’t you miss the roar of London, Rosie? I do. Not the clatter of cabs and carts, but that deep, low roar we hear when we open the window. It is like the voice of the great city. There is no music like it.”
“I would rather hear the birds,” Miss Merivale said gently; but she gave Rosie another anxious look. She was wondering if the time had gone as quickly with her as with Pauline.
Rose did not speak. She was waiting till they got home to pour her heart out to her aunt. She could not speak before Pauline.
“I am afraid I haven’t many rustic tastes,” Pauline said in a cool, superior voice. “But it is certainly lovely here. What a delightful change it must be for that little Miss Sampson! I hear you find her very useful, Miss Merivale. Clare will be pleased to hear it.”
For the first time in her life Pauline saw Miss Merivale look angry. Her mild blue eyes actually flashed as she answered in a voice that trembled a little, “I don’t think you can have heard that Rhoda is related to us, Miss Smythe. She is staying with me as my visitor. Rose, my dear, I want you to be very good to her.”
Pauline stole a look at Rose, expecting to see a cloud of jealousy on her pretty face; but she saw instead a tender, happy smile lurking in the corners of her lips. She was distinctly mystified.