The Story of Louie

e the most popular

al, the usual number of crates and parcels was despatched from Rainham Magna station, and already the girls were looking forward to June, which was always a slack month)-before April was out she could "slip" and "bud" as deftly as any when she chose; but few made more mistakes than she, and none accepted correction with her remarkable nonchalance. A

ere no

o Trant fo

for the markets went on, completely took the starch out of her. She felt as if she was being forced herself. She hated the sight of the twelve houses; they merely meant so much ventilation, so much shutting-down for the evenings, so much

cal clusters, were already past; and she expected to see the roses out presently, big as sunflowers. There was something almost rank in the sweet bursting out of the land. She thanked goodness that a daisy was a daisy still, modest and unmagnified. She was not used to hedges of fuchsia. Nature might have been a little more sparing of her myrtle too. Louie

wever, she incited nobody

ld days at Chesson's; oh, for that matter she could make it all up now!... "Come where we can have a really good talk! Where's Burnett Major now, and her sister? And have you heard from Elwell lately? And I wonder what's become of that red-haired girl-what was her name-Earle-yes, Earle? And of course you know Macfarlane's going to be married.... Now tell me all about what you're doing!"... Oh yes, Louie could make all this up-the bursts, the pauses, the dead stops, and

at her mercy-for, had she been requested to leave, the two Burnetts, Elwell and others would now have left with her. So, doing exactly as she liked, and adore

held by Mrs. Lovenant-Smith's permission; it had been acceded readily. "Lovey's not such a bad old sort when you get used to her," B. Major said. It was in mid-May, on a hot evening, and, though Burnett's window was flung wide open, showing the dark yew outside, not a b

r for being a little dazzled by her approaching presentation. There was nothing unfamiliar to Louie, either, in the rest of the things she felt herself, at one and the same time, both "in at" and "out of," for probably Mewley Hall, the Burnetts' home, w

the vacation arrangements rested after all chiefly with the parents, he could do little except express his preference that as many of the girls as possible should take their holidays in

t's all right for Major-oh, you needn't think we don't know, Major-if you aren't actually engaged he's always about th

I shall send you out

name through the keyhole. It's--" She moved her lip

said he

nor b

ain! Causton, have you a young man? (Tha

s name through keyholes,

o tell us-

sitting down on the edge of the b

ing to wriggle ou

She popped a fruit into the mouth th

deck of the washstan

-quatr'ans-el

vec voter Fran?ay," c

rine," said the ruthless Pigou: "à

me when we sleep out, because I'm going to hav

vient d'p

se things you always say 'Hush' w

ed the French child

hen do you take your v

you go?" somebo

d-father's taken a h

're going! Causton, wil

to Ireland

at man who brought you here!" (Burnett Mino

Moone, was it?"

it your

Causton," s

stroked the hair and tweaked the ears of Burnett Minor, who had defeated Pigou in the scramble to put her head into Louie's lap. "I can have the pitch next to yo

count of the morning and evening carrying of bedding and mattresses, the "pitches" nearest the house were deemed the most desir

she was coming out; she had an unofficial admirer; yes, Louie saw quite plainly what B. Major's future would be. What was her own going to be? She had not the least idea.... No, she did not really want a vacation. More or fewer, there would be girls at Chesson's throughout the summer. Chesson's still amused her; she could leave once for all when it ceased to amuse her. She was learning nothing. She neither wished to sta

at theory for the sake of a medal, as

was hers and yet not hers when Miss Harriet, go

d. "Mrs. Lovenant-Smith's compliments, a

ee, young ladies, what liberty you have within

rty br

t Minor and little Pigou. The convolvulus came out, great white trumpets in the hedges; the sea over the hill became of a milky blue; and there floated out to it dense tracts of odours, lilies, and syringa, jasmine and roses and hay

old herself) made no difference at all, began very trivially. It was just such another accident as that which, ni

t to be seen. Therefore, once a month or so, the girls might, if they wished, go in parties of four or five to a hairdresser's at Rainham, there to be professionally-whatever the word may be. These parties were made up more with a view to the enjoy

n! You know you went with Elwell before, and with Major before that, and I d

int Catherine?

co

had shak

there a week ago. No, I won't come. I'm

fib! You nev

ht to. No, I

ou lend me y

ut the others are wa

l wobble w

inor on the bicycle, "wobbling" and leaving behind

hesson's (except perhaps to Earle) that "movements had been observed in the pollen-grains of Cereus Speciosissimus," or that "changes took place in the stamens by suppression and degenerations of various kinds." Then she glanced at a preparation on the stage of the microscope opp

ing off her slippers,

ewhere at the back. The sounds of the washing up were fainter now; a pigeon alighted on her sill. She had been an idiot, she told herself, to fag herself that morning listening to Hall's demonstrat

in his tied wig and ensign's uniform. Louie had tacked it up by her mirror merely because it had been in her room at Trant as long as she could re

over. The

mulch. At five o'clock Louie could hardly drag herself out of it. She fumbled a

ps tea woul

ippers, rose, touched her hair as she pass

students also were permitted to do if they chose-the meal was a noisier one than either lunch or supper. Louie heard o

o me-I'm going to read

m the current number of the "Pansy Library" or an especially choice one from an office-boys' perio

says-do look at it, isn't it stunning?-and now-aha!" (somebody had made a grab for her book). "Thought you'd got it, didn't you, Elwell? Now

for a chair. S

, for I'm not going to do any. What's the child got now? If it's '

question. She jumped on a chair

she cri

D BATTLES OF

in her most

nd Only Authorised Life

ncle, don't f

r the First Time-including his Historic E

idge-'Piker'-i

ioners' Hall and

e One

syllable of the linked s

Uncle Buck, Causton-you needn't say he isn't-

the bookle

with enjoyment. "Wait till I find the

y through the precious penny

in. If her colour changed at all it was only as that other pale fighter's had done w

peremptorily extending her h

g of his bunged optic and the claret that flowed from his beezer. Game as a buck-an

d walked to the child.

look," s

s if she feared she might be reft of h

ye

took t

er hand. The most execrable of woodcuts could hardly disguise what she saw. Traditionally posed, nude above the waist, and clad below only in tights and fight

e did not think of the bomb she was about to drop among the girls. She only w

he barely heard Burnett Minor bubbling. "Bu

. At any rate she had now seen him, if only in

e said, perhaps a shad

ooked abou

r eyes shone flattery on Louie. The very aud

she cried. Louie turned h

n't quite right. That's m

miracle more or less made no difference. Her

lly?" sh

e no

Pigou cried excitedly,

ly nodded-nodding isn't

't you see s

as watching Louie-o

cried. "Spit

nou

erous! And you

r sister. She was shocked into using her C

ok again,"

d been cruel, faithless, divorced.

ic-house up the

hat, of course, was too much. They breathed

They've made it up b

y have! Come a

at was the man who b

r, never believe an

ekeeper will be h

n my piece of cake

read and bu

athered about Louie dispe

he would have made it sooner had occasion offered. Elwell and the Burnetts did not drag their fathers in; she had not dragged her father in either. She had not told them that her mother was Lord Moone's sister-it was known, but she had not told them; why should she have paraded the

t rather that secret hunger of the heart that, while she was "in at" everything, she was also

it had been her blind groping towards that crude and strong and c

e girls downstairs were

received a number of disordered impressions all heaped one on the top of the other, she sat do

to stand forth more distinctly. Presently she was able to allocate each to its speaker. It

her? "Genista!" she had exclaimed, shocked at her young sister's apparent belief in the socially impossible. Yes, it would be interesting to see what differen

id not

y Mrs. Lovenant-Smith, knowing about it hersel

came into her eyes again. She would see about Mrs. Lovenant-Smith by-and-by. In the meantime, th

aid it out on her bed, and then, reachin

t Richenda herself, who had come back from her vacation a week before, by the embrasure of one of the latticed courtyard windows. It was almost dark; in the recess the little refl

she said, on

came up for a bo

tudying to-ni

oh yes,

sific

es-y

have you

eally challenged when she challenged Earle. Hard knowledge of the true weight of Life will tell, and Earle's knowledge of that weight tol

s niece, aren't you?" sh

seemed less assertive than before, and was, somehow, none the worse for it. Loui

she sai

" Richen

them downstairs is just as true,

t-b

l, w

igated what she had

ave thought it queer, my talking

ch of the first atti

ning?" sh

me-when I was wash

why should I thin

gain. Again the sharp

ther's what I said, no doubt I know as mu

e quickly that that probably

at do yo

at it's-

a twitch and turned away. She spok

er-Augustus Evelyn Francis Scarisbrick, Lord Moone. And the other's my father.

bruptly to t

she was sure of this when, giving the child's hand a pat under the table, she felt her own hand impulsively caught and squeezed. Then, in proportion as Burnett Minor cheered up (which she usually did very quickly), the others ceased to talk across to Louie. It was as if, whoever did it, some