The Golden Calf

o less exacting than of old. Miss Pillby, for whose orphaned and friendless existence there had been no such thing as a holiday, and who had spent the vacation at Mauleverer dilige

ld get invited out for the holidays,' she said, apropos to nothin

ish governess, who had spent her holidays amidst the rank and fashion of Margate. 'When I go to the sea-s

essible to flattery, felt herself absolutely injured by the kindness that had been lavished upon Ida. She drank in with greedy ears Miss Palliser's description of The Knoll and its occupants - the picnic

ter the pupils' curfew-bell had rung youth and hope and gaiety into retirement, 'when I think of the mustard poultices I have put upon her chest, and t

ct young person who saved money, wore thick boots, and was never unprovided with a

' exclaimed Miss Pillby, stern

ently, being just then absorbed in an abstruse calculation as t

she would have invited me to her home. I should not have gone,

o hated to be plagued about abstract questions, being a young woman of an essentially concrete nat

ding herself in communion

blow of that sort,' she sai

doesn't pay in a big boarding-school, ho

f the sneerer. Now there was nothing but dull, dead monotony. Many of the old pupils had departed, and many new pupils had come, daughters of well-to-do parents, prosperous, well-dressed, talking largely of the gaieties enjoyed by their elder sisters, of the wonderful things done by their brothers at Oxford or Cambridge, and of the grand things which were to happen two or three year hence, when they themselve

es cluster round her in her garden rambles; but in a general way she preferred loneliness, and to work at the cracked old p

lone along that allotted extent of the river-side path which the mistresses and pupil-teachers were allowed to promenade without surveillance. This river walk sk

trusion on the road-side, but it was open to the river. To be entrusted with the key o

ded upon by an unknown member of the opposite sex. She trusted, as she said afterwards, in the refined feeling of any person brought into association with her, and, until rudely awakene

a lonely walk by the river, with a shabby Wordsworth or a battered little volume of Shelley's minor poems for her compani

y-making, and noisy revelry, smart young women, young men in white flannels, with bare arms and sunburnt noses. It was the dull blank time when everybody who could afford to wander far from this suburban paradise, was away upon his and her travels. O

ooping, her eyes intent upon the familiar page. The young man looked up at her with keen gray eyes, recognised her, and

wly moving figure, followed softly, came close

s garden; a ruling grace Which to the flowers, did th

, first indignan

nger; and yet the voice had a familiar sound. How are they all at The Knoll? It is near

hand with a lingering pressure, releasing it reluctantly when h

m! Was it for his own sake, or for love of her friends at K

s asking after you the other day: and that reminds me that the last litter of black Hampshires was sixteen - the largest number father ever remembers having. The vicar and his wife are coming to

e was not one of those young ladies who enjoy a little good-natured ridic

ly and truly whether you are well and happy. She has a lurking conviction that you are unable to live without her, that you will incontinently go into a galloping consumption, and

I am made of very tough material, or I should hardly have lived till now. I see before me a perspective of

r lovelessness,' retorted Brian,' f

e, had been like the Brian of her imaginings - if he had looked at her with the dark eyes of Sir Tristram's picture, how differently his speech would have affected her! As it was, she listened with airy indifference, only blushing girlish

' she inquired, her thoughts having flow

much livelier, and my cousi

ing in that lovely old house of yours. To occup

re as many rats behind the wainscot as there were Israelites in Egypt. All the rooms are draughty and some are damp. No servant who has not been born and bred on the estat

g, if it were my house' exclaimed Ida,

modern sense of the word, that is to say

pot where she had dreamed away more than one happy summer noontide, while t

e gave such blessings were unable to appreciate them, and only

Wendover lingered at her side, and seemed to exp

flow of the tide. Ida looked at it longingly, thinking how sweet it would be to step i

n London for

or long, I

o that I am fortune's fool - but I am fortune's shuttl

of you to come to

h of my soul,' said the young man, looking at her with ey

me. And now I must hurry back to the house - the tea-bell will ring in a few minutes. Pl

e gone without shaking hands, but he caught

eply, and am past hope of pardon. Must one serve an apprenticeship to mere formal acquaintance first, then rise step by step to privileged friendship, befo

o the roots of her hair. Never before had a young lover talked to her

ell, if I must go, at least tell me I am forgiven, and that I may exist upon the hope of seeing you again

u were my own cousin inst

oon for the next month or so. There is a dear good soul at

da earnestly 'Miss Pew would be horribly angry if

, except middle-aged Dr. Rylance, talked to her of love: and that this man of all others, this man, sole master of the old mansion she so intensely admired, her friend's kinsman, owner of a good old Saxon name; this man, who could lift her in a moment from pov

excited feeling, she was disposed to confuse the man with his surroundings - to think of him, not as that young man with gray eyes and thin lip

she loved, amidst those breezy Hampshire hills, in the odour of pine-woods - rich, important, honoured, and beloved, doing good to all who came

t the smaller pupils who sat at her end of the table, so as to be

said Lucy Dobbs, 'and how your eyes spark

Ida; 'I don't think a hamper would make my eyes s

argued Lucy, with her mouth full of bre

N

ght send yo

reach of Mauleverer Manor,' replied

and jam, and mixed biscuits, and preserved ginger,' said Lucy, her cheeks glowing with the rapture of her theme. 'That is what my mam

other and father were away,' said Ida, w

r forget it. So you see your father might send you a hamper,'

f I were not too old to c

ersisted Lucy; 'you mig

r young companions, and tried to eat a little bread and butter, but that insi

tined to be the object of that romantic passion? She had read of the triumphs of beauty, and she knew that she was handsome. She had been told the fact in too many ways - by praise sometimes, but much more often by envy - to remain unconscious of her charms. She was scornful of her beauty, inclined to undervalue the gift as compared with the blessings of other girls - a prosperous home, the world's respect, the means to gratify the natural yearnin

t a despicable, mercenary creature! I don't care a straw for

y declared her intention of marrying for mon

thought. 'I always meant to marry for money, if ever su

courtly manners, his perfect dress, because the man himself was obnoxious to her. Now, she did not dislike Brian Wendover - indeed, she was rather inclined to like him. She was only just a little disappointed that he was not the ideal Brian of her dreams. The dark-browed cavalier, with grave forehead and eagle eyes. She had

vening task of preparation - the gulfs and straits, the predicates and noun sentences, rul

y day-dreams of her own. But when prayers had been read, and the school had dispersed, and the butterfly-room w

- honoured, looked up to, able to help those I love,'

ear old gardens, rolling on that velvet sward, racing his favourite dogs round and round the grand old cedars! What a pony he should ride! His daily raiment should be Genoa velvet and old point lace. He should be the admiration and delight of half the county. And Bessie - how kind she could be to Bessie, repaying in some small measure that which never could be fully repaid - the kindn

streak of the autumn dawn glimmered coldly in the east, dismal presage of the discordant d

ooling me. Perhaps it is his habit to make

modesty shrank from the possibility of a second tête-à-tête with her admirer, and she sto

a wishy-washy person, sentimental, vapourish, altogether feeble

lowly, talking of German poetry. The Fr?ulein knew her Schiller by heart, having expounded him daily for the last fou

s, who knows if he would not have been greater

ea of friendship, as repres

if there is any such friend

know what I would do for anyone I loved - for a dear and valued friend, like you for i

ture to have many friends. I was very fond of Bessie Wendover, but then she is such a dear clinging thing, like a chu

me?' asked the fair Gertru

sons, but they would have been unf

u. Tell me more about Schiller - you know his poetry so well - and Jean Paul. I never

mean,' said Fr?ulein

d a manly voice from the river close by, and Brian Wendover shot his boat

e Fr?ulein Wolf that this young stranger was a lover. Her sentimental soul

t beholding her admirer as at the recollection of her vi

g hands with him. 'Mr. Wendover -

ushed, sniggere

?ulein,' said Ida, with an explanatory air. 'He was s

ecame heart-friends,' gushed Miss Wolf, beaming

this young stranger. So good-looking, so elegant, and speaking Hanoverian German. He told her that he had seen only too little o

are our frie

od,' gaspe

int. The Fr?ulein dropped into her pla

Mr. Wendover?' asked Ida, trying to sustain

drew me here yesterday, and

le person Miss Pew is. These river-side fields are her own particular

ath were deadly, I would risk

e washed with the farthest sea, I w

iss Pew, when the path to

e,' pleaded Ida; 'Fr?ulein will

think nothing of the sort. Sentiment of

ter, and my only thought in life is to be near you. I shall know

Penton Hook for a month!' exclaimed Ida,

daily resurrectio

n this path every afternoon, in order that yo

your habits in order to deprive me of the sunshine of your presence,' replied Brian, gazing at her tend

should come here again so long as you are likely to be lying in wait for me. Is it not s

Pew's social code such a derogation from maiden dignity would

derer, to back her up, I would defy her. Confess now, dear Fr?ulein - liebste Fr?ulein'- how tender his accents sounde

that she for her part would be enchanted to play propriety, and to be her dearest Ida's compani

chen garden; the walls are ten feet high, and unless you had a horse

defy me. Remember there are things that have been

sembling her ideal, was a very agreeable young man. He was full of life and spirits; he spoke German admirably. He had the Fr?ulein's idolized Schiller on the tip of his tongue. He quoted Heine's tenderest love songs. Altogether his society was much more in

the Manor grounds, across the dusty high-road, the mere passage over which had a faint flavour of exc

y wonder at it. We have seen so little of each o

One sees a face which is one's fate, and only wonders how one can have

ked Ida, with rather a cynical air. 'You tal

lf blushed

his soul would have harmonized with the loftiest rank in the land. He was in the Landwehr. If you had seen him in his uniform - ac

d he carry you off

r's cook - a fat, rosy-cheeked Swabian. All that was delicate and refined in his nature,

ed existence upon wurst,' said Ida, 'and

eeds, and Miss Palliser's faithful swain was in attendance upon her. On doubtful afternoons, when Ida was inclined to stay indoors, the sentimental Fr?ulein was always at her side to urge her to take the accustomed wa

rnoons, in attendance upon the pupils' regulation walks - long dusty perambulations of dull

nd wife in the days to come. He did not speak as if their marriage were an event in the near future; and at this Ida wondered a little, seeing that the owner of Wendover Abbey could have no need to wait for a wife - to consider ways and means - and to be prudently patient, as struggling professional youth must be. This was curious; for that he loved her passionately there could be little doubt

olf in Brian's presence upon the

d; 'and the old, old gardens and park are something too lovely:

'I have seen too much of the Abbey to be moved to rapture by its

uld like to

might enjoy, perhaps, on the downhill side of sixty; but in youth or active middle age every sensible

table,' said Ida; 'yet how

nker and a fast liv

own now and then, the works would

feel the need of

tifled

rd enough for that. The need will come

same tone. It was evident that he was indifferent to the family seat, or that he eve

the family ghost,' Ida said laughingly, 'you

by the ghost - I am too mo

e in everything impossible - sp

d ever seen in his face, he said, 'You are full of enthusiasm about that old pla

down. The question touche

at are cedars and limestone

he Abbey and I were nothing to each oth

his surroundings,' she answered; 'but I

stamp, the man's a man for a' that." But the guinea

's confidence by conduct so entirely averse from Miss Pew's ideas of good behaviour. The confidence had been so grudgingly given, Miss Pew had been so systematically unkind, that the girl may be forgiven for detesting her, nay, even for glorying in the notion of acting i

of eyes in the establishment, and those the eyes of Miss Pillby, the thing would have been discovered; for those pale unlovely orbs were as the e

ho never opened a book for her own pleasure, who cared nothing for music, and whose highest notion of art was all blacklead pencil and bread-crumbs, had plenty of vacant space in her mind for other people's business. She was a sharp observer of the fiddle-faddle of daily life; she had a keen scent for e

had gone so far as it really had gone, that any young lady at Mauleverer could dare to walk and talk with an unlicensed man in the broad light of day, was more than Miss Pillby's imagination could conceive. But she speculated upon some transient glimpse of a man on the opposit

o intoned exquisitely, with that melodious snuffle so dear to modern congregations, and whose voice had a dying fall when he gave out a hymn which almost moved girl-worshippers to tears. He was thought to be in a consumption - had a little dry hacking cough, actually caused by relaxed tonsils, but painfully recalling her of the camelias. The Mauleverer girls called him interesting, and hoped that he would never marry, but live and die like St. Francis de Sales. On this particular Sunday, Miss Pew - vulgarly Old Pew - happened to be unusually amiable. That morning's post had brought her the promise of three new pupils, daughters of a mighty sheep farmer lately returned from Australia, and supposed to be a millionaire. He was a widower, and wanted motherly care for his orphans. They were to be clothed as well as fed at Mauleverer; they were to have all those tender ca

objection, and Ida flew off to put on her bonnet - that poor little black

en there was the music. Ida loved music too passionately to be indifferent to the harmony of villag

ove the river, glorifying the dipping willows, the narrow eyots, haunts of swan and cygnet, and the distant woodlands of Surrey. It

n one side of the nave, but on the other side the con

f elegant and pleasing appearance, who was evidently casting stolen glances at the lambs of the Mauleverer fold. Nor was Miss Pillby's kee

ten, to the trials and triumphs of the children of Israel, chanted by fre

eech with Miss Palliser. He hung on the pathway near them, he shot ahead of them, and then turned and strolled slowly back. All in vain. Ida w

an invigorating repast of bread and butter and toast and water with the pupils who had been to church. 'Some London shopman,

y - three narrow iron bedsteads in a particularly inconvenient room, a

p to the Fr?ulein, who was calmly brushing her flaxen tresses, a

the Fr?ulein. 'Thou

or the

dlike?' demanded the Fr

t tell Palliser that I know anythin

ley rose from her knees, remarking that it was impossible for anybody to pray

ool, and had frequent encounters with Miss Pillby, that lady having charge of the linen, and being, in the laundress's eye, a power in the establishment. Miss Pillby had furthermore been what she called 'kind' to the laundress's ho

ty which he owed to her and to society to watch Ida Palliser's proceedings in

nour. He had a dim feeling that it was a shabby service which he was called upon to perform; but then of course Miss Pillby, who tau

ting. Gar'ner told me about it last week,' said t

t of sight as much as you can, but be well within

all I see yo

it can't be managed till to-morrow. You are in th

, mi

m at half-past six to-morrow morning

a mucky place - all am

There was no amount of muckiness Miss Pillby would not

inful it might be, Sam!' she said, and left t

and obscure passages to the boot-room, where she found Sam hard at work with brushes

asked the ves

I heerd 'em,' answered the b

nd of th

to the bank, and a young gent jumps ashore. My, how he went on! I was down among the rushes, right under

e kiss

er just as she was wishing of him good-bye. He gave her a squeedge like, and took her unawares. It was on

Sam, and don't say a word to anybody about what you've seen, till I tell you. I m

ng,' said the boy. 'It would freeze my blood

n be nothing to frighten you. However, I dare say she will be sa

y, that's what the bishops do. Fancy old Pew being confirmed too - old Pew in a white frock an

when eight o'clock struck. Had Miss Pew consulted her own inclination she would have reposed until a much later hour; but the maintenance of discipline compelled that she should be the head and front of all virtuous movements at Mauleverer Manor. How could she inveigh with due for

Miss Pew liked. It was the lever du roi upon a small scale. And this afforded an opportunity for the mistress on duty to inform her principal of any small fact in connection with the school or household which it was well f

llows, like a female Jove upon a bank of clouds, an awful figure in frilled white ra

ss Pillby; 'I shouldn't wonde

te in the year for thunder. We shall hav

on all her life without having arrived at any clear idea of its nature and properti

Any of the girls bilious? One of

st of the doses taken at Mauleverer with her own fair hands, and her black draughts were a feature in the school. The pupils never forgo

is morning,' answered Miss

girls ate veal and ham yesterday was enough to have turned the s

Pew prided herself, as an instance of luxurious living rarely to be met with

iss Pew, after she had sipped half her tea and enjoyed t

as one of her idiosyncrasies. She insisted upon being kept informed of all that went

sandy locks; 'I don't believe there is a servant in this h

ew; 'I never heard of anything bad enou

upil teacher,

'I can believe anything of her. That girl was

xcited by the unwonted familiarity between Ida and the Fr?ulein - a young person always open to suspicion as a stranger in the land - how her fears had been c

ic air as she rose from her couch. 'That will do, Pillby. I want no further details. I'

pal, Miss Pillby retired: yet she knew in her heart that

lad in sombre robes of olive green merino, and a cap bristling with olive-green berries and br

asher. Not a word did Miss Pew speak to sister or mistresses during that brief but awful meal; but when the delft breakfast cups were empty, and the stacks of thick bread and bu

t to make an example; and I hope what I have to say and

up where all the rest were seated, a tall and perfect figure, a beautiful statuesque head, supported by a neck like a marble column. She stoo

habit to meet and converse with in my grounds? Who is the ma

e 'The gentleman came of his own accord. His name is B

eventeen-year-old pupils who were not without fear or reproach upon the subject of

voice, 'That is really too good a joke. En

over of t

engaged himself to the youngest of my pupil-teachers, whose acquaintance he has cultivated while trespassing on my meadow? Miss Palliser, when a gentleman of Mr. Wendover's means and social status wishes to marry a young person in your pos

k at her tyrant, and mov

she cried passionately; 'I will not stay ano

han is needed for the packing up of your clothes, and that, I take it,' added the schoolmistress, with an insolent laugh, 'will not be a lengthy operation. You are expelled, Miss Palliser - expell

taken ideas as to the nature of lovers and love-making'- despite the universal awe, this provoked a faint, irrepressible titter -'but it is hard that you should revenge

not careful,' said Miss Pew, who had, however, no int

erself upon Ida, whose period

dover speaks of our future a

he Fr?ulein, 'that is

autumnal cap quivered. 'Ungrateful, impudent young woman! Leave my house instantly. I will not have t

m my speech and my example have done you. Good-bye, Fr?ulein; don

e was quite the richest, and perhaps the best-natured girl in the school. She caught hold

ore. Yes, yes, you must; you shall. I'll make a row, and get myself

r. I'll send it you

all hate you

gone?' demanded Mis

bb, forgetting herself in her excit

hat?' roar

rmants pronounced

under a homely governess to that critical stage in which they would require the poli

propriate season, Miss Cobb. Young ladies,