"Jack-ass on striped-ass-or off him," muttered Bobus.
"Oh! don't, Jock," implored Babie, "you'll get thrown."
"No such thing. You'll come to the meet yourself, Babie, on your Arab."
"Not she," said Bobus, in his teasing voice. "She'll be governessed up and kept to lessons all day."
"Mother always teaches us," said Babie.
"She'll have no time, she'll be a great lady, and you'll have three governesses-one for French, and one for German, and one for deportment, to make you turn out your toes, and hold up your head, and never sit on the rug."
"Never mind, Babie," said Jock. "We'll bother them out of their lives if they do."
"You'll be at school," said Bobus, "and they'll all three go out walking with Babie, and if she goes out of a straight line one will say 'Fi donc, Mademoiselle Barbe,' and the other will say, 'Schamen sie sich, Fraulein Barbara,' and the third will call for the stocks."
"For shame, Robert," cried his mother, hearing something like a sob; "how can you tease her so!"
"Mother, must I have three governesses?" asked poor little Barbara.
"Not one cross one, my sweet, if I can help it!"
"Oh! mother, if it might be Miss Ogilvie?" said Babie.
"Yes, mother, do let it be Miss Ogilvie," chimed in Armine. "She tells such jolly stories!"
"She ain't a very nasty one," quoted Jock from Newman Noggs, and as Janet appeared he received her with-"Moved by Barbara, seconded by Armine, that Miss Ogilvie become bear-leader to lick you all into shape."
"What do you think of it, Janet?" said her mother.
"It will not make much difference to me," said Janet. "I shall depend on classes and lectures when we go back to London. I should have thought a German better for the children, but I suppose the chief point is to find some one who can manage Elfie if we are still to keep her."
"By the bye, where is she, poor little thing?" asked Caroline.
"Aunt Ellen took her home," said Janet. "She said she would send her back at bed-time, but she thought we should be more comfortable alone to-night."
"Real kindness," said Caroline; "but remember, children, all of you, that Elfie is altogether one of us, on perfectly equal terms, so don't let any difference be made now or ever."
"Shall I have a great many more lessons, mother?" asked Babie.
"Don't be as silly as Essie, Babie," said Janet. "She expects us all to have velvet frocks and gold-fringed sashes, and Jessie's first thought was 'Now, Janet, you'll have a ladies' maid.'"
"No wonder she rejoiced to be relieved of trying to make you presentable," said Bobus.
"Shall we live at Belforest?" asked Armine.
"Part of the year," said Janet, who was in a wonderfully expansive and genial state; "but we shall get back to London for the season, and know what it is to enjoy life and rationality again, and then we must all go abroad. Mother, how soon can we go abroad?"
"It won't make a bit of difference for a year. We shan't get it for ever so long," said Bobus.
"Oh!"
"Fact. I know a man whose uncle left him a hundred pounds last year, and the lawyers haven't let him touch a penny of it."
"Perhaps he is not of age," said Janet.
"At any rate," said Jock, "we can have our fun at Belforest."
"O yes, Jock, only think," cried Babie, "all the dear tadpoles belong to mother!"
"And all the dragon-flies," said Armine.
"And all the herons," said Jock.
"We can open the gates again," said Armine.
"Oh! the flowers!" cried Babie in an ecstasy.
"Yes," said Janet. "I suppose we shall spend the early spring in the country, but we must have the best part of the season in London now that we can get out of banishment, and enjoy rational conversation once more."
"Rational fiddlestick," muttered Bobus.
"That's what any girl who wasn't such a prig as Janet would look for," said Jock.
"Well, of course," said Janet. "I mean to have my balls like other people; I shall see life thoroughly. That's just what I value this for."
Bobus made a scoffing noise.
"What's up, Bobus?" asked Jock.
"Nothing, only you keep up such a row, one can't read."
"I'm sure this is better and more wonderful than any book!" said Jock.
"It makes no odds to me," returned Bobus, over his book.
"Oh! now!" cried Janet, "if it were only the pleasure of being free from patronage it would be something."
"Gratitude!" said Bobus.
"I'll show my gratitude," said Janet; "we'll give all of them at Kencroft all the fine clothes and jewels and amusements that ever they care for, more than ever they gave us; only it is we that shall give and they that will take, don't you see?"
"Sweet charity," quoth Bobus.
Those two were a great contrast; Janet had never been so radiant, feeling her sentence of banishment revoked, and realising more vividly than anyone else was doing, the pleasures of wealth. The cloud under which she had been ever since the coming to the Pagoda seemed to have rolled away, in the sense of triumph and anticipation; while Bobus seemed to have fallen into a mood of sarcastic ill- temper. His mother saw, and it added to her sense of worry, though her bright sweet nature would scarcely have fathomed the cause, even had she been in a state to think actively rather than to feel passively. Bobus, only a year younger than Allen, and endowed with more force and application, if not with more quickness, had always been on a level with his brother, and felt superior, despising Allen's Eton airs and graces, and other characteristics which most people thought amiable. And now Allen had become son and heir, and was treated by everyone as the only person of importance. Bobus did not know what his own claims might be, but at any rate his brother's would transcend them, and his temper was thoroughly upset.
Poor Caroline! She did not wholly omit to pray "In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth, deliver us!" but if she had known all that was in her children's hearts, her own would have trembled more.
And as to Ellen, the utmost she allowed herself to say was, "Well, I hope she will make a good use of it!"
While the Colonel, as trustee and adviser, had really a very considerable amount of direct importance and enjoyment before him, which might indeed be-to use his own useful phrase-"a fearful responsibility," but was no small boon to a man with too much time on his hands.
CHAPTER XVI. POSSESSION.
Vain glorious Elf, said he, dost thou not weete That money can thy wants at will supply; Shields, steeds and armes, and all things for thee meet, It can purvey in twinkling of an eye. Spenser.
Bobus's opinion that it would be long before anything came of this accession of wealth was for a few days verified in the eyes of the impatient family, for Christmas interfered with some of the necessary formalities; and their mother, still thinking that another will might be discovered, declared that they were not to go within the gates of Belforest till they were summoned.
At last, after Colonel Brownlow had spent a day in London, he made his appearance with a cheque-book in his hand, and the information that he and his fellow-trustee had so arranged that the heiress could open an account, and begin to enter on the fruition of the property. There were other arrangements to be made, those about the out-door servants and keepers could be settled with Richards, but she ought to remove her two sons from the foundation of the two colleges, though of course they would continue there as pupils.
"And Robert," she said, colouring exceedingly, "if you will let me, there is a thing I wish very much-to send your John to Eton with mine. He is my godson, you know, and it would be such a pleasure to me."
"Thank you, Caroline," said the Colonel, after a moment's hesitation, "Johnny is to stand at the Eton election, and I should prefer his owing his education to his own exertions rather than to any kindness."
"Yes, yes; I understand that," said Caroline; "but I do want you to let me do anything for any of them. I should be so grateful," she added, imploringly, with a good deal of agitation; "please-please think of it, as if your brother were still here. You would never mind how much he did for them."