The Two Sides of the Shield

'So much the better, I'm sure.'

'And what I was going to say is, that Rotherwood has been startlingly munificent and splendid,' said Aunt Jane. 'We shall have a set of new surprises.'

'I don't in the least know what I brought. I only told each of them to put up such a box as they sent out for Christmas concerns. Do precisely what you please with them.'

'Come and see, Lily, for I think there will be enough to reserve a fresh lot of things for Miss Hacket's affair. By-the-by, Regie, did you say it rained at Darminster?'

'Poured all the way down.'

'Well, we had it quite fine.'

'Was it fine here?'

'Yes, certainly,' said Lady Merrifield,' or Primrose would not have gone out. Take care of Rotherwood, Regie. You know his room.'

And the two sisters crossed the hall, where the 'very high tea' was being laid; hearing from the regions above sounds of exquisite glee and merriment, as perfect and almost as inexpressive of anything else as the singing of birds, so that they themselves could not help answering with a laugh, before they vanished into the chamber of mystery.

Indeed, Phyllis's conversation was like a fairy tale. Her brother's illness, which was not enough to damp any one's spirits, had prevented or hindered a grand children's party as the Butterfly's Ball, where she was to have been the Butterfly, and Lord Ivinghoe the Grasshopper, and all the children were to appear as one of the characters in Roscoe's pretty poem. Never was anything more delightful to the imagination of the little cousins, and they could not marvel enough at her seeming so little uneasy about anything so charming, and quite ready and eager to throw herself headlong into all their present enjoyments, making wonderful surmises as to the mystery in preparation.

Dolores heard the laughing, and it did not suit with her vaguely uneasy and injured frame of mind; feeling dreadfully lonely too, as she came downstairs, dressed for the evening, but not knowing where to go, for the dining-room was engrossed, the schoolroom was dark and the fire out, the drawing-room occupied by the two gentlemen. She crouched down in one of the big arm-chairs on either side of the hearth in the hall, and began to read by the firelight. Presently Jasper came in from his ride, and began taking off his greatcoat, leggings, and boots, whistling as he did so, then, perceiving the tempting object of a black leg sticking out of the chair, he stole up across the soft carpet, and caught hold of the ankle. He received a vigorous kick in return (which perhaps he expected) but what he did not expect was the black figure that rose up in outraged dignity and indignation. 'For shame! I won't be insulted!'

'Whew! I thought 'twas Val! I beg your pardon.'

'I shall ask my aunt if I am to be insulted.'

'Well, if you choose to take it in that way-A man can't do more than beg pardon! I'm sure I would never have presumed to touch you if I had known it was your Dolorousness.'

And he turned to walk away, just as the babbling ripple of laughter began to flow downstairs, and a whole mass of little girls intertwined together was descending. 'I always hop,' said a voice new to him, 'except on the great staircase, and mother doesn't like it there. But this is such a jolly stair. Can't you hop?'

Hopping in a threefold embrace on a slippery stair was hardly a safe pastime, and before Jasper had time to utter more than' Holloa there! take care!' there descended suddenly on him an avalanche of little girls, 'knocking him off his feet, so that all promiscuously rolled down two or three steps together. Fergus and Primrose, who had somehow been holding on behind,' remained upright, but nevertheless screaming. The shrieks of the fallen were, however, laughter. There was a soft rug below, and by the time the gentlemen had rushed out of the dining-room, and the ladies from the curtained recess, giggling below and legs above were chiefly apparent.

'Any one hurt?' was of course Lady Merrifield's cry.

'Oh no, mamma. Only we are so mixed up we can't get up,' called out Mysie.

'Is this arm you or me?' exclaimed Phyllis, following up the joke.

'Come, sort yourselves, ladies and gentlemen,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'What's this, a Fly's wing?'

'No, it's mine,' cried Val, as his hand pulled her out, and the others extricated themselves, still laughing, go that they could hardly stand, and Fly declaring, 'Oh, daddy, daddy, it is such fun! I am so glad we came,' and taking a gratuitous leap into the air.

'Every one to her taste,' said Lady Merrifield, 'I congratulate those to whom a compound tumble-down-stairs is felicity.'

'She has found her congenial element, you see,' said her father, as the elders proceeded upstairs to their toilette.' 'Tis laughing-gas with her to be with other children, and the most laughingest of all are naturally yours, old Lily.'

Meanwhile Jasper, risen on his stocking soles, looked all over at the little figure, dressed old picture fashion, in the simplest white frock with blue sash, and short-cut hair tied back with blue.

'Well, you are a jolly little girl,' he said, 'and a cool customer, too! What do you mean by knocking a fellow over the first time you see him?'

'And what do you mean by coming like a great-huge-big elephant in our way to stop up the stairs?' demanded Fly, in return.

'Do you mean to insinivate that 'twas I that made you fall?' said Jasper-'I, that was quietly walking up the stairs, when down there came on me a shower-not cats and dogs, but worserer, far worserer! Why, I'm kilt! my nose is flat as a pancake, I shan't recover my beauty all the evening for the great swells that are coming.'

'Jasper, Japs,' called his mother's warning voice, 'you must come up and dress, for tea is going in.'

He obeyed, rushing two steps at a time; but meeting, at the bottom of the attic flight, his sister Gillian, he demanded, 'Gill, what awfully jolly little girl have they got down there?'

'Why, Fly, of course, Lady Phyllis Devereux-'

'No, no, nothing swell, a comical little soul, with no nonsense about her, in a white thing.'

'Well, that's Phyllis. There's no one else there.'

'I say. Gill, 'tis like sunshine and clouds. She and the other, I mean. Why, I gave a little pull to a foot I saw in the armchair, thinking it belonged to Val, and out breaks my Lady of the Rueful Countenance, vowing she'll complain that I've insulted her; and as to the other, the whole lot of them tumbled over me together on the stairs, and she did nothing but laugh and chaff.'

'I hope she is not a romp,' said the staid Gillian, sagely, as she went downstairs.

But on that score she was soon satisfied. Phyllis Devereux was a thorough little lady, wild and merry as she was, and enchanted to be in the rare fairyland of child companionship. And that indeed she had, Mysie and Valetta, between whose ages she stood, hung to her inseparably, and Jasper was quite transformed from his grim superciliousness into her devoted knight. At tea-time there was a competition for the seats next to her, determined by Valetta's taking one side, in right of the birthday, and Jasper the other, because he secured it, and Mysie gave way to him because he was Japs, and she always did. While Dolores laid up a store of moralizings on the adulation paid to the little lady of title, and at the same time speculated what concatenation of circumstances could ever make her Lady Dolores Mohun. On the whole, it would be more likely that her father should gain a peerage by putting down a Fijian rebellion than that it should be discovered that his mother, Lady Emily, had been the true heiress of the marquessate, and even so, an uncomfortable number of people must be disposed of before it could come to him. She had one consolation, however, for Uncle Reginald, always kind to her, was particularly affectionate this evening, as if he would not have that little foolish Fly set up before her.

The tea and the tree both went off joyously. There is no need to describe the spectacle to folks who can count their Christmas-trees by the years of their life and the memorable part of this one was that much of the fruit that had been left hanging on it was now metamorphosed into something much more gorgeous-oranges had become eggs full of sugar-plums, gutta-percha monkeys grinned on the branches, golden flowers had sprung to life on the ends of the twigs, a lovely jewel-like lantern crowned the whole, and as to sweets, everybody-servants and all-had some delightful devices containing them, whether drum, bird, or bird's nest.