Priscilla's Spies. George A. Birmingham
salutation with a stare which was intended to convince her that winking was a particularly vicious kind of bad form. Miss Lentaigne, as Priscilla noticed, sat with two treatises on Christian Science in her hand.
Priscilla, returning without her father at half past six o’clock, found Frank sitting alone under the lime tree. He was in a singularly chastened mood and inclined to be companionable and friendly, even with a girl of no more than fifteen years old.
“I say, Priscilla,” he said, “is that old aunt of yours quite mad?”
There was something in the way he expressed himself which delighted Priscilla. He had reverted to the phraseology of an undignified schoolboy of the lower fifth. The veneer of grown manhood, even the polish of a prefect, had, as it were, peeled off him during the afternoon.
“Not at all,” said Priscilla. “She’s frightfully clever, what’s called intellectual. You know the sort of thing. How’s your ankle?”
“She says it isn’t sprained. But, blow it all, it’s swelled the size of the calf of your leg.”
He did not mean Priscilla’s leg particularly; but with a slight lift of an already short skirt she surveyed her own calf curiously. She wanted to know exactly how thick Frank’s injured ankle was.
“Then she didn’t cure it?”
“Cure it!” said Frank, “I should think not. She simply kept on telling me I only thought it was sprained. I never heard such rot talked in all my life. How do you stand it at all?”
“That’s nothing,” said Priscilla. “We’re quite glad she’s taken to Christian Science; though she did nearly kill poor father. Before that she was all for teetotallity—that’s not quite the right word, but you know the thing I mean, drinking nothing but lemonade, either homemade or the kind that fizzes. I didn’t mind that a bit for I like lemonade, both sorts, but father simply hated it. He told me he’d rather go up to that nursing home in Dublin every time he feels ill than live through another six months on lemonade. Before that she was frightfully keen on a thing called uric acid. Do you know what that is, Cousin Frank?” “No,” he said, “I don’t. How did it take her?” “She wouldn’t give us anything to eat,” said Priscilla, “except queer sort of mashes which she said were made of nuts and biscuits and things. I got quite thin and as weak as a cat.” “I wonder you stuck it out.” “Oh, it didn’t last long. None of them do, you know. That’s our great consolation; though we rather hope the Christian Science will on account of its doing us no particular harm. She doesn’t mind what we eat or drink, which is a great comfort. She can’t you know, according to her principles, because when there’s no such thing as being sick it can’t matter how much whipped cream or anything of that sort you eat just before you go to bed at night. She didn’t like it a bit when I got up on Christmas night and foraged out nearly a quarter of a cold plum pudding. She was just going up to bed and she caught me. She wanted awfully to stop me eating it, but she couldn’t without giving the whole show away, so I ate it before her very eyes. That’s the beauty of Christian Science.” “But I say, Priscilla, weren’t you sick?” “Not a bit. When Father heard about it next morning he said he thought there must be something in Aunt Juliet’s theory after all. He has stuck to that ever since, though he says it doesn’t apply to influenza. She had a great idea about fresh air one time, and got up a carpenter to take the window frames, windows and all, clean out of my room. I used to have to borrow hairpins from Rose—she’s the under housemaid and a great friend of mine—so as to fasten the bedclothes on to the mattress. Otherwise they blew away during the night, while I was asleep. That was one of the worst times we ever had, though I don’t think Father minded it so much. He used to go out and smoke in the harness room. But I hated it worse than anything except the uric acid. You never knew where your clothes would be in the morning if it was the least stormy, and my hair used to blow into soup and tea and things, which made it frightfully sticky.”
“Do you think,” said Frank, “that she’ll leave me alone now? Or will she want to have another go at me to-morrow?”
“Sure to,” said Priscilla, “unless you give in that your ankle is quite well.”
“But I can’t walk.”
“That won’t matter in the least. She’ll say you can. Aunt Juliet is tremendously determined. Poor Rose—I told you she is the under housemaid, didn’t I? She is any way. Poor Rose once got a swelled face on account of a tooth that she wouldn’t have out. Aunt Juliet kept at her, reading little bits out of books and kind of praying, in passages and pantries and places, wherever she met Rose. That went on for more than a week. Then Rose got Dr. O’Hara to haul the tooth and the swelling went down. Aunt Juliet said it was Christian Science cured her. And of course it may have been. You never can tell really what it is that cures people.”
“I wonder,” said Frank, “if I could manage to get down to the boat to-morrow. You said something about a boat, didn’t you, Priscilla? Is it far?”
“I’ll work that all right for you. As it just happens, luckily enough there’s an old bath-chair in a corner of the hay-loft. I came across it last hols when I was looking for a bicycle pump I lost. I was rather disappointed at the time, not thinking that the old chair would be any use, whereas I wanted the pump. Now it turns out to be exactly what we want, which shows that well directed labour is never really wasted. The front-wheel is a bit groggy, but I daresay it’ll hold all right as far as the quay. I’ll go round after dinner to-night and fish it out. I can wheel you quite easily, for it’s all down hill.”
Frank had not intended when he left England to go about the country in a bath-chair with a groggy front-wheel. For a moment he hesitated. A wild fear struck him of what the Uppingham captain—that dangerous bat whose innings his brilliant catch had cut short—might say and think if he saw the vehicle. But the Uppingham captain was not likely to be in Rosnacree. Christian Science was a more threatening danger. He pictured to himself the stare of amazement on the countenance of Mr. Dupré and the sniggering face of young Latimer who collected beetles and hated washing. But Mr. Dupré, Latimer and the members of the house eleven, were, no doubt, far off.
Miss Lentaigne was very near at hand. He accepted Priscilla’s offer.
“Right,” she said. “I’ll settle the chair, if I have to tie it together with my hair ribbon. It’s nice to think of that old chair coming in useful in the end. It must have been in the loft for ages and ages. Sylvia Courtney told me that her mother says anything will come in useful if you only keep it long enough; but I don’t know whether that’s true. I don’t think it can be, quite, for I tried it once with a used up exercise-book and it didn’t seem to be the slightest good even after years and years, though it got most frightfully tattered. Still it may be true. You never can tell about things of that sort, and Sylvia Courtney says her mother is extremely wise; so she may be quite right.
“Christian Science,” said Frank bitterly, “wouldn’t be of any use if you kept it for centuries. What’s the use of saying a thing isn’t swelled when it is?”
CHAPTER V
A night’s rest restored self-respect to Frank Mannix. He felt when his clothes were brought to him in the morning by a respectful footman that he had to some extent sacrificed his dignity in his confidential talk with Priscilla the day before. He had committed himself to the bath-chair and the boating expedition, and he had too high a sense of personal honour to back out of an engagement definitely made. But he determined to keep Priscilla at a distance. He would go with her, would to some extent join in her childish sports; but it must be on the distinct understanding that he did so as a grown man who condescends to play games with an amusing child. With this idea in his mind he dressed himself very carefully in a suit a cricket flannels. The garments were in themselves suitable for boating as he understood the sport. They were also likely, he thought, to impress Priscilla. The white