mother, “don’t speak sharply to each other. Yes, there is Fareham, but that is what we have to depend on. It can’t he sold, but it will probably – almost certainly – let well, furnished, just as it is, and that will give us a small income in addition to the very little we have of our own. Your father is already seeing about it. And this house is almost certain to let very quickly. It is only ours for another year legally. We will just keep enough furniture for a small home, where Aunt Margaret will live with us, and sell all the rest. And your father may get some work; he has friends who know what he can do.”
“Will he have to leave off being an M.P.?” asked Leila very dolefully.
Mrs Fortescue only bent her head.
“And – ” began Roland again, hesitatingly, “I don’t want to be selfish, Mums, but I suppose I can’t possibly go to Winton,” – the public school for which he was preparing.
“Of course not,” said Chrissie pertly: “most likely you’ll have to be a boy in an office, or even an errand boy.”
“I could be a errand boy,” cried Jasper, his face lighting up. “Or p’raps a messenger boy. There was one comed here the other day that was almost littler than me. And they have such nice coats and caps.”
The others could not help laughing, and again it did them good, though Jasper got rather red.
Mrs Fortescue took no notice of Christabel’s uncalled-for speech.
“Dear Roland,” she said, “your school is one of the things we are the most anxious about. If by any possibility it can be managed, it shall be done. There are still fully six months before the date of your going, and somehow – I can’t help hoping for it.”
Roland flushed a little.
“I – I feel as if it was selfish even to hope for it,” he blurted out.
“No,” his mother replied, “it is not. Your whole future may hang upon it. You have always done very well at school, and now with your tutor. You might get a scholarship at Winton and then College, which we have always looked forward to for you, would be possible;” for Roland was a boy not only of ability, but great steadiness and perseverance.
“It’s – it’s very good of you and Dads,” he murmured.
Mrs Fortescue’s spirits seemed to be recovering themselves a little. She was still quite a young woman and naturally of a gentle, rather childlike character, easily depressed and easily cheered. And Roland’s way of receiving the bad news seemed to strengthen her.
“There are some things I am thankful for,” she went on. “We can at once face it all and arrange to live in the new way, without any waiting or suspense or any trying to keep up appearances. It is the sort of tremendous blow that can’t be kept secret. As soon as possible Daddy and I will look out for a small house. I feel as if every day here was wasting money.”
Leila and Chrissie had been silent for a minute or two; Leila in a mixed state of feeling, uncertain whether to think of herself as a heroine, or a martyr. Christabel, on her side, was far from pleased at the “fuss” as she called it to herself, that her mother was making about Roland.
“It isn’t fair,” she thought, “it’s much worse for us. Boys and men can work; being poor doesn’t matter for them. Besides, Roland’s going to get all he wants, and we’re evidently to be sacrificed for him,” and the expression on her face was not a pleasant one.
“And what’s to become of its?” she inquired. “Lell and me? We’ll have to be governesses, or dressmakers, I suppose.”
Mrs Fortescue could not help smiling, though she felt disappointed at the child’s tone.
“You certainly have plenty of time to think about anything of that kind,” she said. “I cannot fix as yet what we must do, but in the meantime I hope you will learn as much and as well as you can with Miss Earle. She is such a first-rate teacher. I shall be terribly sorry to part with her,” and she sighed.
“I shan’t,” said Chrissie, “she does nothing but scold.”
“No doubt you deserve it then,” said Roland gruffly. He was terribly sorry for his mother, and his sisters’ want of sympathy made him indignant.
“I don’t think either of them cares, as long as things don’t touch themselves,” he said to Mrs Fortescue when Leila and Chrissie had left the room.
“Things will touch themselves, and very sharply,” his mother replied with a sigh. “They don’t realise it at all, Roland; we must remember that they are very young.”
“They are just very spoilt and selfish,” the boy muttered. “Just look at Jap, Mums – what a difference! And he’s only seven, and quite ready to be a shoe-black if it would be any help to you. I tell you what, mother, it will be a capital thing for those girls to have to rough it a bit.”
“I hope so. I suppose there is good hidden in every trouble, though it is sometimes difficult to see it,” Mrs Fortescue answered. “But, darling, don’t be too down on your sisters. If they are spoilt, and I fear they are, it is my fault more than theirs.” Roland put his arms round his mother and kissed her. “Nothing’s your fault, except that you’ve been far too kind to us all,” he said, “and – about my still going to school – to Winton, I mean. I don’t half like it. Why should I be the only one to – well, why should things be made smoother for me than for the others? The girls will be thinking it’s not fair.”
His mother smiled.
“It’s not likely that they will be jealous of your going to school,” she said. “I’m quite sure they don’t want to be sent to school themselves.”
“Oh, but it’s quite different for girls,” said Roland.
“Yes,” his mother agreed. “But now, dear, I must send a word to your father – just to tell him I got home safely, and – and that, in one sense, the worst is over.”
“You mean the telling us? Oh, Mums, it’s all much, worse for you than for us,” said Roland, and somehow the words comforted her a little.
Upstairs in the nursery, it certainly did not seem as if the strange and startling news had had any very depressing effect on Leila and Christabel. The former was already established in her usual cosy corner, buried in her newest story-book; the latter was only very cross. She had discovered that Nurse had been crying, and turned upon her sharply, though the poor thing was only anxious to be all that was kind and sympathising.
“What in the world have you to cry about, Nurse?” she demanded. “It isn’t your father and mother that have lost all their money.”
“I have no father, as you know, Miss Chrissie,” she said quietly, “and my brothers take good care of mother. But your father and mother have been kind true friends to me, and you surely can understand that I can feel sadly grieved for their troubles, and indeed for all of you, my poor dears,” and her voice broke.
Chrissie felt a little ashamed. She turned away so as not to see Nurse’s tears.
“It’s no use crying about it, all the same,” she said more gently. “What can’t be cured, must be endured.”
“That’s true,” Nurse agreed, “and I’m glad to see you so brave;”
