Meade L. T. - Girls New and Old стр 28.

"I have a bit of news for you, lads," he said.

"Oh, Maurice! perhaps we had better not tell them to-night," interrupted Cecil.

"Well, we did hear something through the keyhole," interrupted Jimmy, in a modest tone. "We took the keyhole turn about, so it was a little confusing. Perhaps you might as well finish, Maurice. I think I'm to go to a place called Redgarth, but I'm not quite sure."

"You shut up, you rascal!" said Maurice. "You know it's very dishonorable to listen through keyholes."

"Fudge!" said Jimmy; "we're all one family. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Now, am I to go to Redgarth? and where is Redgarth? and what am I to do when I get there? Is it a holiday resort, or a horrid place where they stuff you with books?"

"Don't take any notice of him, Cecil," said Maurice. "Now, it's just this, boys we four fellows are going to give our sister, the best sister in all the world, a chance."

"Hip, hip, hurrah!" shouted Charlie.

"Oh, Charlie, for goodness' sake think of poor Mrs. Rogers!" interrupted Cecil.

"I can't be thinking of that old beggar forever," muttered Charlie.

"Shut up, or I'll box you!" cried Teddy.

"Well," continued Maurice, when the din had a little ceased, "we are going to give the best sister in the world a little chance."

"I should think so! fifty, if she'll have 'em," said Jimmy.

"Well, we can only do so by denying ourselves."

The three round, schoolboy faces assumed a blank expression.

"Of course we'll deny ourselves," said Maurice, springing to his feet; "we're not such cads as to think of doing anything else, even for a minute. Cecil is going to Redgarth, because she has got splendid brains, and her brains must be trained and filled with the right sort of stuff."

"That sounds like roley-poley pudding,

and 'stuff' is the jam," muttered Jimmy, under his breath.

But the others were too eager to attend to him.

"Where do we come in?" asked Teddy, in an anxious voice.

"Oh, we're all right," said Maurice, in a lofty tone; "we're going to put up at old Danvers'."

This news was so absolutely astounding that the three boys were dumb for a minute.

"I say, you're joking," said Jimmy then.

"Not a bit of it. Danvers can take us in; we go there next week."

"But he's so jolly so jolly queer ," said Charlie; "you can't mean it, Maurice? Danvers hates boys, except in school, and then he's always jacketing them. Danvers is a classic, and I've no turn for classics. It it'll kill me, Maurice."

"What a cad you are to think of yourself!" said Maurice; "it won't kill you any more than the rest of us. I'm glad you've got more stuff in you, Jimmy, and Teddy knows better than to stand in his sister's light. Come along out, all three of you; we'll thrash the thing bare, and come back prepared to help Cecil in every way. Ceci, see you get those three letters written. Now, lads, out you come."

Maurice drove his boys in front of him, and was soon seen walking quickly down the street with them. Teddy and Jimmy were in their hearts just as miserable as Charlie, but as Maurice seemed to take it for granted that they intended to behave in a very noble way, they thought it as well to live up to their supposed characters.

Cecil, from her window, watched them as they went down the street.

Yes, she was going to Redgarth now, really going; the dream of her life was to be fulfilled; the last obstacle had been rolled away. She would acquire learning, she would gain certificates, she would win honors. By and by, she could take her rightful place in that brilliant world of letters and literature to which her exceptional talents entitled her. Nevertheless, at this happy moment Cecil Ross shed the bitterest tears of her whole life.

"Oh, my boys, my boys!" she moaned. "Oh, Maurice, darling, I do trust you are not too good to live!"

CHAPTER X. TREACHERY

"Well, of course, it may be exaggerated," replied Hester Temple; "and I, for my part, have no opinion at all of that mean little Matilda Matthews; still my feeling is, that there is never smoke without fire, and Why, what is the matter, Kate?"

"Don't say another word!" answered Kate. "I am in a temper, and you are making it much worse. I took such an awful fancy to Molly; but if she is that sort, if she really pretends to be your friend, and abuses you behind your back, why, I shall have nothing more to do with her."

"You won't require to have much more to do with her," replied Hester. "You know, don't you, that her great friend, Miss Ross, is coming this afternoon? I saw Molly with a wild gleam of excitement in her eyes this morning, and when I asked her if she were threatened with softening of the brain, she replied: 'She's coming; she's really coming to-night!' and then went off, singing to herself in quite an idiotic style. You will have to give up your snug little corner in her room, chérie . I wonder where you'll go now."

"As if that mattered!" replied Kate. "Do you think that sort of thing troubles me?"

"Why, Kate, I thought it did, quite awfully. You are the girl who has made all the fuss about the Dwellers in Cubicles. You invented the odious phrase, and now it's running like wildfire all over the place. What do you mean by not caring? Of course you care."