"Well, you goaded me to it!" Darsie declared in self-vindication. "I can't stand it when boys are superior. Why must they sneer and jeer because a girl wants to go in for the same training as themselves, especially when she has to make her own living afterwards? In our two cases it's more important for me than for you, for you will be a rich landowner, and I shall be a poor school marm. You ought to be kind and sympathetic, and do all you can to cheer me on, instead of being lofty and blighting."

Ralph Percival looked down at her with his handsome, quizzical eyes--

"I don't mind betting that _you'll_ never be a school marm!" he said calmly; and at that very moment, round a bend of the path, the two girls came suddenly into view, trotting briskly towards the river. They waved their hands, and tore down upon the visitor in lively welcome.

"There you are! This _is_ nice. Bates said you were in the garden, so we just flew and changed, and rushed off in pursuit. So glad you had Ralph to amuse you. The mill's working! We guessed you'd be there looking on..."

"There's nothing to see but the old wheel creaking round. Tea is far more to the point. I'm dying for some, and I'm sure--er--Miss--er-- Garnett is, too! She's had a tiring afternoon."

"Er--Miss--er--Garnett's name is Darsie. You can always call a girl by her Christian name till her hair's up," said Darsie quickly, and Ralph immediately availed himself of the permission.

"All right, Darsie. It's a jolly little name. Much easier to say."

Rather to Darsie's disappointment tea was served in the drawing-room in formal, grown-up fashion, Mrs Percival presiding over the little table, with its shining silver and fine old-world china. There were hot, brown little scones, crisp b.u.t.tered toast, iced cakes, thick cream, and other indigestible luxuries, which came as an agreeable change from Lady Hayes's careful dietary, and Darsie was acutely conscious of the beauty and elegance of the room. How small and poky and drab the home drawing- room would appear in comparison! How different the outlook on another row of red-brick houses, from the sweep of green lawns, and the avenue of great beech-trees seen through the four long French windows which broke the side of this long, low room!

How different her own life promised to be from those of the two girls by her side--the girls who had just returned from a ride on their own horses over their own land! ... They would never need to worry about money; their role in life for the next few years would consist in being pretty and agreeable, wearing charming frocks, visiting at friends'

houses, travelling in summer, hunting in winter, and, finally, making suitable Carriages, settling down as mistresses of other luxurious houses, and living happily ever after!

She herself would study and cram for examination after examination; go through agonies of suspense waiting for results, and as she pa.s.sed or failed, obtain a good or second-rate appointment in a suburban school.

Henceforth work, work, work--teaching by day, correcting exercises by night, in a deserted schoolroom, with three months' holiday a year spent at home among brothers and sisters whose interests had necessarily drifted apart from her own! As the years pa.s.sed by she would become staid and prim; schoolmistressy manner; the girls would speak of her by derisive nicknames...

A knifelike pang of envy pierced Darsie's heart; she dropped the dainty morsel of cake on to her plate with a feeling of actual physical nausea; for the moment her old ambitions lost their savour, and appeared grey and dead; she was pierced with an overpowering pity for her own hard lot.

The sensation was, perhaps, as much physical as mental, for no one can pa.s.s through a moment of acute mental tension without suffering from a corresponding nervous collapse, but being too young and inexperienced to realise as much, Darsie mentally heaped ashes on her head, and shed tears over her blighted life. The signs of her emotion were noticeable, not only in an unusual silence but in whitening cheeks, which brought upon her the quick attention of her friends.

"Aren't you feeling quite well, dear?" Mrs Percival asked kindly.

"You look pale. Would you like to lie down?"

"Darsie, you are _green_! What's the matter? You were all right a moment ago."

"I'm all right now. Please, please, take no notice. I'm perfectly all right."

Noreen was beginning to protest again, when Ralph called her sharply to order--

"That's enough, Nora! Awfully bad form to fuss. Talk about something else. What about that garden-party you were discussing? I thought you wanted to ask suggestions."

Instantly both sisters were sparkling with excitement and animation.

"Oh, yes, yes. Of course! We must ask Darsie. She has such lovely ideas. Darsie, we are going to have a garden-party. The invitations are going out to-morrow. Hundreds of people are coming--mother's friends, our friends, everybody's friends, every bowing acquaintance for miles around. The question of the hour is--_What shall we do_? Garden- parties are such monotonous occasions, always the same over and over again--people sitting about in their best clothes, eating ices and fruit, listening to a band, and quizzing each other's best clothes. We want to hit on a brilliant novelty. What shall it be?"

Darsie mused, her face lighting with pleasure and antic.i.p.ation.

"I know nothing about garden-parties. There aren't any in town. What have you done before?"

"Tennis, croquet, clock-golf, ping-pong, archery, yeomanry sports, blue bands, red bands, black and yellow bands, glee-singers, Punch and Judy,"

Ida counted off one item after another on the ringers of her left hand.

"And now we seem to have come to the end of our resources. We can't think of anything else. Do, like a darling, give us an idea!"

The darling deliberated once more, head on one side, lips pursed, eyes on the ceiling, while the Percival family looked on, and exchanged furtive glances of admiration. She _was_ pretty! prettier by far than ordinary pretty people, by reason of some picturesque and piquant quality more readily felt than denned. It didn't seem to matter one bit that her nose turned up, and that her mouth was several sizes too large.

"If you described me on paper, I'd sound far nicer, but I look a wur-r- rm beside her!" sighed Noreen mentally, just as Darsie lowered her eyes to meet those of her hostess, and inquired gravely--

"How much may it cost?"

It was the question which accompanied every home plan, and on which hung a momentous importance, but the Percivals appeared quite taken aback by the suggestion. The girls stared, and their mother smilingly waved it aside.

"Oh-h, I don't think we need trouble about that! It's only once a year, and we must do the thing well. If you have a suggestion, dear, please let us have it!"

"I was thinking," said Darsie hesitatingly, "of a treasure hunt!"

Instantly all four hearers acclaimed the idea with such unanimity and fervour that the proposer thereof was quite overpowered by the thanks lavished upon her.

"The _very_ thing! Why did we never think of it ourselves? Every one will like it, and it will keep them moving about, which is always the great problem to solve. Presents, presents, lots of presents, stowed away in odd corners..."

"We'll each take a certain number and hide them in our _own_ pet corners when no one else is in the garden. We'll make the parcels up in _green_ paper, so as to be less easy to find..."

"Every one must be told to bring them back to the lawn for a grand public opening, so that the disappointed ones may join in the fun..."

"We may take part ourselves, mother? We _must_ take part! Get lots and lots of presents, and let us hunt with the rest!"

"Certainly, dears, certainly. It is your party as much as mine; of course you must hunt. I'll run up to town and buy the presents at the stores. You must help me to think of suitable things. Bags, purses, umbrellas, blotters, manicure-cases--"

"Boxes of French bonbons, belts, scarfs--"

"Cigarettes, brushes--"

"Nice little bits of jewellery--"

Suggestions poured in thick and fast, and Mrs Percival jotted them down on a little gold and ivory tablet which hung by her side unperturbed by what seemed to Darsie the reckless extravagance of their nature. It was most exciting talking over the arrangements for the hunt; most agreeable and soothing to be constantly referred to in the character of author and praised for cleverness and originality. Darsie entirely forgot the wave of depression which had threatened to upset her composure a few minutes before, forgot for the time being the suspense and danger of the earlier afternoon.

Some one else, it appeared, however, was more remindful, for when she prepared to depart the dog-cart stood at the door, and Ralph announced in his most grand seigneur manner--

"We're going to drive you back, don't you know! Too awfully f.a.gging to bicycle on a hot afternoon. Put on your hats, girls, and hurry up."

The girls obediently flew upstairs, and Darsie's protestation of "My bicycle!" was silenced with a word.

"The stable-boy shall ride it over to-morrow morning. You're a bit jumpy still and can't be allowed to run any risks. I mean to see you safely back in your aunt's charge."

Darsie scrambled up to her high seat and leaned back thereon with an agreeable sense of importance.

"I feel like a cat that's been stroked," she said to herself, smiling.

"When you're one of a large family you are not used to fussing. It's most invigorating! I'd like to go in for a long course!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE TREASURE HUNT.

The invitations for the garden-party arrived in due course: one for Lady Hayes, another for Miss Darsie Garnett, and in the corner of each, beside the name of a celebrated military band, appeared the magic words "_Treasure Hunt_." Darsie felt something of the proud interest of the author who beholds in print the maiden effort of his brain, as she gazed upon those words, and reflected that but for her own suggestion they would never have appeared. Lady Hayes also seemed to feel a reflected pride in her niece's ingenuity, which pride showed itself in a most agreeable anxiety about the girl's toilette for the occasion.