第27章 In the Attic(2)

Sara did not expect much,and was far too proud to try to continue to be intimate with girls who evidently felt rather awkward and uncertain about her.The fact was that Miss Minchin's pupils were a set of dull,matter-of-fact young people.They were accustomed to being rich and comfortable,and as Sara's frocks grew shorter and shabbier and queerer-looking,and it became an established fact that she wore shoes with holes in them and was sent out to buy groceries and carry them through the streets in a basket on her arm when the cook wanted them in a hurry,they felt rather as if,when they spoke to her,they were addressing an under servant.

"To think that she was the girl with the diamond mines,Lavinia commented.

"She does look an object.And she's queerer than ever.I never liked her much,but I can't bear that way she has now of looking at people without speaking--just as if she was finding them out."

"I am,"said Sara,promptly,when she heard of this."That's what I look at some people for.I like to know about them.I think them over afterward."

The truth was that she had saved herself annoyance several times by keeping her eye on Lavinia,who was quite ready to make mischief,and would have been rather pleased to have made it for the ex-show pupil.

Sara never made any mischief herself,or interfered with anyone.

She worked like a drudge;she tramped through the wet streets,carrying parcels and baskets;she labored with the childish inattention of the little ones'French lessons;as she became shabbier and more forlorn-looking,she was told that she had better take her meals downstairs;she was treated as if she was nobody's concern,and her heart grew proud and sore,but she never told anyone what she felt.

"Soldiers don't complain,"she would say between her small,shut teeth,"I am not going to do it;I will pretend this is part of a war."

But there were hours when her child heart might almost have broken with loneliness but for three people.

The first,it must be owned,was Becky--just Becky.Throughout all that first night spent in the garret,she had felt a vague comfort in knowing that on the other side of the wall in which the rats scuffled and squeaked there was another young human creature.

And during the nights that followed the sense of comfort grew.

They had little chance to speak to each other during the day.

Each had her own tasks to perform,and any attempt at conversation would have been regarded as a tendency to loiter and lose time.

"Don't mind me,miss,"Becky whispered during the first morning,"if I don't say nothin'polite.Some un'd be down on us if I did.

I MEANS `please'an'`thank you'an'`beg pardon,'but I dassn't to take time to say it."

But before daybreak she used to slip into Sara's attic and button her dress and give her such help as she required before she went downstairs to light the kitchen fire.And when night came Sara always heard the humble knock at her door which meant that her handmaid was ready to help her again if she was needed.During the first weeks of her grief Sara felt as if she were too stupefied to talk,so it happened that some time passed before they saw each other much or exchanged visits.Becky's heart told her that it was best that people in trouble should be left alone.

The second of the trio of comforters was Ermengarde,but odd things happened before Ermengarde found her place.

When Sara's mind seemed to awaken again to the life about her,she realized that she had forgotten that an Ermengarde lived in the world.The two had always been friends,but Sara had felt as if she were years the older.It could not be contested that Ermengarde was as dull as she was affectionate.She clung to Sara in a simple,helpless way;she brought her lessons to her that she might be helped;

she listened to her every word and besieged her with requests for stories.But she had nothing interesting to say herself,and she loathed books of every description.She was,in fact,not a person one would remember when one was caught in the storm of a great trouble,and Sara forgot her.

It had been all the easier to forget her because she had been suddenly called home for a few weeks.When she came back she did not see Sara for a day or two,and when she met her for the first time she encountered her coming down a corridor with her arms full of garments which were to be taken downstairs to be mended.

Sara herself had already been taught to mend them.She looked pale and unlike herself,and she was attired in the queer,outgrown frock whose shortness showed so much thin black leg.

Ermengarde was too slow a girl to be equal to such a situation.

She could not think of anything to say.She knew what had happened,but,somehow,she had never imagined Sara could look like this--so odd and poor and almost like a servant.It made her quite miserable,and she could do nothing but break into a short hysterical laugh and exclaim--aimlessly and as if without any meaning,"Oh,Sara,is that you?"

"Yes,"answered Sara,and suddenly a strange thought passed through her mind and made her face flush.She held the pile of garments in her arms,and her chin rested upon the top of it to keep it steady.

Something in the look of her straight-gazing eyes made Ermengarde lose her wits still more.She felt as if Sara had changed into a new kind of girl,and she had never known her before.

Perhaps it was because she had suddenly grown poor and had to mend things and work like Becky.

"Oh,"she stammered."How--how are you?"

"I don't know,"Sara replied."How are you?"

"I'm--I'm quite well,"said Ermengarde,overwhelmed with shyness.

Then spasmodically she thought of something to say which seemed more intimate."Are you--are you very unhappy?"she said in a rush.

Then Sara was guilty of an injustice.Just at that moment her torn heart swelled within her,and she felt that if anyone was as stupid as that,one had better get away from her.

"What do you think?"she said."Do you think I am very happy?"

And she marched past her without another word.