The Nursery Governess

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2552, 17 November 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Nursery Governess

" Miss Brown* ! Miss Brown ! they want you to come and play croquet !" " Who wants mo, Johnny 1" " Why, Colonel Field, Miss Brighton, and all the folks," said Johnny. Cliiirita Brown was mending the children's silk hose by the window, where she could hear the gay exclamations and the silver laughter of the young people on the lawn, and catch, now and then, a glimpse of their bright dresses and gleaming hair. She was only seventeen herself. She knew that she was as fair to look upon as Victorine Wallace or Adela Brighton, Why should she be condemned to sit dolorously darning stockings, while the others enjoyed themselves, this sweet summer afternoon, under the shade of the big walnut-tree? Mrs Trevor had set her a hopeless task to accomplish before she went to town that day. Was it strange that she dropped her work joyously at Johnny's call, and sprang to her feet ? " Johnny," said she, with a sudden access of shyness, "do you think I ought to go ?" " Why, of course !" said the boy. Charita Brown's heart throbbed exultantly as she gave an extra smooth to her already shining chestnut curls, pinned a rose-coloured ribbon bow at her throat, and wondered if her plain cashmere gown would seem too dowdy beside the crisp muslins and dainty summer silks of Adela Brighton and Miss Wallace. Colonel Field was there, lazily knocking the balls about, a tall, handsome man of six or seven and thirty. Leila Trevoir, the fourteen-year-old daughter of the house, who was playing in the second set with Frank Addison and his sister and Willoughby Vomer, made haste to introduce the new comer in her brisk way. " Miss Wallace —Adela," she said, with a wave of her chocolatestripped mallet to secure attention, " this is Charita Brown, our nursery governess. Colonel Field — Miss Brown." And colouring deeper than any rose, Charita bent her pretty head to these fashionable people. " I may claim you for my partner?" said Colonel Field, with a low bow. " No!" said Adela Brighton, sharply. "You must play with Miss Wallace, —have you forgotten, Harold? I shall play with Miss Brown." " Do with mo as you please, ladies," said Colonel Field, with mock submissiveucss, " I am in your hands. Only be merciful in your might !" The game grew spirited, and at last Adela Brighton uttered an exclamation of delight. " We are the victors !" said she. "You are not!" retorted Miss Wallace, with animus. " Miss Brown cheated at the last stroke. I saw her push the ball!" " Indeed, indeed, I did not!" pleaded Charita, " Did I Colonel Field ?" " Certainly you did not," said the colenel Victorine Wallace Hung down her mallet, and turned imperiously on her heel. "I won't play," said she. "I might have known what was coming when I was asked to play with Charita Brown, the nursery governess. She was only a seamstress in the servants' hall before Aunt Trevor made a governess of her to sav _ the expense of a high-priced instruc tress. I never before demeaned myself to associate with a servant, and 1 am rightly rewarded now." "Oh, Victorine?" cried Adela Brighton, who, although abrupt and imperious, had yet a kindly heart. " hush!" "But I will not hush !" said Victorine. " I regard it as an insult that I should be brought in contact with such a girl as this." Charita Brown interrupted her at this moment. " Miss Wallace," she said ; " I will trouble you with my society no longer. I will go back to my duties in the horse. Only—only, when you | have had time to consider this sub- | ject more dispassionately, you may

possibly regret the unkind words you have used."

" Unkind!" cried Victorine, with a sort of malicious exultation. " But they aro true. Do you dare deny them ?"

'• No," said Charita Brown, with downcast eyes and burning cheeks.

" There !" said Victorine, insolently, glancing around at tho little group which had assembled at her side. " Did I not tell you so 1" " It's a story !" cried Leila Trevor, stamping her little buttoned foot on the grass, as Charita disappeared under the pillars of the front verandah. " Charita isn't a servant at all. Her father was a. schoolmaster ; and she can speak Italian, and sing Spanish songs", and play* beautifully on the piano. She is an educated lady ; and she only came tohelp Mrs Brett because her father bad the bronchitis, or some such horrid thing in his throat, and cannot teach any move ; and they were poor. And I love Charita—and—"

" And you aro a noble little partisan," said Colonel Field, kindly, stroking her curls ; " and I admire, you for standing up for tho absent."

Viytorine Wallace walked haughtily away ; Miss Brighton followed her.

And so the little party broke up,

It was twilight when Colonel Field wended his slow way down the glen path to a certain little nook where he often smoked the vesper cigar. And just in the densest tangle of the woods he heard a soft sound, like stifled sobbing. He paused, and glanced around him. Something purple showed through tho, tree trunks—Charita Brown's faded cashmere gown ; and then he saw that she was sitting in a natural scat formed by a fallen tree, and that her Hushed cheeks were wot with tears, " Miss Brown," he said, gently. Like a frightened fawn she sprang up. " Oh, Colonel Field j what—what must you think of me?" she cried. "That you are a true lady— a true heroine," he answered promptly. " What am I to do ?" she said appealingly. " Mrs Trevor has been reproving me for being, as she says, impertinent to her guest, Miss Wallace." "As far as I can judge," said the Colonel, quietly, "all the impertinence was on the other side." " And I am discharged," said Charita. " Perhaps it was my own fault for saying that I would live in no house where I was not treated like a lady." "You were indisputably right," said Colonel Field. "But papa and mamma, and the little ones at home!" muttered Charita, piteously. " May I go home with you ?" said the Colonel, flinging his cigar into a thicket of sweetbriar. " AVill you introduce me to your father 1" It is just possible I may be of use to him." " Who would have thought it 1" said Mrs Brown, with tears in the mild hazel eyes which were so like Charita's. "And your papa is so delighted, Chatty. It is just the business he likes, the revision of manuscript for the volume which Colonel Field's brother is just about publishing. And the salary is most munificent; for the whole year, too ! My darling Chatty, it seems as if Heaven had at last heard our prayers. Aud now you can stay at home and practice your music, and help me with the housekeeping and the children's clothes, for I have missed you much." And Charita's face was as bright as her mother's when she answered. " Oh, mamma, won't it be nice ?"

Colonel Field brought the manuscript the next day. He came frequently. Probably it was necessary, in order to facilitate the progress of the new volume which his brother was bringing out. But he always stopped for a little pleasant talk with Chatty and her mother in the

gjtting-rooni before lie went koine. And one day, when the yellowing October leaves fluttered down around the porticoes of Trevor Palace, Mrs Trevor declared herself that she was goiug to the old schoolmaster.

"What for?" said Miss Victorine Wallace, who was still her guest.

"To ask Charita Brown to come back," said Mrs Trevor, " I'll raise her salary if she insists upon it; for I never have had a governess to suit me since she went away." " Well, mamma, you can ask as naucli as you please," said Miss Leila,' with her mouth full of bread and marmalade, " but she . won't come."

" Why won't she come 1" sharply interrogated Mrs Trevor, " Because she's going to be married to Colonel Field," said Leila, composedly.

"Nonsense?" said Victorine, turning a little pale.

" Bui it's true," insisted the child; " next week. It's to be a very quiet wedding, and they are to spend the honeymoon in Paris. Isn't it funrry, the idea of Charita Brown being married to Colonel Field, when all the girls were pulling caps for him V Victorine looked keenly at Leila, but could gain no information from her artless face as to whether the remark was intended to be personal or not. " Colonel Field must have taken leave of bis senses," said Mrs Trevor, in surprise. " And of course,"spitefully added Miss Wallace, " a. girl who is always

trying so desperately to get married, as Charita Brown did, cannot help succeeding at last." " I'm not so sure about that," said Leila, buttering a fresh slice of bread. " I know lots of girls who have tried harder to get married thau Charita Brown did who haven't succeeded yet." Aud this time Miss Victorine Wallace thought it best to make no answer at all.