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Page 40
"What sort of things?" asked the boy in surprise.
"Well, for instance, twice when we have been coming home from our
afternoon walk, we have met a man with a heavy shovel on his shoulder,
and you didn't notice him because you were so busy talking with Mrs.
Stanhope. The man looked down on the ground, just as father does when
he comes home at night all tired out and says, 'We shall hardly pull
through, if I work ever so hard; I'm afraid we can't keep out of debt.'
I'm sure that man is worried just as father was, and I keep thinking if
I could only go after him and find out where he lives, I might do him
some good, perhaps."
"But you mustn't do that," cried Fani, much horrified. "Don't you
remember how Mrs. Stanhope told us in the very beginning that we must
never go into any house where we didn't know the people? and that we
mustn't speak first to people we don't know, as we do at home? You must
not go and talk to that man. Do you hear, Elsli? Mrs. Stanhope would be
very angry with you."
Elsli thought for a while. Presently she said, "I do not believe that
Mrs. Stanhope meant that I should not speak to a poor man who is in
trouble, as this man is. She only meant that we mustn't talk with people
who ask us questions about where we came from and how we live at home. I
don't believe she meant people like this man at all."
"Oh, Elsli, you can't make distinctions, that way," said Fani,
impatiently. "All we have to do is to mind what we are told, and not
speak to strange people or go to their houses. Now let's talk about
something else; this sort of talk is tiresome. Come here; I'll show you
something."
The children sat down again side by side on the stone bench, with their
heads close together, and Fani took something out of his pocket which
they both examined carefully. It was a small, nicely painted landscape,
in fresh bright colors. Elsli studied it silently.
"Do you see what it is?" asked Fani.
"Yes, indeed, I knew it at the first glance. It is Rosemount; there are
the roses and the linden trees. How beautifully you have done it, Fani!
Won't Emma be delighted when she sees it, and surprised too? I'm sure
she has no idea that you can paint so well!"
"I'm so glad she is coming," cried the lad, and his face glowed with
pleasure. "There is no one that I can talk with about being a painter as
I can with her. She understands just how I feel, and is as much
interested in it as I am myself."
"Are you still bent on being an artist?" asked Elsli.
"Yes, indeed, more and more. Every day, and after every drawing lesson,
I care about it more than ever before. I don't say anything about it,
because I see that Mrs. Stanhope doesn't like the idea. You see, Elsli,
she means to keep us with her all our lives, just as if we were her own
children. I'm sure of it, from a great many things that she has said. We
can stay here just as long as we don't do anything to displease her, and
of course we sha'n't do that. Several times when I've said that I should
like to be a painter, Mrs. Stanhope has said that it was a very good
profession for persons who had no home, and were obliged to live alone,
and could travel as much as they pleased in foreign countries. She said
I might paint at Rosemount as much as I chose, but that I must not make
it my business, because then I should have to go away to live. So you
see that she is quite decided that we are to stay here."
Elsli shook her head.
"I don't know, Fani. It seems to me that we don't belong here in this
beautiful house. Don't you feel so too, Fani? Somehow as if we were only
here on a visit, and that to-morrow we might be going away again."
"There you are again with the old story," said Fani, rather vexed, for
this doubt was very distasteful to him.
The time which they had to spend in the garden was now over, and hand in
hand they passed back up the white pebbly path, and by the sweet-scented
rose-beds, and entered the hall, which stood with wide-open doors on the
garden side.
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