The Little School-Mothers

He touched his little breast. Robina bent forward and without a moment’s warning gave him a quick and passionate kiss.

“Hypocrite!” whispered Harriet under her breath. She called Ralph to her.

“Come here,” she said.

He went slowly and with manifest unwillingness.

“Sit there for a minute,” said Harriet.

She stalked across the room and stood in front of Robina’s chair.

“Did you mean,” she said, in a very low voice, “to do what you said you would just now?”

“Did I mean it?” replied Robina. “Yes; I meant it.”

“But Mr Durrant is away,” continued Harriet.

“Yes.”

“You will see him in the morning, will you not – I mean as soon as he comes back?”

“Yes,” said Robina again.

None of the others could hear this low-voiced conversation, but Harriet went back to the centre of the room with a satisfied expression. Ralph, who had been watching the two girls, now said in a tone of excitement:

“Has you found out what is wrong with Robin?”

“There is nothing whatever wrong with her: don’t be a goose, Ralph,” said Harriet.

But Ralph’s longing brown eyes went straight to the sorrowful girl seated by herself in the distant corner. His little child fancy returned to her in her trouble. Harriet, however, who felt now quite sure of her own position, was not going to permit Ralph to forsake her. She sat down in a chair and called him to her side.

“Who allowed you to sit up to supper?”

“Why, you, in course, Harriet.”

“Which of the school-mothers do you love best?”

“Harriet,” said Ralph, glancing again at Robina’s bowed head: “I has said it so often.”

“All right, say it once more, or you go to bed.”

“I love you,” said the child.

“Put your arms tight around me, and kiss me, as you did round Robina just now.”

“No,” said Ralph. He put both his little hands to his sides, standing still very near Harriet, but not touching her.

“If you refuse, you go to bed.”

“All wight, Harriet,” replied the little chap.

“Then you won’t kiss me – you, who love me so dearly – you won’t kiss the Harriet who saved your life?”

“Oh – ’course I love you,” said Ralph, “does you want me to kiss you like that? I only kiss when I – I – can’t help it. I am not a sort of kissing boy at all. I am like father – I think just a look is enough, and a sort of smile now and then, and a sort of feel – oh, you know it – down – deep, deep here. I doesn’t kiss father much; he doesn’t think it man-like for boys to kiss.”

“Kiss me the way you kissed Robina, and do it at once,” said Harriet, “or you go to bed.”

“No,” said Ralph again.

The other girls were scarcely listening, but this little scene between the two was drawing general attention. Patience, in particular, guessed that there was some struggle going on between Harriet and Ralph, and although she pretended to talk to her companions, she could not help listening.

“Kiss me,” repeated Harriet, guessing that she was drawing the attention of the room, and getting excited in her determination to win the victory. “Kiss me, or you go to bed!”

“No,” said Ralph again. Then he added, now putting his two hands behind him, “I won’t ever kiss you, Harriet, because you threat me – that isn’t me at all. I wouldn’t be a man-like boy if I did things ’cause o’ threats.”

“Well,” said Harriet, who was terribly afraid of not scoring the victory in this encounter, and being forced therefore to change her tactics, “kiss me because twice I risked my life for you and because I want your kiss. Do you remember when you went down beneath the soft wave and when you came up again and I caught you and – and – saved you?”

“Yes, yes!” said Ralph in a ferment of admiration. “Dear Harriet!” His arms went tightly round her neck. He kissed her twice. “And now I’s going to bed,” he said.

“What in the world do you mean by that, you little silly?”

“’Cause you said I was to go to bed if I didn’t kiss you. I didn’t kiss you ’cause of your threat; I kissed you ’cause you ’minded me of the great thing you had done. But I is going to bed, all the same.”

“No, you sit up because I order it; now don’t be a goose, and don’t paw me any more.”

Harriet stood up, yawning as she did so. Ralph sunk on to the next chair. He felt very despondent, he knew not why. Again he could not help glancing at Robina and wishing that she would not keep on reading. He found himself watching her. What a long time she was before she turned a page. Ralph thought he would count the seconds. He knew the clock, and glanced at it. Five whole minutes passed. Still Robina sat with her head of thick hair bent and without a page being turned. Ralph would have given worlds to say: “Is that a very difficult book, Robina, and can’t you read it any quicker than I can read my ‘Reading without Tears’ book?” But somehow or other, Harriet’s presence prevented his approaching Robina.

The next minute, there came the welcome relief of hearing that supper was served, and all the girls trooped into the dining-room.

Ralph had a high chair close to Harriet’s side; who told him at once carelessly that he might eat anything he liked for supper, and then devoted herself to telling amusing stories to two of the Amberleys and to Jane. But Ralph was not hungry. He was sleepy, and really wanted his bed. He was thinking very hard of his father. If only father were at home, things would be quite different. He would have said good-night long ago, and father would have come just before going downstairs, and would have kissed him, and would have said, “Good-night Ralph, old boy, sleep well, and dream good dreams, and remember to-morrow morning that you are some hours older than when you went to sleep, and ought to be some hours wiser.” And then father would go away, and Ralph would whisper to himself the old childish charm which his nurse had taught him – his nurse who died long ago, and which he had never forgotten:

“Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
Bless the bed I lie on.
Four corners to my bed:
Five angels be there spread.
Two at my head:
Two at my feet:
One at my heart, my soul to keep…”

And then in a few minutes he would have been sound asleep. He nodded his head once or twice now, and finally upset a cup of chocolate which had been placed by his side. Some of the chocolate streamed over Harriet’s white dress. She did not possess many clothes, and was consequently exceedingly angry. She tried to keep in her anger as best she could, but showed it notwithstanding all her efforts, by the colour in her cheeks and the way her pale blue eyes flashed.

“Oh Ralph, how careless and awkward you are! Really, you must not do this sort of thing again.”

“I is seepy: I really want to go to bed,” said Ralph. “I am awfu’ sorry, Harriet, and when you saved my life and all! Oh, let me sop it up.”

He took his own table-napkin and tried to repair the mischief, but Harriet pulled her dress roughly out of his hands and, telling the other girls that she must go away to wash the stains out, left the room.

“Now, Ralph,” said Patience, when this had happened; “if I were you I would go straight off to my by-by downy nest; you know you are just longing to be in it.”