Chapter I: Fanny's First Holiday

"I DON'T see why you should be so disagreeable about it, mother. It was my own ten shillings that I paid for the watch."

"Watch, indeed!" exclaimed her mother, as though the very word was an offence to her. "What do you know about buying a watch?—a bit of a girl in her first place. You need all the money you can earn to keep you in decent clothes, to say nothing of what you owe me for all the things I have had to buy to make you tidy, and give you a fair start in service." And Mrs. Brown almost burst into tears as her eyes fell again on the glittering silver watch her daughter was so proud to display.

Fanny was a little over sixteen, a tall, well-grown girl for her age, stout and rosy, and looking the picture of health, as she stood there telling her mother her trial month was over, that her mistress was very well satisfied with the way she had done her work, and that she was to have six pounds a year at first, a whole day's holiday once a month, and every Sunday evening to go to church.

"I am very glad to have that bit of news, Fanny," said her mother, in a more cheerful tone. "But still, I wish you had left the watch alone. I don't believe in such finery for a girl like you."

"Finery!" repeated Fanny. "Father has got a watch."

"Yes, but your father's is for use, not to dangle round his neck like that glittering thing. You've got a clock in the kitchen at your place, haven't you?" said her mother.

"To be sure we have," said Fanny, with a toss of her head. "But I'm not always in the kitchen," she added.

"Well, my girl, I dare say we shall get over it but I do feel disappointed, for I wanted you to let me have all you could spare of your wages this month for Eliza."

"For Eliza!" repeated Fanny, changing colour a little. "Is she ill again, mother?" she asked.

"No; she is better—very well for her. But Mrs. Parsons from the Vicarage came to see me yesterday, and asked if Eliza could go with the nurse and children to the seaside for a month. Our Vicar thought she might help to look after the children on the sands, and that the change would do her good too."

"Oh, mother, how kind of the Vicar and Mrs. Parsons! And what a chance for Eliza! Of course you'll let her go!"

"How can I now?" And Mrs. Brown put her apron to her eyes, for she could not keep her tears back any longer. "I spent every penny I could scrape together to send you out tidy, never thinking I should want to do the same thing for Eliza yet awhile, or that you would go and throw away your first wages on rubbish like that watch."

Fanny looked confused and defiant. Certainly, if she had known the money was likely to be wanted for such a purpose as helping her delicate sister to go to the seaside, she would not have bought the watch; but she did not like it that her mother seemed to think she had a right to claim her first wages, and she muttered something about this just as Eliza came in from school.

"Has mother told you, Fanny?" she exclaimed, after hugging and kissing her sister.

Fanny had pictured this meeting with Eliza again and again during the month she had been away, and she had thought it would be part of the day's pleasure and triumph to show her sister the grand watch she had bought. But now—well, how could she?

"Did you tell your teacher?" asked Mrs. Brown. The younger girl looked up quickly, for she noticed the change in her mother's tone.

"What is it? What is the matter, mother? Have they been to say that the Nurse thinks I am too little to look after the children?" she asked, with changing colour.

Her mother shook her head, and the tears filled her eyes, as she said—

"No, no, dear; it isn't that. But I don't know how to get you the tidy things the Vicar said you would want."

Eliza turned and looked at her sister. "Haven't you got your wages?" she whispered, for her mother had told her there would be no difficulty about the new cotton frocks she would have to buy for her, because Fanny would be able to let her have the money, and they could repay her later. But now, as she looked at her sister's angry, downcast face, she did not know what to think. "The lady didn't pay you, did she, Fan?" she said, with a tremor in her voice, fixing her eyes on her sister's face as she spoke.

"Don't look at me like that! I can't help it! I'm sorry. But I haven't got any money to buy you new frocks, and I don't see—"

She could not say any more, for she heard her father coming in at that moment, and she dashed out of the back door and went through a gap in the hedge, and walked to some fields close by, where she sat down and cried to herself for several minutes. She managed to persuade herself that her mother was very unkind and unreasonable to think she could have all her money to spend upon Eliza, and that she had no right to say what she did about the watch. "I wonder what she would think if she knew I had to pay two pounds for it. She thinks ten shillings a lot of money, and so I shall keep it to myself that I have to pay any more." And Fanny thought she had better go home again and make the best she could of things, or some of the children would be sent to look for her.

Just after she had started to run back, she heard her name called by a familiar voice, and the next minute she was joined by a girl about her own age, but dressed in a dirty-fine frock, and looking altogether so slatternly and untidy that even Fanny was struck with the contrast in their appearance.

"Are you out for your holiday, Fan?" she said, as she slipped her arm in Fanny's.

Fanny knew that neither mother nor father would be pleased to see her with Jessie Collins, and she tried to get away from her as they drew near their own house. But Jessie held her arm tightly.

"I haven't told you half the news yet, Fan!" she exclaimed. "I tell you it is as true as I am here that there'll be work soon for all us girls, and we need not go to service, and I for one am very glad of it."

"Oh, if you get a nice comfortable place, I don't see why—"

Jessie laughed mockingly. "I do though," she said. "And I told mother this morning she needn't bother herself to look for another place for me, for I shall go to work in the blacking factory as soon as ever it opens."

Fanny made a wry face. "I hate the smell of blacking," she said.

"So do I," answered Jessie; "but it isn't so bad when it gives you liberty to go where you like in the evening, and dress how you like, too."

Fanny glanced at her companion and smiled. But just then a voice was heard calling her in a loud tone, and she crept through the hedge again, and came face to face with her brother.

"You've been out with that Jessie Collins, instead of waiting indoors to see me and father," he said accusingly.

"I didn't go out on purpose to see Jessie," replied his sister, in an aggrieved tone. And she ran in to see her father.

"Well, my girl, what made you run off just as I was coming in?" he said.

"Oh, she caught sight of that Jess Collins," announced Jack, who had followed her into the kitchen.

Her father looked from one to the other as Fanny's face flushed angrily.

"Look here, Fanny," he said, "it don't matter just for this once, of course, but it would not be wise to make a friend of Jessie Collins. She is about in the streets too much of a night to please me, and I told her father the other day that no girl of mine should ever be about as Jessie is, and so, to please me, I hope you won't go to meet her again."

"I didn't go to meet her, father," said Fanny, darting an angry look at her brother.

"There, no teasing, Jack," said his father. "Fanny is a visitor to-day, and I hope her first holiday will be a happy one," he said, patting her head. "See what a nice pudding mother has made for dinner, just because her girl was coming home for her first holiday."

If Brown had wondered why Fanny had ran off as she did, he thought it best to say nothing about it just now, and he made room for her to sit beside him, and pushed his own plate aside to make room for her dinner, which had been kept hot in front of the fire by Eliza.

"Never mind about the wages," she whispered, as she placed it on the table before her sister.

"You must make haste, or we shall eat all the pudding," said her father, jokingly.

Fanny had put the watch out of sight, and she was glad of it, for now there would be no more disagreeable questions asked unless her mother should say something about it, which at present seemed very unlikely. And so the dinner passed off pleasantly, and no reference was made to either watch or wages during the rest of the meal.

"I shall see you again at tea-time, my girl; and if we aren't wanted to work late to-night, I will see you home, like I used to see mother when she was a girl in service," and Brown nodded to his wife as he took his cap from its nail at the back of the door and went off with Jack to work.

When the dinner-things were cleared away, Fanny agreed to go with her two younger sisters to the National School to see her former governess and tell her how she was getting on, for she had recommended Fanny for this place, and, of course, would be glad to hear she was giving satisfaction. The two younger girls were very proud to walk with their elder sister to school once more. Selina was eight and Minnie twelve, so that Fanny felt quite grown up beside these two, and took a hand of each as they went up the street together, and quite forgot the trouble of the morning for a little while. But before the school was reached, Selina said—

"Isn't it a pity poor 'Liza can't have new clothes to go to the seaside?"

"What do you know about it, Miss Inquisitive?" said Fanny, sharply.

"I heard mother and 'Liza talking about it when we came home from school. Don't you wish mother had money enough to buy some new frocks?"

"Why, of course I do, little stupid!" said Fanny, crossly, as though she thought Selina had spoken like this on purpose to vex and annoy her; and then that her mother must have told the children all about the watch.

"I dare say mother will manage somehow," said Minnie, after a pause.

But Selina shook her head. "Mother can't make new frocks out of nothing," she said.

But just then the school was reached, and other girls gathered round the sisters, and Fanny was soon telling her former schoolfellows what a nice comfortable place she had got, and how kind and considerate her mistress was to everybody. And then the school-bell suddenly stopped, and there was a general scamper among the girls to reach their classes in time to answer when their names were called, and Fanny was left standing near the door of the schoolroom until the governess had finished calling the names and was at liberty to speak to her.

Then she called Fanny to her table and shook hands with her, and said how glad she was to hear such a good account of her from her mistress.

Fanny opened her eyes in some surprise. "I did not know you knew Mrs. Lloyd," she said.

"She is a friend of a friend of mine," explained the governess, "and I met her at this friend's house a few days ago. When she spoke of you, she said what a nice, neat, tidy girl you were. You have your mother to thank for a good deal, Fanny," added the governess.

"Yes, ma'am," answered Fanny, and then she asked after several schoolfellows and teachers whom she did not see in their places.

She stayed until playtime, and then went out and had a chat with some other old friends until the children returned to school, and then she went home.

"Fanny, dear, I am so sorry, and so is father, I know; but Jack has just been to say they have got to work late to-night, and so father won't be able to walk home with you as he hoped he should." And Mrs. Brown kissed Fanny by way of consolation for this disappointment, and also in token that all the disagreeables of the morning were over and done with.

"Oh, mother, how tiresome everything is!" exclaimed Fanny. "I made sure father would walk home with me."

"Never mind, Fan, mother will go instead," said Eliza, who always thought a walk with her mother the best part of any holiday.

But Fanny sniffed at the proposal. She was afraid that if her mother went with her she might ask more questions about the watch; and if she thought she ought not to have given ten shillings for it, what would she say if she found out that the price she had agreed to pay was two pounds in monthly instalments of three shillings a month. The woman who had come to the kitchen entrance at her mistress's house had assured her that it was the cheapest watch that had ever been sold for that money; but she was afraid that her mother might not be of the same opinion, and so, for peace' sake, she resolved to say nothing about this to anybody, nor mention the watch again to any one at home.

She found there was a pile of her own old underclothes on the table when she went into the kitchen, and Eliza was contentedly patching and darning these under her mother's direction.

"There is a good bit of wear in some of the things," said Mrs. Brown, in answer to Fanny's look of surprise. "You grew so fast the last year, Fanny, that you got too big for them, and they were torn rather than worn out, and so I think they will do for Eliza for a little while."

"But you can't make frocks out of these things," said Fanny.

"No; but if we get these ready, mother says the frocks may come in good time; and so, as I am not going to school, I can mend these ready," said Eliza, with quite a happy look on her pale, delicate face.

Like her sister Minnie, she had the fullest confidence that her mother would manage "somehow," and that the neatly mended, outgrown clothes would go with her to the seaside after all. So she sat and sewed and darned, while Fanny told all about her visit to the school. She agreed to carry her father's tea to the factory that her sister might keep on with her work. Then they had their own tea, which Mrs. Brown contrived should be a happy, merry meal; for she did not want Fanny to feel that they were not all very glad to have her at home for her holiday, and she was very sorry that anything had occurred to spoil the day they had all looked forward to with so much anticipation.

Of course it was Fanny's own folly that had caused all the unpleasantness. Mrs. Brown did not hide this fact from herself, nor could she feel otherwise than disappointed that her Fanny, whom she was so proud of, had been both foolish and selfish in spending all her first wages before she reached home, to know whether any of the money was required for the others.

But there should be no more said about it, Mrs. Brown was determined; and so, when they set out on their walk this evening, she said, in a cheery tone—

"Now, you musn't worry yourself about Eliza, what is done can't be helped, and I think I shall manage to get her what she wants if father has to work later two or three times. I have got enough, I think, to make her two white aprons like yours, for Aunt Mary sent me a nice long length for you, when she heard that you had got a place. She sent me ten shillings, too, towards getting your new things, so that I cannot ask her to help me with Eliza's as well."

"And, then, I was always her favourite," put in Fanny, "so, of course, she would like to help me."

"Oh yes, of course," said her mother, with a smile.

"If aunt sent you ten shillings and all that stuff for aprons I can't owe you much, can I, mother?" said Fanny; for she was thinking just then of the large sum of money she still owed for that watch. And if she was in debt to her mother too, whenever would she be able to buy herself a new best dress?

Her mother was a little startled at the question.

"In debt?" she repeated. "I never thought of it in that way. We have always been ready to help each other, and I thought when you were able to earn money for yourself, you would like to help the rest of us."

"Oh yes," assented Fanny, "I should, of course, when I could afford it. But you said this morning I owed you money for my things; but if aunt sent that money and stuff for me, it can't be much, not worth talking about."

"No, not worth talking about," repeated Mrs. Brown, in a mechanical tone. But as she said the words a chill seemed to creep over her, as though a great gulf had all at once arisen between her and her dear child Fanny, separating them and putting a stranger in the place of the girl she had been so proud to call "my Fanny" only a few hours before.

There was silence between the two for a minute after this, and Fanny vaguely felt that she had hurt her mother, but still with the thought of all the money she owed for the watch, she wanted to be quite clear as to what her mother could claim from her, and so she said—

"Of course, I hope you will be able to send Eliza away all right, and she is welcome to the muslin aunt sent for me, and to all the clothes I left at home, but I don't think I shall be able to give you any money as well."

"No, Fanny, I shall never ask for it or expect it again."

Mrs. Brown said these last words with a tremor in her voice, and as soon as Fanny had reached the end of her walk, she kissed her and bade her good night, and turned to walk up the garden path without another word.

Halfway back Mrs. Brown met her husband, who had come straight from his work to walk home with her.

"Why, what is it, mother? Haven't you anything to tell me about our girl?"

For answer Mrs. Brown said, "I'm tired, Tom. This walk has been almost too much for me, I think. I can't talk about anything to-night."

"Come along, then; take my arm. Never mind the dirty jacket. I will help you home, and you shall go straight to bed, or else you will be having one of your bad headaches, and we can't afford that just now, can we?"

Mrs. Brown went to bed as soon as she reached home, and she had to spend the whole of the next day there; but no word passed her lips about Fanny and her watch, and, wisely or unwisely, she said no word to her husband that the girl had bought one.