Chapter XV: Fanny's Luck

"IF you please, ma'am, I've got the place, and the lady will give me ten pounds a year if you can let me go in a fortnight." Fanny had returned, highly elated at the success that had attended her efforts to "better herself," as she called it.

Mrs. Lloyd looked somewhat surprised. "The lady is coming to see me about your character, I suppose?" she said.

"I don't know, ma'am. She didn't say anything about that," answered Fanny.

"You think she is going to take you without a character?" asked Mrs. Lloyd.

"I don't know. I told her I had been living here, and gave her your address."

"Then perhaps she will call and see me," said Mrs. Lloyd. "I hope she will; it is always more satisfactory. How many are there in family at this place?" asked her friend; for she was a true friend to Fanny if she could only have believed it.

"I don't know. I didn't ask," said the girl, a little pertly.

"Is it a larger house than this?" asked Mrs. Lloyd.

"Oh yes; bigger than this," answered Fanny, in a tone of triumph, as though she owned the larger house.

"Tell me the name and address, that I may make some inquiries for you before you decide to take this place," said her mistress.

Fanny pouted and looked sullen. "I can do that," she said. "The lady only wants to know if I can go to her in a fortnight. Her name is Lewis, and she lives at 16, Mortimer Street," she suddenly added, apparently fearing that Mrs. Lloyd would decline to let her leave at the fortnight if she refused to give the address.

"Very well. I will let you know this evening whether I can spare you in a fortnight. Now set the dinner-table; I am going out this afternoon."

Fanny wondered whether her mistress was going to see Miss Martin to ask if she had another girl in the school who could take her place, and what her mother would say when she heard she was going to leave.

Well, it would save her the bother of telling the story herself, she thought, as she took off her things and put on her cap and apron.

She noticed that Mrs. Lloyd did not sit long over her dinner to-day, and this confirmed her suspicion that she was going to the school, for that was a long walk from this end of the town, and there were no tramcars running in that direction. So, when the lady came back about five o'clock looking rather tired, Fanny felt sure she knew all that had happened while she was out, and she would find out who was coming in her place if she could.

But, in point of fact, Mrs. Lloyd's visitor of the day before had told her that if she wanted to make a change, she could recommend a girl about Fanny's age, who, she felt sure, would give satisfaction. But before telegraphing to this friend to engage the girl to come to her, she resolved to make some inquiries about the place and people Fanny had told her of.

Of course it was rather a delicate undertaking, for apparently Mrs. Lloyd had no sufficient reason for asking the questions she did.

But from the information thus gained, she judged that there were several children, and that Fanny might not find it a very easy place; but there was nothing to justify her in refusing to let her go there, she decided, and a little more hard work would not hurt Fanny, and might teach her a useful lesson of contentment.

Just as the tea-things were placed on the table a telegram came for Mrs. Lloyd, announcing that the girl could come at the time named, which removed the last difficulty concerning Fanny going to the new place; and so, when she came to clear the tea-things, Mrs. Lloyd said—

"I shall be able to spare you, Fanny, at the end of a fortnight; but as you will be leaving so soon, and must give each room in turn a good clean before you go, I shall not be able to spare you for a whole day's holiday next week, but will let you go home to tea one day to tell your mother about your new place."

"Thank you," said Fanny, rather ungraciously.

"You had better go at once, and tell Mrs. Lewis that you can go to her in a fortnight, as she wishes. You can wash up the tea-things when you come back," added her mistress.

Fanny ran off to Mortimer Street in joyful haste, and on her way met her friend Miriam, who had been sent out on an errand.

"Oh, I say, I have got a new place!" exclaimed Fanny aloud, as soon as she saw her friend.

"Where is it?" asked Miriam, with almost equal eagerness.

"16, Mortimer Street," answered Fanny; and at the same moment the man who was in the habit of calling for the payment of her monthly instalment on the debt for her watch passed and looked at the girls, and then wrote down the address he had heard in his pocket-book.

The friends were too much occupied with their own affairs to notice him, but went on eagerly with their talk.

"You are to have ten pounds a year!" repeated Miriam. "Well, you are in luck! And only sixteen, too!"

Fanny laughed. "They think I am eighteen," she said. "The lady asked if I was eighteen, and I said, 'Not quite.' And she said, 'Well, you look quite eighteen, and so I think you will suit me.'"

"I don't think much of Mortimer Street," remarked Miriam. "I suppose there are a swarm of children."

"Two or three, I think," said Fanny. "I shan't mind that. It will make a little life in the house," she said.

"Yes; if you don't have too much of it," commented Miriam. "When are you to come out?" she asked the next minute.

"Oh, Sunday evening, of course. I shall have to help cook the dinner in the morning."

"Well, it will be all right for your new frock now," said Miriam. "I am glad we ordered them on Sunday."

"Yes. So am I." And Fanny bade her friend good-bye, and hurried on to Mortimer Street.

She had to ring the bell several times before she could make herself heard, for a game of romps seemed to be in progress, and the noise of children's voices, shouting, screaming, and laughing, made other sounds inaudible in the house.

"I won't have that row in my kitchen, I know," muttered Fanny, as she gave another vigorous pull at the front-door bell.

This time somebody did hear it, and at once flew to the door.

It was a boy about ten, and in answer to Fanny's inquiry for Mrs. Lewis, the boy slammed the door in her face, and dashed off upstairs, calling—

"Mother! mother! here's a girl wants you!" Fanny was not too well pleased. "What a way to answer the door!" she said, half aloud.

The next minute it was opened by Mrs. Lewis herself.

Fanny stated her errand. The children, crowding round their mother to look at the stranger, made open comments on the "new girl's" looks.

"If you please, ma'am, Mrs. Lloyd says she can spare me to come to you this day fortnight, and if you would like to see her about my character, she will be at home any morning before eleven."

"Oh, very well. I may call if I have time," said Mrs. Lewis; and she pulled the children in as they went crowding out on the doorsteps.

Recalling this last scene as she walked homewards, Fanny did not feel quite so elated over her good fortune. Some of the gilding had been rubbed off the promised ten pounds a year. She felt disappointed too, for she had felt sure of seeing the present maid-of-all-work, and asking her a few questions concerning the place, and why she was leaving.

She walked home more soberly than when she came out, and for the first time asked herself whether she was wise in leaving Mrs. Lloyd in such a hurry. "There, it's too late to think about that now," she said to herself after a minute or two. "If I don't like the place, or the children are too tiresome, I can leave at the end of the month, and Mrs. Lloyd will give me another character, so I am not going to worry myself. Ten pounds a year is ten pounds, and I may think myself lucky to get it."

She did not tell Mrs. Lloyd a word about the children, simply saying she had told Mrs. Lewis she could have her character, but that she did not know whether she would call for it or not.

"It would be much more satisfactory in every way to come and see me, and ask a few questions," commented the lady.

Fanny tossed her head. She thought her mistress wanted to prevent her taking the place even now, and she hoped Mrs. Lewis would not have time to come and hear all Mrs. Lloyd had to say about the things she had broken and damaged since she had been there.

As she washed up the tea-things she wondered who was to be her successor—which of the girls Miss Martin would recommend, and how soon the school would hear that she was going to leave her first place in less than six months, and so forfeit the Vicar's prize. She told herself again and again that she did not care a pin about this prize; but in reality she cared very much, now she came to think about it, especially as her sister Eliza had given such satisfaction to Mrs. Parsons and the Vicar. But then, again, came the thought of the higher wages she was going to have at her new place, and that consoled her, if it did not perfectly satisfy her.

The next few days were busy ones, for Mrs. Lloyd superintended the turning out of each room in turn that the house might be quite clean for the new maid, as it had been for Fanny when she came; and it was not until the last week of her stay with Mrs. Lloyd that Fanny received permission to go home for the afternoon to have tea with her mother, and tell her of the change she was about to make.

Fanny decided that she would find out as she went home who was coming to take her place, and so, instead of hurrying away directly after dinner, she did not go out until nearly three, for she intended to go round by the school and arrive there just as the girls were leaving at four o'clock. She should hear then all about the girl who was coming to take her place, and also what her mother had said when she heard she was going to leave.

But when the school was reached, and she met her sisters coming out of the playground, and they ran eagerly forward to meet her, they did not say what she expected to hear, "Why are you going to leave your place, Fanny?"

"How is mother?" she asked, after various questions and exclamations had passed.

"She is very well, but she has gone out to tea, as you didn't come home at the proper time. Mother said this was the day for your holiday; and she made a cake, too," put in Selina.

"Yes, she thought you would have written to tell us if you could not come as usual," explained Minnie.

"Oh, Fan, father was cross the other Sunday when he came to meet you and you did not come," said Selina.

"I was cross, too," said Fanny; "but, after all, it did not matter, for I got—"

And there she stopped, for she did not mean to say a word about the new place just now, especially to Selina; and at the same moment a group of old schoolfellows gathered round her, and one among them exclaimed—

"Now, Fanny, you are coming home with me to tea. You said you would the last time you had a holiday, and now you must."

"But I haven't had a whole holiday this time. We are busy just now," said Fanny.

"Never mind, a promise is a promise, and you must come with me. Minnie can tell them at home where you are."

Fanny made a slight resistance to this plea, but it was very slight, for she was not anxious to go home, as her father had been so put out at not meeting her that fateful Sunday evening.

She sent a message to her mother that she would come in and see her on her way back to Mrs. Lloyd's, and then she kissed her sisters and joined the group of girls with Mary Taylor.

This was the girl she had decided in her own mind would succeed her at Mrs. Lloyd's, and she was surprised that she had not heard at once about this. Perhaps for some reason it had not been openly spoken of in the school; but if she went home with Mary to tea she would be sure to hear the news.

On their way to Mary's home, when the other girls had left them, she said to her friend—

"Are any more girls leaving yet, Mary?"

"No. Mother is rather disappointed, for, you know, she had my name put down for the next place that teacher heard of. Now she has written to my aunt who lives near London to look-out for me."

Fanny was puzzled. So Mrs. Lloyd had not been to Miss Martin for another maid, and she wondered whether by her carelessness she had brought her old school into such ill repute that her mistress would not have another girl from there.

It was not a pleasant thought, and she put it away from her as quickly as she could, laughing and chatting with Mary quite merrily.

She was not in a hurry to go home when tea was over, and she left herself so little time to see her mother that she could hardly wait while Selina fetched her from Jessie's; for it was there she had gone to tea; to show her how to manage some alterations that were necessary in the black dress Miss Martin had given her for Jessie, and which there had been no time to do before.

Fanny chose to be aggrieved that her mother should devote so much of her time to Jessie Collins.

"I never heard of such a thing in my life," she grumbled to Minnie, while Selina ran to tell her mother she was waiting. "When I was at home I was not to talk or play with Jessie, and now mother makes more fuss of her than she does of her own children. I don't think it's fair to keep me waiting here when I have so little time because she is with her favourite."

"Fanny, how can you talk like that?" protested Minnie. "Mother did not go to help with the frock until long after the time for you to come home. She got a hot dinner for you, and a cake for tea, and now you come when it is time to start to go back again. I call it shameful; as bad as serving father as you did. It seems as though you were tired of us all now you have got a nice, comfortable place," added Minnie.

"Well, perhaps I am going to leave that nice, comfortable place," said Fanny, with something like a sneering laugh.

"It would serve you right if you did," said Minnie, in an angry tone; and in the midst of these angry words Mrs. Brown hurried in.

"My dear Fanny, where have you been that you did not get home to dinner as usual?" said Mrs. Brown, kissing Fanny and taking no notice of Minnie's wrathful face.

"We are busy, and I could not get away until after dinner," answered Fanny, "and I must get in early, or Mrs. Lloyd will be cross," she added.

"But surely you can stay with us for an hour now you have come!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown, quickly.

"No, I must not stop a minute. I forgot I promised to go to tea with Mary Taylor the last time I was at home," said Fanny, "and she made me go with her when I went to meet the children coming out of school."

"Wait a minute, then, and I will put on my other bonnet and go with you," said her mother. "Cut yourself a piece of cake, I shall be ready by the time you have eaten it."

Fanny cut a slice of cake, and her mother was ready to start before she had finished it. When they had begun their walk, Mrs. Brown said—

"How was it you did not go to meet your father as he asked you, my girl? I never saw him so upset as he was when he came home that Sunday night. He says he could not have missed you if you had gone near the place within half an hour of the time he mentioned. It is not fair to treat your father like this," added Mrs. Brown, in a reproachful tone.

"There, mother, hold your tongue. I thought what it would be when you said you would walk with me. You always find something to grumble about. I had to go somewhere else before I could go to meet father. I am sure I have got as much to grumble at as he has, for I was waiting and looking about at that corner all church-time. I do think if father really wanted to see me, he might have waited a bit longer."

Mrs. Brown was angry at the manner in which Fanny spoke.

"He did more than just wait for you," she said, "he went on, and asked your mistress if you could not come out to church, and she said you had been gone nearly an hour. Then your father felt sure that you had gone another way on purpose to avoid him, and he came home at once, worried and upset, I can tell you. I said I would ask you to tell me all about it when you came home, and I hope you will, Fanny," added her mother, in a more persuasive tone.

"I don't know that there's anything to tell," said Fanny, suddenly. "I have made friends with another girl, who is a servant living close by, and I had promised to meet her before I got father's letter, and then I had to go another way to St. Mary's Road, and that was how I missed him, I expect."

Mrs. Brown breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, Fanny, why didn't you send him a line the next day, saying you were sorry you had missed him? Or why didn't you go to him first, and he would have gone with you to meet your friend, and you could have gone to church together?"

"Well, I might have done that, I suppose," remarked Fanny, "but I never thought of it. Tell him when you write, mother, that I am sorry, and that I was looking for him all the evening round by the church." Then she added, "Now, mother, I must walk on faster, or I shall be late; and Mrs. Lloyd wants to go out, I know."

So Mrs. Brown bade Fanny good-bye, somewhat relieved by the explanation the girl had given, and yet feeling vaguely uneasy about her, she knew not why.

Fanny hurried along the road when she left her mother, reflecting that she had escaped a good scolding, such as she had expected, for no word had been said about her leaving her situation, and her mother had heard nothing of the new one to which she was so soon going.