Chapter III: That Watch

"GOOD morning, miss. I've come from Judds' the watchmakers." And the speaker, a shabbily dressed young man, drew a book and pencil from his pocket as he spoke.

"Do you want some more money for my watch?" asked Fanny, with a gasp, and drawing the door close behind her. "The missis is in the kitchen," she whispered.

"All right. We don't want to see the missis about this business, do we? Three shillings, if you please." And when Fanny took it out of her pocket, he wrote the amount on a card and handed it to her as he took the money. "This is your first payment. I shall call every month, unless you send the money to our place before I come."

"It isn't the first payment," said Fanny, quickly. "I've paid ten shillings to the lady."

"It's the first you've paid me. I haven't anything to do with money I don't receive. Good morning." And Fanny hastily put her card in her pocket as a woman selling cottons appeared.

"Oh yes, I want a reel of cotton," said Fanny loud enough for her mistress to hear.

"Who is at the door, Fanny?" asked the lady at the same moment.

"I'm buying some cotton and things of a woman," answered Fanny, thinking how lucky it was the woman happened to come at this moment. When she returned to the kitchen, her mistress said—

"It would be better for you to buy your buttons and cottons at the shop, Fanny. The things women sell about the street are never very good—hardly worth using, in fact."

Fanny made no reply, but having put the saucepan on for the pudding, went upstairs to sweep one of the bedrooms, and the moment she got there she took the card out of her pocket to examine it. At the bottom a slip of pink paper was attached, and on it was printed, "No money is to be paid to the person who delivers the watch." Fanny read this over two or three times.

"What can it mean?" she exclaimed, half aloud. "I paid her ten shillings more than a month ago!" Then she looked more closely at the card to see if this ten shillings had been put down to her account. But there was no writing except that done by the young man. He had put down the three shillings she had paid him, but it was clearly stated on the card that she was to pay two pounds for the watch, and in the second column of the card stating the balance still owing, "thirty-seven shillings" had been set down.

Fanny did not master these facts all at once. Instead of sweeping the room, she stood near the dressing-table conning her card, and was still standing there when the door opened and her mistress came in. She put the card hastily into her pocket just as the lady said—

"Fanny, what are you doing? You came here twenty minutes ago to sweep the room, and you have not begun it yet."

Fanny picked up her broom and bustled about now, and the lady left her sweeping vigorously. She had not left the room many minutes when the broom went down, and Fanny once more had the card out to examine, wondering and puzzling why the ten shillings she had paid had not been acknowledged. Little as she knew of business, she remembered that, whenever she paid the rent at home, the landlord always set down in the book the sum that was paid, and why should not her ten shillings be set down on the card in the same way?

It was a puzzle she could not solve, and she took up the broom again. But her mind was so full of anxiety concerning the ten shillings that she failed to see where flue and dust had collected in the corners, and under the furniture, so shortly after the broom and brushes were carried downstairs Fanny was told to take them back again and sweep the room properly.

This made her angry. "I have swept it once," she muttered. But she knew her mistress would be obeyed, and so she sullenly went back to do her work over again, her mind still full of the card and the ten shillings.

This time she was determined to have everything out of its place, and swung her broom and brushes about with such vigour that a few minutes afterwards a crash resounded through the house. A water-jug she had been told to be particularly careful of was broken in a dozen pieces. The lady came running upstairs, her worst fears confirmed when she saw the pieces of broken crockery lying scattered on the floor.

"Fanny, I asked you, when you came, to be very careful of that jug, as I set great store by it because of the friend who made me a present of the toilet-set many years ago. The jug was the only thing left of the original gift, and now that is broken!"

The lady spoke almost mournfully as she looked at her shattered treasure. Then she glanced at Fanny's angry, defiant face. But there was no sign of sorrow there, as she muttered—

"I didn't do it on purpose."

"Well, you must save some of the pieces, and go and match it after dinner. You must pay half the cost, too, for if you had taken more care it would not have happened."

Fanny burst into tears, not for the loss of the jug so much as that she would have to part with some of her money to pay for it, and she resolved to be more careful with the crockery in future. Already she had broken several cups and plates, but her mistress had simply warned her against being careless. Now she wished her mistress had made her pay for the plates, they would have cost far less than the jug, and she would have handled it more carefully. Some such thought as this had been in the lady's mind, when she said Fanny must pay half the cost of this breakage, and she decided that she must be a little more strict with her young servant in future. Hitherto she had been very lenient towards her in many things, but Fanny's behaviour this morning had convinced her that she must look after her more closely, or the work of the house would be slighted and neglected.

It was an unhappy day both for mistress and maid. The mistress, of course, knew nothing of the cause that made Fanny so cross and negligent with her work. And Fanny resolved that no one should know anything about her watch, and how she was paying for it. Her mother had told her she knew nothing about buying a watch, and other people would laugh, and call her a fool, if they heard she had been cheated of ten shillings; for that was what Fanny began to fear might be the meaning of the amount not being set down on the card.

It made her very angry to think anybody could cheat her, but she resolved not to let any one else know it. She was determined no one should be able to say, 'What a fool Fanny Brown was over that watch!' The money she had to pay for the water-jug reduced still further the sum she had left of her month's wages, and she also made the painful discovery that her boots were wearing out.

Now, Fanny had not thought of wanting new boots. What she did want was a new best dress; for when her mother provided her with new clothes this had not been included, because Mrs. Brown could not afford it, for one thing, and also she thought the old one would last a month or two longer, and then Fanny would have saved enough money from her wages to buy it for herself.

Fanny thought of the new frock, and groaned as she saw the condition of her boots, and then she reflected that she was going home the next day for her second monthly holiday, and also to see Eliza, who was to start with the Vicarage party for the seaside the following day.

Fanny did not look very happy when she got home the next morning, and was scarcely in the mood to rejoice with her sister when she told her that she had got two new cotton frocks, a nice woollen one, and also the material for a new best dress, which her aunt had sent.

"I'm sure you don't want that, then!" snapped Fanny. "If you have got a dress good enough for Governess to wear you can keep that for best, and let me have the new one."

"But aunt sent you a new frock last year, and she said it was my turn now," protested Eliza, who felt very disappointed that her sister showed so little interest in her affairs.

She had not packed her box, because she felt sure Fanny would like to see everything that was going in it. And now Fanny scarcely noticed anything, but just turned up her nose when she saw how carefully her own old clothes had been patched and mended and made to fit her younger sister.

The old wooden box that had been repainted and repaired by Jack was a perfect treasure-trove to Eliza and her mother, and both were disappointed when Fanny showed so little interest in their work.

When her father came home, Fanny greeted him eagerly with the words—

"I see you can mend boots better than ever, daddy. Eliza's do look nice!"

"Ay, it was about all I could do for the lass," said Mr. Brown.

"Could you mend a pair for me?" said Fanny, coaxingly.

"Lor' bless the girl! I thought you said I cobbled them when you went to your fine new place," he added, with a laugh, as he kissed Fanny a second time.

"But you haven't cobbled Eliza's," said Fanny; and she seated herself beside her father at the dinner-table, and persuaded him to undertake the repairing of her boots before the meal came to an end. Having thus succeeded with her father Fanny turned her attention to her mother and Eliza. "I don't see that you will want a best frock at the seaside," she said to her sister, as they wandered out into the garden and then to the fields beyond.

"Aunt said the stuff was to make me one," said Eliza, wondering whether she ought to let her sister have it.

She never remembered having a new dress. Hers had always served her sister first, for when Fanny had outgrown them, they had been done up and called new for her. She therefore wondered now whether she would have to give up her aunt's present that Fanny might have the first turn with the new frock. Fanny tried hard to persuade Eliza that this was the best way of disposing of their aunt's gift, assuring her that she would take great care of the new dress, and only wear it for best, and at last wrung a promise from Eliza that, if their mother was agreeable, this plan should be adopted.

While they were in the fields, Jessie Collins joined them. She was still waiting for the blacking factory to open, although she was far less keen about going there than she had been when she saw Fanny the last time she was at home.

"How are you getting on, Fan?" she asked. "Do you like your place and your mistress as much as ever?"

"No, I don't. She's a nasty cross old thing now, and if she don't get better soon, I shall leave and go somewhere else."

"Oh, Fanny!" exclaimed her sister.

"There, you need not be a telltale, and let mother know what I said," exclaimed Fanny. "You're all right. You are going to the seaside just to play on the sands, so my troubles need not worry you."

"Troubles!" repeated Jessie, with a loud laugh. "It's come to trouble, has it? Well, I was thinking of going to service again myself; but if you find trouble in it, I am afraid I should too, and so I had better stick to my blacking factory, although they are a long time before they begin business."

"I shall see how you like the blacking, and if you get on, I may try it," said Fanny.

Jessie looked serious. "Your mother won't like that," she said, "nor will Governess either. I had a talk with her the other day, and she almost persuaded me to go to service again," concluded Jessie.

Fanny was anxious not to displease her mother just now, so she would not stay long talking to Jessie, for fear she should be seen, and so went indoors to try and have a talk about the new dress.

"Mother, me and Eliza have agreed to have the new frock between us," she said, going to have another look at the box which her mother was packing.

"What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Brown, rather sharply.

"Well, mother, we always have had our new frocks between us," said Fanny.

"You mean you have always had the new clothes, and Eliza has had to wear them when you had done with them. This will be altered in the future, I hope."

"I don't see why we should not go on in the old way," muttered Fanny.

"What do you mean? What do you want?" asked her mother.

"We both want it," replied Fanny.

"You said it would be better to have the new frock made to fit you," interrupted Eliza, who greatly hoped her mother would not consent to the plan, although she had been coaxed into promising not to oppose it.

"It was all Fanny's idea, of course," said Mrs. Brown, looking keenly at Eliza.

"Yes, mother. She says she wants a best dress more than I do."

"Very well, if she wants a new frock she is earning money for herself now, and can buy one," replied her mother.

"No, I can't!" snapped Fanny; and she went out and banged the door after her. Eliza would have followed her sister, to try and soothe her ruffled feelings, but her mother called her back.

"I am afraid we have all been spoiling Fanny and making her selfish," said Mrs. Brown, gravely. "She has had the new frocks because she was a big girl, and when she had outgrown them they could be done up for you, and so she has come to expect that she is always to have the best of everything, whoever may have to go without. She must learn to consider other people as well as herself, and so it will be positively unkind to encourage her in her selfishness when there is no longer any need to do it. Besides, Aunt Mary said you were to have the new frock this time, for she knows we have been obliged to let Fanny have the first turn always."

"I should like a new frock, mother, of course," said Eliza; "but if it will make Fanny unhappy, I don't mind if it is made to fit her just for this once."

But her mother shook her head. "I love you both," she said, "and it would not be really kind to let Fanny have her own way in this matter. I saw, the last holiday she had, that we had all been making a mistake about this, and that we should have to turn over a new leaf, and help Fanny to do the same; and a beginning must be made now, however cross she may be about it."

"I am afraid she will think me very unkind, as I am going to the seaside too," said Eliza, with a little tremor in her voice.

"Well, dear, I am sorry it has happened so; but, you know, true love thinks of the good of the person loved, and not whether it will please them. Now, to let Fanny have this new frock will do her harm, and not good. She will be angry, perhaps, that she cannot have her own way, as usual, and this will be like a dose of bitter medicine to her; but the medicine will do her good, I hope, and she will be all the happier for it by-and-by."

Fanny stayed out with some friends until nearly tea-time, and when she came in she was looking as though she had been deeply injured.

She looked from her mother to her sister to see whether either of them were prepared to coax and comfort her, but both were busy getting tea ready—Eliza's last tea at home before she went away—for she was going to sleep at the Vicarage that night, to be ready to start on her journey the next day.

"We are to have jam for tea, and mother has made a cake for us as well," said Eliza, as Fanny took her place at the table.

"You might put father's chair in its place for him," said Mrs. Brown, looking at Fanny.

This was not the sort of reception the girl expected, and the gloom deepened on her face; but, after a pause, she said, sullenly—

"What have you settled about that frock?"

"There was nothing to settle!" answered her mother.

"Yes, there was; for Eliza said we had better have it as we always had, and I thought I would buy the body lining before I went home."

"Do you mean you would like to buy it for Eliza?" asked her mother.

"No, of course not, if the frock isn't to be made to fit me!" said Fanny, ready to cry with vexation.

"I told you before that your aunt had settled that point. The frock was sent for Eliza this time, and not for you, and Eliza shall have it!" Mrs. Brown spoke very decidedly, and her husband coming in at the moment looked from one to the other, wondering what had happened, and then Fanny burst into a storm of sobs and tears.

"It is a shame! it is a shame!"

"What is the matter? what is it all about, my girl?" said her father, taking his seat beside her and laying his hand on her head.

"It's all Aunt Mary's fault!" exclaimed Fanny, through her tears.

"What has Aunt Mary done?" asked her father.

"Well, Fanny seems to think that she is to have every new frock, and she does not like it because this last one was sent for Eliza and not for her," answered Mrs. Brown.

It was some time before peace was restored; but as soon as tea was over Eliza had to go to the Vicarage, and later on, when Fanny was getting ready to go back, her mother said—

"Now, Fanny, as you walk home, tell your father all about that watch you bought. I have not said a word to him because I want you to do it!"

Fanny frowned.