However, Lady Temple kept to her desire of seeing Lovedy, and of letting
her companion see the rest of the establishment, and they were at last
ushered into the room already known to the visitors of the F. U. E. E.,
where the two children sat as usual in white pinafores, but it struck
the ladies that all looked ill, and Lovedy was wrapped in a shawl, and
sat cowering in a dull, stupified way, unlike the bright responsive
manner for which she had been noted even in her lace-school days. Mary
Morris gazed for a moment at Alison with a wistful appealing glance,
then, with a start as of fright, put on a sullen stolid look, and kept
her eyes on her book. The little Alice, looking very heavy and feverish,
leant against her, and Mrs. Rawlins went on talking of the colds, the
gruel she had made, and her care for her pupils' ailments, and Lady
Temple listened so graciously that Alison feared she was succumbing to
the palaver; and by way of reminder, asked to see the dormitory.
"Oh, yes, ma'am, certainly, though we are rather in confusion," and
she tried to make both ladies precede her, but Lady Temple, for once
assuming the uncomprehending nonchalance of a fine lady, seated herself
languidly and motioned Alison on. The matron was evidently perplexed,
she looked daggers at the children, or Ailie fancied so, but she was
forced to follow the governess. Lady Temple breathed more freely, and
rose. "My poor child," she said to Lovedy, "you seem very poorly. Have
you any message to your aunt?"
"Please, please!" began Lovedy, with a hoarse sob.
"Lovedy, don't, don't be a bad girl, or you know--" interposed the
little one, in a warning whisper.
"She is not naughty," said Lady Temple gently, "only not well."
"Please, my lady, look," eagerly, though with a fugitive action of
terror, Lovedy cried, unpinning the thin coarse shawl on her neck, and
revealing the terrible stripes and weals of recent beating, such as
nearly sickened Lady Temple.
"Oh, Lovedy," entreated Alice, "she'll take the big stick."
"She could not do her work," interposed Mary with furtive eagerness,
"she is so poorly, and Missus said she would have the twenty sprigs if
she sat up all night."
"Sprigs!"
"Yes, ma'am, we makes lace more than ever we did to home, day and night;
and if we don't she takes the stick."
"Oh, Mary," implored the child, "she said if you said one word."
"Mary," said Lady Temple, trembling all over, "where are your bonnets?"
"We haven't none, ma'am," returned Mary, "she pawned them. But, oh,
ma'am, please take us away. We are used dreadful bad, and no one knows
it."
Lady Temple took Lovedy in one hand, and Mary in the other; then looked
at the other little girl, who stood as if petrified. She handed the pair
to the astonished Coombe, bidding him put them into the carriage, and
let Master Temple go outside, and then faced about to defend the rear,
her rustling black silk and velvet filling up the passage, just as
Alison and the matron were coming down stairs.