Chapter 22. The End Of Love

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_ CHAPTER XXII. THE END OF LOVE

The plan was carried into effect. Mr Lennox was consulted, and being the best and most amiable of men, after talking for a short time to his young daughter Jasmine, he went over and had a consultation with Mrs Macintyre. Mrs Macintyre agreed most eagerly to Jasmine's suggestion, and accordingly, two days after Meg had 'saved her immortal soul,' Leucha and Jasmine were excused lessons--Leucha on the plea of ill-health, Jasmine because she wished to help her darling Hollyhock's friend.

The two girls were excused lessons; as for preparation for the prize competition, that they might go on with or not, as they wished. Jasmine had no love for gems, but she would like to gain one of the lockets containing the great crest of her mother's people, her own ancestors. But if she lost it, she would be the last girl to fret. She had as little ambition in her as had Hollyhock herself. Leucha, on the other hand, was keenly anxious to get the famous crest locket, and when Jasmine assured her that she would have ample opportunities of studying the ways of wee Jean, she condescended to accompany Jasmine to The Garden.

She found The Garden, however, very dull. She found the kitchen cat, whenever she came across her, intolerable; she scared wee Jean away from her, saying, 'Get away, you ugly beast!' and took not the slightest pains to make herself agreeable.

Hollyhock, with tears very, very near her black eyes, had implored of Jasper to come to her assistance and tell home truths in his plain Scots way to the English girl. This Jasper promptly promised to do, and his mother gave him leave to go over from the Annex to The Garden, in order to help Leucha.

Jasmine, with all her strength of character, was too gentle for the task she had undertaken; but there was no gentleness about fierce young Jasper. He naturally thought that Holly, the dear that she was, had gone too far; but he could not stand a common-place girl like Leuchy making such a row.

Now the facts were simply these. Leucha hated, with a violent, passionate, wicked hate, all the terrible past; but she still loved--loved as she could not believe possible--that black-eyed lass Hollyhock. Hollyhock had played a horrid trick on her; nevertheless Leucha loved her, and mourned for her, and was perfectly wretched at The Garden without her.

Oh no, she would never be friends with her again--never! Such a thing was impossible; but nevertheless she loved--she loved Hollyhock, with a sort of craving which caused her to long to see the bright glint in her eyes and the bonnie smile round her lips. As for Jasmine, she was less than nothing in Leucha's eyes. Hollyhock, although she would not say it for the world, was all in all to the miserable, proud, silly girl.

Hollyhock's heart was also aching for Leucha, and her anxiety was great with regard to what was taking place at The Garden. Would Jasmine and Jasper between them have any effect on Leuchy? Hollyhock felt for the first time in her life feverish, miserable, and anxious. She could not sleep well at nights; her nights were haunted by dreams of Leucha and the wicked things she herself had done as a mere frolic. But there was no news from The Garden, and she had to bear her restless suffering as best she could. Gladly now would she have submitted to Leuchy's kisses, if Leuchy would come back to her friend.

Meg walked with pious mien about the grounds of Ardshiel; her conscience was at rest. She won the affections of a certain number of the new Scots girls, and tried her best to set them against Hollyhock; but there was a magical influence about Hollyhock which prevented any girl being set against her; and although the girls did say that Meg had a sturdy conscience, and that she must be very happy to have made her confession, yet as the evening hour drew on they returned, as though spell-bound, to Hollyhock's side to listen with fascinated eyes and half-open mouths to her tales of bogies and ghosties.

Poor Hollyhock was feeling so restless and despairing that she threw extra venom into her narratives, making the ghosts worse than any ghosts that were ever heard of before, and the bogies and witches more subtle and more vicious. Meg did not dare to come near, but she looked with contempt at her friends who were so easily drawn to Hollyhock's side.

Meanwhile, at The Garden the days and hours were passing. Mr Lennox was entirely absorbed with his work, and saw little or nothing of his children. What little he did see of Leucha he disliked, and he thought his dear Hollyhock far too kind to her. On the following Sunday he would speak to Hollyhock, and tell her not to play those silly tricks again. Otherwise he had no time to consider the matter.

But, on a certain day--Thursday, to be accurate--Jasper, having been prepared beforehand by Jasmine, had a talk alone with Leucha. He was really sick of Leucha by this time, and meant to use plain words.

'Well, you are a poor thing,' he began.

'What do you mean?' said Leucha, turning white in her anger.

'Why, here you are in one of the grandest and best houses in the country, petted and fussed over, and just because my cousin Hollyhock chose to play a prank on you. My word! she might play twenty pranks on me and I 'd love her all the more.'

'You're a boy; you are different! She nearly killed me, if that's what you call love!'

'Nearly killed you, indeed! Not a bit of it! I 'm thinking it would take a lot to finish you off. Many and many a trick would have to be played before you 'd expire.'

'You are talking in a very rude way,' said Leucha.

'I 'm not. I know what I 'm about!'

'Then you surely do not dare to tell me to my face that your cousin did right in frightening me so terribly?'

'I 'm not saying anything so silly. I know too well the kind you are made of, Leuchy Villiers. Hollyhock did wrong, and Meg did, to my thinking, a sight worse.'

'Meg was really noble,' said Leucha.

'If that's your idea of nobleness, keep it and treasure it all your life.'

'Meg had to save her soul,' said Leucha.

'Oh, my word!' cried Jasper; 'and is our darling Hollyhock's soul of no account?'

'Well, she thinks nothing of the freak which nearly killed me.'

'Nothing of it? Little you know! Do you forget she sat up with you resting against her breast the whole of the first night, and had a camp-bed put into your room by doctor's orders and your own wish, and sang you to sleep with that voice of hers that would melt the heart of a stone, no less? If she loved you? But it has not melted your heart. If she was what you think her to be, would she have troubled herself as she did about you? Would she give up her sport and her fun and her joy, her pleasures, for one like you?'

'I 'm the daughter of the Earl of Crossways,' said Leucha.

'Well,' answered Jasper, 'I can't say much for his daughter. I tell you frankly and truly, Leucha, that if you were a brave lass and well-bred, you 'd take a joke as a joke, and think no more about it; but, being what you are, I have little hope of you. It's the best thing that could have happened to Hollyhock to have got rid of one like you. You are not fit to hold a candle to her. I have no liking for you, and now I'm going back to the Annex. I cannot stand the sight of you, with your sulks and your obstinacy. Oh! the bonnie lass, that you think so cruel. I can only say that I hope she will get a better friend than you, Leucha Villiers.'

After this speech, Leucha was found by Jasmine in a flood of tears. Jasper had returned to the Annex, his sole remark to his mother being that he was wasting his precious time at The Garden over the conversion of a hopeless girl.

Late that evening Leucha went into Jasmine's bedroom. 'I 'm very unhappy here and everywhere,' she said; 'but this place is worse even than the school. At school I shall doubtless find many friends to welcome me, so I 'm returning to the Palace of the Kings to-morrow.'

'Well, I 'm glad, for my part,' said Jasmine; 'and I hope you have made up your mind to be nice to my sister.'

'If that is your hope, you 're mistaken,' said Leucha. 'I wouldn't touch her with a pair of tongs. Nasty, sinful girl, to play such a trick on an innocent maid!'

'Well,' said Jasmine, 'I shall be very glad to get back to school early to-morrow.'

'And I to my friends,' said Leucha.

'I have remarked,' said Jasmine, 'that you haven't taken much trouble in studying the habits of the kitchen cat. I know that you have made puss your subject for the grand essay, for Hollyhock thought it best to tell me, in order that you might see the poor beastie. But you have been so unkind to her, Leucha, that she'd fly now any distance at your approach.'

'And let her; let her,' said the angry Leucha. 'I don't want her, you may be sure of that. And as to my essay, of course I must stick to it; but I may as well tell you, Jasmine, that it will be from beginning to end on the vices of the kitchen cat, encouraged by her deceitful and silly mistress, Hollyhock!'

'Have your way,' said Jasmine; 'but I don't think you'll be getting the Duke's locket. The Duke is our kinsman and he knows us lassies, and Hollyhock is a prime favourite with him, so speaking against one like her will not please his Grace. But now let me go to bed; I 'm sleepy and worn-out.'

The next day the girls unexpectedly arrived at the school. Leucha was certain that she would have the same warm welcome that she had received when she came downstairs after her illness caused by Hollyhock's mischievous prank, but she did not remember that she was now Holly's enemy. She did not even recall the fact that Meg Drummond was forbidden to have dealings with her. In short, the school received her with extreme coldness. The only one whose eyes lit up for a moment with pleasure was that beloved one called Hollyhock; but she soon turned her attention to a group of girls surrounding her, and as Leucha would not give her even the faintest ghost of a smile, she tossed her proud little black head and absorbed herself with others, who were but too eager to talk to her.

Leucha, in fact, found herself in her old position in the school, and the only one who timidly made advances towards her was Daisy Watson.

'I don't want you; go away,' said the angry Leucha.

'I 'm going,' said Daisy. 'I have plenty of friends in the school now myself, for Hollyhock has taken me up.'

'What!' cried Leucha. 'How dare she?'

'Well, she chooses to. I 'm to act in a charade to-night which she has composed, and which will be rare fun. She's so sweet and so forgiving, Leucha, that I think she 'd love you as much as ever, if only you weren't so desperately jealous.'

'I'm not jealous. I'm a terribly wronged girl. There was a trick played on me which might have cost me my life. I'll have to tell my poor mother that this is a very wicked school.'

'Well, please yourself,' said Daisy. 'I must be off. It's rather fun, the part I have to play. I 'm to be called the kitchen cat!'

'You--you--how dare you?'

'We are all acting as different animals. There are twelve of us who are taking parts in the charade, and dear Hollyhock is to be the ghost. She 'll stalk in, in her ghostly garments, and create a great sensation amongst the animals. We would not have done it if we had known that you were coming back, Leuchy, being but too well aware of your terrible nervousness about ghosts, even when the ghosts are only make-believe.'

'Well, what next?' cried Leucha. 'I never heard of anything so wicked. I must speak at once to Mrs Macintyre, and have the horrid thing stopped.'

'All right. But I do not think your words will have any effect now,' said Daisy. 'The matter is arranged, and cannot be altered. Mrs Macintyre thinks the whole thing the greatest fun in the world. I can tell you that I am enjoying myself vastly, although I was so miserable at first when you and I sat all alone; but now I am having a first-rate time. I have told you about the charade, Leucha, because I thought it only right to warn you. If you prefer it, you need not be a spectator.'

'What next?' repeated Leucha. 'I am to lose the fun of seeing Hollyhock disgrace herself. I shall certainly do nothing of the kind. I will be present, and perhaps take her down a peg. But leave me now, Daisy; only let me inform you that you are a nasty, mean little brat.'

'Thanks,' said Daisy; 'but I am enjoying myself mightily all the same.'

Daisy scampered away all too willingly; and Hollyhock, advised by her sister, took no notice of Leucha, although her heart ached very badly for her. But she felt that the reconciliation must, at any cost, now come from Leucha's side; otherwise there would be no hope of peace or rest in the school. The fact was this, that Hollyhock was feeling very wild and restless just now. She had quite got over her fit of repentance, and was full to the brim of fresh pranks.

'There's no saying what sin I 'll commit,' she said to herself, 'for the de'il 's at work in me. With my rebellious nature, I cannot help myself. I did wrong, and I owned it. I helped her and loved her; but I could not bear her kisses. It may be that Providence has parted us, so that I really need not be tried too far. Oh, but she is an ugly, uninteresting lass, poor Leuchy! And yet once I loved her; and I 'd love her again, and make her happy, if she 'd do with only two kisses a day--not otherwise; no, not otherwise. They're altogether too cloying for my taste!' _

Read next: Chapter 23. The Great Charade

Read previous: Chapter 21. There Is No Way Out

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