• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Have a caramel,” Hyacinth invited her. “You didn’t see my fingers move, did you? That’s called sleight of hand — I’ll teach you later. As for now, run along, and don’t let me see your little face till after dinner.”

Maud withdrew, obedient to the letter. As she tiptoed upstairs to her bedroom, she wondered what else she could do to make Hyacinth love her. According to her own standards, she was being very good, but Hyacinth seemed less impressed by goodness than other grown-ups were. Maud thought about the little girls she read about in books, who nestled into the hearts of adoring friends and relations. They were usually very pretty, with long curly hair. Maud had no curls, and though her eyes were blue, it wasn’t the sort of blue that people got excited about. The faint hollow in one cheek that she had hoped might be a dimple didn’t seem to work properly. What could she do if she lacked the equipment to win Hyacinth’s heart?

She supposed she might fall ill. Children in books were often ill, or they had dreadful accidents that left them unable to walk. Maud imagined herself in Hyacinth’s bed, with Victoria and Judith weeping and Hyacinth stroking her forehead. “My poor darling,” Hyacinth would say softly, while Maud was most beautifully ill, delicate and pale like a little white snowdrop. . . . Unfortunately, children who were ill often died. Maud felt that this was taking things too far. She preferred to model herself on Lord Fauntleroy, whom everyone loved even though he was healthy. She wondered if there was anything Fauntleroy did that might endear her to Hyacinth.

A week stretched to twelve days. Then a telegram arrived for Hyacinth: Eleanor Lambert, who had been visiting relatives in Boston, had returned early to Cape Calypso. She looked forward to seeing the Misses Hawthorne again.

Hyacinth made up her mind at once. She and Judith would return to Cape Calypso immediately. Would Maud be a darling girl and help Hyacinth pack?

Maud agreed to be a darling girl, but her stomach knotted. Nothing had been said about her going with Hyacinth, and she dreaded being left behind. She wrapped waists and skirts in tissue paper and counted out gloves, hoping that Hyacinth would see that she was too useful to be abandoned. At last she could bear the suspense no longer. “Mayn’t I come with you?” she begged, careful of her grammar. “Please?”

“You’ll come soon,” Hyacinth assured her, “but not yet. Mrs. Lambert has invited Judith and me to stay at her hotel. We’ll go first and get the cottage ready for summer, and then you’ll come, with Victoria and Muffet. Only remember, once we’re in Cape Calypso, we mustn’t be seen together. Mrs. Lambert must never suspect that you’re my little girl.”

Maud was slightly softened by that “my little girl,” though her heart was heavy. Faster than she wished, the trunks were packed and she trailed Hyacinth down the stairs. She knew that once the hired carriage arrived, she would be banished to the third floor. In the days to come, she would have no one to talk to but Muffet, who couldn’t talk back, and Victoria, who would think of new ways she ought to be improved. She descended the stairs as slowly as she could, leaning away from the balustrade and dragging her feet.

Judith frowned at her from the front hall. “Don’t pull on the banister. And pick up your feet. You’ll wear out the carpet.”

Maud looked daggers at her.

“Maud!” said Hyacinth. “Come and kiss me!”

Maud hesitated. Then she obeyed. If Hyacinth was leaving, she wanted to say good-bye properly. “Do you want me to write to you?”

“Certainly,” answered Hyacinth. “Write and tell me everything.”

“There won’t be much ‘everything,’” Maud said darkly. “It’s dull here without you.”

“That’s polite,” remarked Judith. She nodded toward the parlor door. Victoria stood in the doorway. She had come to bid her sisters good-bye. Maud hadn’t seen her there.

Maud knew she had been rude. She glanced apprehensively at Victoria, and her heart sank. “I’m sorry, Aunt Victoria,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter,” replied Victoria, so gravely