The Buccaneers Read Free

at her and her absurd dog; it was that absence of self-consciousness which fascinated Nan. Virginia was intensely self-conscious; she really thought just as much as her mother of “what people would say”; and even Lizzy Elmsworth, though she was so much cleverer at concealing her thoughts, was not really simple and natural; she merely affected unaffectedness. It frightened Nan a little to find herself thinking these things, but they forced themselves upon her; and when Mrs. St. George issued the order that her daughters were not to associate with “the strange girl” (as if they didn’t all know her name!) Nan felt a rush of anger. Virginia sauntered on, probably content to have shaken her mother’s confidence in the details of her dress (a matter of much anxious thought to Mrs. St. George); but Nan stopped short.
    â€œWhy can’t I go with Conchita if she wants me to?”
    Mrs. St. George’s faintly withered pink turned pale. “If she wants you to? Annabel St. George, what do you mean by talking to me that way? What on earth do you care for what a girl like that wants ?”
    Nan ground her heels into the crack between the verandah boards. “I think she’s lovely.”
    Mrs. St. George’s small nose was wrinkled with disdain. The small mouth under it drooped disgustedly. She was “Mother smelling a drain.”
    â€œWell, when that new governess comes next week, I guess you’ll find she feels just the way I do about those people. And you’ll have to do what she tells you, anyhow,” Mrs. St. George helplessly concluded.
    A chill of dismay rushed over Nan. The new governess! She had never really believed in that remote bogey. She had an idea that Mrs. St. George and Virginia had cooked up the legend between them, in order to be able to say “Annabel’s governess”; as they had once heard that tall proud Mrs. Eglinton from New York, who had stayed only one night at the hotel, say to the landlord: “You must be sure to put my daughter’s governess in the room next to her.” Nan had never believed that the affair of the governess would go beyond talking; but now she seemed to hear the snap of the hand-cuffs on her wrist.
    â€œA governess—me?”
    Mrs. St. George moistened her lips nervously. “All stylish girls have governesses the year before they come out.”
    â€œI’m not coming out next year—I’m only sixteen,” Nan protested.
    â€œWell, they have them for two years before. That Eglinton girl had.”
    â€œOh, that Eglinton girl! She looked at us all as if we weren’t there.”
    â€œWell, that’s the way for a lady to look at strangers,” said Mrs. St. George heroically.
    Nan’s heart grew black within her. “I’ll kill her if she tries to interfere with me.”
    â€œYou’ll drive down to the station on Monday to meet her,” Mrs. St. George shrilled back, defiant. Nan turned on her heel and walked away.

II.
    The Closson girl had already disappeared with her dog, and Nan suspected that she had taken him for a game of ball in the rough field adjoining the meagre grounds of the hotel. Nan went down the steps of the porch and, crossing the drive, espied the slim Conchita whirling a ball high overhead while the dog spun about frantically at her feet. Nan had so far exchanged only a few shy words with her, and in ordinary circumstances would hardly have dared to join her now. But she had reached an acute crisis in her life, and her need for sympathy and help overcame her shyness. She vaulted over the fence into the field and went up to Miss Closson.
    â€œThat’s a lovely dog,” she said.
    Miss Closson flung the ball for her poodle, and turned with a smile to Nan. “Isn’t he a real darling?”
    Nan stood twisting one foot about the other. “Have you ever had a governess?” she asked abruptly.
    Miss Closson opened with a stare of