CHAPTER XV

FALLING INTO TEMPTATION

THE children settled very happily to their daily tasks with Miss Burton. At first, the long hours of confinement were felt to be irksome. Beryl's pen was apt to drop from her fingers, and her mind to wander from her work, as the sound of the sea came to her through the open window, and the warm sunshine and fragrant breeze made her long to fling books aside, and roam abroad at will again. But a word or touch from Miss Burton would recall her attention, for Beryl was really anxious to do well and please her governess. She felt ashamed of knowing so little, and was anxious by great endeavours to make up for lost time. Miss Burton made their steps to knowledge as smooth and pleasant as possible for her young pupils.

On sounding the depths of their ignorance, she was appalled to discover how profound it was; but happily, the children, though backward, were neither slow nor dull. No one could call Beryl a stupid child. If she knew little of books, she had picked up a good deal of information about the common things of life in the course of her free-and-easy childhood.

Miss Burton was surprised to find how quickly Beryl learned when once she began to apply herself. The soil of her mind promised to yield all the richer harvest for having lain fallow so long.

The children were fortunate in the governess chosen for them. Hettie Burton was too young and too childlike to have acquired any formal, pedantic mode of imparting instruction, whilst, at the same time, her intellectual powers were such as would have qualified her to teach far older pupils. She had a natural aptitude for teaching, and did not find her work a drudgery. She varied the children's tasks so skilfully, that neither mind nor body could grow weary before lessons were over. She laid no unnecessary restrictions on their freedom.

Coral and Beryl still took their morning dip in the sea, and had a run on the beach afterwards before they went to lessons, and, weather permitting, there was always a long, pleasant ramble in the evening. The children enjoyed their walks all the more when Miss Burton accompanied them.

She was not of Miss Holly's opinion, that it was unladylike to run, and vulgar to jump or climb. She let her pupils make free use of their limbs, when school hours were over. Hettie was not too old to enjoy a run herself, and the nimble way in which she scaled the rocks excited Beryl's strong admiration.

One day, shortly after her arrival, the children took their governess to explore the depths of the long cave, and then poured into her astonished ears the story of their marvellous escape from drowning. Beryl was disposed to suppress the fact of their having tried to keep a Sunday school in the cave. She was afraid lest Miss Burton, like Mr. Hollys, should see something ridiculous in the idea. But Coral soon let out the fact; and though Miss Burton seemed very surprised to hear of it, she did not appear inclined to laugh.

"What made you think of keeping a Sunday school here?" she asked.

"Beryl thought of it," said Coral. "She wanted to do something for the kingdom."

"For the kingdom?" repeated Miss Burton, looking puzzled.

"It was Mr. Gilbank made me think of it," said Beryl, colouring as she spoke; "he said it was such a pity there was no Sunday school for the children at Egloshayle."

"Who is Mr. Gilbank? Your clergyman, I suppose?" said Miss Burton.

"Oh no!" exclaimed Beryl. "Mr. Trevor is our clergyman, and he is not in the least like Mr. Gilbank. You could never guess what Mr. Gilbank is like. He is the nicest, kindest man in the world, I think; except papa, of course, I mean."

Then, as Miss Burton began to ask further questions, Coral and Beryl told her all about the artist's visit to Egloshayle, and how he had taught them the meaning of the Lord's Prayer, and made them long to become children of the kingdom.

Miss Burton listened with surprised interest. Here was a subject on which the children were not ignorant. Young as they were, they had taken their place at the Master's feet, and had begun to learn of Him.

Hettie Burton stood silent and thoughtful for a few minutes, scarce heeding what the children said.

She, too, aspired to be a worker in the kingdom. She was thinking that perhaps the care and training of these two children did not represent all the work she was called to do at Egloshayle. It might be that she could work with Coral and Beryl as well as for them.

"Is there really no Sunday school here?" she asked presently.

"No, none at all," said Beryl.

"It is a pity," said Miss Burton. "I wish we could manage to have one."

"Oh, would you help us? Do you really mean it?" cried Beryl, in joyful surprise.

"Yes, certainly. I should be only too happy to help," said Miss Burton. "I have been used to teaching in Sunday schools all my life; at least, I mean, ever since I arrived at years of discretion."

"Then we can begin at once!" cried Beryl eagerly. "Oh, but I forgot," she added, with a sudden change of tone; "I promised papa that I would not keep Sunday school again."

"Then we must do nothing in the matter till we have obtained his permission," said the governess decidedly.

"But he will not be home till September; it is such a long time to wait," returned Beryl disconsolately.

"Only a few weeks," said Miss Burton, "and we shall have time to think of some plan to which Mr. Hollys may not object. It is never well to begin things in too great a hurry."

"I think papa will be sure to agree, if you ask him," said Beryl.

"Oh, I do not promise to take that upon me," said Miss Burton, with a little laugh.

After this, the arrangement of a Sunday school was eagerly discussed by the children, and many a grand idea conceived, which proved upon examination to be impracticable.

Meanwhile, the Sunday afternoons, which the children passed with their governess, were very pleasant. Miss Burton gave them little formal religious instruction. She did not believe in teaching children catechisms, or in giving them doses of theology, however infinitesimal. She had no desire to make Coral and Beryl precociously self-conscious. But she did try to keep them healthy, happy children, whose child-life was all the more beautiful and joyous because they loved and trusted the children's Friend. She taught them to sing glad hymns, such as in all ages children have loved to sing. She tried to make the "old, old story" real and clear to their childish minds.

She had brought many books with her to Egloshayle, such as all children love, and she used to read them to her young charges on Sunday afternoons, as they sat in the garden or in some safe and shady nook on the beach. In this way, Coral and Beryl became acquainted with "Ministering Children," "The Wide, Wide World," and the charming stories which make up "The Golden Ladder."

Beryl enjoyed these readings intensely. She was so interested in the lives of the various heroines that she scarcely knew how to wait from week to week for the unfolding of their experiences, and at last her impatience in this respect proved a means of temptation to her.

For the first few weeks things had gone very pleasantly in the schoolroom. Beryl, influenced by the charm of her governess's winning manner, and her own eager desire to improve, had been so industrious and obedient, that Miss Burton began to wonder what could have made her aunt describe her as an unruly, self-willed child.

But a change became apparent. In the hot days of August, Beryl grew listless and careless, and seemed to lose interest in her lessons. Up to this time, a word from her governess had been sufficient to control her; but now Beryl's old habits were regaining power, and she showed plainly that she had not yet learned to appreciate the virtue of obedience. Miss Burton often had to speak twice and even three times before she could command her pupil's attention. Beryl fancied she could treat her governess's commands with the indifference she had always shown to her aunt's.

But it was not Miss Burton's intention to allow such conduct to continue. She was, as Miss Hollys had hoped, a thorough disciplinarian, though her mode of maintaining discipline was not, perhaps, such as that lady would have advised.

Miss Burton made every allowance for Beryl's naughtiness. She did not resort to punishment till she had tried ineffectually the influence of firm words and kind persuasions. But when these failed, and she saw that Beryl was not ailing in health, and had really no excuse for her perverseness, Miss Burton thought it was time to try the effect of sterner measures.

One Monday morning, Coral and Beryl were together in the nursery, now dignified by the name of schoolroom. Books, slates, and pens lay ready on the table; but it wanted ten minutes to the hour at which they began lessons.

Coral was busy putting her doll into the little wicker cot in which she was to repose during schooltime. Beryl stood before the bookshelves, looking with eager, longing gaze at a brightly-bound volume standing high on the top shelf. The books on that shelf belonged to Miss Burton, and the children were not allowed to take them without leave. Beryl's eyes were upon the book, which had been begun on the previous day. She was longing to know how the story went on.

She must just take a peep, to see what the next chapter was about. So, regardless of the fact that this was a forbidden pleasure, Beryl bounded on to a chair and had the book in her hand in a moment. Then, standing there, she was soon deep in the second chapter.

Thus Miss Burton found her, when she entered the room a little later.

"Beryl!" she exclaimed, astonished at the audacity of her pupil. "What are you doing on that chair? And what book is that in your hand? I thought I had forbidden you to take those books without asking my leave."

"Oh yes," said Beryl, looking a little startled, but not much abashed; "but I did so want to know what the next chapter was about."

"That is no excuse for disobedience," said Miss Burton gravely; "you must learn to control your wishes when it is wrong to indulge them. This is not the first time that I have found you disobedient of late, and I cannot let it pass unpunished. You will stay in this room for half an hour after school, and learn a lesson that I shall give you."

Beryl looked both surprised and angry, as she jumped down from the chair and went to take her place at the table. It was soon clear that she did not mean to submit meekly to her punishment.