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Read Ebook: Great Uncle Hoot-Toot by Molesworth Mrs
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Ebook has 527 lines and 27030 words, and 11 pages
id the last words loudly, almost shouting them, indeed. To do him justice, it was not often his temper got so completely the better of him. The noise he was making had prevented him and the others from hearing the bell ring--prevented them, too, from hearing, a moment or two later, a short colloquy on the stairs between Harvey and a new-comer.
"Thank you," said the latter; "I don't want you to announce me. I'll do it myself."
Geoff had left the door open.
But a voice behind him made him start.
But the "toot" was drowned in a scream from Mrs. Tudor.
"Uncle, dear uncle, is it you? Can it be you yourself? Oh, Geoff, Geoff! he is not often such a foolish boy, uncle, believe me. Oh, how--how thankful I am you have come!"
She had risen from her seat and rushed forward to greet the stranger, but suddenly she grew strangely pale, and seemed on the point of falling. Elsa flew towards her on the one side, and the old gentleman on the other.
"Poor dear!" he exclaimed. "I have startled her, I'm afraid. Hoot-toot, hoot-toot, silly old man that I am. Where's that ill-tempered fellow off to?" he went on, glancing round. "Can't he fetch a glass of water, or make himself useful in some way?"
"I will," said Frances, darting forward. Geoffrey had disappeared, and small wonder.
"I am quite right now, thank you," said Mrs. Tudor, trying to smile, when Elsa had got her on to the sofa. "Don't be frightened, Elsa dear. Nor you, uncle; it was just the--the start. I've had a good deal to make me anxious lately, you know."
"I should think I did--those idiots of lawyers!" muttered the old man.
"And poor Geoff," she went on; "I am afraid I have not paid much attention to him lately, and he's felt it--foolishly, perhaps."
"Rubbish!" said Uncle Hoot-Toot under his breath. "Strikes me he's used to a good deal too much attention," he added as an aside to Elsa, with a quick look of inquiry in his bright keen eyes.
Elsa could hardly help smiling, but for her mother's sake she restrained herself.
"It will be all right now you have come home, dear uncle," Mrs. Tudor went on gently. "How was it? Had you started before you got my letters? Why did you not let us know?"
"I was on the point of writing to announce my departure," said the old gentleman, "when your letter came. It struck me then that I could get home nearly as quickly as a letter, and so I thought it was no use writing."
"Then you know--you know all about this bad news?" said Mrs. Tudor falteringly.
"Then you think, you hope, there may be something left to manage, do you?" asked Mrs. Tudor, eagerly. "I have been anticipating the very worst. I did not quite like to put it in words to these poor children"--and she looked up affectionately at the two girls; "but I have really been trying to make up my mind to our being quite ruined."
"Hoot-toot, hoot-toot!" said her uncle. "No such nonsense, my dear. I shall go to Norris's to-morrow morning and have it out with him. Ruined! No, no. It'll be all right, you'll see. We'll go into it all, and you have nothing to do but leave things to me. Now let us talk of pleasanter matters. What a nice, pretty little house you've got! And what nice, pretty little daughters! Good girls, too, or I'm uncommonly mistaken. They're comforts to you, Alice, my dear, eh?"
"The greatest possible comforts," answered the mother, warmly. "And so is little Vic. You haven't seen her yet."
"Little Vic? Oh, to be sure--my namesake." For Great-Uncle Hoot-Toot's real name, you must know, was Mr. Victor Byrne. "To be sure; must see her to-morrow; Vic, to be sure."
Mrs. Tudor smiled.
"Can you make a pudding and a shirt, Elsa and Frances?" she asked. "Tell your uncle your capabilities."
"I could manage the pudding," said Elsa. "I think the days for home-made shirts are over."
"Hoot-toot, toot-toot!" said Mr. Byrne; "new-fangled notions, eh?"
The old gentleman burst out laughing.
"Never mind, my dear; I'm used to it. It's what they always called me--all my nephews and nieces."
"Have you a great many nephews and nieces besides us?" asked Elsa.
Mr. Byrne laughed again.
"That depends upon myself," he said. "I make them, you see. I have had any quantity in my day, but they're scattered far and wide. And--there are a great many blanks, Alice, my dear, since I was last at home," he added, turning to Mrs. Tudor. "I don't know that any of them was ever quite such a pet of mine as this little mother of yours, my dears."
"Oh!" said Elsa, looking rather disappointed; "you are not our real uncle, then? I always thought you were."
"Well, think so still," said Mr. Byrne. "At any rate, you must treat me so, and then I shall be quite content. But I must be going. I shall see you to-morrow after I've had it out with that donkey Norris. What a stupid idiot he is, to be sure!" and for a moment Great-Uncle Hoot-Toot looked quite fierce. "And then I must see little Vic. What time shall I come to-morrow, Alice?"
"Whenever you like, uncle," she said. "Will you not come and stay here altogether?"
"No, thank you, my dear. I've got my own ways, you see. I'm a fussy old fellow. And I've got my servant--my blackamoor. He'd frighten all the neighbours. And you'd fuss yourself, thinking I wasn't comfortable. I'll come up to-morrow afternoon and stay on to dinner, if you like. And just leave the boy to me a bit. Good night, all of you; good night."
And in another moment the little old gentleman was gone.
The two girls and their mother sat staring at each other when he had disappeared.
"Isn't it like a dream? Can you believe he has really come, mamma?" said Elsa.
"Hardly," replied her mother. "But I am very thankful. If only Geoff will not vex him."
Elsa and Frances said nothing. They had their own thoughts about their brother, but they felt it best not to express them.
FOOLISH GEOFF.
"Is he like what you expected, Elsa?" asked Frances, when they were in their own room.
"Who? Great-Uncle Hoot-Toot? I'm sure I don't know. I don't think I ever thought about what he'd be like."
"I think mamma had really forgotten he wasn't our real uncle," said Frances. "Elsa, I am very glad he has come. I think poor mamma has been far more unhappy than she let us know. She does look so ill."
"Elsa, you frighten me a little," said Frances. "You don't think he'll be very severe with poor Geoff?"
"I don't think he'll be more severe than is for Geoff's good," replied Elsa. "I must confess, though, I shouldn't like to face Great-Uncle Hoot-Toot if I felt I had been behaving badly. How his eyes can gleam!"
"And how he seemed to flash in upon us all of a sudden, and to disappear almost as quickly! I'm afraid there's something a little bit uncanny about him," said Frances, who was very imaginative. "But if he helps to put all the money troubles right, he will certainly be like a good fairy to us."
"Yes; and if he takes Geoff in hand," added Elsa. "But, Frances, we must go to bed. I want to make everything very nice to-morrow; I'm going to think about what to have for dinner while I go to sleep."
For Elsa was housekeeper--a very zealous and rather anxious-minded young housekeeper. Her dreams were often haunted by visions of bakers' books and fishmongers' bills; to-night curry and pilau chased each other through her brain, and Frances was aroused from her first sweet slumbers to be asked if she would remember to look first thing to-morrow morning if there was a bottle of chutney in the store-closet.
At breakfast Geoff came in, looking glum and slightly defiant. But he said nothing except "Good morning." He started, however, a little, when he saw his mother.
"Mamma," he said, "are you not well? You look so very pale."
The girls glanced up at this. It was true. They had not observed it in the excitement of discussing the new arrival, and the satisfaction of knowing it had brought relief to Mrs. Tudor's most pressing anxieties.
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