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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:32 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:34:32 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10452-0.txt b/10452-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..738bb38 --- /dev/null +++ b/10452-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9874 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10452 *** + +PETER'S MOTHER + +NEW EDITION + +WITH INTRODUCTION + +BY + +MRS. HENRY DE LA PASTURE + +1906 + + _And I left my youth behind + For somebody else to find_. + + +TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF MY ONLY BROTHER + +LT. COLONEL WALTER FLOYD BONHAM, D.S.O. + + + + +TO MY AMERICAN READERS + +The author of "Peter's Mother" has been bidden of the publishers, who +have incurred the responsibility of presenting her to the American +public, to write a preface to this edition of her novel. She does so +with the more diffidence because it has been impressed upon her, by +more than one wiseacre, that her novels treat of a life too narrow, +an atmosphere too circumscribed, to be understood or appreciated by +American readers. + +No one can please everybody; I suppose that no one, except the old man +in Aesop's Fable, ever tried to do so. But I venture to believe that +to some Americans, a sincere and truthful portrait of a typical +Englishwoman of a certain class may prove attractive, as to us are the +studies of a "David Harum," or others whose characteristics interest +because--and not in spite of--their strangeness and unfamiliarity. We +do not recognise the type; but as those who do have acknowledged the +accuracy of the representation, we read, learn, and enjoy making +acquaintance with an individuality and surroundings foreign to our own +experience. + +There are hundreds of Englishwomen living lives as isolated, as +guarded from all practical knowledge of the outer world, as entirely +circumscribed as the life of Lady Mary Crewys; though they are not all +unhappy. On the contrary, many diffuse content and kindness all around +them, and take it for granted that their own personal wishes are of no +account. + +Indeed it would seem that some cease to be aware what their own +personal wishes are. + +With anxious eyes fixed on others--the husband, father, sons, who +dominate them,--they live to please, to serve, to nurse, and to +console; revered certainly as queens of their tiny kingdoms, but also +helpless as prisoners. + +Calm, as fixed stars, they regard (perhaps sometimes a little +wistfully) the orbits of brighter planets, and the flashing of +occasional meteors, within their ken; knowing that their own place is +unchangeable--immutable. + +That the views of such women are often narrow, their prejudices many, +their conventions tiresome, who shall deny? That their souls are +pure and tender, their hearts open to kindness as are their hands +to charity, nobody who knows the type will dispute. They lack many +advantages which their more independent sisters (no less gifted with +noble and womanly qualities) enjoy, but they possess a peculiar +gentleness, which is all their own, whether it be adored or despised. + +When one of their number happens to be cleverer, larger minded, more +restless, and impatient, it may be, by nature than her sisters, +tragedy may ensue. But not often. Habit and public opinion are +strong restrainers, stronger sometimes than even the most carefully +inculcated abstract principles. + +To turn to another phase of the story--there was a time during the +Boer War when there was literally scarcely a woman in England who was +not mourning the death of some man--be he son, brother, or husband, +lover or friend,--and that time seems still very, very recent to some +of us. + +The rights and wrongs of a war have nothing to do with the sympathy +all civilised men and women extend to the soldiers on both sides who +take part in it. + + "_Theirs not to reason why, + Theirs but to do or die_," + +and whether they "do or die," the mingled suspense, pride, and anguish +suffered by their women-kind rouses the pity of the world; but most of +all, for the secret of sympathy is understanding, the pity of those +who have suffered likewise. So that such escapades as Peter's in the +story, being not very uncommon at that dark period (and having its +foundation in fact), may have touched hearts over here, which will be +unmoved on the other side of the Atlantic. I cannot tell. I have known +very few Americans, and though I have counted those few among my +friends, they have been rarely met. + +My only knowledge of America has been gleaned from my observation of +these, and from reading. As it happens, the favourite books of my +childhood were, with few exceptions, American. + +Partly from association and partly because I count it the most truly +delightful story of its kind that ever was written, "Little Women" has +always retained its early place in my affections. "Meg," "Jo," "Beth," +and "Amy" are my oldest and dearest friends; and when I think of them, +it is hard to believe that America could be a land of strangers to me +after all. I confess to a weakness for the "Wide, Wide World" and a +secret passion for "Queechy." I loved "Mr. Rutherford's Children," and +was always interested to hear "What Katy Did," Whilst the very thought +of "Melbourne House" thrills me with recollections of the joy I +experienced therein. + +But this is all by the way; and for the egotism which is, I fear me, +displayed in this foreword, I can but plead, not only the difficulty +of writing a preface at all, when one has no personal inclination that +way, but the nervousness which must beset a writer who is directly +addressing not a tried and friendly public, but an unknown, and, it +may be, less easily pleased and more critical audience. It appears to +me that it would be a simpler thing to write another book; and I would +rather do so. I can only hope that some of the readers of "Peter's +Mother," if she is so happy as to find favour in American eyes, would +rather I did so too; in I which case I shall very joyfully try to +gratify their wishes, and my own. + +BETTY DE LA PASTURE. + + + + +PETER'S MOTHER + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Above Youlestone village, overlooking the valley and the river, +and the square-towered church, stood Barracombe House, backed by +Barracombe Woods, and owned by Sir Timothy Crewys, of Barracombe. + +From the terrace before his windows Sir Timothy could take a +bird's-eye view of his own property, up the river and down the river; +while he also had the felicity of beholding the estate of his most +important neighbour, Colonel Hewel, of Hewelscourt, mapped out before +his eyes, as plainly visible in detail as land on the opposite side of +a narrow valley must always be. + +He cast no envious glances at his neighbour's property. The Youle +was a boundary which none could dispute, and which could only be +conveniently crossed by the ferry, for the nearest bridge was seven +miles distant, at Brawnton, the old post-town. + +From Brawnton the coach still ran once a week for the benefit of the +outlying villages, and the single line of rail which threaded the +valley of the Youle in the year 1900 was still a novelty to the +inhabitants of this unfrequented part of Devon. + +Sir Timothy sometimes expressed a majestic pity for Colonel Hewel, +because the railway ran through some of his neighbour's best fields; +and also because Hewelscourt was on the wrong side of the river--faced +due north--and was almost buried in timber. But Colonel Hewel was +perfectly satisfied with his own situation, though sorry for Sir +Timothy, who lived within full view of the railway, but was obliged +to drive many miles round by Brawnton Bridge in order to reach the +station. + +The two gentlemen seldom met. They lived in different parishes, and +administered justice in different directions. Sir Timothy's dignity +did not permit him to make use of the ferry, and he rarely drove +further than Brawnton, or rode much beyond the boundaries of his own +estate. He cared only for farming, whilst Colonel Hewel was devoted to +sport. + +The Crewys family had been Squires of Barracombe, cultivating their +own lands and living upon them contentedly, for centuries before the +Hewels had ever been heard of in Devon, as all the village knew +very well; wherefore they regarded the Hewels with a mixture of +good-natured contempt and kindly tolerance. The contempt was because +Hewelscourt had been built within the memory of living man, and only +two generations of Hewels born therein; the tolerance because the +present owner, though not a wealthy man, was as liberal in his +dealings as their squire was the reverse. + + * * * * * + +In the reign of Charles I., one Peter Crewys, an adventurous younger +son of this obscure but ancient Devonshire family, had gained local +notoriety by raising a troop of enthusiastic yeomen for his Majesty's +service; subsequently his own reckless personal gallantry won wider +recognition in many an affray with the parliamentary troops; and on +the death of his royal master, Peter Crewys was forced to fly the +country. He joined King Charles II. in his exile, whilst his prudent +elder brother severed all connection with him, denounced him as a +swashbuckler, and made his own peace with the Commonwealth. + +The Restoration, however, caused Farmer Timothy to welcome his +relative home in the warmest manner, and the brothers were not only +reconciled in their old age, but the elder made haste to transfer +the ownership of Barracombe to the younger, in terror lest his own +disloyalty should be rewarded by confiscation of the family acres. + +A careless but not ungrateful monarch, rejoicing doubtless to see his +faithful soldier and servant so well provided for, bestowed on him a +baronetcy, a portrait by Vandyck of the late king, his father, and the +promise of a handsome sum of money, for the payment of which the +new baronet forebore to press his royal patron. His services thus +recognized and rewarded, old Sir Peter Crewys settled down amicably +with his brother at Barracombe. + +Presumably there had always been an excellent understanding between +them. In any case no question of divided interests ever arose. + +Sir Peter enlarged the old Elizabethan homestead to suit his new +dignity; built a picture-gallery, which he stocked handsomely with +family portraits; designed terrace gardens on the hillside after a +fashion he had learnt in Italy, and adopted his eldest nephew as his +heir. + +Old Timothy meanwhile continued to cultivate the land undisturbed, +disdaining newfangled ideas of gentility, and adhering in all ways to +the customs of his father. Presently, soldier and farmer also passed +away, and were laid to rest side by side on the banks of the Youle, in +the shadow of the square-towered church. + +Before the house rolled rich meadows, open spaces of cornland, and +low-lying orchards. The building itself stood out boldly on a shelf of +the hill; successive generations of the Crewys family had improved or +enlarged it with more attention to convenience than to architecture. +The older portion was overshadowed by an imposing south front of white +stone, shaded in summer by a prolific vine, which gave it a foreign +appearance, further enhanced by rows of green shutters. It was +screened from the north by the hill, and from the east by a dense +wood. Myrtles, hydrangeas, magnolias, and orange-trees nourished +out-of-doors upon the sheltered terraces cut in the red sandstone. + +The woods of Barracombe stretched upwards to the skyline of the ridge +behind the house, and were intersected by winding paths, bordered +by hardy fuchsias and delicate ferns. A rushing stream dropped from +height to height on its rocky course, and ended picturesquely and +usefully in a waterfall close to the village, where it turned an old +mill-wheel before disappearing into the Youle. + +If the Squire of Barracombe overlooked from his terrace garden +the inhabitants of the village and the tell-tale doorway of the +much-frequented inn on the high-road below--his tenants in the valley +and on the hillside were privileged in turn to observe the goings-in +and comings-out of their beloved landlord almost as intimately; nor +did they often tire of discussing his movements, his doings, and even +his intentions. + +His monotonous life provided small cause for gossip or speculation; +but when the opportunity arose, it was eagerly seized. + +In the failing light of a February afternoon a group of labourers +assembled before the hospitably open door of the Crewys Arms. + +"Him baint been London ways vor uppard of vivdeen year, tu my zurtain +knowledge," said the old road-mender, jerking his empty pewter upwards +in the direction of the terrace, where Sir Timothy's solid dark form +could be discerned pacing up and down before his white house. + +"Tis vur a ligacy. You may depend on't. 'Twas vur a ligacy last time," +said a brawny ploughman. + +"Volk doan't git ligacies every day," said the road-mender, +contemptuously. "I zays 'tis Master Peter. Him du be just the age when +byes du git drubblezum, gentle are zimple. I were drubblezum myself as +a bye." + +"'Twas tu fetch down this 'ere London jintle-man as comed on here wi' +him to-day, I tell 'ee. His cousin, are zuch like. Zame name, anyways, +var James Coachman zaid zo." + +"Well, I telled 'ee zo," said the road-mender. "He's brart down the +nextest heir, var tu keep a hold over Master Peter, and I doan't blame +'un." + +"James Coachman telled me vive minutes zince as zummat were up. 'Ee +zad such arders var tu-morrer morning, 'ee says, as niver 'ee had +befar," said the landlord. + +"Thart James Coachman weren't niver lit tu come here," said the +road-mender, slyly. His toothless mouth extended into the perpetual +smile which had earned him the nickname of "Happy Jack," over sixty +years since, when he had been the prettiest lad in the parish. + +"He only snicked down vor a drop o' brandy, vur he were clean rampin' +mazed wi' tuth-ache. He waited till pretty nigh dusk var the ole +ladies tu be zafe. 'Ee says they du take it by turns zo long as +daylight du last, tu spy out wi' their microscopes, are zum zuch, as +none of Sir Timothy's volk git tarking down this ways. A drop o' my +zider might git tu their 'yeds," said the landlord, sarcastically, +"though they drinks Sir Timothy's by the bucket-vull up tu +Barracombe." + +"'Tis stronger than yars du be," said Happy Jack. "There baint no +warter put tu't, Joe Gudewyn. The warter-varl be tu handy vur yure +brewin'." + +"Zum of my customers has weak 'yeds, 'tis arl the better for they," +said Goodwyn, calmly. + +"Then charge 'em accardin', Mr. Landlord, charge 'em accardin', +zays I. Warter doan't cost 'ee nart, du 'un?" said Happy Jack, +triumphantly. + +"'Ere be the doctor goin' on in's trap, while yu du be tarking zo," +said the ploughman. "Lard, he du be a vast goer, be Joe Blundell." + +"I drove zo vast as that, and vaster, when I kip a harse," said the +road-mender, jealously. "'Ee be a young man, not turned vifty. I mind +his vather and mother down tu Cullacott befar they was wed. Why doan't +he go tu the war, that's what I zay?" + +"Sir Timothy doan't hold wi' the war," said the landlord. + +"Mar shame vor 'un," said Happy Jack. "But me and Zur Timothy, us +made up our minds tu differ long ago. I'm arl vor vighting +vurriners--Turks, Rooshans, Vrinchmen; 'tis arl one tu I." + +"Why doan't 'ee volunteer thyself, Vather Jack? Thee baint turned +nointy yit, be 'ee?" said a labourer, winking heavily, to convey to +the audience that the suggestion was a humorous one. + +"Ah, zo I wude, and shute Boers wi' the best on 'un. But the +Governmint baint got the zince tu ax me," said Happy Jack, chuckling. +"The young volk baint nigh zo knowing as I du be. Old Kruger wuden't +ha' tuke in I, try as 'un wude. I be zo witty as iver I can be." + +Dr. Blundell saluted the group before the inn as he turned his horse +to climb the steep road to Barracombe. + +No breath of wind stirred, and the smoke from the cottage chimneys was +lying low in the valley, hovering over the river in the still air. + +A few primroses peeped out of sheltered corners under the hedge, and +held out a timid promise of spring. The doctor followed the red road +which wound between Sir Timothy's carefully enclosed plantations of +young larch, passed the lodge gates, which were badly in need of +repair, and entered the drive. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The justice-room was a small apartment in the older portion of +Barracombe House; the low windows were heavily latticed, and faced +west. + +Sir Timothy sat before his writing-table, which was heaped with +papers, directories, and maps; but he could no longer see to read or +write. He made a stiff pretence of rising to greet the doctor as he +entered, and then resumed his elbow-chair. + +The rapidly failing daylight showed a large elderly, rather pompous +gentleman, with a bald head, grizzled whiskers, and heavy plebeian +features. + +His face was smooth and unwrinkled, as the faces of prosperous and +self-satisfied persons sometimes are, even after sixty, which was the +age Sir Timothy had attained. + +Dr. Blundell, who sat opposite his patient, was neither prosperous nor +self-satisfied. + +His dark clean-shaven face was deeply lined; care or over-work had +furrowed his brow; and the rather unkempt locks of black hair which +fell over it were streaked with white. From the deep-set brown eyes +looked sadness and fatigue, as well as a great kindness for his +fellow-men. + +"I came the moment I received your letter," he said. "I had no idea +you were back from London already." + +"Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, pompously, "when I took the very +unusual step of leaving home the day before yesterday, I had resolved +to follow the advice you gave me. I went to fulfil an appointment I +had made with a specialist." + +"With Sir James Power?" + +"No, with a man named Herslett. You may have heard of him." + +"Heard of him!" ejaculated Blundell. "Why, he's world-famous! A new +man. Very clever, of course. If anything, a greater authority. Only I +fancied you would perhaps prefer an older, graver man." + +"No doubt I committed a breach of medical etiquette," said Sir +Timothy, in self-satisfied tones. "But I fancied you might have +written _your_ version of the case to Power. Ah, you did? Exactly. But +I was determined to have an absolutely unbiassed opinion." + +"Well," said Blundell, gently. + +"Well--I got it, that's all," said Sir Timothy. The triumph seemed to +die out of his voice. + +"Was it--unsatisfactory?" + +"Not from your point of view," said the squire, with a heavy +jocularity which did not move the doctor to mirth. "I'm bound to say +he confirmed your opinion exactly. But he took a far more serious view +of my case than you do." + +"Did he?" said Blundell, turning away his head. + +"The operation you suggested as a possible necessity must be +immediate. He spoke of it quite frankly as the only possible chance of +saving my life, which is further endangered by every hour of delay." + +"Fortunately," said Blundell, cheerfully, "you have a fine +constitution, and you have lived a healthy abstemious life. That is +all in your favour." + +"I am over sixty years of age," said Sir Timothy, coldly, "and the +ordeal before me is a very severe one, as you must be well aware. I +must take the risk of course, but the less said about the matter the +better." + +Dr. Blundell had always regarded Sir Timothy Crewys as a commonplace +contradictory gentleman, beset by prejudices which belonged properly +to an earlier generation, and of singularly narrow sympathies and +interests. He believed him to be an upright man according to his +lights, which were not perhaps very brilliant lights after all; but he +knew him to be one whom few people found it possible to like, partly +on account of his arrogance, which was excessive; and partly on +account of his want of consideration for the feelings of others, which +arose from lack of perception. + +People are disliked more often for a bad manner than for a bad heart. +The one is their private possession--the other they obtrude on their +acquaintance. + +Sir Timothy's heart was not bad, and he cared less for being liked +than for being respected. He was the offspring of a _mésalliance_; and +greatly over-estimating the importance in which his family was held, +he imagined he would be looked down upon for this mischance, unless he +kept people at a distance and in awe of him. The idea was a foolish +one, no doubt, but then Sir Timothy was not a wise man; on the +contrary, his lifelong determination to keep himself loftily apart +from his fellow-men had resulted in an almost extraordinary ignorance +of the world he lived in--a world which Sir Timothy regarded as a wild +and misty place, peopled largely and unnecessarily with savages and +foreigners, and chiefly remarkable for containing England; as England +justified its existence by holding Devonshire, and more especially +Barracombe. + +Sir Timothy had never been sent to school, and owed such education as +he possessed almost entirely to his half-sisters. These ladies +were considerably his seniors, and had in turn been brought up at +Barracombe by their grandmother; whose maxims they still quoted, and +whose ideas they had scarcely outgrown. Under the circumstances, the +narrowness of his outlook was perhaps hardly to be wondered at. + +But the dull immovability and sense of importance which characterized +him now seemed to the doctor to be almost tragically charged with the +typical matter-of-fact courage of the Englishman; who displays neither +fear nor emotion; and who would regard with horror the suspicion that +such repression might be heroic. + +"When is it to be?" said Blundell. + +"To-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" + +"And here," said Sir Timothy; "Dr. Herslett objected, but I insisted. +I won't be ill in a strange house. I shall recover far more +rapidly--if I am to recover--among my people, in my native air. London +stifles me. I dislike crowds and noise. I hate novelty. If I am to +die, I will die at home." + +"Herslett himself performs the operation, of course?" + +"Yes. He is to arrive at Brawnton to-night, and sleep there. I shall +send the carriage over for him and his assistants early to-morrow +morning. You, of course, will meet him here, and the operation is to +take place at eleven o'clock." + +In his alarm lest the doctor might be moved to express sympathy, Sir +Timothy spoke with unusual severity. + +Dr. Blundell understood, and was silent. + +"I sent for you, of course, to let you know all this," said Sir +Timothy, "but I wished, also, to introduce you to my cousin, John +Crewys, who came down with me." + +"The Q.C.?" + +"Exactly. I have made him my executor and trustee, and guardian of my +son." + +"Jointly with Lady Mary, I presume?" said the doctor, unguardedly. + +"Certainly not," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. "Lady Mary has never been +troubled with business matters. That is why I urged John to come down +with me. In case--anything--happens to-morrow, his support will be +invaluable to her. I have a high opinion of him. He has succeeded in +life through his own energy, and he is the only member of my family +who has never applied to me for assistance. I inquired the reason on +the journey down, for I know that at one time he was in very poor +circumstances; and he replied that he would rather have starved than +have asked me for sixpence. I call that a very proper spirit." + +The doctor made no comment on the anecdote. "May I ask how Lady Mary +is bearing this suspense?" he asked. + +"Lady Mary knows nothing of the matter," said the squire, rather +peevishly. + +"You have not prepared her?" + +"No; and I particularly desire she and my sisters should hear nothing +of it. If this is to be my last evening on earth, I should not wish it +to be clouded by tears and lamentations, which might make it difficult +for me to maintain my own self-command. Herslett said I was not to +be agitated. I shall bid them all good night just as usual. In +the morning I beg you will be good enough to make the necessary +explanations. Lady Mary need hear nothing of it till it is over, for +you know she never leaves her room before twelve--a habit I have often +deplored, but which is highly convenient on this occasion." + +Dr. Blundell reflected for a moment. "May I venture to remonstrate +with you, Sir Timothy?" he said. "I fear Lady Mary may be deeply +shocked and hurt at being thus excluded from your confidence in so +serious a case. Should anything go wrong," he added bluntly, "it would +be difficult to account to her even for my own reticence." + +Sir Timothy rose majestic from his chair. "You will say that _I_ +forbade you to make the communication," he said, with rather a +displeased air. + +"I beg your pardon," said Dr. Blundell, "but--" + +"I am not offended," interrupted Sir Timothy, mistaking remonstrance +for apology. He was quite honestly incapable of supposing that his +physician would presume to argue with him. + +"You do not, very naturally, understand Lady Mary's disposition as +well as I do," he said, almost graciously. "She has been sheltered +from anxiety, from trouble of every kind, since her childhood. To me, +more than a quarter of a century her senior, she seems, indeed, still +almost a child." + +Dr. Blundell coloured. "Yet she is the mother of a grown-up son," he +said. + +"Peter grown-up! Nonsense! A schoolboy." + +"Eighteen," said the doctor, shortly. "You don't wish him sent for?" + +"Most certainly not. The Christmas holidays are only just over. Rest +assured, Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, with grim emphasis, "that I +shall give Peter no excuse for leaving his work, if I can help it." + +There was a tap at the door. The squire lowered his voice and spoke +hurriedly. + +"If it is the canon, tell him, in confidence, what I have told you, +and say that I should wish him to be present to-morrow, in his +official capacity, in case of--" + +It was the canon, whose rosy good-humoured countenance appeared in the +doorway whilst Sir Timothy was yet speaking. + +"I hope I am not interrupting," he said, "but the ladies desired +me--that is, Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys desired me--to let you know +that tea was ready." + +The canon had an innocent surprised face like a baby; he was +constitutionally timid and amiable, and his dislike of argument, or of +a loud voice, almost amounted to fear. + +Sir Timothy mistook his nervousness for proper respect, and maintained +a distant but condescending graciousness towards him. + +"I hear you came back by the afternoon train, Sir Timothy. A London +outing is a rare thing for you. I hope you enjoyed yourself," said the +canon, with a meaningless laugh. + +"I transacted my business successfully, thank you," said Sir Timothy, +gravely. + +"Brought back any fresh news of the war?" + +"None at all." + +"I hear the call for more men has been responded to all over the +country. It's a fine thing, so many young fellows ready and willing to +lay down their lives for their country." + +"Very few young men, I believe," said Sir Timothy, frigidly, "can +resist any opportunity to be concerned in brawling and bloodshed, +especially when it is legalized under the name of war. My respect is +reserved for the steady workers at home." + +"And how much peace would the steady workers at home enjoy without the +brawlers abroad to defend them, I wonder!" cried the canon, flushing +all over his rosy face, and then suddenly faltering as he met the cold +surprise of the squire's grey eyes. + +"I have some letters to finish before post time," said Sir Timothy, +after an impressive short pause of displeasure. "I will join you +presently, Dr. Blundell, at the tea-table, if you will return to the +ladies with Canon Birch." + +Sir Timothy rang for lights, and his visitors closed the door of the +study behind them. Dr. Blundell's backward glance showed him the tall +and portly form silhouetted against the window; the last gleam of +daylight illuminating the iron-grey hair; the face turned towards +the hilltop, where the spires of the skeleton larches were sharply +outlined against a clear western sky. + +"What made you harp upon the war, man, knowing what his opinions +are?" the doctor asked vexedly, as he stumbled along the uneven stone +passage towards the hall. + +"I did not exactly intend to do so; but I declare, the moment I see +Sir Timothy, every subject I wish to avoid seems to fly to the tip +of my tongue," said the poor canon, apologetically; "though I had a +reason for alluding to the war to-night--a good reason, as I think you +will acknowledge presently. I want your advice, doctor." + +"Not for yourself, I hope," said the doctor, absently. + +"Come into the gun-room for one moment," said Birch. "It is very +important. Do you know I've a letter from Peter?" + +"From Peter! Why should _you_ have a letter from Peter?" said the +doctor, and his uninterested tone became alert. + +"I'm sure I don't know why not. I was always fond of Peter," said the +canon, humbly. "Will you cast your eye over it? You see, it's written +from Eton, and posted two days later in London." + +Dr. Blundell read the letter, which was written in a schoolboy hand, +and not guiltless of mistakes in spelling. + + +"_DEAR CANON BIRCH_, + +"_As my father wouldn't hear of my going out to South Africa, I've +taken the law into my own hands. I wrote to my mother's cousin, Lord +Ferries, to ask him to include me in his yeomanry corps. Of course +I let him suppose papa was willing and anxious, which perhaps was a +low-down game, but I remembered that all's fair in love and war; and +besides, I consider papa very nearly a pro-Boer. We've orders to sail +on Friday, which is sharp work; but I should be eternally disgraced +now if they stopped me. As my father never listens to reason, far less +to me, you had better explain to him that if he's any regard for the +honour of our name, he's no choice left. I expect my mother had better +not be told till I'm gone, or she will only fret over what can't be +helped. I'll write to her on board, once we're safely started. I know +you're all right about the war, so you can tell papa I was ashamed to +be playing football while fellows younger than me, and fellows who +can't shoot or ride as I can, are going off to South Africa every +day._ + +"_Yours affectionately_, + +"_PETER CREWYS_. + +"_P.S._--_Hope you won't mind this job. I did try to get papa's leave +fair and square first_." + +"I always said Peter was a fine fellow at bottom," said Canon Birch, +anxiously scanning the doctor's frowning face. + +"He's an infernal self-willed, obstinate, heartless young cub on top, +then," said Blundell. + +"He's a chip of the old block, no doubt," said the canon; "but +still"--his admiration of Peter's boldness was perceptible in his +voice--"he doesn't share his father's reprehensible opinions on the +subject of the war." + +"Sons generally begin life by differing from their fathers, and end by +imitating them," said Blundell, sharply. "Birch, we must stop him." + +"I don't see how," said the canon; and he indulged in a gentle +chuckle. "The young rascal has laid his plans too well. He sails +to-morrow. I telegraphed inquiries. Ferries' Horse are going by the +_Rosmore Castle_ to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock." + +Dr. Blundell made an involuntary movement, which the canon did not +perceive. + +"I don't relish the notion of breaking this news to Sir Timothy. But I +thought we could consult together, you and me, how to do it," said the +innocent gentleman. "There's no doubt, you know, that it must be done +at once, or he can't get to Southampton in time to see the boy off and +forgive him. I suppose even Sir Timothy will forgive him at such a +moment. God bless the lad!" + +Dr. Blundell uttered an exclamation that did not sound like a +blessing. + +"Look here, Birch," he said, "this is no time to mince matters. If +the boy can't be stopped--and under the circumstances he's got us on +toast--he can't cry off active service--_as_ the boy can't be stopped, +you must just keep this news to yourself." + +"But I must tell Sir Timothy!" + +"You must _not_ tell Sir Timothy." + +"Though all my sympathies are with the boy--for I'm a patriot first, +and a parson afterwards--God forgive me for saying so," said Birch, +in a trembling voice, "yet I can't take the responsibility of keeping +Peter's father in ignorance of his action. I see exactly what you +mean, of course. Sir Timothy will make unpleasantness, and very likely +telegraph to his commanding officer, and disgrace the poor boy before +his comrades; and shout at me, a thing I can't bear; and you kindly +think to spare me--and Peter. But I can't take the responsibility +of keeping it dark, for all that," said the canon, shaking his head +regretfully. + +"_I_ take the responsibility," said the doctor, shortly. "As Sir +Timothy's physician, I forbid you to tell him." + +"Is Sir Timothy ill?" The canon's light eyes grew rounder with alarm. + +"He is to undergo a dangerous operation to-morrow morning." + +"God bless my soul!" + +"He desires this evening--possibly his last on earth--to be a calm and +unclouded one," said the doctor. "Respect his wishes, Birch, as you +would respect the wishes of a dying man." + +"Do you mean he won't get over it?" said the canon, in a horrified +whisper. + +"You always want the _t's_ crossed and the _i's_ dotted," said +Blundell, impatiently. "Of course there is a chance--his only chance. +He's a d----d plucky old fellow. I never thought to like Sir Timothy +half so well as I do at this moment." + +"I hope I don't _dislike_ any man," faltered the canon. "But--" + +"Exactly," said the doctor, dryly. + +"But what shall I do with Peter's letter?" said the unhappy recipient. + +"Not one word to Sir Timothy. Agitation or distress of mind at such a +moment would be the worst thing in the world for him." + +"But I can't let Peter sail without a word to his people. And his +mother. Good God, Blundell! Is Lady Mary to lose husband and son in +one day?" + +"Lady Mary," said the doctor, bitterly, "is to be treated, as usual, +like a child, and told nothing of her husband's danger till it's over. +As for Peter--well, devoted mother as she is, she must be pretty well +accustomed by this time to the captious indifference of her spoilt +boy. She won't be surprised, though she may be hurt, that he should +coolly propose to set off without bidding her good-bye." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Peter?" said the canon, +struck with a brilliant idea. + +"Certainly not; she would fly to him at once, and leave Sir Timothy +alone in his extremity." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Sir Timothy?" + +"I have allowed Sir Timothy to understand that neither you nor I will +betray his secret." + +"I'm no hand at keeping a secret," said the canon, unhappily. + +"Nonsense, canon, nonsense," said Dr. Blundell, laying a friendly hand +on his shoulder. "No man in your profession, or in mine, ought to be +able to say that. Pull yourself together, hope for the best, and play +your part." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +John Crewys looked round the hall at Barracombe House with curious, +interested eyes. + +It was divided from the outer vestibule on the western side of the +building by a massive partition of dark oak, and it retained the solid +beams and panelled walls of Elizabethan days; but the oak had been +barbarously painted, grained and varnished. Only the staircase was so +heavily and richly carved, that it had defied the ingenuity of the +comb engraver. It occupied the further end of the hall, opposite +the entrance door, and was lighted dimly by a small heavily leaded, +stained-glass window. The floor was likewise black, polished with age +and the labour of generations. A deeply sunken nail-studded door led +into a low-ceiled library, containing a finely carved frieze and +cornice, and an oak mantelpiece, which John Crewys earnestly desired +to examine more closely; the shield-of-arms above it bore the figures +of 1603, but the hall itself was of an earlier date. + +Parallel to it was the suite of lofty, modern, green-shuttered +reception-rooms, which occupied the south front of the house, and +into which an opening had been cut through the massive wall next the +chimney. + +The character of the hall was, however, completely destroyed by the +decoration which had been bestowed upon it, and by the furniture and +pictures which filled it. + +John Crewys looked round with more indignation than admiration at the +home of his ancestors. + +In the great oriel window stood a round mahogany table, bearing a +bouquet of wax flowers under a glass shade. Cases of stuffed birds +ornamented every available recess; mahogany and horsehair chairs +were set stiffly round the walls at even distances. A heap of folded +moth-eaten rugs and wraps disfigured a side-table, and beneath it +stood a row of clogs and goloshes. + +Round the walls hung full-length portraits of an early Victorian date. +The artist had spent a couple of months at Barracombe fifty years +since, and had painted three generations of the Crewys family, who +were then gathered together beneath its hospitable roof. His diligence +had been more remarkable than his ability. At any other time John +Crewys would have laughed outright at this collection of works of art. + +But the air was charged with tragedy, and he could not laugh. His +seriousness commended him favourably, had he known it, to the two +old ladies, his cousins, Sir Timothy's half-sisters, who were seated +beside the great log fire, and who regarded him with approving eyes. +For their stranger cousin had that extreme gentleness and courtesy +of manner and regard, which sometimes accompanies unusual strength, +whether of character or of person. + +It was a pity, old Lady Belstone whispered to her spinster sister, +that John was not a Crewys, for he had a remarkably fine head, and had +he been but a little taller and slimmer, would have been a credit to +the family. + +Certainly John was not a Crewys. He possessed neither grey eyes, nor a +large nose, nor the height which should be attained by every man and +woman bearing that name, according to the family record. + +But though only of middle size, and rather square-shouldered, he was, +nevertheless, a distinguished-looking man, with a finely shaped head +and well-cut features. Clean shaven, as a great lawyer ought to be, +with a firm and rather satirical mouth, a broad brow, and bright +hazel eyes set well apart and twinkling with humour. No doubt John's +appearance had been a factor in his successful career. + +The sisters, themselves well advanced in the seventies, spoke of him +and thought of him as a young man; a boy who had succeeded in life in +spite of small means, and an extravagant mother, to whom he had +been obliged to sacrifice his patrimony. But though he carried his +forty-five years lightly, John Crewys had left his boyhood very far +behind him. His crisp dark hair was frosted on the temples; he stooped +a little after the fashion of the desk-worker; he wore pince-nez; his +manner, though alert, was composed and dignified. The restlessness, +the nervous energy of youth, had been replaced by the calm confidence +of middle age--of tested strength, of ripe experience. + +On his side, John Crewys felt very kindly towards the venerable +ladies, who represented to him all the womankind of his own race. + +Both sisters possessed the family characteristics which he lacked. +They were tall and surprisingly upright, considering the weight of +years which pressed upon their thin shoulders. They retained the +manners--almost the speech--of the eighteenth century, to which the +grandmother who was responsible for their upbringing had belonged; +and, with the exception of a very short experience of matrimony +in Lady Belstone's case, they had always resided exclusively at +Barracombe. + +Lady Belstone, besides her widowed dignity, had the advantage of +her sister in appearance, mainly because she permitted art, in some +degree, to repair the ravages of time. A stiff _toupet_ of white curls +crowned the withered brow, below a widow's cap; and, when she smiled, +which was not very often, a double row of pearls was not unpleasantly +displayed. Miss Crewys had never succumbed to the temptations of +worldly vanity. She scrupulously parted her scanty grey locks above +her polished forehead, and cared not how wide the parting grew. If +she wore a velvet bow upon her scalp, it was, as she truly said, for +decency, and not for ornament; and further, she allowed her wholesome, +ruddy cheeks to fall in, as her ever-lengthening teeth fell out. The +frequent explanations which ensued, regarding the seniority of the +widow, were a source of constant satisfaction to Miss Crewys, and +vexation to her sister. + +"You might be a hundred years old, Georgina," she would angrily +lament. + +"I very soon _shall_ be a hundred years old, Isabella, if I live as +long as my grandmother did," Miss Crewys would triumphantly reply. "It +is surprising to me that a woman who was never good-looking at the +best of times, should cling to her youth as you do." + +"It is more surprising to me that you should let yourself go to rack +and ruin, and never stretch out a hand to help yourself." + +"I am what God made me," said the pious Georgina, "whereas you do +everything but paint your face, Isabella; and I have little doubt but +what you will come to that by the time you are eighty." + +But though they disputed hotly on occasion the sisters generally +preserved a united front before the world, and only argued, since +argue they must, in the most polite and affectionate terms. + +The firelight shed its cheerful glow over the laden tea-table, and was +reflected in the silver urn, and the crimson and gold and blue of the +Crown Derby tea-set. But the old ladies, though casting longing eyes +in the direction of the teapot, religiously abstained from offering to +touch it. + +"No, John," said Miss Crewys, in a tone of exemplary patience; "I +have made it a rule never to take upon myself any of the duties of +hospitality in my dear brother's house, ever since he married,--odd +as it may seem, when we remember how he used once to sit at this very +table in his little bib and tucker, whilst Isabella poured out his +milk, and I cut his bread and butter." + +"We _both_ make the rule, John," said Lady Belstone, mournfully, "or, +of course, as the elder sister, _I_ should naturally pour out the tea +in our dear Lady Mary's absence." + +"Of course, of course," said John Crewys. + +"Forgive me, Isabella, but we have discussed this point before," said +Miss Crewys. "Though I cannot deny, our cousin being, as he is, a +lawyer, his opinion would carry weight. But I think he will agree with +_me_"--John smiled--"that when the elder daughter of a house marries, +she forfeits her rights of seniority in that house, and the next +sister succeeds to her place." + +"I should suppose that might be the case," John, bowing politely in +the direction of the widow. + +"I never disputed the fact, Georgina. It is, as our cousin says, +self-evident," said Lady Belstone, returning the bow. "But I have +always maintained, and always shall, that when the married sister +comes back widowed to the home of her fathers, the privileges of birth +are restored to her." + +Both sisters turned shrewd, expectant grey eyes upon their cousin. + +"It is--it is rather a nice point," said John Crewys, as gravely as he +could. + +He welcomed thankfully the timely interruption of an opening door and +the entrance of Canon Birch and the doctor. + +At the same moment, from the archway which supported the great oak +staircase, the butler entered, carrying lights. + +"Is her ladyship not yet returned from her walk, Ash?" asked Lady +Belstone, with affected surprise. + +"Her ladyship came in some time ago, my lady, and went to see Sir +Timothy. She left word she was gone upstairs to change her walking +things, and would be down directly." + +The sisters greeted the canon with effusion, and Dr. Blundell with +frigid civility. + +John Crewys shook hands with both gentlemen. + +"I am sorry I cannot offer you tea, Canon Birch, until my +sister-in-law comes down," said Miss Crewys. + +"Our dear Lady Mary is so very unpunctual," said Lady Belstone. + +"I dare say something has detained her," said the canon, +good-humouredly. + +"It often happens that my sister and myself are kept waiting a quarter +of an hour or more for our tea. We do not complain," said Lady +Belstone. + +John Crewys began to feel a little sorry for Lady Mary. + +As the sisters appeared inclined to devote themselves to their +clerical visitor rather exclusively, he drew near the recess to which +Dr. Blundell had retired, and joined him in the oriel window. + +"Have you never been here before?" asked the doctor, rather abruptly. + +"Never," said John Crewys, smiling. "I understand my cousins are not +much given to entertaining visitors. I have never, in fact, seen any +of them but once before. That was at Sir Timothy's wedding, twenty +years ago." + +"Barely nineteen," said the doctor. + +"I believe it was nineteen, since you remind me," said John, slightly +astonished. "I remember thinking Sir Timothy a lucky man." + +"I dare say _he_ looked much about the same as he does now," said the +doctor. + +"Well," John said, "perhaps a little slimmer, you know. Not much. An +iron-grey, middle-aged-looking man. No; he has changed very little." + +"He was born elderly, and he will die elderly," said the doctor, +shortly. "Neither the follies of youth nor the softening of age +will ever be known to Sir Timothy." He paused, noting the surprised +expression of John's face, and added apologetically, "I am a native of +these parts. I have known him all my life." + +"And I am--only a stranger," said John. He hesitated, and lowered his +voice. "You know why I came?" + +"Yes, I know. I am very glad you did come," said the doctor. His tone +changed. "Here is Lady Mary," he said. + +John Crewys was struck by the sudden illumination of Dr. Blundell's +plain, dark face. The deeply sunken eyes glowed, and the sadness and +weariness of their expression were dispelled. + +His eyes followed the direction of the doctor's gaze, and his own face +immediately reflected the doctor's interest. + +Lady Mary was coming down the wide staircase, in the light of a group +of wax candles held by a tall bronze angel. + +She was dressed with almost rigid simplicity, and her abundant +light-brown hair was plainly parted. She was pale and even +sad-looking, but beautiful still; with a delicate and regular profile, +soft blue eyes, and a sweet, rather tremulous mouth. + +John's heart seemed to contract within him, and then beat fast with a +sensation that was not entirely pity, because those eyes--the bluest, +he remembered, that he had ever seen--brought back to him, suddenly +and vividly, the memory of the exquisitely fresh and lovely girl who +had married her elderly guardian nineteen years since. + +He recollected that some members of the Crewys family had agreed that +Lady Mary Setoun had done well for herself, "a penniless lass wi' a +lang pedigree;" for Sir Timothy was rich. Others had laughed, and said +that Sir Timothy was determined that his heirs should be able to boast +some of the bluest blood in Scotland on their mother's side,--but that +he might have waited a little longer for his bride. + +She was so young, barely seventeen years old, and so very lovely, that +John Crewys had felt indignant with Sir Timothy, whose appearance and +manner did not attract him. He was reminded that the bride owed almost +everything she possessed in the world to her husband, but he was not +pacified. + +The glance of the gay blue eyes,--the laugh on the curved young +mouth,--the glint of gold on the sunny brown hair,--had played havoc +with John's honest heart. He had not a penny in the world at that +time, and could not have married her if he would; but from Lady Mary's +wedding he carried away in his breast an image--an ideal--which had +perhaps helped to keep him unwed during these later years of his +successful career. + +Why did she look so sad? + +John's kind heart had melted somewhat towards Sir Timothy, when the +poor gentleman had sought him in his chambers on the previous day, +and appealed to him for help in his extremity. He was sorry for his +cousin, in spite of the pompousness and arrogance with which Sir +Timothy unconsciously did his best to alienate even those whom he most +desired to attract. + +He had come to Devonshire, at great inconvenience to himself, in +response to that appeal; and in his hurry, and his sympathy for his +cousin's trouble, he had scarcely given a thought to the momentary +romance connected with his first and only meeting with Lady Mary. Yet +now, behold, after nineteen years, the look on her sweet face thrilled +his middle-aged bosom as it had thrilled his young manhood. John +smiled or thought he smiled, as he came forward to be presented once +more to Sir Timothy's wife; but he was, nevertheless, rather pleased +to find that he had not outgrown the power of being thus romantically +attracted. + +"I hope I'm not late," said the soft voice. "You see, no one expected +Sir Timothy to come home so soon, and I was out. Is that Cousin John? +We met once before, at my wedding. You have not changed a bit; I +remember you quite well," said Lady Mary. She came forward and held +out two welcoming hands to her visitor. + +John Crewys bowed over those little white hands, and became suddenly +conscious that his vague, romantic sentiment had given place to a very +real emotion--an almost passionate anxiety to shield one so fair and +gentle from the trouble which was threatening her, and of which, as he +knew, she was perfectly unconscious. + +The warmth of her impulsive welcome did not, of course, escape the +keen eyes of the sisters-in-law, which, in such matters as these, were +quite undimmed by age. + +"Why didn't somebody pour out tea?" said Lady Mary. + +"We know your rights, Mary," said Miss Crewys. "Never shall it be said +that dear Timothy's sisters ousted his wife from her proper place, +because she did not happen to be present to occupy it." + +"Besides," said Lady Belstone, "you have, no doubt, some excellent +reason, my love, for the delay." + +Lady Mary's blue eyes, glancing at John, said quite plainly and +beseechingly to his understanding, "They are old, and rather cranky, +but they don't mean to be unkind. Do forgive them;" and John smiled +reassuringly. + +"I'm afraid I haven't much excuse to offer," she said ingenuously. "I +was out late, and I tired myself; and then I heard Sir Timothy had +come back, so I went to see him. And then I made haste to change my +dress, and it took a long time--and that's all." + +The three gentlemen laughed forgivingly at this explanation, and the +two ladies exchanged shocked glances. + +"Our cousin John did his best to entertain us, and we him," said Lady +Belstone, stiffly. + +"His best--and how good that must be!" said Lady Mary, with pretty +spirit. "The great counsel whose eloquence is listened to with +breathless attention in crowded courts, and read at every +breakfast-table in England." + +"That is a very delightful picture of the life of a briefless +barrister," said John Crewys, smiling. + +"Mary," said Miss Crewys, in lowered tones of reproof, "I understood +that _divorce_ cases, unhappily, occupied the greater part of our +cousin John's attention." + +"We've heard of you, nevertheless--we've heard of you, Mr. Crewys," +said the canon, nervously interposing, "even in this out-of-the-way +corner of the west." + +"But there is one breakfast-table, at least, in England, where +divorce cases are _not_ perused, and that is my brother Timothy's +breakfast-table," said Lady Belstone, very distinctly. + +John hastened to fill up the awkward pause which ensued, by a +reference to the beauty of the hall. + +"I'm afraid we don't live up to our beautiful old house," said Lady +Mary, shaking her head. "There are some lovely things stored away +in the gallery upstairs, and some beautiful pictures hanging there, +including the Vandyck, you know, which Charles II. gave to old +Sir Peter, your cavalier ancestor. But the gallery is almost a +lumber-room, for the floor is too unsafe to walk upon. And down here, +as you see, we are terribly Philistine." + +"This hall was furnished by my grandmother for her son's marriage," +said Miss Crewys. + +"And she sent all your great-grandmother's treasures to the attics," +said Lady Mary, with rather a wilful intonation. "I always long to +bring them to light again, and to make this place livable; but my +husband does not like change." + +"Dear Timothy is faithful to the past," said Miss Crewys, +majestically. + +"I wish old Lady Crewys had been as faithful," said Lady Mary, +shrugging her shoulders. + +"Young people always like changes," said Lady Belstone, more +leniently. + +"Young people!" said Lady Mary, with a rather pathetic smile. +"John will think you are laughing at me. Am I to be young still at +five-and-thirty?" + +"To be sure," said John, "unless you are going to be so unkind as to +make a man only ten years your senior feel elderly." + +Miss Crewys interposed with a simple statement. "In my day, the age of +a lady was never referred to in polite conversation. Least of all by +herself. I never allude to mine." + +"You are unmarried, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, unexpectedly +turning upon her ally. "Unmarried ladies are always sensitive on the +subject of age. I am sure I do not care who knows that my poor admiral +was twenty years my senior. And _his_ age can be looked up in any book +of reference. It would have been useless to try and conceal it,--a man +so well known." + +"A woman is as old as she looks," said the canon, soothingly, for the +annoyance of Miss Crewys was visible. "I am bound to say that Miss +Crewys looks exactly the same as when I first knew her." + +"Of course, a spinster escapes the wear and tear of matrimony," said +Miss Crewys, glaring at her widowed relative. + +"H'm, h'm!" said Dr. Blundell. "By-the-by, have you inspected the old +picture gallery, Mr. Crewys?" + +"Not yet," said John. + +Lady Belstone shot a glance of speechless indignation at her sister. +Sympathy between them was immediately restored. Prompt action was +necessary on the part of the family, or this presumptuous physician +would be walking round the house to show John Crewys the portraits of +his own ancestors. + +"_I_ shall be delighted to show our cousin the pictures in the gallery +and in the dining-room," said Miss Crewys, "if my sister Isabella will +accompany me, and if Lady Mary has no objections." + +"You are very kind," said John. He rose and walked to a small rosewood +cabinet of curios. "I see there are some beautiful miniatures here." + +"Oh, those do not belong to the family." + +"They are Setoun things--some of the few that came to me," said Lady +Mary, rather timidly. "I am afraid they would not interest you." + +"Not interest me! But indeed I care only too much for such things," +said John. "Here is a Cosway, and, unless I very much mistake, a +Plimer,--and an Engleheart." + +Lady Mary unlocked the cabinet with pretty eagerness, and put a small +morocco case into his hands. + +"Then here is something you will like to see." + +For a moment John did not understand. He glanced quickly from the row +of tiny, pearl-framed, old-world portraits, of handsome nobles and +rose-tinted court dames, to the very indifferent modern miniature he +held. + +The portrait of a schoolboy,--an Eton boy with a long nose and small, +grey eyes, and an expression distinctly rather sulky and lowering than +open or pleasing. Not a stupid face, however, by any means. + +"It is my boy--Peter," said Lady Mary, softly. + +To her the face was something more than beautiful. She looked up at +John with a happy certainty of his interest in her son. + +"Here he is again, when he was younger. He was a pretty little fellow +then, as you see." + +"Very pretty. But not very like you," said John, scarcely knowing what +he said. + +He was strangely moved and touched by her evident confidence in +his sympathy, though his artistic tastes were outraged by the two +portraits she asked him to admire. He reflected that women were very +extraordinary creatures; ready to be pleased with anything Providence +might care to bestow upon them in the shape of a child, even +cross-looking boys with long noses and small eyes. The heir of +Barracombe resembled his aunts rather than his parents. + +"He is a thorough Crewys; not a bit like me. All the Setouns are fair, +I believe. Peter is very dark. He is such a big fellow now; taller +than I am. I sometimes wish," said Lady Mary, laying the miniature on +the table as though she could not bear to shut it away immediately, +"that one's children never grew up. They are such darlings when they +are little, and they are bound, of course, to disappoint one sometimes +as they grow older." + +John Crewys felt almost murderously inclined towards Peter. So the +young cub had presumed to disappoint his mother as he grew older! How +dared he? + +Poor Lady Mary was quite unconscious of the feelings with which he +gazed at the little case in his hand. + +"Not that my boy has ever _really_ disappointed me--yet," she said, +with her pretty apologetic laugh. "I only mean that, in the course of +human nature, it's bound to come, now and then." + +"No doubt," said John, gently. + +Then she allowed him to examine the rest of the cabinet, whilst she +talked on, always of Peter--his horsemanship and his shooting and his +prowess in every kind of sport and game. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Lady Belstone was holding a hurried consultation with her +sister. + +"How thoughtless you are, Georgina, asking our cousin into the +dining-room just when Ash must be laying the cloth for dinner. He will +be sadly put about." + +"Dear, dear, it quite slipped my memory, Isabella." + +"You have no head at all, Georgina." + +"Can I frame an excuse?" said Miss Crewys, piteously, "or will he +think it discourteous?" + +"Leave it to me, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, with the air of a +diplomat. "Mary, my love!" + +Lady Mary started. "Yes, Isabella." + +"Georgina has very properly recalled to me that candles and lamps make +a very poor light for viewing the family portraits. You know, my love, +the Vandyck is so very dark and black. She proposes, therefore, with +your permission, to act as our cousin's cicerone to-morrow morning, in +the daytime. Shall we say--at eleven o'clock, John?" + +Canon Birch started nervously, and the doctor frowned at him. + +"At eleven o'clock," said John, in steady tones; and, as he spoke, Sir +Timothy entered the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"Some tea, Timothy?" said Lady Mary. + +"If you please, my dear," said Sir Timothy, dropping his letters into +the box. + +"I am afraid the tea will be little better than poison, brother," said +Lady Belstone, in warning tones; "it has stood so long." + +"Perhaps dear Mary intends to order fresh tea, Isabella," said Miss +Crewys. + +"It hasn't stood so _very_ long," said Lady Mary, looking appealingly +at Sir Timothy; "and you know Ash is always cross if we order fresh +tea." + +"Excuse me, my love," said Miss Crewys. "I am the last to wish to +trouble poor Ash unnecessarily, but the tea waited for ten minutes +before you came down." + +"My dear Mary," said Sir Timothy, "will you never learn to be +punctual? No; I will take it as it is. Poor Ash has enough to do, as +Georgina truly says." + +Lady Mary sighed rather impatiently, and it occurred to John Crewys +that Sir Timothy spoke to his wife exactly as he might have addressed +a troublesome child. His tone was gentler than usual, but this John +did not know. + +"I should have liked to take a turn about the grounds with you," said +Sir Timothy to his cousin, "if it had been possible; but I am afraid +it is getting too dark now." + +"Surely there will be time enough to-morrow morning for that, +brother," said Lady Belstone. + +Sir Timothy had walked to the oriel window, but he turned away as he +answered her. + +"I may be otherwise occupied to-morrow." + +"But I hope the opportunity may arise before very long," said John, +cheerfully. "I should like to explore these woods." + +"You will have to come with _me_, then," said Lady Mary, smiling. +"Timothy hates walking uphill, and I should love to show our beautiful +views to a stranger." + +"I do not like you to tire yourself, my dear," said Sir Timothy. + +"A walk through Barracombe woods means simply a climb, Mary," said +Lady Belstone; "and you are not strong." + +"I am perfectly robust, Isabella. Do allow me at least the use of my +limbs," said Lady Mary, impatiently. + +"No woman, certainly no _lady_, can be called _robust_," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +The sudden clanging of a bell changed the conversation. + +"Visitors. How tiresome!" said Lady Mary. + +"My dear Mary!" said Sir Timothy. + +"But I know it can't be anybody pleasant, Timothy," said his wife, +with rather a mischievous twinkle, "for I owe calls to all the nice +people, and it's only the dull ones who come over and over again." + +"You _owe_ calls, Mary!" said Lady Belstone, in horrified tones. + +"I am afraid," said Miss Crewys, considerately lowering her voice as +the butler and footman crossed the hall to the outer vestibule, "that +dear Mary is more than a little remiss in civility to her neighbours." + +"My dear admiral never permitted me to postpone returning a call for +more than a week. Royalty, he always said, the same day; ordinary +people within a week," said Lady Belstone. + +"When royalty calls I certainly will return the visit the same day," +said Lady Mary, petulantly. "But I cannot spend my whole life driving +along the high-roads from one house to another. I hate driving, as you +know, Isabella." + +"What did Providence create carriages for but to be driven in?" said +Lady Belstone. + +"You will give John a wrong impression of our worthy neighbours, +Mary," said Sir Timothy, pompously. "Personally, I am always glad to +see them." + +"But you don't have to return their calls, Timothy," said Lady Mary. + +The canon inadvertently laughed. Sir Timothy looked annoyed. Miss +Crewys whispered to Lady Belstone, unheard save by the doctor-- + +"How very odd and flippant poor Mary is to-night--worse than usual! +What can it be?" + +"It is just the presence of a strange gentleman that is upsetting her, +poor thing," said her sister, in the same whisper. "Her head is easily +turned. We had better take no notice." + +The doctor muttered something emphatic beneath his breath. + +"Mrs. and Miss Hewel," said Ash, advancing into the hall. + +"Is it only you and Sarah, after all? What a relief! I thought it was +visitors," cried Lady Mary, coming forward to greet them very kindly +and warmly. "Did you come across in the ferry?" + +"No, indeed. You know how I dislike the ferry. I have the long drive +home still before me. But we were so close to Barracombe, at the +Gilberts' tea-party. I thought we should be certain to meet you +there," said Mrs. Hewel, in rather reproachful tones. "Sarah, of +course, wanted to go back in the ferry, but I am always doubly +frightened at night--and in one's best clothes. It was quite a large +party." + +"I'm afraid I forgot all about it," said Lady Mary, with a +conscience-stricken glance at her husband. + +"I hope you sent the carriage round to the stables?" said Sir Timothy. + +"No, no; we mustn't stop a minute. But I couldn't help just popping +in--so very long since I've seen you--and all this happening at once," +said Mrs. Hewel. She was a large, stout woman, with breathless manner +and plaintive voice. "And I wanted to show you Sarah in her first +grown-up clothes, and tell you about _her_ too," she added. + +"Bless me!" said Sir Timothy. "You don't mean to say little Sarah is +grown up." + +"Oh yes, dear Sir Timothy; she grew up the day before yesterday," said +Mrs. Hewel. + +"Sharp work," said the doctor, grimly. + +"I mean, of course, she turned up her hair, and let her dresses down. +It's full early, I know, but it's such a chance for Sarah--that's +partly what I came about. After the trouble she's been all her life to +me, and all--just going to that excellent school in Germany--here's my +aunt wanting to adopt her, or as good as adopt her--Lady Tintern, you +know." + +Everybody who knew Mrs. Hewel knew also that Lady Tintern was her +aunt; and Lady Tintern was a very great lady indeed. + +"She is to come out this very season; that is why I took her to the +Gilberts', to prepare her for the great plunge," said Mrs. Hewel, not +intending to be funny. "It will be a change for Sarah, such a hoyden +as she has always been. But my aunt won't wait once she has got a +fancy into her head; though the child is only seventeen." + +"At seventeen _I_ was still in the nursery, playing with my dolls," +said Lady Belstone. + +"Oh, Lady Belstone!" said an odd, deep, protesting voice. + +John looked with amused interest at the speaker. The unlucky Sarah had +taken a low chair beside her hostess, and was holding one of the soft +white hands in her plump gloved fingers. + +Sarah Hewel's adoration for Lady Mary dated from the days when she had +been ferried over the Youle with her nurse, to play with Peter, in his +chubby childhood. Peter had often been cross and always tyrannical, +but it was so wonderful to find a playmate who was naughtier than +herself, that Sarah had secretly admired Peter. She was the black +sheep of her own family, and in continual disgrace for lesser crimes +than he daily committed with impunity. But her admiration of Peter was +tame and pale beside her admiration of Lady Mary. A mother who never +scolded, who told no tales, who petted black sheep when they were +bruised and torn or stained entirely through their own wickedness, who +could always be depended on for kisses and bonbons and fairy-tales, +seemed more angelic than human to poor little Sarah; whose own mother +was wrapt up in her two irreproachable sons, and had small affection +to spare for an ugly, tiresome little girl. + +Sarah, however, had slowly but surely struggled out of the ugliness +of her childhood; and John Crewys, regarding her critically in the +lamplight, decided she would develop, one of these days, into a very +handsome young woman; in spite of an ungainly stoop, a wide mouth that +pouted rather too much, and a nose that inclined saucily upwards. + +Her colouring was fresh, even brilliant--the bright rose, and creamy +tint that sometimes accompanies vivid red hair--and of a vivid, +uncompromising red were the locks that crowned Miss Sarah's little +head, and shaded her blue-veined temples. + +Miss Crewys had, in consequence, long ago pronounced her to be a +positive fright; and Lady Belstone had declared that such hair would +prove an insuperable obstacle to her chances of getting a husband. + +"I know she's very young," said Mrs. Hewel, glancing apologetically +at her offspring. "But what can I do? There's no going against Lady +Tintern; and at seventeen she ought to be something more than a +tomboy, after all." + +"_You_ were married at seventeen, weren't you?" said Sarah to Lady +Mary, in her deep, almost tragic voice--a voice that commanded +attention, though it came oddly from her girlish chest. + +"Sarah!" said Mrs. Hewel. + +Lady Mary started and smiled. "Me? Yes, Sarah; I was married at +seventeen." + +"Mamma says nobody can be married properly--before they're one and +twenty. I _knew_ it was rot," said Sarah, triumphantly. + +"Miss Sarah retains the outspokenness of her recently discarded +childhood, I perceive," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. + +"Sarah!" said her mother, indignantly, "I said not unless they had +their parents' consent. I was not thinking of Lady Mary, as you know +very well." + +"_Your_ people didn't say you were too young to marry at seventeen, +did they?" said Sarah, caressing Lady Mary's hand. + +Lady Mary smiled at her, but shook her head. "You want to know too +much, Sarah." + +"Oh, I forgot," said Sarah the artless. "Sir Timothy was your +guardian, so, of course, there was nobody to stop his marrying you if +he liked. I suppose you _had_ to do what he told you." + +"Oh, Sarah, will you cease chattering?" cried her mother. + +"I hope you have good news of your sons in South Africa, Mrs. Hewel," +said the canon, briskly advancing to the rescue. + +Mrs. Hewel's voice changed. "Thank you, canon; they were all right +when we heard last. Tom is in Natal, so I feel happier about him; +but Willie, of course, is in the thick of it all--and the news +to-day--isn't reassuring." + +"But you are proud of them both," said Lady Mary, softly. "Every +mother must be proud to have sons able and willing to fight for their +country." + +"We may feel differently concerning the justice of this war," said Sir +Timothy, clearing his throat; and Lady Mary shrugged her shoulders, +whilst the canon jumped from his chair, and sat meekly down again on +catching the doctor's eye. + +"But in our sympathy with our brave soldiers we are all one, Mrs. +Hewel." + +Sarah sprang forward. "You don't mean to say you're _still_ a +pro-Boer, Sir Timothy?" she exclaimed. "Well, mamma--talking of the +justice of the war--when Tom and Willie are risking their lives"--she +broke into a sudden sob--"and now _Peter_--" + +"Peter!" said Lady Mary. + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sarah, running to her friend. "I didn't mean to +hurt _you_--talking of the war--and--and the boys--when you must be +thinking only of Peter." She wrung her hands together piteously. + +"Of Peter!" Lady Mary repeated. + +"We only heard to-day," said Mrs. Hewel, "and came in hoping for more +details. My cousin George, who is also going out with Lord Ferries, +happened to mention in his letter that Peter had joined the corps." + +"I think I can explain how the mistake arose," said Sir Timothy, +stiffly. "Peter wrote for permission to join, and I refused. My son +is fortunately too young to be of any use in a contest I regard with +horror." + +"But Cousin George was helping Peter to get his kit, because they were +to sail at such short notice," cried Sarah. + +"Sarah," said her mother, in breathless indignation, "_will_ you be +silent?" + +"What does this mean, Timothy?" said Lady Mary, trembling. + +She stood by the centre table; and the hanging lamp above shed its +light on her brown hair, and flashed in her blue eyes, and from the +diamond ring she wore. + +The doctor rose from his chair. + +"I am at a loss to understand," said Sir Timothy. + +"It means," said Sarah, half-hysterically,--"oh, can't you see what it +means? It just means that Peter is going to South Africa, whether you +like it or not." + +"There must be some mistake, of course," said Mrs. Hewel, in +distressed tones. "And yet--George's letter was so very clear." + +Dr. Blundell touched the canon's arm. + +"Shall I--must I--" whispered the canon, nervously. + +"There is no help for it," said the doctor. He was looking at Lady +Mary as he spoke. Her face was deathly; her little frail hand grasped +the table. + +"Sir Timothy," said the canon, "I--I have a communication to make to +you." + +"On this subject?" said Sir Timothy. + +"A letter from Peter." + +"Why did you not say so earlier?" said Sir Timothy, harshly. + +"I will explain, if you will kindly give me five minutes in the +study." + +"A letter from Peter," said Lady Mary, "and not--to me." + +She looked round at them all with a little vacant smile. + +John Crewys, who knew nothing of Peter's letter, had already grasped +the situation. He divined also that Lady Mary was fighting piteously +against the conviction that Sarah's news was true. + +"How could we guess you did not know?" said Mrs. Hewel, almost +weeping. + +"I am still in the dark," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +"Birch will explain at once," said the doctor, impatiently. + +"Peter writes--asking me,--I am sure I don't know why he pitched upon +me,--to--break the news to you, that he has joined Lord Ferries' +Horse; feeling it his--his duty to his country to do so," said the +unhappy canon, folding and unfolding the letter he held, with agitated +fingers. + +"I knew there would be a satisfactory explanation," said Mrs. Hewel, +tearfully. "Dear Lady Mary, having so inadvertently anticipated +Peter's letter, there is only one thing left for me to do. I must at +least leave you and Sir Timothy in peace to read it. Come, Sarah." + +"Allow me to put you into your carriage," said Sir Timothy, in a voice +of iron. + +Sarah followed them to the door, paused irresolutely, and stole back +to Lady Mary's side. + +"Say you're not angry with me, dear, beautiful Lady Mary," she +whispered passionately. "Do say you're not angry. I didn't know it +would make you so unhappy. It was partly my fault for telling Peter +in the holidays that only old men, invalids, and--and cowards--were +shirking South Africa. I thought you'd be glad, like me, that Peter +should go and fight like all the other boys." + +"Sarah," said Dr. Blundell, gently, "don't you see that Lady Mary +can't attend to you now? Come away, like a good girl." + +He took her arm, and led her out of the hall; and Sarah forgot she had +grown up the day before yesterday, and sobbed loudly as she went away. + +Lady Mary lifted the miniature from the table, and looked at it +without a word; but from the sofa, the two old sisters babbled audibly +to each other. + +"I always said, Isabella, that if poor Mary spoilt Peter so terribly, +_something_ would happen to him." + +"What sad nonsense you talk, Georgina. Nothing has happened to +him--_yet_." + +"He has defied his father, Isabella." + +"He has obeyed his country's call, Georgina. Had the admiral been +alive, he would certainly have volunteered." + +John Crewys made an involuntary step forward and placed himself +between the sofa and the table, as though to shield Lady Mary from +their observation, but he could not prevent their words from reaching +her ears. + +She whispered to him very softly. "Will you get the letter for me? I +want to see--for myself--what--what Peter says." + +"Go quietly into the library," said John, bending over her for a +moment. "I will bring it you there immediately." + +She obeyed him without a word. + +John turned to the sofa. "I beg your pardon, canon," he said +courteously, "but Lady Mary cannot bear this suspense. Allow me to +take her son's letter to her at once." + +"I--I am only waiting for Sir Timothy. It is to him I have to break +the news; though, of course, there is nothing that Lady Mary may not +know," said the canon, in a polite but flurried tone. "I really should +not like--" + +"My brother must see it first," said Miss Crewys, decidedly. + +"Exactly. I am sure Sir Timothy would not be pleased if--Bless my +soul!" + +For John, with a slight bow of apology, and his grave air of +authority, had quietly taken the letter from the canon's undecided +fingers, and walked away with it into the library. + +"How very oddly our cousin John behaves!" said Lady Belstone, +indignantly. "Almost snatching the letter from your hand." + +"Depend upon it, Mary inspired his action," said Miss Crewys, angrily. +"I saw her whispering away to him. A man she never set eyes on +before." + +"Pray are _we_ not to hear the contents?" said Lady Belstone, +quivering with indignation. + +"I suppose he thinks Lady Mary should make the communication herself +to Sir Timothy," gasped the canon. "I am sure I have no desire to +fulfil so unpleasing a task. Still, the matter _was_ entrusted to me. +However, the main substance has been told; there can be no further +secret about it. My only care was that Sir Timothy should not be +unduly agitated." + +"It is a comfort to find that _some one_ can consider the feelings of +our poor brother," said Miss Crewys. + +"Do give me your arm to the drawing-room, canon," said Lady Belstone, +rightly judging that the canon would reveal the whole contents of +Peter's letter to her more easily in private. "The shock has made me +feel quite faint. You, too, Georgina, are looking pale." + +"It is not the shock, but the draught, which is affecting me, +Isabella,--Sir Timothy thoughtlessly keeping the door open so long. I +will accompany you to the drawing-room." + +"But Sir Timothy may want me," said the canon, uneasily. + +"Bless the man! they've got the letter itself, what can they want with +_you?_" said her ladyship, vigorously propelling her supporter out of +reach of possible interruption. "Close the door behind us, Georgina, I +beg, or that odious doctor will be racing after us." + +"He takes far too much upon himself. I have no idea of permitting +country apothecaries to be so familiar," said Miss Crewys. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Lady Mary, coming from the library with the letter in her hand, met +her husband in the hall. + +"Timothy!" + +She looked at him wistfully. Her face was very pale as she gave him +the letter. Sir Timothy took out his glasses, wiped them deliberately, +and put them on. + +"Never mind reading it. I can tell you in one word," she said, +trembling with impatience. "My boy is sailing for South Africa +to-morrow morning." + +"I prefer," said Sir Timothy, "to read the letter for myself." + +"Oh, do be quick!" she said, half under her breath. + +But he read it slowly twice, and folded it. He was really +thunderstruck. Peter was accustomed to write polite platitudes to his +parent, and had presumably not intended that his letter to the canon +should be actually read by Sir Timothy, when he had asked that the +contents of it should be broken to him. + +"Selfish, disobedient, headstrong, deceitful boy!" said Sir Timothy. + +Lady Mary started. "How can you talk so!" Her gentle voice sounded +almost fierce. "At least he has proved himself a man.' And he is +right. It was a shame and a disgrace for him to stay at home, whilst +his comrades did their duty. I say it a thousand times, though I am +his mother." + +Then she broke down. "Oh, Peter, my boy, my boy, how could you leave +me without a word!" + +"Perhaps this step was taken with your connivance after all?" said Sir +Timothy, suspiciously. He could not follow her rapid changes of mood, +and had listened resentfully to her defence of her son. + +"Timothy!" said Lady Mary, trembling, "when have I ever been disloyal +to you in word or deed?" + +"Never, I hope," said Sir Timothy. His voice shook a little. "I do +not doubt you for a moment, Mary. But you spoke with such strange +vehemence, so unlike your usual propriety of manner." + +She broke into a wild laugh which pained and astonished him. + +"Did I? I must have forgotten myself for a moment." + +"You must, indeed. Pray be calm. I understand that this must be a +terrible shock to you." + +"It is not a shock," said Lady Mary, defiantly. "I glory in it. I--I +_wish_ him to go. Oh, Peter, my darling!" + +She hid her face in her hands. + +"It would be more to the purpose," said Sir Timothy, "to consider what +is to be done." + +"Could we stop him?" she cried eagerly, and then changed once more. +"No, no; I wouldn't if I could. He would never forgive me." + +"Of course, we cannot stop him," said Sir Timothy. He raised his voice +as he was wont when he was angry. Canon Birch, in the drawing-room, +heard the loud threatening tones, and was thankful for the door which +shut him from Sir Timothy's presence. "He has laid his plans for +thwarting my known wishes too well. I do not know what might be said +if we stopped him. I--I won't have my name made a laughing-stock. I am +a Crewys, and the honour of the family lies in my hands. I can't give +the world a right to suspect a Crewys of cowardice, by preventing +his departure on active service. We have fought before--in a better +cause." + +"We won't discuss the cause," said Lady Mary, gently. When Sir Timothy +began to shout, she always grew calm. "Then you will not telegraph to +my cousin Ferries?" + +"Ferries ought to have written to _me_, and not taken the word of a +mere boy, like Peter," stormed Sir Timothy. "But the fact is, I never +flattered Ferries as he expected; it is not my way to natter any one; +and consequently he took a dislike to me. He must have known what my +views are. I am sure he did it on purpose." + +"It was natural he should believe Peter, and I don't think he knows +you well enough to dislike you," said Lady Mary, simply. "He has only +seen you twice, Timothy." + +"That was evidently sufficient," said Sir Timothy, meaning to be +ironical, and unaware that he was stating a plain fact. "I shall +certainly not telegraph to tell him that my son has lied to him, well +as Peter deserves that I should do so." + +"Oh, don't, don't; you are so hard!" she said piteously. "If you'd +only listened to him when he implored you to let him go, we could have +made his last days at home all they should be. He's been hiding in +London, poor Peter; getting his outfit by stealth, ashamed, whilst +other boys are being _fêted_ and praised by their people, proud of +earning so early their right to be considered men. And--and he's +only a boy. And he said himself, all's fair in love and war. Indeed, +Timothy, it is an exceptional case." + +"Mary, your weakness is painful, and your idolatry of Peter will bring +its own punishment. The part of his deception that should pain you +most is the want of heart he has displayed," said Sir Timothy, +bitterly. + +"And doesn't it?" she said, with a pathetic smile. "But one oughtn't +to expect too much heart from a boy, ought one? It's--it's not a +healthy sign. You said once you were glad he wasn't sentimental, like +me." + +"I should have wished him to exhibit proper feeling on proper +occasions. His present triumph over my authority involves his +departure to certain danger and possible death, without even affording +us the opportunity of bidding him farewell. He is ready and willing to +leave us thus." + +Lady Mary uttered a stifled scream. "But I won't let him. How can you +think his mother will let him go like that?" + +"How can you help it?" + +She pressed her trembling hands to her forehead. "I will think. There +is a way. There are plenty of ways. I can drive to the junction--it's +not much further than Brawnton--and catch the midnight express, and +get to Southampton by daybreak. I know it can be done. Ash will look +out the trains. Why do you look at me like that? You're not going to +stop my going, are you? You're not going to _try_ and stop me, are +you? For you won't succeed. Oh yes, I know I've been an obedient wife, +Timothy. But I--I defied you once before for Peter's sake; when he was +such a little boy, and you wanted to punish him--don't you remember?" + +"Don't talk so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, almost soothingly. Her +vehemence really alarmed and distressed him. "It is not like you to +talk like this. You will be sorry--afterwards," he said; and his voice +softened. + +She responded instantly. She came closer to him, and took his big +shaking hand into her gentle clasp. + +"I should be sorry afterwards," she said, "and so would you. Even +_you_ would be sorry, Timothy, if anything happened to Peter. I'll try +and not make any more excuses for him, if you like. I know he's not +a child now. He's almost a man; and men seem to me to grow harsh and +unloving as they grow older. I try, now and then, to shut my eyes and +see him as he once was; but all the time I know that the little boy +who used to be Peter has gone away for ever and ever and ever. If he +had died when he was little he would always have been my little boy, +wouldn't he? But, thank God, he didn't die. He's going to be a great +strong man, and a brave soldier, and--and all I've ever wanted him to +be--when he's got over these wilful days of boyhood. But he mustn't go +without his father's blessing and his mother's kiss." + +"He has chosen to do so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +She clung to him caressingly. "But you're going to forgive him before +he goes, Timothy. There's no time to be angry before he goes. It may +be too late to-morrow." + +"It may be too late to-morrow," repeated Sir Timothy, heavily. + +He resented, in a dull, self-pitying fashion, the fact that his wife's +thoughts were so exclusively fixed on Peter, in her ignorance of his +own more immediate danger. + +"Don't think I'm blind to his faults," urged Lady Mary, "only I can +laugh at them better than you can, because I _know_ all the while that +at the very bottom of his heart he's only my baby Peter after all. +He's not--God bless him--he's _not_ the dreary, cold-blooded, priggish +boy he sometimes pretends to be. Don't remember him like that now, +Timothy. Think of that morning in June--that glorious, sunny morning +in June, when you knelt by the open window in my room and thanked God +because you had a son. Think of that other summer day when we couldn't +bear even to look at the roses because little Peter was so ill, and we +were afraid he was going back to heaven." + +Her soft, rapid words touched Sir Timothy to a vague feeling of pity +for her, and for Peter, and for himself. But the voice of the charmer, +charm she never so wisely, had no power, after all, to dispel the dark +cloud that was hanging over him. + +The sorrow gave way to a keener anxiety. The calmness of mind which +the great surgeon had prescribed--the placid courage, largely aided by +dulness of imagination, which had enabled poor Sir Timothy to keep +in the very background of his thoughts all apprehensions for the +morrow--where were they? + +He repressed with an effort the emotion which threatened to master +him, and forced himself to be calm. When he spoke again his voice +sounded not much less measured and pompous than usual. + +"My dear, you are agitating yourself and me. Let us confine ourselves +to the subject in hand." + +Lady Mary dropped the unresponsive hand she held so warmly pressed +between her own, and stepped back. + +"Ah, forgive me!" she said in clear tones. "It's so difficult to--" + +"To--?" + +"To be exactly what you wish. To be always on guard. My feelings broke +bounds for once." + +"Calm yourself," said Sir Timothy. "And besides, so far as I am +concerned, your pleading for Peter is unnecessary." + +"You have forgiven him?" she cried joyfully, yet almost incredulously. + +He paused, and then said with solemnity: "I have forgiven him, Mary. +It is not the moment for me to cherish resentment, least of all +against my only son." + +"Ah, thank God! Then you will come to Southampton?" + +"That is impossible. But I will telegraph my forgiveness and the +blessing which he has not sought that he may receive it before the +ship sails." + +"I am grateful to you for doing even so much as that, Timothy, and for +not being angry. Then I must go alone?" + +"No, no." + +"Understand me," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "for I am in earnest. +I have never deceived you. I will not defy you in secret, like Peter; +but I _will_ go and bid my only son God-speed, though the whole world +conspired to prevent me. _I will go!_" + +There was a pause. + +"You speak," said Sir Timothy, resentfully, "as though I had +habitually thwarted your wishes." + +"Oh, no," said his wife, softly, "you never even found out what they +were." + +He did not notice the words; it is doubtful whether he heard them. + +"It has been my best endeavour to promote your happiness throughout +our married life, Mary, so far as I considered it compatible with your +highest welfare. I do not pretend I can enter into the high-flown +and romantic feelings engendered by your reprehensible habit of +novel-reading." + +"You've scolded me so often for that," said Lady Mary, half mockingly, +half sadly. "Can't we--keep to the subject in hand, as you said just +now?" + +"I have a reason, a strong reason," said Sir Timothy, "for wishing you +to remain at home to-morrow. I had hoped, by concealing it from you, +to spare you some of the painful suspense and anxiety which I am +myself experiencing." + +Lady Mary laughed. + +"How like a man to suppose a woman is spared anything by being kept in +the dark! I knew something was wrong. Dr. Blundell and Canon Birch are +in your confidence, I presume? They kept exchanging glances like two +mysterious owls. Your sisters are not, or they would be sighing and +shaking their heads. And John--John Crewys? Oh, he is a lawyer. When +does a visitor ever come here except on business? He has something to +do with it. Ah, to advise you for nothing over your purchase of the +Crown lands! You have got into some difficulty over that, or something +of the kind? You brought him down here for some special purpose, I am +sure; but I did not know him well enough, and I knew you too well, to +ask why." + +"Mary, what has come to you? I never knew you quite like this before. +I dislike this extraordinary flippancy of tone very much." + +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Mary; make allowance for me this once. +I learnt ten minutes ago that my boy was going to the war. I must +either laugh or--or cry, and you wouldn't like me to do that; but it's +a way women have when their hearts are half broken." + +"I don't understand you," he said helplessly. + +Lady Mary looked at him as though she had awakened, frightened, to the +consciousness of her own temerity. + +"I don't quite understand myself, I think," she said, in a subdued +voice. "I won't torment you any more, Timothy; I will be as calm and +collected--as you wish. Only let me go." + +"Will you not listen to my reason for wishing you to remain at home?" +he said sternly. "It is an important one." + +"I had forgotten," she said indifferently. "How can there be any +business in the world half so important to _me_ as seeing my boy once +more before he sails?" + +The colour of Sir Timothy's ruddy face deepened almost to purple, his +grey eyes glowered sullen resentment at his wife. + +"Since you desire to have your way in opposition to my wishes, _go!_" +he thundered. "I will not hinder you further." + +But his sonorous wrath was too familiar to be impressive. + +Lady Mary's expression scarcely changed when Sir Timothy raised his +voice. She turned, however, at the foot of the staircase, and spoke to +him again. + +"Let me just go and give the order for my things to be packed, +Timothy, and tell Ash to go and find out about the trains, and I will +return and listen to whatever you wish--I will, indeed. I could not +pay proper attention to anything until I knew that was being done." + +Sir Timothy did not trust himself to speak. He bowed his head, and the +slender figure passed swiftly up the stairs. + +Sir Timothy walked twice deliberately up and down the empty hall, and +felt his pulse. The slow, steady throb reassured him. He opened the +door of the study. + +"John," said Sir Timothy, "would you kindly come out here and speak to +me for a moment? Dr. Blundell, would you have the goodness to await me +a little longer? You will find the London papers there." + +"I have them," said Dr. Blundell, from the armchair by the study fire. + +John Crewys closed the door behind him, and looked rather anxiously at +his cousin. It struck him that Sir Timothy had lost some of his ruddy +colour, and that his face looked drawn and old. + +But the squire placed himself with his back to the log fire, and made +an effort to speak in his voice of everyday. His slightly pompous, +patronizing manner returned upon him. + +"You are doubtless accustomed, John, in the course of your +professional work," he said, "to advise in difficult matters. You +come among us a stranger--and unprejudiced. Will you--er--give me the +benefit of your opinion?" + +"To the best of my ability," said John. He paused, and added gently, +"I am sorry for this fresh trouble that has come upon you." + +"That is the subject on which I mean to consult you. Do you consider +that--that her husband or her child should stand first in a woman's +eyes?" + +"Her husband, undoubtedly," said John, readily, "but--" + +"But what?" said Sir Timothy, impatiently. A gleam of satisfaction had +broken over his heavy face at his cousin's reply. + +"I speak from a man's point of view," said John. "Woman--and possibly +Nature--may speak differently." + +"Your judgment, however, coincides with mine, which is all that +matters," said Sir Timothy. He did not perceive the twinkle in John's +eyes at this reply. "In my opinion there are only two ways of looking +at every question--the right way and the wrong way." + +"My profession teaches me," said John, "that there are as many +different points of view as there are parties to a case." + +"Then--from _my_ point of view," said Sir Timothy, with an air of +waving all other points of view away as irrelevant, "since my wife, +very naturally, desires to see her son again before he sails, am I +justified in allowing her to set off in ignorance of the ordeal that +awaits me?" + +"Good heavens, no!" cried John. "Should the operation prove +unsuccessful, you would be entailing upon her a lifelong remorse." + +"I did not look upon it in that light," said Sir Timothy, rather +stiffly. "The propriety or the impropriety of her going remains in +any, case the same, whether the operation succeeds or fails. I feared +that it would be the wrong thing to allow her to go at all; that it +might cause comment were she absent from my side at such a critical +juncture." + +"I see," said John. His mobile, expressive face and bright hazel eyes +seemed to light up for one instant with scorn and wonder; then he +recollected himself. "It is natural you should wish for her sustaining +presence, no doubt," he said. + +"I trust you do not suppose that I should be selfishly considering my +own personal feelings at such a time," said Sir Timothy, in a lofty +tone of reproof. "I am only desirous of doing what is right in the +matter. I am asking your advice because I feel that my self-command +has been shaken considerably by this unexpected blow. I am less sure +of my judgment than usual in consequence. However, if you think my +wife ought to be told"--John nodded very decidedly--"let her be told. +I am bound to say Dr. Blundell thought so too, though his opinion is +neither here nor there in such a matter, but so long as you understand +that my only desire is that both she and I should do what is most +correct and proper." He came closer to John. "It is of vital +importance for me to preserve my composure," said Sir Timothy. "I am +not fitted for--for any kind of scene just now. Will you undertake for +me the task of explaining to--to my dear wife the situation in which I +am placed?" + +"I will do my best," said John. He was touched by the note of piteous +anxiety which had crept into the squire's harsh voice. + +"Thank you," said Sir Timothy. "Will you await her here? She is +returning immediately. Break it to her as gently as you can. I shall +rest and compose myself by a talk with Dr. Blundell." + +He went slowly to the study, leaving John Crewys alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Is that you, Cousin John?" said Lady Mary. "Is Sir Timothy gone? I +have not been away more than a few minutes, have I?" + +She spoke quite brightly. Her cheeks were flushed, and her blue eyes +were sparkling with excitement. + +John looked at her, and found himself wishing that her soft, brown +hair were not strained so tightly from her forehead, nor brushed so +closely to her head; the fashion would have been trying to a younger +face, and fatal to features less regularly delicate and correct. He +also wished she were not dressed like a Quaker's wife. The stiff, grey +poplin fitted like a glove the pretty curves of Lady Mary's slender +figure, but it lacked distinction, and appropriateness, to John's +fastidious eye. Then he reproached himself vehemently for allowing his +thoughts to dwell on such trifles at such a moment. + +"Will you forgive me for going away the very day you come?" said Lady +Mary. + +How quickly, how surprisingly, she recovered her spirits! She had +looked so weary and sad as she came down the stairs an hour ago. Now +she was almost gay. A feverish and unnatural gaiety, no doubt; but +those flushed cheeks, and glittering blue eyes--how they restored the +youthful loveliness of the face he had once thought the most beautiful +he ever saw! + +"I am going to see the last of my boy. You'll understand, won't you? +You were an only son too. And your mother would have gone to the ends +of the earth to look upon your face once more, wouldn't she? Mothers +are made like that." + +"Some mothers," said John; and he turned away his head. + +"Not yours? I'm sorry," said Lady Mary, simply. + +"Oh, well--you know, she was a good deal--in the world," he said, +repenting himself. + +"I use to wish so much to live in the world too," said Lady +Mary, dreamily; "but ever since I was fifteen I've lived in this +out-of-the-way place." + +"Don't be too sorry for that," said John; "you don't know what a +revelation this out-of-the-way place may be to a tired worker like me, +who lives always amid the unlovely sights and sounds of a city." + +"Ah! but that's just it," she said quickly. "You see I'm not +tired--yet; and I've done no work." + +"That is why it's such a rest to look at you," said John, smiling. +"Flowers have their place in creation as vegetables have theirs. But +we only ask the flowers to bloom peacefully in sheltered gardens; +we don't insist on popping them into the soup with the onions and +carrots." + +Lady Mary laughed as though she had not a care in the world. + +"It is quite refreshing to find that a big-wig like you can talk just +as much nonsense as a little-wig like me," she said; "but you don't +know, for all that, what the silence and monotony of life here _can_ +be. The very voice of a stranger falls like music on one's ears. I was +so glad to see you, and you were so kind and sympathetic about--my +boy. And then, all in a moment, my joy was turned into mourning, +wasn't it? And Peter is going to the war, and it's all like a dreadful +dream; except that I know I shall wake up every morning only to +realize more strongly that it's true." + +John remembered that he was dallying with his mission, instead of +fulfilling it. + +"Sir Timothy cannot go to see his son off? That must be a grief to +him," he said. + +"No; he isn't coming. He has business, I believe," said Lady Mary, a +little coldly. "There has been a dispute over some Crown lands, which +march with ours. Officials are often very dilatory and difficult to +deal with. Probably, however, you know more about it than I do. I am +going alone. I have just been giving the necessary orders. I shall +take a servant with me, as well as my maid, for I am such an +inexperienced traveller--though it seems absurd, at my age--that I am +quite frightened of getting into the wrong trains. I dread a journey +by myself. Even such a little journey as that. But, of course, nothing +would keep me at home." + +"Only one thing," said John, in a low voice, "if I have judged your +character rightly in so short a time." + +"What is that?" + +"Duty." + +She looked at him with sweet, puzzled eyes, like a child. + +"Are you pleading Sir Timothy's cause, Cousin John?" she said, with a +little touch of offence in her tone that was only charming. + +"I am pleading Sir Timothy's cause," said John, seriously. + +"Love is stronger than duty, isn't it?" said Lady Mary. + +"I hope not," said John, very simply. + +"You mean my husband doesn't wish me to go?" + +"Don't think me too presuming," he said pleadingly. + +"I couldn't," said Lady Mary, naively. "You are older than I am, you +know," she laughed, "and a Q.C. And you know you would be my trustee +and my boy's guardian if anything ever happened to Sir Timothy. He +told me so long ago. And he reminded me of it to-day most solemnly. I +suppose he was afraid I shouldn't treat you with proper respect." + +"He has honoured me very highly," said John. "In that case, it would +be almost my--my duty to advise you in any difficulty that might +arise, wouldn't it?" + +"That means you want to advise me now?" + +"Frankly, it does." + +"And are _you_ going to tell me that I ought to stay at home, and let +my only boy leave England without bidding him God-speed?" said Lady +Mary incredulously. "If so, I warn you that you will never convince me +of that, argue as you may." + +"No one is ever convinced by argument," said John. "But stern facts +sometimes command even a woman's attention." + +"When backed by such powers of persuasion as yours, perhaps." + +She faced him with sparkling eyes. Lady Mary was timid and gentle by +nature, but Peter's mother knew no fear. Yet she realized that if +John Crewys were moved to put forth his full powers, he might be a +difficult man to oppose. She met his glance, and observed that he +perfectly understood the spirit which animated her, and that it was +not opposition that shone from his bright hazel eyes, as he regarded +her steadily through his pince-nez. + +"I am going to deal with a hard fact, which your husband is afraid to +tell you," said John, "because, in his tenderness for your womanly +weakness, he underrates, as I venture to think, your womanly courage. +Sir Timothy wants you to be with him here to-morrow because he has +to--to fight an unequal battle--" + +"With the Crown?" + +"With Death." + +"What do you mean?" said Lady Mary. + +"He has been silently combating a mortal disease for many months +past," said John, "and to-morrow morning the issue is to be decided. +Every day, every hour of delay, increases the danger. The great +surgeon, Dr. Herslett, will be here at eleven o'clock, and on the +success of the operation he will perform, hangs the thread of your +husband's life." + +Lady Mary put up a little trembling hand entreatingly, and John's +great heart throbbed with pity. He had chosen his words deliberately +to startle her from her absorption in her son; but she looked so +fragile, so white, so imploring, that his courage almost failed him. +He came to her side, and took the little hand reassuringly in his +strong, warm clasp. + +"Be brave, my dear," he said, with faltering voice, "and put aside, +if you can, the thought of your bitter, terrible disappointment. Only +_you_ can cheer, and inspire, and aid your husband to maintain the +calmness of spirit which is of such vital importance to his chance of +recovery. You can't leave him against his wish at such a moment; +not if you are the--the angel I believe you to be," said John, with +emotion. + +There was a pause, and though he looked away from her, he knew that +she was crying. + +John released the little hand gently, and walked to the fireplace to +give her time to recover herself. Perhaps his eye-glasses were dimmed; +he polished them very carefully. + +Lady Mary dashed away her tears, and spoke in a hard voice he scarcely +recognized as hers. + +"I might be all--you think me, John," she said, "if--" + +"Ah! don't let there be an _if_," said John. + +"But--" + +"Or a _but_." + +"It is that you don't understand the situation," she said; "you +talk as though Sir Timothy and I were an ordinary husband and wife, +entirely dependent on one another's love and sympathy. Don't you know +_he_ stands alone--above all the human follies and weaknesses of a +mere woman? Can't you guess," said Lady Mary, passionately, "that it's +my boy, my poor faulty, undutiful boy--oh, that I should call him +so!--who needs me? that it's his voice that would be calling in my +heart whilst I awaited Sir Timothy's pleasure to-morrow?" + +"His _pleasure_?" said John, sternly. + +"I am shocking you, and I didn't want to shock you," she cried, almost +wildly. "But you don't suppose he needs _me_--me myself? He only wants +to be sure I'm doing the right thing. He wants to give people no +chance of saying that Lady Mary Crewys rushed off to see her spoilt +boy whilst her husband hovered between life and death. A lay figure +would do just as well; if it would only sit in an armchair and hold +its handkerchief to its eyes; and if the neighbours, and his sisters, +and the servants could be persuaded to think it was I." + +"Hush, hush!" said John. + +"Do let me speak out; pray let me speak out," she said, breathless and +imploring, "and you can think what you like of me afterwards, when I +am gone, if only you won't scold now. I am so sick of being scolded," +said Lady Mary. "Am I to be a child for ever--I, that am so old, and +have lost my boy?" + +He thought there was something in her of the child that never grows +up; the guilelessness, the charm, the ready tears and smiles, the +quick changes of mood. + +He rolled an elbow-chair forward, and put her into it tenderly. + +"Say what you will," said John. + +"This is comfortable," she said, leaning her head wearily on her hand; +"to talk to a--a friend who understands, and who will not scold. +But you can't understand unless I tell you everything; and Timothy +himself, after all, would be the first to explain to you that it isn't +my tears nor my kisses, nor my consolation he wants. You didn't think +so _really_, did you?" + +John hesitated, remembering Sir Timothy's words, but she did not wait +for an answer. + +"Yes," she said calmly, "he wishes me to be in my proper place. It +would be a scandal if I did such a remarkable thing as to leave +home on any pretext at such a moment. Only by being extraordinarily +respectable and dignified can we live down the memory of his father's +unconventional behaviour. I must remember my position. I must smell +my salts, and put my feet up on the sofa, and be moderately overcome +during the crisis, and moderately thankful to the Almighty when it's +over, so that every one may hear how admirably dear Lady Mary behaved. +And when I am reading the _Times_ to him during his convalescence," +she cried, wringing her hands, "Peter--Peter will be thousands of +miles away, marching over the veldt to his death." + +"You make very sure of Peter's death," said John, quietly. + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary, listlessly. "He's an only son. It's always +the only sons who die. I've remarked that." + +"You make very sure of Sir Timothy's recovery." + +"Oh yes," Lady Mary said again. "He's a very strong man." + +Something ominous in John's face and voice attracted her attention. + +"Why do you look like that?" + +"Because," said John, slowly--"you understand I'm treating you as a +woman of courage--Dr. Blundell told me just now that--the odds are +against him." + +She uttered a little cry. + +The doctor's voice at the end of the hall made them both start. + +"Lady Mary," he said, "you will forgive my interruption. Sir Timothy +desired me to join you. He feared this double blow might prove too +much for your strength." + +"I am quite strong," said Lady Mary. + +"He wished me to deliver a message," said the doctor. + +"Yes." + +"On reflection, Sir Timothy believes that he may be partly influenced +by a selfish desire for the consolation of your presence in wishing +you to remain with him to-morrow. He was struck, I believe, with +something Mr. Crewys said--on this point." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary. + +"Hush!" said John, shaking his head. + +Dr. Blundell's voice sounded, John thought, as though he were putting +force upon himself to speak calmly and steadily. His eyes were bent on +the floor, and he never once looked at Lady Mary. + +"Sir Timothy desires, consequently," he said, "that you will consider +yourself free to follow your own wishes in the matter; being guided, +as far as possible, by the advice of Mr. Crewys. He is afraid of +further agitation, and therefore asks you to convey to him, as quickly +as possible, your final decision. As his physician, may I beg you not +to keep him waiting?" + +He left them, and returned to the study. + +Though it was only a short silence that followed his departure, John +had time to learn by heart the aspect of the half-lighted, shadowy +hall. + +There are some pauses which are illustrated to the day of a man's +death, by a vivid impression on his memory of the surroundings. + +The heavy, painted beams crossing and re-crossing the lofty roof; the +black staircase lighted with wax candles, that made a brilliancy which +threw into deeper relief the darkness of every recess and corner; the +full-length, Early Victorian portraits of men and women of his own +race--inartistic daubs, that were yet horribly lifelike in the +semi-illumination; the uncurtained mullioned windows,--all formed a +background for the central figure in his thoughts; the slender womanly +form in the armchair; the little brown head supported on the white +hand; the delicate face, robbed of its youthful freshness, and yet so +lovely still. + +"John," said Lady Mary, in a voice from which all passion and strength +had died away, "tell me what I ought to do." + +"Remain with your husband." + +"And let my boy go?" said Lady Mary, weeping. "I had thought, when +he was leaving me, perhaps for ever, that--that his heart would be +touched--that I should get a glimpse once more of the Peter he used to +be. Oh, can't you understand? He--he's a little--hard and cold to me +sometimes--God forgive me for saying so!--but you--you've been a young +man too." + +"Yes," John said, rather sadly, "I've been young too." + +"It's only his age, you know," she said. "He couldn't always be as +gentle and loving as when he was a child. A young man would think that +so babyish. He wants, as he says, to be independent, and not tied to a +woman's apron-string. But in his heart of hearts he loves me best in +the whole world, and he wouldn't have been ashamed to let me see it +at such a moment. And I should have had a precious memory of him for +ever. You shake your head. Don't you understand me? I thought you +seemed to understand," she said wistfully. + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "and life is just opening for him. It is +a hard saying to _you_, but his thoughts are full of the world he +is entering. There is no room in them just now for the home he is +leaving. That is human nature. If he be sick or sorry later on--as I +know your loving fancy pictures him--his heart would turn even then, +not to the mother he saw waving and weeping on the quay, amid all the +confusion of departure, but to the mother of his childhood, of his +happy days of long ago. It may be "--John hesitated, and spoke very +tenderly--"it may be that his heart will be all the softer then, +because he was denied the parting interview he never sought. The young +are strangely wayward and impatient. They regret what might have been. +They do not, like the old, dwell fondly upon what the gods actually +granted them. It is _you_ who will suffer from this sacrifice, not +Peter; that will be some consolation to you, I suppose, even if it be +also a disappointment." + +"Ah, how you understand!" said Peter's mother, sadly. + +"Perhaps because, as you said just now, I have been a young man too," +he said, forcing a smile. "Oh, forgive me, but let me save you; for I +believe that if you deserted your husband to-day, you would sorrow for +it to the end of your life." + +"And Peter--" she murmured. + +He came to her side, and straightened himself, and spoke hopefully. + +"Give me your last words and your last gifts--and a letter--for Peter, +and send me in your stead to-night. I will deliver them faithfully. I +will tell him--for he should be told--of the sore straits in which you +find yourself. Set him this noble example of duty, and believe me, it +will touch his heart more nearly than even that sacred parting which +you desire." + +Lady Mary held out her hand to him. + +"Tell Sir Timothy that I will stay," she whispered. + +John bent down and kissed the little hand in silence, and with +profound respect. + +Then he went to the study without looking back. + +When he was gone, Lady Mary laid her face upon the badly painted +miniature of Peter, and cried as one who had lost all hope in life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Her didn't make much account on him while him were alive; but now 'ce +be dead, 'tis butivul tu zee how her du take on," said Happy Jack. + +There was a soft mist of heat; the long-delayed spring coming +suddenly, after storms of cold rain and gales of wind had swept the +Youle valley. Two days' powerful sunshine had excited the buds to +breaking, and drawn up the tender blades of young grass from the +soaked earth. + +The flowering laurels hung over the shady banks, whereon large +families of primroses spent their brief and lovely existence +undisturbed. The hawthorn put forth delicate green leaves, and the +white buds of the cherry-trees in the orchard were swelling on their +leafless boughs. + +In such summer warmth, and with the concert of building birds above +and around, it was strange to see the dead and wintry aspect of the +forest trees; still bare and brown, though thickening with the red +promise of foliage against the April sky. + +John Crewys, climbing the lane next the waterfall, had been hailed by +the roadside by the toothless, smiling old rustic. + +"I be downright glad to zee 'ee come back, zur; ay, that 'a be. What +vur du 'ee go gadding London ways, zays I, when there be zuch a turble +lot to zee arter? and the ladyship oop Barracombe ways, her bain't vit +var tu du 't, as arl on us du know. Tis butivul tu zee how her takes +on," he repeated admiringly. + +John glanced uneasily at his companion, who stood with downcast eyes. + +"Lard, I doan't take no account on Miss Zairy," said the road-mender, +leaning on his hoe and looking sharply from the youthful lady to the +middle-aged gentleman. "I've knowed her zince her wur a little maid. I +used tu give her lolly-pops. Yu speak up, Miss Zairy, and tell 'un if +I didn't." + +"To be sure you did, Father Jack," said Sarah, promptly. + +"Ah, zo 'a did," said the old man, chuckling. "Zo 'a did, and her +ladyship avore yu. I mind _her_ when her was a little maid, and pretty +ways her had wi' her, zame as now. None zo ramshacklin' as yu du be, +Miss Zairy." + +"There's nobody about that he doesn't remember as a child," said +Sarah, apologetically. "He's so old, you see. He doesn't remember how +old he is, and nobody can tell him. But he knows he was born in the +reign of George the Third, because his mother told him so; and he +remembers his father coming in with news of the Battle of Waterloo, So +I think he must be about ninety." + +"Lard, mar like a hunderd year old, I be," said Happy Jack, offended. +"And luke how I du wark yit. Yif I'd 'a give up my wark, I shude 'a +bin in the churchyard along o' the idlers, that 'a shude." He chuckled +and winked. "I du be a turble vunny man," quavered the thin falsetto +voice. "They be niver a dune a laughin' along o' my jokes. An' I du +remember Zur Timothy's vather zo well as Zur Timothy hisself, though +'ee bin dead nigh sixty year. Lard, 'ee was a bad 'un, was y' ould +squire. An old devil. That's what 'ee was." + +"He only means Sir Timothy's father had a bad temper," explained +Sarah. "It's quite true." + +"Ah, was it timper?" said Jack, sarcastically. "I cude tell 'ee zum +tales on 'un. There were a right o' way, zur, acrust the mead thereby, +as the volk did claim. And 'a zays, 'A'll putt a stop tu 'un,' 'a +zays. And him zat on a style, long zide the tharn bush, and 'a took +'ee's gun, and 'a zays, 'A'll shute vust man are maid as cumes acrust +thiccy vield,' 'a zays. And us knowed 'un wude du 't tu. And 'un +barred the gate, and there t'was." + +He laughed till the tears ran down his face, brown as gingerbread, and +wrinkled as a monkey's. + +"Mr. Crewys is in a hurry, Jack," said Sarah. "He's only just arrived +from London, and he's walked all the way from Brawnton." + +"'Tain't but a stip vur a vine vellar like 'ee, and wi' a vine maiden +like yu du be grown, var tu kip 'ee company," said Happy Jack. "But +'ee'll be in a yurry tu git tu Barracombe, and refresh hisself, in arl +this turble yeat. When the zun du search, the rain du voller." + +"I dare say you want a glass of beer yourself," said John, producing a +coin from his pocket. + +"No, zur, I doan't," said the road-mender, unexpectedly. "Beer doan't +agree wi' my inzide, an' it gits into my yead, and makes me proper +jolly, zo the young volk make game on me. But I cude du wi' a drop +o' zider zur; and drink your health and the young lady's, zur, zo 'a +cude." + +He winked and nodded as he pocketed the coin; and John, half laughing +and half vexed, pursued his road with Sarah. + +"It seems to me that the old gentleman has become a trifle free and +easy with advancing years," he observed. + +"He thinks he has a right to be interested in the family," said Sarah, +"because of the connection, you see." + +"The connection?" + +"Didn't you know?" she asked, with wide-open eyes. "Though you were +Sir Timothy's own cousin." + +"A very distant cousin," said John. + +"But every one in the valley knows," said Sarah, "that Sir Timothy's +father married his own cook, who was Happy Jack's first cousin. When I +was a little girl, and wanted to tease Peter," she added ingenuously, +"I always used to allude to it. It is the skeleton in their cupboard. +We haven't got a skeleton in our family," she added regretfully; +"least of all the skeleton of a cook." + +John remembered vaguely that there was a story about the second +marriage of Sir Timothy the elder. + +"So she was a cook!" he said. "Well, what harm?" and he laughed in +spite of himself. "I wonder why there is something so essentially +unromantic in the profession of a cook?" + +"Her family went to Australia, and they are quite rich people now: +no more cooks than you and me," said Sarah, gravely. "But Happy Jack +won't leave Youlestone, though he says they tempted him with untold +gold. And he wouldn't touch his hat to Sir Timothy, because he was his +cousin. That was another skeleton." + +"But a very small one," said John, laughing. + +"It might seem small to _us_, but I'm sure it was one reason why Sir +Timothy never went outside his own gates if he could help it," said +Sarah, shrewdly. "Luckily the cook died when he was born." + +"Why luckily, poor thing?" said John, indignantly. + +"She wouldn't have had much of a time, would she, do you think, with +Sir Timothy's sisters?" asked Sarah, with simplicity. "They were in +the schoolroom when their papa married her, or I am sure they would +never have allowed it. Their own mother was a most select person; and +little thought when she gave the orders for dinner, and all that, who +the old gentleman's _next_ wife would be," said Sarah, giggling. "They +always talk of her as the _Honourable Rachel_, since _Lady Crewys_, +you know, might just as well mean the cook. I suppose the old squire +got tired of her being so select, and thought he would like a change. +He was a character, you know. I often think Peter will be a character +when he grows old. He is so disagreeable at times." + +"I thought you were so fond of Peter?" said John, looking amusedly +down on the little chatterbox beside him. + +"Not exactly fond of him. It's just that I'm _used_ to him," said +Sarah, colouring all over her clear, fresh face, even to the little +tendrils of red hair on her white neck. + +She wore a blue cotton frock, and a brown mushroom hat, with a wreath +of wild roses which had somewhat too obviously been sewn on in a hurry +and crookedly; and she looked far more like a village schoolgirl than +a young lady who was shortly to make her _début_ in London society. +But he was struck with the extraordinary brilliancy of her complexion, +transparent and pure as it was, in the searching sunlight. + +"If she were not so round-shouldered--if the features were better--her +expression softer," said John to himself--"if divine colouring were +all--she would be beautiful." + +But her wide, smiling mouth, short-tipped nose, and cleft chin, +conveyed rather the impression of childish audacity than of feminine +charm. The glance of those bright, inquisitive eyes was like a wild +robin's, half innocent, half bold. Though her round throat were white +as milk, and though no careless exposure to sun and wind had yet +succeeded in dimming the exquisite fairness of her skin, yet the +defects and omissions incidental to extreme youth, country breeding, +and lack of discipline, rendered Miss Sarah not wholly pleasing in +John's fastidious eyes. Her carriage was slovenly, her ungloved hands +were red, her hair touzled, and her deep-toned voice over-loud and +confident. Yet her frankness and her trustfulness could not fail to +evoke sympathy. + +"It is--Lady Mary that I am fond of," said the girl, with a yet more +vivid blush. + +He was touched. "She will miss you, I am sure, when you go to town," +he said kindly. + +"If I thought so really, I wouldn't go," said Sarah, vehemently. She +winked a tear from her long eyelashes. "But I know it's only your good +nature. She thinks of nothing and nobody but Peter. And--and, after +all, when I get better manners, and all that, I shall be more of a +companion to her. I'm very glad to go, if it wasn't for leaving _her_. +I like Aunt Elizabeth, whereas mamma and I never _did_ get on. She +cares most for the boys, which is very natural, no doubt, as I was +only an afterthought, and nobody wanted me. And Aunt Elizabeth has +always liked me. She says I amuse her with my sharp tongue." + +"But you will have to be a little careful of the sharp tongue when you +get to London," said John, smiling. He was struck by the half-sly, +half-acquiescent look that Sarah stole at him from beneath those long +eyelashes. Perhaps her outspokenness was not so involuntary as he had +imagined. + +"If I had known you were coming to-day, I would have gone up to say +good-bye to Lady Mary last night," said Sarah, mournfully. "She won't +want me now you are here." + +"I have a thousand and one things to look after. I sha'n't be in your +way," said John, good-naturedly, "if she is not busy otherwise." + +"Busy!" echoed Sarah. "She sits _so_, with her hands in her lap, +looking over the valley. And she has grown, oh, so much thinner and +sadder-looking. I thought you would never come." + +"I have my own work," said John, hurriedly, "and I thought, besides, +she would rather be alone these first few weeks." + +Sarah looked up with a flash in her blue eyes, which were so dark, and +large-pupilled, and heavily lashed, that they looked almost black. She +ground her strong white teeth together. + +"If I were Lady Mary," she said, "I would have slammed the old front +door behind me the very day after Sir Timothy was buried--and gone +away; I would. There she is, like a prisoner, with the old ladies +counting every tear she sheds, and adding them up to see if it is +enough; and measuring every inch of crape on her gowns; and finding +fault with all she does, just as they used when Sir Timothy was alive +to back them up. And she is afraid to do anything he didn't like; and +she never listens to the doctor, the only person in the world who's +ever had the courage to fight her battles." + +"The doctor," said John, sharply. "Has she been ill?" + +"No, no." + +"What has _he_ to do with Lady Mary?" said John. + +His displeasure was so great that the colour rose in his clean-shaven +face, and did not escape little Sarah's observation, for all her +downcast lashes. + +"Somebody must go and see her," said Sarah; "and you were away. And +the canon is just nobody, always bothering her for subscriptions; +though he is very fond of her, like everybody else," she added, with +compunction. "Dear me, Mr. Crewys, how fast you are walking!" + +John had unconsciously quickened his pace so much that she had some +ado to keep up with him without actually running. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. + +"It is so hot, and the hill is steep, and I am rather fat. I dare say +I shall fine down as I get older," said Sarah, apologetically. "It +would be dreadful if I grew up like mamma. But I am more like my +father, thank goodness, and _he_ is simply a mass of hard muscle. I +dare say even I could beat you on the flat. But not up this drive. +Doesn't it look pretty in the spring?" + +"It was very different when I left Barracombe," said John. + +He looked round with all a Londoner's appreciation. + +In the sunny corner next the ivy-clad lodge an early rhododendron +had burst into scarlet bloom. The steep drive was warmly walled and +sheltered on the side next the hill by horse-chestnuts, witch-elms, +tall, flowering shrubs and evergreens, and a variety of tree-azaleas +and rhododendrons which promised a blaze of beauty later in the +season. + +But the other side of the drive lay in full view of the open +landscape; rolling grass slopes stretching down to the orchards +and the valley. Violets, white and blue, scented the air, and the +primroses clustered at the roots of the forest trees. + +The gnarled and twisted stems of giant creepers testified to the age +of Barracombe House. Before the entrance was a level space, which made +a little spring garden, more formal and less varied in its arrangement +than the terrace gardens on the south front; but no less gay and +bright, with beds of hyacinths, red and white and purple, and +daffodils springing amidst their bodyguards of pale, pointed spears. + +A wild cherry-tree at the corner of the house had showered snowy +petals before the latticed window of the study; the window whence Sir +Timothy had taken his last look at the western sky, and from which +his watchful gaze had once commanded the approach to his house, and +observed almost every human being who ventured up the drive. + +On the ridge of the hill above, and in clumps upon the fertile slopes +of the side of the little valley, the young larches rose, newly +clothed in that light and brilliant foliage which darkens almost +before spring gives place to summer. + +They found Lady Mary in the drawing-room; the sunshine streamed +towards her through the golden rain of a _planta-genista_, which stood +on a table in the western corner of the bow window. She was looking +out over the south terrace, and the valley and the river, just as +Sarah had said. + +He was shocked at her pallor, which was accentuated by her black +dress; her sapphire blue eyes looked unnaturally large and clear; the +little white hands clasped in her lap were too slender; a few silver +threads glistened in the soft, brown hair. Above all, the hopeless +expression of the sad and gentle face went to John's heart. + +_Was_ the doctor the only man in the world who had the courage to +fight her battles for this fading, grieving woman who had been the +lovely Mary Setoun; whom John remembered so careless, so laughing, so +innocently gay? + +He was relieved that she could smile as he approached to greet her. + +"I did not guess you would come by the early train," she said, in glad +tones. "But, oh--you must have walked all the way from Brawnton! What +will James Coachman say?" + +"I wanted a walk," said John, "and I knew you would send to meet me if +I let you know. My luggage is at the station. James Coachman, as you +call him, can fetch that whenever he will." + +"And I have come to say good-bye," said Sarah, forlornly. + +She watched with jealous eyes their greeting, and Lady Mary's obvious +pleasure in John's arrival, and half-oblivion of her own familiar +little presence. + +When Peter had first gone to school, his mother in her loneliness had +almost made a _confidante_ of little Sarah, the odd, intelligent child +who followed her about so faithfully, and listened so eagerly to those +dreamy, half-uttered confidences. She knew that Lady Mary wept because +her boy had left her; but she understood also that when Peter +came home for the holidays he brought little joy to his mother. A +self-possessed stripling now walked about the old house, and laid down +the law to his mamma--instead of that chubby creature in petticoats +who had once been Peter. + +Lady Mary had dwelt on the far-off days of Peter's babyhood very +tenderly when she was alone with little Sarah, who sat and nursed her +doll, and liked very much to listen; she often felt awed, as though +some one had died; but she did not connect the story much with the +Peter of every day, who went fishing and said girls were rather a +nuisance. + +Sarah, too, had had her troubles. She was periodically banished to +distant schools by a mother who disliked romping and hoydenish little +girls, as much as she doted on fat and wheezing lap-dogs. But as her +father, on the other hand, resented her banishment from home almost as +sincerely as Sarah herself, she was also periodically sent for to take +up her residence once more beneath the parental roof. Thus her life +was full of change and uncertainty; but, through it all, her devotion +to Lady Mary never wavered. + +She looked at her now with a melancholy air which sat oddly upon her +bright, comical face, and which was intended to draw attention to the +pathetic fact of her own impending departure. + +"I only came to say good-bye," said Sarah, in slightly injured tones. + +"Ah! by-the-by, and I have promised not to intrude on the parting," +said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"It is not an eternal farewell," said Lady Mary, drawing Sarah kindly +towards her. + +"It may be for _years_," said Sarah, rather offended. "My aunt +Elizabeth is as good as adopting me. Mamma said I was very lucky, and +I believe she is glad to be rid of me. But papa says he shall come and +see me in London. Aunt Elizabeth is going to take me to Paris and to +Scotland, and abroad every winter." + +"Oh, Sarah, how you will be changed when you come back!" said Lady +Mary; and she laughed a little, with a hand on Sarah's shoulder; but +Sarah knew that Lady Mary was not thinking very much about her, all +the same. + +"There is no fresh news, John?" she asked. + +"Nothing since my last telegram," he answered. "But I have arranged +with the Exchange Telegraph Company to wire me anything of importance +during my stay here." + +"You are always so good," she said. + +Then he took pity on Sarah's impatience, and left the little +worshipper to the interview with her idol which she so earnestly +desired. + +"I will go and pay my respects to my cousins," said John. + +But the banqueting-hall was deserted, and gaps in the row of clogs and +goloshes suggested that the old ladies were taking a morning stroll. +They had not thought it proper to drive, save in a close carriage, +since their brother's death; and on such a warm day of spring weather +a close carriage was not inviting to country-bred people. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +John took his hat and stepped out once more upon the drive, and there +met Dr. Blundell, who had left his dog-cart at the stables, and was +walking up to the house. + +He did not pause to analyze the sentiment of slight annoyance which +clouded his usual good humour; but Dr. Blundell divined it, with the +quickness of an ultra-sensitive nature. He showed no signs that he had +done so. + +"It was you I came to see," he said, shaking hands with John. "I +heard--you know how quickly news spreads here--that you had arrived. I +hoped you might spare me a few moments for a little conversation." + +"Certainly," said John. "Will you come in, or shall we take a turn?" + +"You will be glad of a breath of fresh air after your journey," +said the doctor, and he led the way across the south terrace, to a +sheltered corner of the level plateau upon which the house was built, +which was known as the fountain garden. + +It was rather a deserted garden, thickly surrounded and overgrown +by shrubs. Through the immense spreading Portuguese laurels which +sheltered it from the east, little or no sunshine found its way to the +grey, moss-grown basin and the stone figures supporting it; over which +a thin stream of water continually flowed with a melancholy rhythm, in +perpetual twilight. + +A giant ivy grew rankly and thickly about the stone buttresses of this +eastern corner of the house, and around a great mullioned window which +overlooked the fountain garden, and which was the window of Lady +Mary's bedroom. + +"These shrubberies want thinning," said John, looking round him rather +disgustedly. "This place is reeking with damp. I should like to cut +down some of these poisonous laurels, and let in the air and the +sunshine, and open out the view of the Brawnton hills." + +"And why don't you?" said the doctor, with such energy in his tone +that John stopped short in his pacing of the gravel walk, and looked +at him. + +The two men were almost as unlike in appearance as in character. + +The doctor was nervous, irritable, and intense in manner; with +deep-set, piercing eyes that glowed like hot coal when he was moved +or excited. A tall, gaunt man, lined and wrinkled beyond his years; +careless of appearance, so far as his shabby clothes were concerned, +yet careful of detail, as was proven by spotless linen and +well-preserved, delicate hands. + +He was indifferent utterly to the opinion of others, to his own +worldly advancement, or to any outer consideration, when in pursuit of +the profession he loved; and he knew no other interest in life, save +one. He had the face of a fanatic or an enthusiast; but also of a man +whose understanding had been so cultivated as to temper enthusiasm +with judgment. + +He had missed success, and was neither resigned to his disappointment, +nor embittered by it. + +The gaze of those dark eyes was seldom introspective; rather, as it +seemed, did they look out eagerly, sadly, pitifully at the pain and +sorrow of the world; a pain he toiled manfully to lessen, so far as +his own infinitesimal corner of the universe was concerned. + +John Crewys, on the other hand, was, to the most casual observer, a +successful man; a man whose personality would never be overlooked. + +There was a more telling force in his composure than in the doctor's +nervous energy. His clear eyes, his bright, yet steady glance, +inspired confidence. + +The doctor might have been taken for a poet, but John looked like a +philosopher. + +He was also, as obviously, in appearance, a man of the world, and a +Londoner, as the doctor was evidently a countryman, and a hermit. His +advantages over the doctor included his voice, which was as deep and +musical as the tones of his companion were harsh. + +The manner, no less than the matter of John's speech, had early +brought him distinction. + +Nature, rather than cultivation, had bestowed on him the faculty of +conveying the impression he wished to convey, in tones that charm; and +held his auditors, and penetrated ears dulled and fatigued by monotony +and indistinctness. + +The more impassioned his pleading, the more utterly he held his own +emotion in check; the more biting his subtly chosen words, the more +courteous his manner; now deadly earnest, now humorously scornful, +now graciously argumentative, but always skilfully and designedly +convincing. + +The doctor, save in the presence of a patient, had no such control +over himself as John Crewys carried from the law-courts, into his life +of every day. + +"Why don't you," he said, in fiery tones, "let in air and life, and a +view of the outside world, and as much sunshine as possible into this +musty old house? You have the power, if you had only the will." + +"You speak figuratively, I notice," said John. "I should be much +obliged if you would tell me exactly what you mean." + +He would have answered in warmer and more kindly tones had Sarah's +words not rung upon his ear. + +Was the doctor going to fight Lady Mary's battles now, and with him, +of all people in the world? As though there were any one in the world +to whom her interests could be dearer than-- + +John stopped short in his thoughts, and looked attentively at the +doctor. His heart smote him. How pallid was that tired face; and the +hollow eyes, how sad and tired too! The doctor had been up all night, +in a wretched isolated cottage, watching a man die--but John did not +know that. + +He perceived that this was no meddler, but a man speaking of something +very near his heart; no presuming and interfering outsider who +deserved a snub, but a man suffering from some deep and hidden cause. + +The doctor's secret was known to John long before he had finished what +he had to say; but he listened attentively, and gave no sign that this +was so. + +"She will die," said Blundell, "if this goes on;" and he neither +mentioned any name, nor did John Crewys require him to do so. + +The doctor's words came hurrying out incoherently from the depths of +his anxiety and earnestness. + +"She will die if this goes on. There were few hopes and little enough +pleasure in her life before; but what is left to her now? _De mortuis +nil nisi bonum._ But just picture to yourself for a moment, man, what +her life has been." + +He stopped and drew breath, and strove to speak calmly and +dispassionately. + +"I was born in the valley of the Youle," he said. "My people live in +a cottage--they call it a house, but it's just a farm--on the +river,--Cullacott. I was a raw medical student when _she_ came here as +a child. Her father was killed in the Afghan War. He had quarrelled +with his uncle, they said, who afterwards succeeded to the earldom; +so she was left to the guardianship of Sir Timothy, a distant cousin. +Every one was sorry for her, because Sir Timothy was her guardian, and +because she was a little young thing to be left to the tender mercies +of the two old ladies, who were old even then. If you will excuse my +speaking frankly about the family"--John nodded--"they bullied their +brother always; what with their superiority of birth, and his being so +much younger, and so on. Their bringing-up made him what he was, I am +sure. He went nowhere; he always fancied people were laughing at him. +His feeling about his--his mother's lowly origin seemed to pervade +his whole life. He exaggerated the importance of birth till it became +almost a mania. If you hadn't known the man, you couldn't have +believed a human being--one of the million crawling units on the +earth--could be so absurdly inflated with self-importance. It was +pitiful. He went nowhere, and saw no one. I believe he thought that +Providence had sent a wife of high rank to his very door to enable him +partially to wipe out his reproach. She looked like a child when she +came, but she shot up very suddenly into womanhood. If you ask me if +she was unhappy, I declare I don't think so. She had never realized, +I should think, what it was to be snubbed or found fault with in +her life. She was a motherless child, and had lived with her old +grandfather and her young father, and had been very much spoilt. And +they were both snatched away from her, as it were, in a breath; and +she alone in the world, with an uncle who was only glad to get rid of +her to her stranger guardian. Well,--she was too young and too bright +and too gay to be much downcast for all the old women could do. She +laughed at their scolding, and when they tried severity she appealed +to Sir Timothy. The old doctor who was my predecessor here told me at +the time that he thought she had bewitched Sir Timothy; but afterwards +he said that he believed it was only that Sir Timothy had made up his +mind even then to quarter the Setoun arms with his own. Anyway, he +went against his sisters for the first and only time in his life, and +they learnt that Lady Mary was not to be interfered with. Whether it +was gratitude or just the childish satisfaction of triumphing over her +two enemies, I can't tell, but she married him in less than two years +after she came to live at Barracombe. The old ladies didn't know +whether to be angry or pleased. They wanted him to marry, and they +wanted his wife to be well-born, no doubt; but to have a mere child +set over them! Well, the marriage took place in London." + +"I was present," said John. + +"The people here said things about it that may have got round to Sir +Timothy; but I don't know. He never came down to the village, except +to church, where he sat away from everybody, in the gallery curtained +off. Anyway, he wouldn't have the wedding down here. He invited all +her relatives, and none of them had a word to say. It wasn't as if she +were an heiress. I believe she had next to nothing. She was just like +a child, laughing, and pleased at getting married, and with all her +finery, perhaps,--or at getting rid of her lessons with the old women +may be,--and the thought of babies of her own. Who knows what a girl +thinks of?" said the doctor, harshly. "I didn't see her again for a +long time after. But then I came down; the Brawnton doctor was getting +old, and it was a question whether I should succeed him or go on in +London, where I was doing well enough. And--and I came here," said the +doctor, abruptly. + +John nodded again. He filled in the gaps of the doctor's narrative for +himself, and understood. + +"She had changed very much. All the gaiety and laughter gone. But she +was wrapt up in the child as I never saw any woman wrapt up in a brat +before or since; and I've known some that were pretty ridiculous in +that way," said the doctor, and his voice shook more than ever. "It +was--touching, for she was but a child herself; and Peter, between you +and me, was an unpromising doll for a child to play with. He was ugly +and ill-tempered, and he wouldn't be caressed, or dressed up, or made +much of, from the first minute he had a will of his own. As he grew +bigger he was for ever having rows with his father, and his mother +was for ever interceding for him. He was idle at school; but he was a +manly boy enough over games and sport, and a capital shot. Anyway, she +managed to be proud of him, God knows how. I shouldn't wonder if this +war was the making of him, though, poor chap, if he's spared to see +the end of it all." + +"I have no doubt the discipline will do him a great deal of good," +said John, dryly. + +It cannot be said that his brief interview at Southampton had +impressed John with a favourable opinion of the sulky and irresponsive +youth, who had there listened to his mother's messages with lowering +brow and downcast eye. Peter had betrayed no sign of emotion, and +almost none of gratitude for John's hurried and uncomfortable journey +to convey that message. + +"A few hard knocks will do you no harm, my young friend; and I almost +wish you may get them," John had said to himself on his homeward +journey; dreading, yet expecting, the news that awaited him at Peter's +home, and for which he had done his best to prepare the boy. + +"Too much consideration hitherto has ruined him," said the doctor, +shortly. "But it's not of Peter I'm thinking, one way or the other. +From the time he went first to school, she's had to depend entirely on +her own resources--and what are they?" + +He paused, as though to gather strength and energy for his indictment. + +"From the time she was brought here--except for that one outing and a +change to Torquay, I believe, after Peter's birth--she has scarce set +foot outside Barracombe. Sir Timothy would not, so he was resolved she +should not. His sisters, who have as much cultivation as that stone +figure, disapproved of novel-reading--or of any other reading, I +should fancy--and he followed suit. Books are almost unknown in this +house. The library bookcases were locked. Sir Timothy opened them once +in a while, and his sisters dusted the books with their own hands; +it was against tradition to handle such valuable bindings. He hated +music, and the piano was not to be played in his presence. Have you +ever tried it? I'm told you're musical. It belonged to Lady Belstone's +mother, the Honourable Rachel. That is her harp which stands in the +corner of the hall. Her daughter once tinkled a little, I believe; but +the prejudices of the ruling monarch were religiously obeyed. Music +was _taboo_ at Barracombe. Dancing was against their principles, and +theatres they regard with horror, and have never been inside one in +their lives. Nothing took Sir Timothy to London but business; and +if it were possible to have the business brought to Barracombe, his +solicitor, Mr. Crawley, visited him here." + +The doctor spoke in lower tones, as he recurred to his first theme. + +"I don't think she found out for years, or realized what a prisoner +she was. They caught and pinned her down so young. There are no very +near neighbours--I mean, not the sort of people they would recognize +as neighbours--except the Hewels. Youlestone is such an out-of-the-way +place, and Sir Timothy was never on intimate terms with any one. Mrs. +Hewel is a fool--there was only little Sarah whom Lady Mary made a pet +of--but she had no friends. Sir Timothy and his sisters made visiting +such a stiff and formal business, that it was no wonder she hated +paying calls; the more especially as it could lead to nothing. He +would not entertain; he grudged the expense. I was present at a scene +he once made because a large party drove over from a distant house and +stayed to tea. He said he could not entertain the county. She dared +ask no one to her house--she, who was so formed and fitted by nature +to charm and attract, and enjoy social intercourse." His voice +faltered. "They stole her youth," he said. + +"What do you want me to do?" said John, though he was vaguely +conscious that he understood for what the doctor was pleading. + +He sat down by the fountain; and the doctor, resting a mended boot +on the end of the bench, leant on his bony knee, and looked down +wistfully at John's thoughtful face, broad brow, and bright, intent +eyes. + +"You are a very clever man, Mr. Crewys," he said humbly. "A man of the +world, successful, accomplished, and, I believe, honest"--he spoke +with a simplicity that disarmed offence--"or I should not have +ventured as I have ventured. Somehow you inspire me with confidence. I +believe you can save her. I believe you could find a way to bring back +her peace of mind; the interest in life--the gaiety of heart--that is +natural to her. If I were in your place, not the two old women--not +Sir Timothy's ghost--not that poor conceited slip of a lad who may be +shot to-morrow--would stand in my way. I would bring back the colour +to her cheek, and the light to her eye, and the music to her voice--" + +"Whilst her boy is in danger?" John asked, almost scornfully. He +thought he knew Lady Mary better than the doctor did, after all. + +"I tell you _nothing_ would stop me," said Blundell, vehemently. +"Before I would let her fret herself to death--afraid to break the +spells that have been woven round her, bound as she is, hand and foot, +with the prejudices of the dead--I would--I would--take her to South +Africa myself," he said brilliantly. "The voyage would bring her back +to life." + +John got up. "That is an idea," he said. He paused and looked at the +doctor. "You have known her longer than I. Have you said nothing to +her of all this?" + +The doctor smiled grimly. "Mr. Crewys," he said, "some time since I +spoke my mind--a thing I am over-apt to do--_of_ Peter, and _to_ him. +The lad has forgiven me; he is a man, you see, with all his faults. +But Lady Mary, though she has all the virtues of a woman, is also a +mother. A woman often forgives; a mother, never. Don't forget." + +"I will not," said John. + +"And you'll do it--" + +"Use the unlimited authority that has been placed in my hands, by +improving this tumble-down, overgrown place?" said John, slowly. "Let +in light, air, and sunshine to Barracombe, and do my best to brighten +Lady Mary's life, without reference to any one's prejudices, past or +present?" + +"You've got the idea," said the doctor, joyfully. "Will you carry it +out?" + +"Yes," said John. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The new moon brightened above the rim of the opposite hill, and +touched the river below with silver reflections. On the grass banks +sloping away beneath the terrace gardens, sheets of bluebells shone +almost whitely on the grass. The silent house rose against the +dark woods, whitened also here and there by the blossom of wild +cherry-trees. + +Lady Mary stepped from the open French windows of the drawing-room +into the still, scented air of the April night. She stood leaning +against the stone balcony, and gazing at the wonderful panorama of +the valley and overlapping hills; where the little river threaded its +untroubled course between daisied meadows and old orchards and red +crumbling banks. + +A broad-shouldered figure appeared in the window, and a man's step +crunched the gravel of the path which Lady Mary had crossed. + +"For once I have escaped, you see," she said, without turning round. +"They will not venture into the night air. Sometimes I think they will +drive me mad--Isabella and Georgina." + +"Mary!" cried a shrill voice from the drawing-room, "how can you be so +imprudent! John, how can you allow her!" + +John stepped back to the window. "It is very mild," he said. "Lady +Mary likes the air." + +There was a note of authority in his tone which somehow impressed Lady +Belstone, who withdrew, muttering to herself, into the warm lamplight +of the drawing-room. + +Perhaps the two old ladies were to be pitied, too, as they sat +together, but forlorn, sincerely shocked and uneasy at their +sister-in-law's behaviour. + +"Dear Timothy not dead three months, and she sitting out there in the +night air, as he would never have permitted, talking and laughing; +yes, I actually hear her laughing--with John." + +"There is no telling what she may do _now_," said Miss Crewys, +gloomily. + +"I declare it is a judgment, Georgina. Why did Timothy choose to trust +a perfect stranger--even though John is a cousin--with the care of his +wife and son, and his estate, rather than his own sisters?" + +"It was a gentleman's work," said Miss Crewys. + +"Gentleman's fiddlesticks! Couldn't old Crawley have done it? I +should hope he is as good a lawyer as young John any day," said Lady +Belstone, tossing her head. "But I have often noticed that people will +trust any chance stranger with the property they leave behind, rather +than those they know best." + +"Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "blame not the dead, and especially on a +moonlight night. It makes my blood run cold." + +"I am blaming nobody, Georgina; but I will say that if poor Timothy +thought proper to leave everything else in the hands of young John, he +might have considered that you and I had a better right to the Dower +House than poor dear Mary, who, of course, must live with her son." + +"I am far from wishing or intending to leave my home here, Isabella," +said Miss Crewys. "It is very different in your case. You forfeited +the position of daughter of the house when you married. But I have +always occupied my old place, and my old room." + +This was a sore subject. On Lady Belstone's return as a widow, to the +home of her fathers, she had been torn with anxiety and indecision +regarding her choice of a sleeping apartment. Sentiment dictated her +return to her former bedroom; but she was convinced that the married +state required a domicile on the first floor. Etiquette prevailed, +and she descended; but the eighty-year-old legs of Miss Crewys still +climbed the nursery staircase, and she revenged herself for her +inferior status by insisting, in defiance of old associations, that +her maid should occupy the room next to her own, which her sister had +abandoned. + +"For my part, I can sleep in one room as well as another, provided it +be comfortable and _appropriate_," said Lady Belstone, with dignity. +"There are very pleasant rooms in the Dower House, and our great-aunts +managed to live there in comfort, and yet keep an eye on their nephew +here, as I have always been told. I don't know why we should object to +doing the same. You have never tried being mistress of your own house, +Georgina, but I can assure you it has its advantages; and I found them +out as a married woman." + +"A married woman has her husband to look after her," said Miss Crewys. +"It is very different for a widow." + +"You are for ever throwing my widowhood in my teeth, Georgina," said +Lady Belstone, plaintively. "It is not my fault that I am a widow. I +did not murder the admiral." + +"I don't say you did, Isabella," said Georgina, grimly; "but he only +survived his marriage six months." + +"It is nice to be silent sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"Does that mean that I am to go away?" said John, "or merely that I am +not to speak to you?" + +She laughed a little. "Neither. It means that I am tired of being +scolded." + +"I have wondered now and then," said John, deliberately, "why you put +up with it?" + +"I suppose--because I can't help it," she said, startled. + +"You are a free agent." + +"You mean that I could go away?" she said, in a low voice. "But there +is only one place I should care to go to now." + +"To South Africa?" + +"You always understand," she said gratefully. + +"Supposing this--this ghastly war should not be over as soon as we all +hope," he said, rather huskily, "I could escort you myself, in a few +weeks' time, to the Cape. Or--or arrange for your going earlier if +you desired, and if I could not get away. Probably you would get +no further than Cape Town; but it might be easier for you waiting +there--than here." + +"I shall thank you, and bless you always, for thinking of it," she +interrupted, softly; "but there is something--that I never told +anybody." + +He waited. + +"After Peter had the news of his father's death," said Lady Mary, with +a sob in her throat, "you did not know that he--he telegraphed to me, +from Madeira. He foresaw immediately, I suppose, whither my foolish +impulses would lead me; and he asked me--I should rather say he +ordered me--under no circumstances whatever to follow him out to South +Africa." + +John remembered the doctor's warning, and said nothing. + +"So, you see--I can't go," said Lady Mary. + +There was a pause. + +"I am bound to say," said John, presently, "that, in Peter's place, I +should not have liked my mother, or any woman I loved, to come out to +the seat of war. He showed only a proper care for you in forbidding +it. Perhaps I am less courageous than he, in thinking more of the +present benefit you would derive from the voyage and the change of +scene, than of the perils and discomforts which might await you, for +aught we can foretell now, at the end of it. Peter certainly showed +judgment in telegraphing to you." + +"Do you really think so? That it was care for me that made him do it?" +she asked. A distant doubtful joy sounded in her voice. "Somehow I +never thought of that. I remembered his old dislike of being followed +about, or taken care of, or--or spied upon, as he used to call it." + +"Boys just turning into men are often sensitive on those points," said +John, heedful always of the doctor's warning. + +"It is odd I did not see the telegram in that light," said poor Lady +Mary. "I must read it again." + +She spoke as hopefully as though she had not read it already a hundred +times over, trying to read loving meanings, that were not there, +between the curt and peremptory lines. + +"It is not odd," thought John to himself; "it is because you knew him +too well;" and he wondered whether his explanation of Peter's action +were charitable, or merely unscrupulous. + +But Lady Mary was not really deceived; only very grateful to the man +who was so tender of heart, so tactful of speech, as to make it seem +even faintly possible that she had misjudged her boy. + +She said to herself that parents were often unreasonable, expecting +impossibilities, in their wild desire for perfection in their +offspring. An outsider, being unprejudiced by anxiety, could judge +more fairly. John found that the telegram, which had almost broken her +heart, was reasonable and justified; nay, even that it displayed a +dutiful regard for her safety and comfort, of which no one but a +stranger could possibly have suspected Peter. She was grateful to +John. It was a relief and joy to feel that it was she who was to +blame, and not Peter, whose heart was in the right place, after all. +And yet, though John was so clever and had such an experience of human +nature, it was the doctor who had put the key into his hands, which +presently unlocked Lady Mary's confidence. + +"You mustn't think, John, that I don't understand what it will be like +later, when Peter comes of age. Of course this house will be his, +and he is not the kind of young man to be tied to his mother's +apron-string. He always wanted to be independent." + +"It is human nature," said John. + +"I am not blind to his faults," said Lady Mary, humbly, "though they +all think so. It is of little use to try and hide them from you, who +will see them for yourself directly my darling comes back. I pray God +it may be soon. Of course he is spoilt; but I am to blame, because I +made him my idol." + +"An only son is always more or less spoilt," said John. He remembered +his own boyhood, and smiled sardonically in the darkness. "He will +grow out of it. He will come back a man after this experience." + +"Yes, yes, and he will want to live his life, and I--I shall have to +learn to do without him, I know," she said. "I must learn while he is +away to--to depend on myself. It is not likely that--that a woman +of my age should have much in common with a manly boy like Peter. +Sometimes I wonder whether I really understand my boy at all." + +"It is my belief," said John, "that no generation is in perfect touch +with another. Each stands on a different rung of the ladder of Time. +You may stoop to lend a helping hand to the younger, or reach upwards +to take a farewell of the older. But there must be a looking down or +a looking up. No face-to-face talk is possible except upon the same +level. No real and true comradeship. The very word implies a marching +together, under the same circumstances, to a common goal; and how can +we, who have to be the commanding officers of the young, be their true +companions?" he said, lightly and cheerfully. + +"I dare say I have expected impossibilities," said Lady Mary, as +though reproaching herself. "It comforts me to think so. But I have +had time to reflect on many things since--February." She paused. "I +don't deny I have tried to make plans for the future. But there are +these days to be lived through first--until he comes home." + +"I was going to propose," said John, "that, if agreeable to you, I +should spend my summer and autumn holiday here, instead of going, as +usual, to Switzerland." + +"I should be only too glad," she said, in tones of awakened interest. +"But surely--it would be very dull for you?" + +"Not at all. There is a great deal to be done, and in accordance with +my trust I am bound to set about it," said John. "I propose to spend +the next few days in examining the reports of the surveys that have +already been made, and in judging of their accuracy for myself. When I +return here later, I could have the work begun, and then for some time +I could superintend matters personally, which is always a good thing." + +"Do you mean--the woods?" she asked. "I know they have been neglected. +Sir Timothy would never have a tree cut down; but they are so wild and +beautiful." + +"There are hundreds of pounds' worth of timber perishing for want of +attention. I am responsible for it all until Peter comes of age," said +John, "as I am for the rest of his inheritance. It is part of my trust +to hand over to him his house and property in the best order I can, +according to my own judgment. I know something of forestry," he added, +simply; "you know I was not bred a Cockney. I was to have been +a Hertfordshire squire, on a small scale, had not circumstances +necessitated the letting of my father's house when he died." + +"But it will be yours again some day?" + +"No," said John, quietly; "it had to be sold--afterwards." + +He gave no further explanation, but Lady Mary recollected instantly +the abuse that had been showered on his mother, by her sisters-in-law, +when John was reported to have sacrificed his patrimony to pay her +debts. + +"I rather agree with you about the woods," she said. "It vexes me +always to see a beautiful young tree, that should be straight and +strong, turned into a twisted dwarf, in the shade of the overgrowth +and the overcrowding. The woodman will be delighted; he is always +grumbling." + +"It is not only the woods. There is the house." + +"I suppose it wants repairing?" said Lady Mary. "Hadn't that better be +put off till Peter comes home?" + +"I cannot neglect my trust," said John, gravely; "besides," he added, +"the state of the roof is simply appalling. Many of the beams are +actually rotten. Then there are the drains; they are on a system that +should not be tolerated in these days. Nothing has been done for over +sixty years, and I can hardly say how long before." + +"Won't it all cost a great deal of money?" said Lady Mary. + +"A good deal; but there is a very large sum of money lying idle, +which, as the will directs, may be applied to the general improvement +of the house and estate during Peter's minority; but over which he is +to have no control, should it remain unspent, until he comes of age. +That is to say, it will then--or what is left of it--be invested with +the rest of his capital, which is all strictly tied up. So, as old +Crawley says, it will relieve Peter's income in the future, if we +spend what is necessary now, according to our powers, in putting his +house and estate in order. It would have to be done sooner or later, +most assuredly. Sir Timothy, as you must know," said John, gently, +"did not spend above a third of his actual income; and, so far as Mr. +Crawley knows, spent nothing at all on repairs, beyond jobs to the +village carpenter and mason." + +"I did not know," said Lady Mary. "He always told me we were very +badly off--for our position. I know nothing of business. I did not +attend much to Mr. Crawley's explanations at the time." + +"You were unable to attend to him then," said John; "but now, I think, +you should understand the exact position of affairs. Surely my cousins +must have talked it over?" + +"Isabella and Georgina never talk business before me. You forget I am +still a child in their eyes," she said, smiling. "I gathered that they +were disappointed poor Timothy had left them nothing, and that they +thought I had too much; that is all." + +"Their way of looking at it is scarcely in accordance with justice," +said John, shrugging his shoulders. "They each have ten thousand +pounds left to them by their father in settlement. This was to return +to the estate if they died unmarried or childless. You have two +thousand a year and the Dower House for your life; but you forfeit +both if you re-marry." + +"Of course," said Lady Mary, indifferently. "I suppose that is the +usual thing?" + +"Not quite, especially when your personal property is so small." + +"I didn't know I had any personal property." + +"About five hundred pounds a year; perhaps a little more." + +"From the Setouns!" she cried. + +"From your father. Surely you must have known?" + +Lady Mary was silent a moment. "No; I didn't know," she said +presently. "It doesn't matter now, but Timothy never told me. I +thought I hadn't a farthing in the world. He never mentioned money +matters to me at all." Then she laughed faintly. "I could have lived +all by myself in a cottage in Scotland, without being beholden to +anybody--on five hundred pounds a year, couldn't I?" + +"There is no reason you should not have a cottage in Scotland now, if +you fancy one," said John, cheerfully. + +"The only memories I have in the world, outside my life in this place, +are of my childhood at home," she said. + +John suddenly realized how very, very limited her experiences had +been, and wondered less at the almost childish simplicity which +characterized her, and which in no way marred her natural graciousness +and dignity. Lady Mary did not observe his silence, because her own +thoughts were busy with a scene which memory had painted for her, and +far away from the moonlit valley of the Youle. She saw a tall, narrow, +turreted building against a ruddy sunset sky; a bare ridge of hills +crowned sparsely with ragged Scotch firs; a sea of heather which had +seemed boundless to a childish imagination. + +"I could not go back to Scotland now," she said, with that little +wistful-sounding, patient sob which moved John to such pity that he +could scarce contain himself; "but some day, when I am free--when +nobody wants me." + +"London is the only place worth living in just now, whilst we are in +such terrible anxiety," he said boldly. "At least there are the papers +and telegrams all day long, and none of this dreary, long waiting +between the posts; and there are other things--to distract one's +attention, and keep up one's courage." + +"I do not know what Isabella and Georgina would say," said Lady Mary. + +"But you--would you not care to come?" + +"Oh!" she said, half sobbing, "it is because I am afraid of caring too +much. Life seems to call so loudly to me now and then; as though I +were tired of sitting alone, and looking up the valley and down the +valley. I know it all by heart. It would be fresh life; the stir, the +movement; other people, fresh ideas, beautiful new things to see. But, +indeed, you must not tempt me." There was an accent of yearning in her +tone, a hint of eager anticipation, as of a good time coming; a dream +postponed, which she would nevertheless be willing one day to enjoy. +"I mustn't go anywhere; I couldn't--until my boy comes home, if he +ever comes home," she added, under her breath. + +"But when he comes home safe and sound, as please God he may," said +John, cheerfully, "why, then you have a great deal of lost time to +make up." + +"Ah, yes!" said Lady Mary, and again that wistful note of longing +sounded. "I have thought sometimes I would not like to die before I +have seen my birthplace once more. And there is--_Italy_," she said, +as though the one word conveyed every vision of earthly beauty which +mortal could desire to behold--as, indeed, it does. And again she +added, "But I don't know what my sisters-in-law would say. It would be +against all the traditions." + +"Surely Lady Belstone, at least, must be less absurdly narrow-minded," +said John, almost impatiently. + +"Shall I tell you the history of her marriage?" said Lady Mary. + +Her pretty laugh rang out softly in the darkness, and thrilled +John's heart, and shocked yet further the old ladies who sat within, +straining their ears for the sound of returning footsteps. + +"It took place about forty years ago or less. A cousin of her +mother's, Sir William Belstone, came to spend a few days here. I +believe the poor man invited himself, because he happened to be +staying in the neighbourhood. He was a gallant old sailor, and very +polite to both his cousins; and one day Isabella interpreted his +compliments into a proposal of marriage. Georgina has given me to +understand that no one was ever more astounded and terrified than the +admiral when he found himself engaged to Isabella. But apparently he +was a chivalrous old gentleman, and would not disappoint her. It is +really rather a sad little story, because he died of heart disease +very soon after the marriage. Old Mrs. Ash, the housekeeper, always +declares her mistress came home even more old-maidish in her ways than +she went away, and that she quarrelled with the poor admiral from +morning till night. Perhaps that is why she has never lightened her +garb of woe. And she makes my life a burden to me because I won't wear +a cap. Ah! how heartless it all sounds, and yet how ridiculous! Dear +Cousin John, haven't I bored you? Let us go in." + +With characteristic energy John Crewys set in hand the repairs which +he had declared to be so necessary. + +The late squire had apparently been as well aware of the neglected +state of his ancestral halls as of his tangled and overgrown woods; +but he had also, it seemed, been unable to make up his mind to take +any steps towards amending the condition of either--or to part with +his ever-increasing balance at his bankers'. + +Sir Timothy had carried both his obstinacy and his dullness into his +business affairs. + +The family solicitor, Mr. Crawley, backed up the new administrator +with all his might. + +"Over sixty thousand pounds uninvested, and lying idle at the bank," +he said, lifting his hands and eyes, "and one long, miserable +grumbling over the expense of keeping up Barracombe. One good tenant +after another lost because the landlord would keep nothing in repair; +gardener after gardener leaving for want of a shilling increase in +weekly wages. In case Sir Peter should turn out to resemble his +father, we had best not let the grass grow under our feet, Mr. +Crewys," said the shrewd gentleman, chuckling, "but take full +advantage of the powers entrusted to you for the next two years and +a quarter. Sir Peter, luckily, does not come of age until October, +1902." + +"That is just what I intend to do," said John. + +"Odd, isn't it," said the lawyer, confidentially, "how often a man +will put unlimited power into the hands of a comparative stranger, and +leave his own son tied hand and foot? Not a penny of all this capital +will Sir Peter ever have the handling of. Perhaps a good job too. +Oh, dear! when I look at the state of his affairs in general, I feel +positively guilty, and ashamed to have had even the nominal management +of them. But what could a man do under the circumstances? He paid for +my advice, and then acted directly contrary to it, and thought he had +done a clever thing, and outwitted his own lawyer. But now we shall +get things a bit straight, I hope. What about buying Speccot Farm, Mr. +Crewys? It's been our Naboth's vineyard for many a day; but we haggled +over the price, and couldn't make up our minds to give what the farmer +wants. He'll have to sell in the end, you know; but I suppose he could +hold out a few years longer if we don't give way." + +"He's been to me already," said John. "The price he asked is no doubt +a bit above its proper value; but it's accommodation land, and it +would be disappointing if it slipped through our fingers. I propose to +offer him pretty nearly what he asks." + +"He'll take it," said Mr. Crawley, with satisfaction. "I could never +make Sir Timothy see that it wouldn't pay the fellow to turn out +unless he got something over and above the value of his mortgages." + +"The next thing I want you to arrange is the purchase of those +twenty acres of rough pasture and gorse, right in the centre of the +property," said John, "rented by the man who lives outside Youlestone, +at what they call Pott's farm, for his wretched, half-starved beasts +to graze upon. He's saved us the trouble of exterminating the rabbits +there, I notice." + +"He's an inveterate poacher. A good thing to give him no further +excuse to hang about the place. What do you propose to do?" + +"Compensate him, burn the gorse, cut the bracken, and plant larch. +There are enough picturesque commons on the top of the hill, where the +soil is poor, and land is cheap. We don't want them in the valley. +Now I propose to give our minds to the restoration of the house, the +drains, the stables, and the home farm. Here are my estimates." + +Though Mr. Crawley was so loyal a supporter of the regent of +Barracombe, yet John's projected improvements were far too +thorough-going to gain the approval of the pottering old retainers of +the Crewys family, though they were unable to question his knowledge +or his judgment. + +"I telled 'im tu du things by the littles," said the woodman, who was +kept at work marking trees and saplings as he had never worked before; +though John was generous of help, and liberal of pay. "But lard, he +bain't one tu covet nobody's gude advice. I was vair terrified tu zee +arl he knowed about the drees. The squoire 'ee wur like a babe unbarn +beside 'un. He lukes me straight in the eyes, and 'Luke,' sezzee, 'us +'a' got tu git the place in vamous arder vur young Zur Peter,' sezzee, +'An' I be responsible, and danged but what 'a'll du't,' 'ee zays. An' +I touched my yead, zo, and I zays, 'Very gude, zur,' 'a zays. 'An' zo +'twill be, yu may depend on't.'" + +Perhaps the unwonted stir and bustle, the coming and going of John +Crewys, the confusion of workmen, the novel interest of renovating and +restoring the old house, helped to brace and fortify Lady Mary during +the months which followed; months, nevertheless, of suspense and +anxiety, which reduced her almost to a shadow of her former self. + +For Peter's career in South Africa proved an adventurous one. + +He had the good luck to distinguish himself in a skirmish almost +immediately after his arrival, and to win not only the approval of his +noble relative and commander, but his commission. His next exploit, +however, ended rather disastrously, and Peter found himself a prisoner +in the now historic bird-cage at Pretoria, where he spent a dreary, +restless, and perhaps not wholly unprofitable time, in the society of +men greatly his superior in soldierly and other qualities. + +John feared that his mother's resolution not to follow her boy must +inevitably be broken when the news of his capture reached Barracombe; +but perhaps Peter's letters had repeated the peremptory injunctions +of his telegram, for she never proposed to take the journey to South +Africa. + +The wave of relief and thankfulness that swept over the country, when +the release of the imprisoned officers became known, restored not a +little of Lady Mary's natural courage and spirits. She became more +hopeful about her son, and more interested daily in the beautifying +and restoration of his house. + +She said little in her letters to Peter of the work at Barracombe, for +John advised her that the boy would probably hardly understand the +necessity for it, and she herself was doubtful of Peter's approval +even if he had understood. She had too much intelligence to be +doubtful of John's wisdom, or of Mr. Crawley's zeal for his interest. + +The letters she received were few and scanty, for Peter was but a poor +correspondent, and he made little comment on the explanatory letter +regarding his father's will which John and Mr. Crawley thought proper +to send him. The solicitor was justly indignant at Sir Peter's neglect +to reply to this carefully thought-out and faultlessly indited +epistle. + +"He is just a chip of the old block," said Mr. Crawley. + +But his mother divined that Peter was partly offended at his own +utter exclusion from any share of responsibility, and partly too much +occupied to give much attention to any matter outside his soldiering. +She said to herself that he was really too young to be troubled +with business; and she began to believe, as the work at Barracombe +advanced, that the results of so much planning and forethought must +please him, after all. The consolation of working in his interests was +delightful to her. Her days were filling almost miraculously, as it +seemed to her, with new occupations, fresh hopes, and happier ideas, +than the idle dreaming which was all that had hitherto been permitted +to her. John desired her help, or her suggestions, at every turn, and +constantly consulted her taste. Her artistic instinct for decoration +was hardly less strong than his own, though infinitely less +cultivated. He sent her the most engrossing and delightful books to +repair the omission, and he brought her plans and drawings, which he +begged her to copy for him. The days which had hung so heavily on her +hands were scarcely long enough. + +The careful restoration of the banqueting-hall necessitated new +curtains and chair-covers. Lady Mary looked doubtfully at John when +this matter had been decided, and then at the upholstery of the +drawing-rooms facing the south terrace. + +The faded magenta silk, tarnished gilded mirrors, and gold-starred +wall-paper which decorated these apartments had offended her eye for +years. John laughed at her hesitation, and advised her to consult her +sisters-in-law on the subject; and this settled the question. + +"They would choose bottle-green" she said, in horror; and she salved +her conscience by paying for the redecoration of the drawing-rooms out +of her own pocket. + +John discovered that Lady Mary had never drawn a cheque in her life, +and that Mr. Crawley's lessons in the management of her own affairs +filled her with as much awe as amusement. + + * * * * * + +So the old order changed and gave place to the new at Barracombe; and +the summer grew to winter, and winter to summer again; and Peter did +not return, as he might, with the corps in which he had the honour to +serve. + +Want of energy was not one of his defects; he was a strong, hardy +young man, a fine horseman and a good shot, and eager to gain +distinction for himself. He passed into a fresh corps of newly raised +Yeomanry, and went through the Winter Campaign of 1901, from April to +September, without a scratch. His mother implored him to come home; +but Peter's letters were contemptuous of danger. If he were to be +shot, plenty of better fellows than he had been done for, he wrote; +and coming home to go to Oxford, or whatever his guardian might be +pleased to order him to do, was not at all in his line, when he was +really wanted elsewhere. + +To do him justice, he had no idea how boastfully his letters read; he +had not the art of expressing himself on paper, and he was always in +a hurry. The moments when he was moved by a vague affection for his +home, or his mother, were seldom the actual moments which he devoted +to correspondence; and the passing ideas of the moment were all Peter +knew how to convey. + +Lady Mary could not but be aware of her son's complete independence of +her, but the realization of it no longer filled her with such dismay +as formerly. Her outlook upon life was widening insensibly. The young +soldier's luck deserted him at last. Barely six weeks before the +declaration of peace, Peter was wounded at Rooiwal. The War Office, +and the account of the action in the newspapers, reported his injuries +as severe; but a telegram from Peter himself brought relief, and even +rejoicing, to Barracombe-- + +"_Shot in the arm. Doing splendidly. Invalided home. Sailing as soon +as doctor allows_." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"I never complain, Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, resignedly; "but +it is a great relief, as I cannot deny, to open my mind to you, who +know so well what this place used to be like in my dear brother's +time." + +The canon had been absent from Youlestone on a long holiday, and on +his return found that the workmen, who had reigned over Barracombe for +nearly two years, had at length departed. + +The inhabitants had been hunted from one part of the house to another +as the work proceeded; but now the usual living-rooms had been +restored to their occupants, and peace and order prevailed, where all +had been noise and confusion. + +"I should not have known the place," said the canon, gazing round him. + +"Nor I. We make a point of _saying_ nothing," said Miss Crewys, +pathetically, "but it's almost impossible not to _look_ now and then." + +"Speak for yourself, Georgina," said her sister, with asperity. "One +can't _look_ furniture out of one room and into another." + +The old ladies sat forlornly in their corner by the great open hearth, +whereon the logs were piled in readiness for a fire, because they +often found the early June evenings chilly. But the sofa with +broken springs, which they specially affected, had been mended, and +recovered; and was no longer, they sadly agreed, near so comfortable +as in its crippled past. + +The banqueting-hall, which was the very heart of Barracombe House, had +been carefully and skilfully restored to its ancient dignity. + +The paint and graining, which had disfigured its mighty beams and +solid panelling, had been removed; and the freshly polished oak shone +forth in its noble age, shorn of all tawdry disguise. + +The spaces of wall and roof between the beams, and above the panels, +were now of a creamy tint not far removed, as the two indignant +critics pointed out, from common whitewash. A great screen of Spanish +leather sheltered the door from the vestibule, and secured somewhat +more privacy for the hall as a sitting-room. + +The Vandyck commanded the staircase, attracting immediate attention, +as it faced the principal entry. In the wide space between the two +great windows were two portraits of equal size; the famous Sir Peter +Crewys, by Lely, painted to resemble, as nearly as possible, his royal +master, in dress and attitude; and his brother Timothy, by Kneller. + +Farmer Timothy's small, shrewd, grey eyes appeared to follow the gazer +all over the hall; and his sober wearing apparel, a plain green coat +without collar or cape, contrasted effectively with the cavalier's +laced doublet and feathered hat. + +Gone were the Early Victorian portraits; gone the big glass cases of +stuffed birds and weasels; gone the round mahogany table, the waxen +bouquets, and the horsehair chairs. The ancient tapestry beside the +carven balustrade of the staircase remained, but it had been cleaned, +and even mended. + +An oak dresser, black with age, and laden with blue and white +china, lurked in a shadowy corner. Comfortable easy-chairs and odd, +old-fashioned settees furnished the hall. In the oriel window stood a +spinning-wheel and a grandfather's chair. A great bowl of roses stood +on the broad window-seat. There were roses, indeed, everywhere, and +books on every table. But the crowning grievance of all was the +cottage piano which John had sent to Lady Mary. The case had been +specially made of hand-carven oak to match the room as nearly as might +be. It was open, and beside it was a heap of music, and on it another +bowl of roses. + +"Ay, you may well look horrified," said Miss Crewys to the canon, +whose admiration and delight were very plainly depicted on his +rubicund countenance. "Where are our cloaks and umbrellas? That's what +I say to Isabella. Where are our goloshes? Where is anything, indeed, +that one would expect to find in a gentleman's hall? Not so much as a +walking-stick. Everything to be kept in the outer hall, where tramps +could as easily step in and help themselves; but our poor foolish +Mary fancies that Peter will be delighted to find his old home turned +upside down." + +"My belief is," said Lady Belstone, "that Peter will just insist on +all this wooden rubbish trotting back to the attics, where my dear +granny, not being accustomed to wooden furniture, very properly hid it +away. If you will believe me, canon, that dresser was brought up from +the _kitchen_, and every single pot and pan that decorates it used to +be kept in the housekeeper's room. That lumbering old chest was in +the harness-room. Pretty ornaments for a gentleman's sitting-room! If +Peter has grown up anything like my poor brother, he won't put up with +it at all." + +"I suppose, in one sense, it's Peter's house, or will be very +shortly?" said the canon. + +"In _every_ sense it's Peter's house," cried Lady Belstone; "and he +comes of age, thank Heaven, in October." + +"I had hoped to hear he had sailed," said the canon. "No news is good +news, I hope." + +"The last telegram said his wound was doing well, but did not give any +date for his return. Young John says we may expect him any time. I do +not know what he knows about it more than any one else, however," said +Miss Crewys. + +"His letters give no details about himself," said Lady Belstone; "he +makes no fuss about his wounded arm. He is a thorough Crewys, not +given to making a to-do about trifles." + +"He could only write a few words with his left hand," said Miss +Crewys; "more could not have been expected of him. Yet poor Mary was +quite put out, as I plainly saw, though she said nothing, because the +boy had not written at greater length." + +"I find they've made a good many preparations for his welcome down in +the village," said the canon, "in case he should take us by surprise. +So many of the officers have got passages at the last moment, +unexpectedly. And we shall turn out to receive him _en masse_. Mr. +Crewys has given us _carte blanche_ for fireworks and flags; and they +are to have a fine bean-feast." + +"Our cousin John takes a great deal upon himself, and has made +uncommonly free with Peter's money," said Lady Belstone, shaking her +head. "I wish he may not find himself pretty nigh ruined when he comes +to look into his own affairs. In my opinion, Fred Crawley is little +better than a fool." + +"He is most devoted to Peter's interests, my dear lady," said the +canon, warmly, "and he informed me that Mr. John Crewys had done +wonders in the past two years." + +"He has turned the whole place topsy-turvy in two years, in my +opinion," said Miss Crewys. "I don't deny that he is a rising young +man, and that his manners are very taking. But what can a Cockney +lawyer know, about timber, pray?" + +"No man on earth, lawyer or no lawyer," said Lady Belstone, +emphatically, "will ever convince me that one can be better than +_well_." + +"My sister alludes to the drains. It is a sore point, canon," said +Miss Crewys. "In my opinion, it is all this modern drainage that sets +up typhoid fever, and nothing else." + +"Bless me!" said the canon. + +"Our poor Mary has grown so dependent on John, however, that she will +hear nothing against him. One has to mind one's p's and q's," said +Lady Belstone. + +"He planned the alterations in this very hall," said Miss Crewys, "and +the only excuse he offered, so far as I could understand, was that it +would amuse poor Mary to carry them out." + +"Does a widow wish to be amused?" said Lady Belstone, indignantly. + +"And was she amused, dear lady?" asked the canon, anxiously. + +"When she saw our horror and dismay she smiled." + +"Did you call that a smile, Georgina? I called it a laugh. It takes +almost nothing to make her laugh nowadays." + +"You would not wish her to be too melancholy," said the canon, almost +pleadingly; "one so--so charming, so--" + +"Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, in awful tones, "she is a widow." + +The canon was silent, displaying an embarrassment which did not escape +the vigilant observation of the sisters, who exchanged a meaning +glance. + +"Well may you remind us of the fact, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "for +she has discarded the last semblance of mourning." + +"Time flies so fast," said the canon, as though impelled to defend +the absent. "It is--getting on for three years since poor Sir Timothy +died." + +"It is but two years and four months," said Miss Crewys. + +"It is thirty-three years since the admiral went aloft," said Lady +Belstone, who often became slightly nautical in phrase when alluding +to her departed husband; "and look at me." + +The pocket-handkerchief she held up was deeply bordered with ink. +Orthodox streamers floated on either side her severe countenance. + +The canon looked and shook his head. He felt that the mysteries of a +widow's garments had best not be discussed by one who dwelt, so to +speak, outside them. + +"Poor Mary can do nothing gradually," said Miss Crewys. "She leapt in +a single hour out of a black dress into a white one." + +"Her anguish when our poor Timothy succumbed to that fatal operation +surpassed even the bounds of decorum," said Lady Belstone, "and +yet--she would not wear a cap!" + +She appealed to the canon with such a pathetic expression in her +small, red-rimmed, grey eyes that he could not answer lightly. + +They faced him with anxious looks and drooping, tremulous mouths. +They had grown curiously alike during the close association of nearly +eighty years, though in their far-off days of girlhood no one had +thought them to resemble each other. + +Miss Crewys crocheted a shawl with hands so delicately cared for and +preserved, that they scarce showed any sign of her great age; her +sister wore gloves, as was the habit of both when unoccupied, and she +grasped her handkerchief in black kid fingers that trembled slightly +with emotion. + +The canon realized that the old ladies were seriously troubled +concerning their sister-in-law's delinquencies. + +"We speak to you, of course, as our _clergyman_," said Miss Crewys; +and the poor gentleman could only bow sympathetically. + +"I am an old friend," he said feelingly, "and your confidences are +sacred. But I think in your very natural--er--affection for Lady +Mary"--the word stuck in his throat--"you are, perhaps, over-anxious. +In judging those younger than ourselves," said the canon, gallantly +coupling himself with his auditors,' though acutely conscious that he +was some twenty years the junior of both, "we must not forget that +they recover their spirits, by a merciful dispensation of Providence, +more quickly than we should ourselves in the like circumstances," said +the canon, who was as light-hearted a cleric as any in England. + +"They do, indeed," said Lady Belstone, emphatically; "when they can +sing and play all the day and half the night, like our dear Mary and +young John." + +"You see the piano blocking up the hall, though Sir Timothy hated +music?" said Miss Crewys. + +Her own mourning was thoughtfully graduated to indicate the time which +had elapsed since Sir Timothy's decease. She wore a violet silk of +sombre hue, ornamented by a black silk apron and a black lace scarf. +The velvet bow which served so very imperfectly as a skull-cap was +also violet, intimating a semi-assuaged, but respectfully lengthened, +grief for the departed. + +"And now this maddest scheme of all," said Miss Crewys. + +"Bless me! What mad scheme?" + +"A house in London is to be hired as soon as Peter comes home." + +"Is that all? But surely that is very natural. For my part, I have +often wondered why none of you ever cared to go to London, if only for +your shopping. I am very fond of a trip to town myself, now and then, +for a few days." + +"A few days, it seems, would not suffice our cousin John's notions. He +is pleased to think Peter may require skilled medical attendance; and, +since he wrote he was in rags, a new outfit. These, it seems, can only +be obtained in the Metropolis nowadays. My brother's tailor still +lives in Exeter; and with all his faults--and nobody can dislike him +more than I do--I have never heard it denied that Dr. Blundell is a +skilful apothecary." + +"_Very_ skilful," added Miss Crewys. "You remember, Isabella, how +quickly he put your poor little Fido out of his agony." + +"That is nothing; all doctors understand animals' illnesses. They kill +numbers of guinea-pigs before they are allowed to try their hands on +human beings," said Lady Belstone. "The point is, that if my poor +brother Timothy had not been mad enough to go to London, he would have +been alive at this moment. I have never heard of Dr. Blundell finding +it necessary--much as I detest the man--to perform an operation on +anybody." + +"Apart from this painful subject, my dear lady," murmured the canon, +"I presume it is only a furnished house that Lady Mary contemplates?" + +"During all the years of his married life Sir Timothy never hired a +furnished house," said Miss Crewys. "The home of his fathers sufficed +him." + +"She may want a change?" suggested the canon. + +Miss Crewys interpreted him literally. "No; she is in the best of +health." + +"Better than I have ever seen her, and--and _gayer_" said Lady +Belstone, with emphasis. + +"People who are gay and bright in disposition are the very ones +who--who pine for a little excitement at times," said the courageous +canon. "There is so much to be seen and done and heard in London. For +instance, as you say--she is passionately fond of music." + +"She gets plenty. _We_ get more than enough," said Miss Crewys, +grimly. + +"I mean _good_ music;" then he recollected himself in alarm. "No, +no; I don't mean hers is not charming, and Mr. John's playing is +delightful, but--" + +"There is an organ in the parish church," said Miss Crewys, crocheting +more busily than ever. "I have heard no complaints of the choir. Have +you?" + +"No, no; but--besides music, there are so many other things," he said +dismally. "She likes pictures, too." + +"It does not look like it, canon," said Lady Belstone, sorrowfully. +She waved her handkerchief towards the panelled walls. "She has +removed the family portraits to the lumber-room." + +"At least the Vandyck has never been seen to greater advantage," +said the canon, hopefully; "and I hear the gallery upstairs has been +restored and supported, to render it safe to walk upon, which will +enable you to take pleasure in the fine pictures there." + +"I am sadly afraid that it is not pictures that poor Mary hankers +after, but _theatres_," said Miss Crewys. "John has persuaded her, +if persuasion was needed, which I take leave to doubt, that there is +nothing improper in visiting such places. My dear brother thought +otherwise." + +"You know I do not share your opinions on that point," said the canon. +"Though not much of a theatre-goer myself, still--" + +"A widow at the theatre!" said Lady Belstone. "Even in the admiral's +lifetime I did not go. Being a sailor, and _not_ a clergyman," she +added sternly, "he frequented such places of amusement. But he said +he could not have enjoyed a ballet properly with me looking on. His +feelings were singularly delicate." "I am afraid people must be +talking about dear Mary a good deal, canon," said Miss Crewys, +whisking a ball of wool from the floor to her knee with much +dexterity. + +Her keen eyes gleamed at her visitor through her spectacles, though +her fingers never stopped for a moment. + +"I hope not. I've heard nothing." + +"My experience of men," said Lady Belstone, "is that they never _do_ +hear anything. But a widow cannot be too cautious in her behaviour. +All eyes are fixed, I know not why, upon a widow," she added modestly. + +"We do our best to guard dear Mary's reputation," said Miss Crewys. + +The impetuous canon sprang to his feet with a half-uttered +exclamation; then recollecting the age and temperament of the speaker, +he checked himself and tried to laugh. + +"I do not know," he said, "who has said, or ever could say, one single +word against that--against our dear and sweet Lady Mary. But if there +_is_ any one, I can only say that such word had better not be uttered +in my presence, that's all." + +"Dear me, Canon Birch, you excite yourself very unnecessarily," said +Lady Belstone, with assumed surprise. "You are just confirming our +suspicions." + +"What suspicions?" almost shouted the canon, + +"That our dear Lady Mary's extraordinary partiality for our cousin +John has _not_ escaped the observation of a censorious world." + +"Though we have done our best never to leave him alone with her for a +single moment," interpolated Miss Crewys. + +The canon turned rather pale. "There can be no question of censure," +he said. "Lady Mary is a very charming and beautiful woman. Who could +dare to blame her if she contemplated such a step as--as a second +marriage?" + +"A second marriage! We said nothing of a second marriage," said Lady +Belstone, sharply. "You go a great deal too fast, canon. Luckily, our +poor Mary is debarred from any such act of folly. I have no patience +with widows who re-marry." + +"Debarred from a second marriage!" + +"Is it possible you don't know?" + +The sisters exchanged meaning glances. + +He looked from one to the other in bewilderment. + +"If our sister-in-law remarries," said Miss Crewys, "she forfeits the +whole of her jointure." + +"Is that all?" he cried. + +"Is that all!" echoed Miss Crewys, much offended. "It is no less than +two thousand a year. In my opinion, far too heavy a charge on poor +Peter's estate." + +"No man with any self-respect," said Lady Belstone, "would desire to +marry a widow without a jointure. I should have formed a low opinion, +indeed, of any gentleman who asked _me_ to marry him without first +making sure that the admiral had provided for me as he ought, and as +he _has_." + +The canon, though mentally echoing the sentiment with much warmth, +thought it wiser to change the topic of conversation. Experience +had taught him to discredit most of the assumptions of Lady Mary's +sisters-in-law, where she was concerned, and he rose in hope of +effecting his escape without further ado. + +"I believe I am to meet Mr. Crewys at luncheon," he said, "and with +your permission I will stroll out into the grounds, and look him up. +He told me where he was to be found." + +"He is to be found all over the place. He seizes every opportunity +of coming down here. I cannot believe in his making so much money in +London, when he manages to get away so often. As for Mary, you know +her way of inviting people to lunch, and then going out for a walk, +or up to her room, as likely as not. But I suppose she will be down +directly, if you like to wait here," said Lady Belstone, who had +plenty more to say. + +"I should be glad of a turn before luncheon," said the canon, who had +no mind to hear it. "And there is an hour and a half yet. You lunch at +two? I came straight from the school-house, as Lady Mary suggested. I +wanted to have a look at the improvements." + +"Sarah Hewel is coming to lunch," said Miss Crewys. "I cannot say we +approve of her, since she has been out so much in London, and become +such a notorious young person." + +"It's very odd to me," said the canon, benevolently, "little Sarah +growing up into a fashionable beauty. I often see her name in the +papers." + +"She is exactly the kind of person to attract our cousin John, who is +quite foolish about her red hair. In my young days, red hair was just +a misfortune like any other," said Miss Crewys. "Dr. Blundell is +lunching here also, I need hardly say. Since my dear brother's death +we keep open house." + +"It used not to be the fashion to encourage country doctors to be tame +cats," said Lady Belstone, viciously; "but he pretends to like the +innovations, and gets round young John; and inquires after Peter, and +pleases Mary." + +"Ay, ay; it will be a great moment for her when the boy comes back. A +great moment for you all," said the canon, absently. + +He stood with his back to the tall leather screen which guarded the +entrance to the hall, and did not hear the gentle opening of the great +door. + +"I trust," said Miss Crewys, "that we are not a family prone to +display weak emotion even on the most trying occasions." + +"To be sure not," said the canon, disconcerted; "still, I cannot think +of it myself without a little--a great deal--of thankfulness for his +preservation through this terrible war, now so happily ended. And to +think the boy should have earned so much distinction for himself, and +behaved so gallantly. God bless the lad! You are well aware," said the +canon, blowing his nose, "that I have always been fond of Peter." + +"Thank you, canon," said Peter. + +For a moment no one was sure that it was Peter, who had come so +quietly round the great screen and into the hall, though he stood +somewhat in the shadow still. + +A young man, looking older than his age, and several inches taller +than Peter had been when he went away; a young man deeply tanned, and +very wiry and thin in figure; with a brown, narrow face, a dark streak +of moustache, a long nose, and a pair of grey eyes rendered unfamiliar +by an eyeglass, which was an ornament Peter had not worn before his +departure. + +The old ladies sat motionless, trembling with the shock; but the canon +seized the hand which Peter held out, and, scarcely noticing that it +was his left hand, shook it almost madly in both his own. + +"Peter! good heavens, Peter!" he cried, and the tears ran unheeded +down his plump, rosy cheeks. "Peter, my boy, God bless you! Welcome +home a thousand thousand times!" + +"Peter!" gasped Lady Belstone. "Is it possible?" + +"Why, he's grown into a man," said Miss Crewys, showing symptoms of an +inclination to become hysterical. + +Peter was aghast at the commotion, and came hurriedly forward to +soothe his agitated relatives. + +"Is this your boasted self-command, Georgina?" said Lady Belstone, +weeping. + +"We cannot always be consistent, Isabella. It was the unexpected joy," +sobbed Miss Crewys. + +"Peter! your _arm_!" screamed Lady Belstone and she fell back almost +fainting upon the sofa. + +Peter stood full in the light now, and they saw that he had lost his +right arm. The empty sleeve was pinned to his breast. + +His aunt tottered towards him. "My poor boy!" she sobbed. + +"Oh, that's all right," said Peter, in rather annoyed tones. "I can +use my left hand perfectly well. I hardly notice it now." + +Something in the tone of this speech caused his aunts to exclaim +simultaneously-- + +"Dear boy, he has not changed one bit!" + +"You never told us, Peter," said the canon, huskily. + +"I didn't want a fuss," Peter said, very simply, "so I just got the +newspaper chap to cork it down about my being shot in the arm, without +any details. It had to be amputated first thing, as a matter of fact." + +"It has given your aunt Georgina and me a terrible shock," said Lady +Belstone, faintly. + +"You can't expect a fellow who has been invalided home to turn up +without a single scratch," said Peter, in rather surly tones. + +"How like his father!" said Miss Crewys. + +"Besides, you know very well my mother would have tormented herself to +death if I had told her," said Peter. "I want her to see with her own +eyes how perfectly all right I am before she knows anything about it." + +"It was a noble thought," said the canon. + +"Where is she?" demanded Peter. + +He seemed about to cross the hall to the staircase but the canon +detained him. + +"Oughtn't some one to prepare her?" + +"Oh, joy never kills," said Peter. "She's quite well, isn't she?" + +"Quite well." + +"Very well _indeed_" said Miss Crewys, with emphasis that seemed to +imply Lady Mary was better than she had any need to be. + +"I have never," said the canon, with a nervous side-glance at Peter, +"seen her look so well, nor so--so lovely, nor so--so brilliant. Only +your return was needed to complete--her happiness." + +Peter looked at the canon through his newly acquired eyeglass with +some slight surprise. + +"Well," he said, "I wouldn't telegraph. I wanted to slip home quietly, +that's the fact; or I knew the place would be turned upside down to +receive me." + +"The people are preparing a royal welcome for you," said the canon, +warmly. "Banners, music, processions, addresses, and I don't know +what." + +"That's awful rot!" said Peter. "Tell them I hate banners and music +and addresses, and everything of the kind." + +"No, no, my dear boy," said the canon, in rather distressed tones. +"Don't say that, Peter, pray. You must think of _their_ feelings, you +know. There's hardly one of them who hasn't sent somebody to the war; +son or brother or sweetheart. And all that's left for--for those who +stay behind--not always the least hard thing to do for a patriot, +Peter--is to honour, as far as they can, each one who returns. They +work off some of their accumulated feelings that way, you know; and in +their rejoicings they do not forget those who, alas! will never return +any more." + +There was a pause; and Peter remained silent, embarrassed by the +canon's emotion, and not knowing very well how to reply. + +"There, there," said the canon, saving him the trouble; "we can +discuss it later. You are thinking of your mother now." + +As he spoke, they all heard Lady Mary's voice in the corridor above. +She was humming a song, and as she neared the open staircase the words +of her song came very distinctly to their ears-- + + _Entends tu ma pensée qui le réspond tout bas_? + _Ton doux chant me rappelle les plus beaux de mes jours_. + +"My mother's voice," said Peter, in bewildered accents; and he dropped +his eyeglass. + +The canon showed a presence of mind that seldom distinguished him. + +He hurried away the old ladies, protesting, into the drawing-room, and +closed the door behind him. + +Peter scarcely noticed their absence. + + _Ah! le rire fidèle prouve un coeur sans détours, + Ah! riez, riez--ma belle--riez, riez toujours_, + +sang Lady Mary. + +"I never heard my mother sing before," said Peter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Lady Mary came down the oak staircase singing. The white draperies of +her summer gown trailed softly on the wide steps, and in her hands she +carried a quantity of roses. A black ribbon was bound about her waist, +and seemed only to emphasize the slenderness of her form. Her brown +hair was waved loosely above her brow; it was not much less abundant, +though much less bright, than in her girlhood. The freshness of youth +had gone for ever; but her loveliness had depended less upon that +radiant colouring which had once been hers than upon her clear-cut +features, and exquisitely shaped head and throat. Her blue eyes looked +forth from a face white and delicate as a shell cameo, beneath finely +pencilled brows; but they shone now with a new hopefulness--a timid +expectancy of happiness; they were no longer pensive and downcast as +Peter had known them best. + +The future had been shrouded by a heavy mist of hopelessness +always--for Lady Mary. But the fog had lifted, and a fair landscape +lay before her. Not bright, alas! with the brightness and the promise +of the morning-time; but yet--there are sunny afternoons; and the +landscape was bright still, though long shadows from the past fell +across it. + +Peter saw only that his mother, for some extraordinary reason, looked +many years younger than when he had left her, and that she had +exchanged her customary dull, old-fashioned garb for a beautiful and +becoming dress. He gave an involuntary start, and immediately she +perceived him. + +She stretched out her arms to him with a cry that rang through the +rafters of the hall. The roses were scattered. + +"My boy! O God, my darling boy!" + +In the space of a flash--a second--Lady Mary had seen and understood. +Her arms were round him, and her face hidden upon his empty sleeve. +She was as still as death. Peter stooped his head and laid his cheek +against her hair; he felt for one fleeting moment that he had never +known before how much he loved his mother. + +"Forgive me for keeping it dark, mother," he whispered presently; "but +I knew you'd think I was dying, or something, if I told you. It had to +be done, and I don't care--much--now; one gets used to anything. My +aunts nearly had a fit when I came in; but I knew _you'd_ be too +thankful to get me home safe and sound, to make a fuss over what can't +be helped. It's--it's just the fortune of war." + +"Oh, if I could meet the man who did it!" she cried, with fire in her +blue eyes. + +"It wasn't a man; it was a gun," said Peter. "Let's forget it. I +say--doesn't it feel rummy to be at home again?" + +"But you have come back a man, Peter. Not a boy at all," said Lady +Mary, laughing through her tears. "Do let me look at you. You must be +six feet three, surely." + +"Barely six feet one in my boots," said Peter, reprovingly. + +"And you have a moustache--more or less." + +"Of course I have a moustache," said Peter, gravely stroking it. He +mechanically replaced his eyeglass. + +Lady Mary laughed till she cried. + +"Do forgive me, darling. But oh, Peter, it seems so strange. My boy +grown into a tall gentleman with an eyeglass. Nothing has happened to +your eye?" she cried, in sudden anxiety. + +"No, no; I am just a little short-sighted, that is all," he mumbled, +rather awkwardly. + +He found it difficult to explain that he had travelled home with a +distinguished man who had captivated his youthful fancy, and caused +him to fall into a fit of hero-worship, and to imitate his idol as +closely as possible. Hence the eyeglass, and a few harmless mannerisms +which temporarily distinguished Peter, and astonished his previous +acquaintance. + +But there was something else in Peter's manner, too, for the moment. +A new tenderness, which peeped through his old armour of sulky +indifference; the chill armour of his boyhood, which had grown +something too strait and narrow for him even now, and from which he +would doubtless presently emerge altogether--but not yet. + +Though Lady Mary laughed, she was trembling and shaken with emotion. +Peter came to the sofa and knelt beside her there, and she took his +hand in both hers, and laid her face upon it, and they were very still +for a few moments. + +"Mother dear," said Peter presently, without looking at her, "coming +home like this, and not finding my father here, makes me _realize_ for +the first time--though it's all so long ago--what's happened." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Poor mother! You must have been terribly lonely all this time I've +been away." + +"I've longed for your return, my darling," said Lady Mary. + +Her tone was embarrassed, but Peter did not notice that. + +"You see--I went away a boy, but I've come back a man, as you said +just now," said Peter. + +"You're still very young, my darling--not one-and-twenty," she said +fondly. + +"I'm older than my age; and I've been through a lot; more than you'd +think, all this time I've been away. I dare say it hasn't seemed so +long to you, who've had no experiences to go through," he said simply. + +She kissed him silently. + +"Now just listen, mother dear," said Peter, firmly. "I made up my mind +to say something to you the very first minute I saw you, and it's got +to be said. I'm sorry I used to be such a beast to you--there." + +"Oh, Peter!" + +"I dare say," said Peter, "that it's all this rough time in South +Africa that's made me feel what a fool I used to make of myself, when +I was a discontented ass of a boy; that, or being ill, or something, +used to--make one think a bit. And that's why I made up my mind to +tell you. I know I used to disappoint you horribly, and be bored by +your devotion, and all that. But you'll see," said Peter, decidedly, +"that I mean to be different now; and you'll forgive me, won't you?" + +"My darling, I forgave you long ago--if there was anything to +forgive," she cried, + +"You know there was," said Peter; and he sounded like the boy Peter +again, now that she could not see his face. "Well, my soldiering's +done for." A faint note of regret sounded in his voice. "I had a good +bout, so I suppose I oughtn't to complain; but I had hoped--however, +it's all for the best. And there's no doubt," said Peter, "that my +duty lies here now. In a very few months I shall be my own master, and +I mean to keep everything going here exactly as it was in my father's +time. You shall devote yourself to me, and I'll devote myself to +Barracombe; and we'll just settle down into all the old ways. Only it +will be me instead of my father--that's all." + +"You instead of your father--that's all," echoed Lady Mary. She felt +as though her mind had suddenly become a blank. + +"I used to rebel against poor papa," said Peter, remorsefully. "But +now I look back, I know he was just the kind of man I should like to +be." + +She kissed his hand in silence. Her face was hidden. + +"I want you--and my aunts, to feel that, though I am young and +inexperienced, and all that," said Peter, tenderly, "there are to be +no changes." + +"But, Peter," said his mother, rather tremulously, "there are--sure +to be--changes. You will want to marry, sooner or later. In your +position, you are almost bound to marry." + +"Oh, of course," said Peter. He released his hand gently, in order to +stroke the cherished moustache. "But I shall put off the evil day as +long as possible, like my father did." + +"I see," said Lady Mary. She smiled faintly. + +"And when it _does_ arrive," said Peter, "my wife will just have to +understand that she comes second. I've no notion of being led by the +nose by any woman, particularly a young woman. I'm sure my father +never dreamt of putting his sisters on one side, or turning them out +of their place, when he married _you_, did he?" + +"Never," said Lady Mary. + +"Of course they were snappish at times. I suppose all old people +get like that. But, on the whole, you managed to jog along pretty +comfortably, didn't you?" + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary. "We jogged along pretty comfortably." + +"Then don't you see how snug we shall be?" said Peter, triumphantly. +"I can tell you a fellow learns to appreciate home when he has been +without one, so to speak, for over two years. And home wouldn't be +home without you, mother dear." + +Lady Mary sank suddenly back among the cushions. Her feelings were +divided between dismay and self-reproach. Yet she was faintly amused +too--amused at Peter and herself. Her boy had returned to her with +sentiments that were surely all that a mother could desire; and +yet--yet she felt instinctively that Peter was Peter still; that +his thoughts were not her thoughts, nor his ways her ways. Then the +self-reproach began to predominate in Lady Mary's mind. How could she +criticize her boy, her darling, who had proved himself a son to be +proud of, and who had come back to her with a heart so full of love +and loyalty? + +"And _you_ couldn't live without _me_, could you?" said Peter, +affectionately; and he laughed. "I suppose you meant to go into that +little, damp, tumble-down Dower House, and watch over me from there; +now didn't you, mummy?" + +"I--I thought, when you came of age," faltered Lady Mary, "that I +should give up Barracombe House to you, naturally. I could come and +stay with you sometimes--whether you were married or not, you know. +And--and, of course, the Dower House _does_ belong to me." + +"I won't hear of your going there," said Peter, stoutly, "whether I'm +married or not. It's a beastly place." + +"It's very picturesque," said Lady Mary, guiltily; "and I--I wasn't +thinking of living there all the year round." + +"Why, where on earth else could you have gone?" he demanded, regarding +her with astonishment through the eyeglass. + +"There are several places--London," she faltered. + +"London!" said Peter; "but my father had a perfect horror of London. +He wouldn't have liked it at all." + +"He belonged--to the old school," said Lady Mary, meekly; "to +younger people, perhaps--an occasional change might be pleasant and +profitable." + +"Oh! to _younger_ people," said Peter, in mollified tones. "I don't +say I shall _never_ run up to London. I dare say I shall be obliged, +now and then, on business. Not often though. I hate absentee +landlords, as my father did." + +"Travelling is said to open the mind," murmured Lady Mary, weakly +pursuing her argument, as she supposed it to be. + +"I've seen enough of the world now to last me a lifetime," said Peter, +in sublime unconsciousness that any fate but his own could be in +question. + +"I didn't think you would have changed so much as this, Peter," she +said, rather dismally. "You used to find this place so dull." + +"I know I used," Peter agreed; "but oh, mother, if you knew how sick +I've been now and then with longing to get back to it! I made up my +mind a thousand times how it should all be when I came home again; and +that you and me would be everything in the world to each other, as you +used to wish when I was a selfish boy, thinking only of getting +away and being independent. I'm afraid I used to be rather selfish, +mother?" + +"Perhaps you were--a little," said Lady Mary. + +"You will never have to complain of _that_ again," said Peter. + +She looked at him with a faint, pathetic smile. + +"I shall take care of you, and look after you, just as my father used +to do," said Peter. "Now you rest quietly here"--and he gently laid +her down among the cushions on the sofa--"whilst I take a look round +the old place." + +"Let me come with you, darling." + +"Good heavens, no! I should tire you to death. My father never liked +you to go climbing about." + +"I am much more active than I used to be," said Lady Mary. + +"No, no; you must lie down, you look quite pale." Peter's voice took +an authoritative note, which came very naturally to him. "The sudden +joy of my return has been too much for you, poor old mum." + +He leant over her fondly, and kissed the sweet, pale face, and then +regarded her in a curious, doubtful manner. + +"You're changed, mother. I can't think what it is. Isn't your hair +done differently--or something?" + +Poor Lady Mary lifted both hands to her head, and looked at him with +something like alarm in her blue eyes. + +"Is it? Perhaps it is," she faltered. "Don't you like it, Peter?" + +"I like the old way best," said Peter. + +"But this is so much more becoming, Peter." + +"A fellow doesn't care," said Peter, loftily, "whether his mother's +hair is becoming or not. He likes to see her always the same as when +he was a little chap." + +"It is--sweet of you, to have such a thought," murmured Lady Mary. She +took her courage in both hands. "But the other way is out of fashion, +Peter." + +"Why, mother, you never used to follow the fashions before I went +away; you won't begin now, at your age, will you?" + +"_At my age_" repeated Lady Mary, blankly. Then she looked at him with +that wondering, pathetic smile, which seemed to have replaced already, +since Peter came home, the joyousness which had timidly stolen back +from her vanished youth. "At my age!" said Lady Mary; "you are not +very complimentary, Peter." + +"You don't expect a fellow to pay compliments to his mother," said +Peter, staring at her. "Why, mother, what has come to you? And +besides--" + +"Besides?" + +"I'm sure papa hated compliments, and all that sort of rot," Peter +blurted out, in boyish fashion. "Don't you remember how fond he was of +quoting, 'Praise to the face is open disgrace'?" + +The late Sir Timothy, like many middle-class people, had taken a +compliment almost as a personal offence; and regarded the utterer, +however gracious or sincere, with suspicion. Neither had the squire +himself erred on the side of flattering his fellow-creatures. + +"Oh yes, I remember," said Lady Mary; and she rose from the sofa. + +"Why, what's the matter?" asked Peter. "I haven't vexed you, have I?" + +She turned impetuously and threw her arms round him as he stood by the +hearth, gazing down upon her in bewilderment. + +"Vexed with my boy, my darling, my only son, on the very day when God +has given him back to me?" she cried passionately. "My poor wounded +boy, my hero! Oh no, no! But I want only love from you to-day, and no +reproaches, Peter." + +"Why, I wasn't dreaming of reproaching you, mother." He hesitated. +"Only you're a bit different from what I expected--that's all." + +"Have I disappointed you?" + +"No, no! Only I--well, I thought I might find you changed, but in a +different way," he said, half apologetically. "Perhaps older, you +know, or--or sadder." + +Lady Mary's white face flushed scarlet from brow to chin; but Peter, +occupied with his monocle, observed nothing. + +"I'd prepared myself for that," he said, "and to find you all in +black. And--" + +"I threw off my mourning," she murmured, "the very day I heard you +were coming home." She paused, and added hurriedly, "It was very +thoughtless. I'm sorry; I ought to have thought of your feelings, my +darling." + +"Aunt Isabella has never changed hers, has she?" said Peter. + +"Aunt Isabella is a good deal more conventional than I am; and a great +many years older," said Lady Mary, tremulously. + +"I don't see what that has to do with it," said Peter. + +She turned away, and began to gather up her scattered roses. A few +moments since the roses had been less than nothing to her. What were +roses, what was anything, compared to Peter? Now they crept back into +their own little place in creation; their beauty and fragrance dumbly +conveyed a subtle comfort to her soul, as she lovingly laid one +against another, until a glowing bouquet of coppery golden hue was +formed. She lifted an ewer from the old dresser, and poured water into +a great silver goblet, wherein she plunged the stalks of her roses. +Why should they be left to fade because Peter had come home? + +"You remember these?" she said, "from the great climber round my +bedroom window? I leant out and cut them--little thinking--" + +Peter signified a gloomy assent. He stood before the chimneypiece +watching his mother, but not offering to help her; rather as though +undecided as to what his next words ought to be. + +"Peter, darling, it's so funny to see you standing there, so tall, and +so changed--" But though it was so funny the tears were dropping from +her blue eyes, which filled and overflowed like a child's, without +painful effort or grimaces. "You--you remind me so of your father," +she said, almost involuntarily. + +"I'm glad I'm like him," said Peter. + +She sighed. "How I used to wish you were a little tiny bit like me +too!" + +"But I'm not, am I?" + +"No, you're not. Not one tiny bit," she answered wistfully. "But you +do love me, Peter?" + +"Haven't I proved I love you?" said Peter; and she perceived that +his feelings were hurt. "Coming back, and--and thinking only of you, +and--and of never leaving you any more. Why, mother"--for in an agony +of love and remorse she was clinging to him and sobbing, with her face +pressed against his empty sleeve--"why, mother," Peter repeated, in +softened tones, "of course I love you." + +The drawing-room door was cautiously opened, and Peter's aunts came +into the hall on tiptoe, followed by the canon. + +"Ah, I thought so," said Lady Belstone, in the self-congratulatory +tones of the successful prophet, "it has been too much for poor Mary. +She has been overcome by the joy of dear Peter's return." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +"Try my salts, dear Mary," said Miss Crewys, hastening to apply the +remedies which were always to be found in her black velvet reticule. + +"I blame myself," said the canon, distressfully--"I blame myself. I +should have insisted on breaking the news to her gently." + +Lady Mary smiled upon them all. "On the contrary," she said, "I was +offering, not a moment ago, to take Peter round and show him the +improvements. We have been so much occupied with each other that he +has not had time to look round him." + +"I wish he may think them improvements, my love," said Lady Belstone. + +Miss Crewys, joyously scenting battle, hastened to join forces with +her sister. + +"We are far from criticizing any changes your dear mother may have +been induced to make," she said; "but as your Aunt Isabella has +frequently observed to me, what _can_ a Londoner know of landscape +gardening?" + +"A Londoner?" said Peter. + +"Your guardian, my boy," said the canon, nervously. "He has slightly +opened out the views; that is all your good aunt is intending to say." + +Peter's good aunt opened her mouth to contradict this assertion +indignantly, but Lady Mary broke in with some impatience. + +"I do not mean the trees. Of course the house was shut in far too +closely by the trees at the back and sides. We wanted more air, more +light, more freedom." She drew a long breath and flung out her hands +in unconscious illustration. "But there are many very necessary +changes that--that Peter will like to see," said Lady Mary, glancing +almost defiantly at the pursed-up mouths and lowered eyelids of the +sisters. + +Peter walked suddenly into the middle of the banqueting-hall and +looked round him. + +"Why, what's come to the old place? It's--it's changed somehow. What +have you been doing to it?" he demanded. + +"Don't you--don't you like it, Peter?" faltered Lady Mary. "The roof +was not safe, you know, and had to be mended, and--and when it was +all done up, the furniture and curtains looked so dirty and ugly and +inappropriate. I sent them away and brought down some of the beautiful +old things that belonged to your great-grandmother, and made the hall +brighter and more livable." + +Peter examined the new aspect of his domain with lowering brow. + +"I don't like it at all," he announced, finally. "I hate changes." + +The sisters breathed again. "So like his father!" + +Their allegiance to Sir Timothy had been transferred to his heir. + +"Your guardian approved," said Lady Mary. + +She turned proudly away, but she could not keep the pain altogether +out of her voice. Neither would she stoop to solicit Peter's approval +before her rejoicing opponents. + +"Mr. John Crewys is a very great connoisseur," said the canon. He +taxed his memory for corroborative evidence, and brought out the +result with honest pride. "I believe, curiously enough, that he spends +most of his spare time at the British Museum." + +Lady Mary's lip quivered with laughter in the midst of her very real +distress and mortification. + +But the argument appeared to the canon a most suitable one, and he was +further encouraged by Peter's reception of it. + +"If my guardian approves, I suppose it's all right," said the young +man, with an effort. "My father left all that sort of thing in his +hands, I understand, and he knew what he was doing. I say, where's +that great vase of wax flowers that used to stand on the centre table +under a glass shade?" + +"Darling," said Lady Mary, "it jarred so with the whole scheme of +decoration." + +"I am taking care of that in my room, Peter," said Miss Crewys. + +"And the stuffed birds, and the weasels, and the ferrets that I was so +fond of when I was a little chap. You don't mean to say you've done +away with those too?" cried Peter, wrathfully. + +"They--they are in the gun-room," said Lady Mary. "It seemed such +a--such--an appropriate place for them." + +"I believe," said the canon, nervously, "that stuffing is no longer +considered decorative. After all, _why_ should we place dead animals +in our sitting-rooms?" + +He looked round with the anxious smile of the would-be peacemaker. + +"They were very much worm-eaten, Peter," said Lady Mary. "But if you +would like them brought back--" + +Perhaps the pain in her voice penetrated even Peter's perception, for +he glanced hastily towards her. + +"It doesn't matter," he said magnanimously. "If you and my guardian +decided they were rotten, there's an end of it. Of course I'd rather +have things as they used to be; but after all this time, I expect +there's bound to be a few changes." He turned from the contemplation +of the hall to face his relatives squarely, with the air of an +autocrat who had decreed that the subject was at an end. + +"By-the-by," said Peter, "where _is_ John Crewys? They told me he was +stopping here." + +"He will be in directly," said Lady Mary, "and Sarah Hewel ought to be +here presently too. She is coming to luncheon." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. "I should like to see her again. Is she still +such a rum little toad? Always getting into scrapes, and coming to you +for comfort?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, and her blue eyes twinkled--"I think you +may be surprised to see little Sarah. She is grown up now." + +"Of course," said Peter. "She's only a year younger than I am." + +Lady Mary wondered why Peter's way of saying _of course_ jarred upon +her so much. He had always been brusque and abrupt; it was the family +fashion. Was it because she had grown accustomed to the tactful and +gentle methods of John Crewys that it seemed to have become suddenly +such an intolerable fashion? Sir Timothy had quite honestly believed +tactfulness to be a form of insincerity. He did not recognize it as +the highest outward expression of self-control. But Lady Mary, since +she had known John Crewys, knew also that it is consideration for +the feelings of others which causes the wise man to order his speech +carefully. + +The canon shook his head when Peter stated that Miss Hewel was his +junior by a twelvemonth. + +"She might be ten years older," he said, in awe-struck tones. "I have +always heard that women were extraordinarily adaptable, but I never +realized it before. However, to be sure, she has seen a good deal more +of the world than you have. More than most of us, though in such a +comparatively short space of time. But she is one in a thousand for +quickness." + +"Seen more of the world than I have?" said Peter, astonished. "Why, +I've been soldiering in South Africa for over two years." + +"I don't think soldiering brings much worldly wisdom in its train. I +should be rather sorry to think it did," said Lady Mary, gently. "But +Sarah has been with Lady Tintern all this while." + +"A very worldly woman, indeed, from all I have heard," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +"But a very great lady," said Lady Mary, "who knows all the famous +people, not only in England, but in Europe. The daughter of a viceroy, +and the wife of a man who was not only a peer, and a great landowner, +but also a distinguished ambassador. And she has taken Sarah +everywhere, and the child is an acknowledged beauty in London and +Paris. Lady Tintern is delighted with her, and declares she has taken +the world by storm." + +"We never thought her a beauty down here," said Peter, rather +contemptuously. + +"Perhaps we did not appreciate her sufficiently down here," said Lady +Mary, smiling. + +"Why, who is she, after all?" cried Peter. + +"A very beautiful and self-possessed young woman, and Lady Tintern's +niece, 'whom not to know argues yourself unknown,'" said Lady Mary, +laughing outright. "John says people were actually mobbing her picture +in the Academy; he could not get near it." + +"I mean," said Peter, almost sulkily, "that she's only old Colonel +Hewel's daughter, whom we've known all our lives." + +"Perhaps one is in danger of undervaluing people one has known all +one's life," said Lady Mary, lightly. + +Peter muttered something to the effect that he was sorry to hear Sarah +had grown up like that; but his words were lost in the tumultuous +entry of Dr. Blundell, who pealed the front door bell, and rushed into +the hall, almost simultaneously. + +His dark face was flushed and enthusiastic. He came straight to Peter, +and held out his hand. + +"A thousand welcomes, Sir Peter. Lady Mary, I congratulate you. I came +up in my dog-cart as fast as possible, to let you know the people +are turning out _en masse_ to welcome you. They're assembling at +the Crewys Arms, and going to hurry up to the house in a regular +procession, band and all." + +"We're proud of our young hero, you see," said the canon; and he laid +his hand affectionately on Peter's shoulder. + +"You will have to say a few words to them," said Lady Mary. + +"Must I?" said the hero. "Let's go out on the terrace and see what's +going on. We can watch them the whole way up." + +He opened the door into the south drawing-rooms; and through the open +windows there floated the distant strains of the village band. + +"Canon, your arm," said Lady Belstone. + +Lady Mary and her son had hastened out on to the terrace. + +The old ladies paused in the doorway; they were particular in such +matters. + +"I believe I take precedence, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, +apologetically. + +"I am far from disputing it, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, drawing back +with great dignity. "You are the elder." + +"Age does not count in these matters. I take precedence, as a married +woman. Will you bring up the rear, Georgina, as my poor admiral would +have said?" + +Miss Crewys bestowed a parting toss of the head upon the doctor, and +followed her victorious sister. + +The doctor laughed silently to himself, standing in the pretty shady +drawing-room; now gay with flowers, and chintz, and Dresden china. + +"I wonder if she would not have been even more annoyed with my +presumption if I _had_ offered her my arm," he said to himself, +amusedly, "than she is offended by my neglect to do so?" + +He did not follow the others into the blinding sunshine of the +terrace. He had had a long morning's work, and was hot and tired. He +looked at his watch. + +"Past one o'clock; h'm! we are lucky if we get anything to eat before +half-past two. All the servants have run out, of course. No use +ringing for whisky and seltzer. All the better. But, at least, one can +rest." + +The pleasantness of the room refreshed his spirit. The interior of his +own house in Brawnton was not much more enticing than the exterior. +The doctor had no time to devote to such matters. He sat down very +willingly in a big armchair, and enjoyed a moment's quiet in the +shade; glancing through the half-closed green shutters at the +brilliant picture without. + +The top level of the terrace garden was carpeted with pattern beds of +heliotrope, and lobelia, and variegated foliage. Against the faint +blue-green of the opposite hill rose the grey stone urns on the +pillars of the balcony; and from the urns hung trailing ivy geraniums +with pink or scarlet blossom, making splashes of colour on the +background of grey distance. Round the pillars wound large blue +clematis, and white passion-flowers. + +Lady Mary stood full in the sunshine, which lent once more the golden +glory of her vanished youth to her brown hair, and the dazzle of +new-fallen snow to her summer gown. + +Close to her side, touching her, stood the young soldier; straight and +tall, with uncovered head, towering above the little group. + +The old sisters had parasols, and the canon wore his shovel hat; but +the doctor wasted no time in observing their manifestations of delight +and excitement. + +"So my beautiful lady has got her precious boy back safe and sound, +save for his right arm, and doubly precious because that is missing. +God bless her a thousand times!" he thought to himself. "But her sweet +face looked more sorrowful than joyful when I came in. What had he +been saying, I wonder, to make her look like that, _already_?" + +John Crewys entered from the hall. "What's this I hear," he said, in +glad tones--"the hero returned?" + +"Ay," said the doctor. "Sir Timothy is forgotten, and Sir Peter reigns +in his stead." + +"Where is Lady Mary?" + +The doctor drew him to the window. "There," he said grimly. "Why don't +you go out and join her?" + +"She has her son," said John, smiling. + +He looked with interest at the group on the terrace; then he started +back with an exclamation of horror. + +"Why, good heavens--" + +"Yes," said the doctor quietly, "the poor fellow has lost his right +arm." + +There was a sound of distant cheering, and the band could be heard +faintly playing the _Conquering Hero_. + +"He said nothing of it," said John. + +"No; he's a plucky chap, with all his faults." + +"Has he so many faults?" said John. + +The doctor shook his head. "I'm mistaken if he won't turn out a chip +of the old block. Though he's better-looking than his father, he's got +Sir Timothy's very expression." + +"He's turned out a gallant soldier, anyway," said John, cheerily. +"Don't croak, Blundell; we'll make a man of him yet." + +"Please God you may, for his mother's sake," said the doctor; and he +returned to his armchair. + +John Crewys stood by the open French window, and drank in the +refreshing breeze which fluttered the muslin curtains. His calm and +thoughtful face was turned away from the doctor, who knew very well +why John's gaze was so intent upon the group without. + +"Shall I warn him, or shall I let it alone?" thought Blundell. "I +suppose they have been waiting only for this. If that selfish cub +objects, as he will--I feel very sure of that--will she be weak enough +to sacrifice her happiness, or can I trust John Crewys? He looks +strong enough to take care of himself, and of her." + +He looked at John's decided profile, silhouetted against the curtain, +and thought of Peter's narrow face. "Weak but obstinate," he muttered +to himself. "Shrewd, suspicious eyes, but a receding chin. What chance +would the boy have against a man? A man with strength to oppose him, +and brains to outwit him. None, save for the one undoubted fact--the +boy holds his mother's heart in the hollow of his careless hands." + +There was a tremendous burst of cheering, no longer distant, and the +band played louder. + +Lady Mary came hurrying across the terrace. Weeping and agitated, and +half blinded by her tears, she stumbled over the threshold of the +window, and almost fell into John's arms. He drew her into the shadow +of the curtain. + +"John," she cried; she saw no one else. "Oh, I can't bear it! Oh, +Peter, Peter, my boy, my poor boy!" + +The doctor, with a swift and noiseless movement, turned the handle of +the window next him, and let himself out on to the terrace. + +When John looked up he was already gone. Lady Mary did not hear the +slight sound. + +"Oh, John," she said, "my boy's come home--but--but--" + +"I know," John said, very tenderly. + +"I was afraid of breaking down before them all," she whispered. "Peter +was afraid I should break down, and I felt my weakness, and came +away." + +"To me," said John. + +His heart beat strongly. He drew her more closely into his arms, +deeply conscious that he held thus, for the first time, all he loved +best in the world. + +"To you," said poor Lady Mary, very simply; as though aware only +of the rest and support that refuge offered, and not of all of its +strangeness. "Alas! it has grown so natural to come to _you_ now." + +"It will grow more natural every day," said John. + +She shook her head. "There is Peter now," she said faintly. Then, +looking into his face, she realized that John was not thinking of +Peter. + +For a moment's space Lady Mary, too, forgot Peter. She leant against +the broad shoulder of the man who loved her; and felt as though all +trouble, and disappointment, and doubt had slidden off her soul, and +left her only the blissful certainty of happy rest. + +Then she laid her hand very gently and entreatingly on his arm. + +"I will not let you go," said John. "You came to me--at last--of your +own accord, Mary." + +She coloured deeply and leant away from his arm, looking up at him in +distress. + +"I could not help it, John," she said, very simply and naturally. "But +oh, I don't know if I can--if I ought--to come to you any more." + +"What do you mean?" said John. + +"I--we--have been thinking of Peter as a boy--as the boy he was when +he went away," she said, in low, hurrying tones; "but he has come home +a man, and, in some ways, altogether different. He never used to +want me; he used to think this place dull, and long to get away from +it--and from me, for that matter. But now he's--he's wounded, as you +know; maimed, my poor boy, for life; and--and he's counting on me to +make his home for him. We never thought of that. He says it wouldn't +be home without me; and he asked my pardon for being selfish in the +past; my poor Peter! I used to fear he had such a little, cold heart; +but I was all wrong, for when he was so far away he thought of me, +and was sorry he hadn't loved me more. He's come home wanting to be +everything to me, as I am to be everything to him. And I should have +been so glad, so thankful, only two years ago. Oh, have I changed so +much in two little years?" + +John put her out of his arms very gently, and walked towards the +window. His face was pale, but he still smiled, and his hazel eyes +were bright. + +"You're angry, John," said Lady Mary, very sweetly and humbly. "You've +a right to be angry." + +"I am not angry," he said gently. "I may be--a little--disappointed." +He did not look round. + +"You know I was too happy," said poor Lady Mary. She sank into a +chair, and covered her face with her hands. "It was wicked of me to be +so happy, and now I'm going to be punished for it." + +John's great heart melted within him. He came swiftly back to her and +knelt by her side, and kissed the little hand she gave him. + +"Too happy, were you?" he said, with a tenderness that rendered his +deep voice unsteady. "Because you promised to marry me when Peter came +home?" + +"That, and--and everything else," she whispered. "Life seemed to have +widened out, and grown so beautiful. All the dull, empty hours were +filled. Our music, our reading, our companionship, our long walks and +talks, our letters to each other--all those pleasures which you showed +me were at once so harmless and so delightful. And as if that were +not enough--came love. Such love as I had only dreamed of--such +understanding of each other's every thought and word, as I did not +know was possible between man and woman--or at least"--she corrected +herself sadly--"between any man and a woman--of my age." + +"You talk of your age," said John, smiling tenderly, "as though it +were a crime." + +"It is not a crime, but it is a tragedy," said Lady Mary. "Age is a +tragedy to every woman who wants to be happy." + +"No more, surely, than to every man who loves his work, and sees it +slipping from his grasp," said John, slowly. "It's a tragedy we all +have to face, for that matter." + +"But so much later," said Lady Mary, quickly. + +"I don't see why women should leave off wanting to be happy any sooner +than men," he said stoutly. + +"But Nature does," she answered. + +John's eyes twinkled. "For my part, I am thankful to fate, which +caused me to fall in love with a woman only ten years my junior, +instead of with a girl young enough to be my daughter. I have gained a +companion as well as a wife; and marvellously adaptive as young women +are, I am conceited enough to think my ideas have travelled beyond +the ideas of most girls of eighteen; and I am not conceited enough to +suppose the girl of eighteen would not find me an old fogey very much +in the way. Let boys mate with girls, say I, and men with women." + +Lady Mary smiled in spite of herself. "You know, John, you would +argue entirely the other way round if you happened to be in love +with--Sarah," she said. + +"To be sure," said John; "it's my trade to argue for the side which +retains my services. I am your servant, thank Heaven, and not Sarah's. +And I have no intention of quitting your service," he added, more +gravely. "We have settled the question of the future." + +"The empty future that suddenly grew so bright," said Lady Mary, +dreamily. "Do you remember how you talked of--Italy?" + +"Where we shall yet spend our honeymoon," said John. "But I believe +you liked better to hear of my shabby rooms in London which you meant +to share." + +"Of course," she said simply. "I knew I should bring you so little +money." + +"And you thought barristers always lived from hand to mouth, and made +no allowance for my having got on in my profession." + +"Ah! what did it matter?" + +"I think you will find it makes just a little difference," John said, +smiling. + +"Outside circumstances make less difference to women than men +suppose," said Lady Mary. "They are, oh, so willing to be pampered +in luxury; and, oh, so willing to fly to the other extreme, and do +without things." + +"Are they really?" said John, rather dryly. + +He glanced at the little, soft, white hand he held, and smiled. It +looked so unfitted to help itself. + +Lady Mary was resting in her armchair, her delicate face still flushed +with emotion. A transparent purple shade beneath the blue eyes +betrayed that she had been weeping; but she was calmed by John's +strong and tranquil presence. The shady room was cool and fragrant +with the scent of heliotrope and mignonette. + +The band had reached a level plateau below the terrace garden, and was +playing martial airs to encourage stragglers in the procession, and to +give the principal inhabitants of Youlestone time to arrive, and to +regain their wind after the steep ascent. + +Every time a batch of new arrivals recognized Peter's tall form on the +terrace, a fresh burst of cheering rose. + +From all sides of the valley, hurrying figures could be seen +approaching Barracombe House. + +The noise and confusion without seemed to increase the sense of quiet +within, and the sounds of the gathering crowd made them feel apart and +alone together as they had never felt before. + +"So all our dreams are to be shattered," said John, quietly, "because +your prayer has been granted, and Peter has come home?" + +"If you could have heard all he said," she whispered sadly. "He has +come home loving me, trusting me, dependent on me, as he has never +been before, since his babyhood. Don't you see--that even if it breaks +my heart, I couldn't fail my boy--just now?" + +There was a pause, and she regarded him anxiously; her hands were +clasped tightly together in the effort to still their trembling, her +blue eyes looked imploring. + +John knew very well that it lay within his powers to make good his +claim upon that gentle heart, and enforce his will and her submission +to it. But the strongest natures are those which least incline to +tyranny; and he had already seen the results of coercion upon that +bright and joyous, but timid nature. He knew that her love for him was +of the fanciful, romantic, high-flown order; and as such, it appealed +to every chivalrous instinct within him. Though his love for her was, +perhaps, of a different kind, he desired her happiness and her peace +of mind, as strongly as he desired her companionship and the sympathy +which was to brighten his lonely life. He was silent for a moment, +considering how he should act. If love counselled haste, common sense +suggested patience. + +"I couldn't disappoint him now. You see that, John?" said the anxious, +gentle voice. + +"I am afraid I do see it, Mary," he said. "Our secret must remain our +secret for the present." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary, softly. "You always +understand." + +"I am old enough, at least, to know that happiness cannot be attained +by setting duty aside," he said, as cheerfully as he could. + +There was a pause in the music outside, and a voice was heard +speaking. + +John rose and straightened himself. + +"Have you decided what is to be done--what we had best do?" she said +timidly. + +"I am going to prove that a lover can be devoted, and yet perfectly +reasonable; in defiance of all tradition to the contrary," he +said gaily. "I shall return to town as soon as I can decently get +away--probably to-morrow." + +She uttered a cry. "You are going to leave me?" + +"I must give place to Peter." + +She came to his side, and clung to his arm as though terrified by the +success of her own appeal. + +"But you'll come back?" + +"I have to account for my stewardship when Peter comes of age in the +autumn," he said, smiling down upon her. + +She was too quick of perception not to know that strength, and +courage, too, were needed for the smile wherewith John strove to hide +a disappointment too deep for words. He answered the look she +gave him; a look which implored forgiveness, understanding, even +encouragement. + +"I'm not yielding a single inch of my claim upon you when the time +comes, my darling; only I think, with you, that the time has not come +yet. I think Peter may reasonably expect to be considered first +for the present; and that you should be free to devote your whole +attention to him, especially as he has such praiseworthy intentions. +We will postpone the whole question until the autumn, when he comes of +age; and when I shall, consequently, be able to tackle him frankly, +man to man, and not as one having authority and abusing that same," he +laughed. "Meantime, we must be patient. Write often, but not so often +as to excite remark; and I shall return in the autumn." + +"To stay?" + +"Ah!" said John, "that depends on you." + +He had not meant to be satirical, but the slight inflection of his +tone cut Lady Mary to the heart. + +Her vivid imagination saw her conduct in its worst light: vacillating, +feeble, deserting the man she loved at the moment she had led him to +expect triumph; dismissing her faithful servant without his reward. +Then, in a flash, came the other side of the picture--the mother of +a grown-up son--a wounded soldier dependent on her love--seeking +her personal happiness as though there existed no past memories, no +present duties, to hinder the fulfilling of her own belated romance. + +"Oh, John," said Lady Mary, "tell me what to do? No, no; don't tell +me--or I shall do it--and I mustn't." + +"My darling," he said, "I only tell you to wait." He rallied himself +to speak cheerfully, and to bring the life and colour back to her sad, +white face. + +"Just at this moment I quite realize I should be a disturbing element, +and I am going to get myself out of the way as quickly as politeness +permits. And you are to devote yourself to Peter, and not to be torn +with self-reproach. If we act sensibly, and don't precipitate matters, +nobody need have a grievance, and Peter and I will be the best of +friends in the future, I hope. There is little use in having grown-up +wits if we snatch our happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings, as young folk so often do." + +The twinkle in his bright eyes, and the kindly humour of his smile, +restored her shaken self-confidence. + +"Oh, John, no one else could ever understand--as you understand. If +only Peter--" + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "dreaming as a boy dreams, resolving as +a boy resolves; and his dreams and his resolutions are as light as +thistledown: the first breath of a new fancy, or a fresh interest, +will blow them away. I put my faith in the future, in the near future. +Time works wonders." + +He stooped and kissed her hands, one after the other, with a +possessive tenderness that told her better than words, that he had not +resigned his claims. + +"Now I'll go and offer my congratulations to the hero of the day," +said John. "I must not put off any longer; and it is quite settled +that our secret is to remain our secret--for the present." + +Then he stepped out on to the terrace, and Lady Mary looked after him +with a little sigh and smile. + +She lifted a hand-mirror from the silver table that stood at her +elbow, and shook her head over it. + +"It's all very well for him, and it's all very well for Peter," she +said; "but Time--Time is _my_ worst enemy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Sarah Hewel ran into the drawing-room before Lady Mary found courage +to put her newly gained composure to the test, by joining the crowd on +the terrace. + +"Oh, Lady Mary, are you there?" she cried, pausing in her eager +passage to the window. "I thought you would be out-of-doors with the +others!" + +"Sarah, my dear!" said Lady Mary, kissing her. + +"I--I saw all the people," said Sarah, in a breathless, agitated +way, "I heard the news, and I wasn't sure whether I ought to come to +luncheon all the same or not; so I slipped in by the side door to +see whether I could find some one to ask quietly. Oh!" cried Sarah, +throwing her arms impetuously round Lady Mary's neck, "tell me it +isn't true?" + +"My boy has come home," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah turned from red to white, and from white to red again. + +"But they said," she faltered--"they said he--" + +"Yes, my dear," said Lady Mary, understanding; and the tears started +to her own eyes. "Peter has lost an arm, but otherwise--otherwise," +she said, in trembling tones, "my boy is safe and sound." + +Sarah turned away her face and cried. + +Lady Mary was touched. "Why, Sarah!" she said; and she drew the girl +down beside her on the sofa and kissed her softly. + +"I am sorry to be so silly," said Sarah, recovering herself. "It isn't +a bit like me, is it?" + +"It is like you, I think, to have a warm heart," said Lady Mary, +"though you don't show it to every one; and, after all, you and Peter +are old friends--playmates all your lives." + +"It's been like a lump of lead on my heart all these months and +years," said Sarah, "to think how I scoffed at Peter in the Christmas +holidays before he went to the war, because my brothers had gone, +whilst he stayed at home. Perhaps that was the reason he went. I used +to lie awake at night sometimes, thinking that if Peter were killed it +would be all my fault. And now his arm has gone--and Tom and Willie +came back safely long ago." She cried afresh. + +"It may not have been that at all," said Lady Mary, consolingly. "I +don't think Peter was a boy to take much notice of what a goose of +a little girl said. He felt he was a man, and ought to go--and his +grandfather was a soldier--it is in the blood of the Setouns to want +to fight for their country," said Lady Mary, with a smile and a little +thrill of pride; for, after all, if her boy were a Crewys, he was also +a Setoun. "Besides, poor child, you were so young; you didn't think; +you didn't know--" + +"You always make excuses for me," said Sarah, with subdued enthusiasm; +"but I understand better now what it means--to send an only son away +from his mother." + +"The young take responsibility so lightly," said Lady Mary. "But now +he has come home, my darling, why, you needn't reproach yourself any +longer. It is good of you to care so much for my boy." + +"It--it isn't only that. Of course, I was always fond of Peter," said +Sarah; "but even if I had nothing to do with his going"--her voice +sounded incredulous--"you know how one feels over our soldiers coming +home--and a boy who has given his right arm for England. It makes one +so choky and yet so proud--I can't say all I mean--but you know--" + +"Yes, I know," said Lady Mary; and she smiled, but the tears were +rolling down her cheeks. + +"And what it must be to _you_," sobbed Sarah, "the day you were to +have been so happy, to see him come back like _that_! No wonder you +are sad. One feels one could never do enough to--to make it up to +him." + +"But I'm far more happy than sad," said Lady Mary; and to prove her +words she leant back upon the cushions and cried. + +"You're not," said Sarah, kneeling by her; "how can you be, my +darling, sweet Lady Mary? But you _must_ be happy," she said; and her +odd, deep tones took a note of coaxing that was hard to resist. "Think +how proud every one will be of him, and how--how all the other mothers +will envy you! You--you mustn't care so terribly. It--it isn't as if +he had to work for his living. It won't make any real difference to +his life. And he'll let you do everything for him--even write his +letters--" + +"Oh, Sarah, Sarah, stop!" said Lady Mary, faintly. "It--it isn't +that." + +"Not that!" said Sarah, changing her tone. She pounced on the +admission like a cat on a mouse. "Then why do you cry?" + +Lady Mary looked up confused into the severely inquiring young face. + +Sarah's apple-blossom beauty, as was to have been expected, had +increased a thousand-fold since her school girl days. She had grown +tall to match the plumpness of her figure, which had not decreased. +Her magnificent hair showed its copper redness in every variety of +curl and twist upon her white forehead, and against her whiter throat. + +She was no longer dressed in blue cotton. Lady Tintern knew how to +give such glorious colouring its true value. A gauzy, transparent +black flowed over a close-fitting white gown beneath, and veiled her +fair arms and neck. Black bébé ribbon gathered in coquettishly the +folds which shrouded Sarah's abundant charms, and a broad black sash +confined her round young waist. A black chip hat shaded the glowing +hair and the face, "ruddier than the cherry, and whiter than milk;" +and the merry, dark blue eyes had a penthouse of their own, of +drooping lashes, which redeemed the boldness of their frank and open +gaze. + +"If it is not that--why do you cry?" she demanded imperiously. + +"It's--just happiness," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah looked wise, and shook her head. "Oh no," she quoth. "Those +aren't happy tears." + +"You're too old, dear Sarah, to be an _enfant terrible_ still," said +Lady Mary; but Sarah was not so easily disarmed. + +"I will know! Come, I'm your godchild, and you always spoil me. He's +not come back in one of his moods, has he?" + +"Who?" cried Lady Mary, colouring. + +"Who! Why, who are we talking of but Peter?" said Sarah, opening her +big-pupilled eyes. + +"Oh no, no! He's changed entirely--" + +"Changed!" + +"I don't mean exactly changed, but he's--he's grown so loving and so +sweet--not that he wasn't always loving in his heart, but-- + +"Oh," cried Sarah, impatiently, "as if I didn't know Peter! But if +it wasn't _that_ which made you so unhappy, what was it?" She bent +puzzled brows upon her embarrassed hostess. + +"Let me go, Sarah; you ask too much!" said Lady Mary. "Oh no, my +darling, I'm not angry! How could I be angry with my little loyal +Sarah, who's always loved me so? It's only that I can't bear to +be questioned just now." She caressed the girl eagerly, almost +apologetically. "I must have a few moments to recover myself. I'll go +quietly away into the study--anywhere. Wait for me here, darling, and +make some excuse for me if any one comes. I want to be alone for a few +moments. Peter mustn't find me crying again." + +"Yes--that's all very well," said Sarah to herself, as the slight form +hurried from the drawing-room into the dark oak hall beyond. "But +_why_ is she unhappy? There is something else." + +It was Dr. Blundell who found the answer to Sarah's riddle. + +He had seen the signs of weeping on Lady Mary's face as she stumbled +over the threshold of the window into the very arms of John Crewys, +and his feelings were divided between passionate sympathy with his +divinity, and anger with the returned hero, who had no doubt reduced +his mother to this distressful state. The doctor was blinded by love +and misery, and ready to suspect the whole world of doing injustice to +this lady; though he believed himself to be destitute of jealousy, and +capable of judging Peter with perfect impartiality. + +His fancy leapt far ahead of fact; and he supposed, not only that Lady +Mary must be engaged to John Crewys, but that she must have confided +her engagement to her son, and that Peter had already forbidden the +banns. + +He wandered miserably about the grounds, within hearing of the +rejoicings; and had just made up his mind that he ought to go and join +the speechmakers, when he perceived John Crewys himself standing next +to Peter, apparently on the best possible terms with the hero of the +day. + +The doctor hastened round to the hall, intending to enter the +drawing-room unobserved, and find out for himself whether Lady Mary +had recovered, or whether John Crewys had heartlessly abandoned her to +her grief. + +The brilliant vision Miss Sarah presented, as she stood, drawn up to +her full height, in the shaded drawing-room, met his anxious gaze as +he entered. + +"Why, Miss Sarah! Not gone back to London yet? I thought you only came +down for Whitsuntide." + +"Mamma wasn't well, so I am staying on for a few days. I am supposed +to be nursing her," said Sarah, demurely. + +She was a favourite with the doctor, as she was very well aware, and, +in consequence, was always exceedingly gracious to him. + +"Where is Lady Mary?" he asked. + +She stole to his side, and put her finger on her lips, and lowered her +voice. + +"She went through the hall--into the study. And she's alone--crying." + +"Crying!" said the doctor; and he made a step towards the open door, +but Sarah's strong, white hand held him fast. + +"Play fair," she said reproachfully; "I told you in confidence. You +can't suppose she wants _you_ to see her crying." + +"No, no," said the poor doctor, "of course not--of course not." + +She closed the doors between the rooms. "Look here, Dr. Blundell, +we've always been friends, haven't we, you and me?" + +"Ever since I had the honour of ushering you into the world you now +adorn," said the doctor, with an ironical bow. + +"Then tell me the truth," said Sarah. "Why is she unhappy, to-day of +all days?" + +The doctor looked uneasily away from her. "Perhaps--the joy of Peter's +return has been too much for her," he suggested. + +"Yes," said Sarah. "That's what we'll tell the other people. But you +and I--why, Dr. Blunderbuss," she said reproachfully, using the +name she had given him in her saucy childhood, "you know how I've +worshipped Lady Mary ever since I was a little girl?" + +"Yes, yes, my dear, I know," said the doctor. + +"You love her too, don't you?" said Sarah. + +He started. "I--I love Lady Mary! What do you mean?" he said, almost +violently. + +"Oh, I didn't mean _that_ sort of love," said Sarah, watching him +keenly. Then she laid her plump hand gently on his shabby sleeve. "I +wouldn't have said it, if I'd thought--" + +"Thought what?" said the doctor, agitated. + +"What I think now," said Sarah. + +He walked up and down in a silence she was too wise to break. When +he looked at her again, Sarah was leaning against the piano. She had +taken off the picture-hat, and was swinging it absently to and fro by +the black ribbons which had but now been tied beneath her round, white +chin. She presented a charming picture--and it is possible she knew +it--as she stood in that restful pose, with her long lashes pointed +downwards towards her buckled shoes. + +The doctor stopped in front of her. "You are too quick for me, Sarah. +You always were, even as a little girl," he said. "You've surprised +my--my poor secret. You can laugh at the old doctor now, if you like." + +"I don't feel like laughing," said Sarah, simply. "And your secret is +safe with me. I'm honest; you know that." + +"Yes, my dear; I know that. God bless you!" said the doctor. + +"I'm sorry, Dr. Blundell," said Sarah, softly. + +The deep voice which came from the full, white chest, and which had +once been so unmanageable, was one of Sarah's surest weapons now. + +When she sang, she counted her victims by the dozen; when she lowered +it, as she lowered it now, to speak only to one man, every note went +straight to his heart--if he had an ear for music and a heart for +love. + +When Sarah said, in these dulcet tones, therefore, that she was sorry +for her old friend, the tears gathered to the doctor's kind, tired +eyes. + +"For me!" he said gratefully. "Oh, you mustn't be sorry for me. +She--she could hardly be further out of _my_ reach, you know, if she +were--an angel in heaven, instead of being what she is--an angel on +earth. It is--of _her_ that I was thinking." + +"I know," said Sarah; "but she has been looking so bright and hopeful, +ever since we heard Peter was coming home--until to-day--when he has +actually come; and that is what puzzles me." + +"To-day--to-day!" said the doctor, as though to himself. "Yes; it was +to-day I saw her touch happiness timidly, and come face to face with +disappointment." + +"You saw her?" + +"Oh, when one loves," he said bitterly, "one has intuitions which +serve as well as eyes and ears. You will know all about it one day, +little Sarah." + +"Shall I?" said Sarah. She turned her face away from the doctor. + +"You've not been here very much lately," he said, "but you've been +here long enough to guess her secret, as you--you've guessed mine. Eh? +You needn't pretend, for my sake, to misunderstand me." + +"I wasn't going to," said Sarah, gently. + +"John Crewys is the very man I would have chosen--I did choose him," +said the doctor, looking at her almost fiercely. It was an odd +consolation to him to believe he had first led John Crewys to +interest himself in Lady Mary. He recognized his rival's superior +qualifications very fully and humbly. "You know all about it, Miss +Sarah, don't tell me; so quick as you are to find out what doesn't +concern you." + +"I saw that--Mr. John Crewys--liked _her_," said Sarah, in a low +voice; "but, then, so does everybody. I wasn't sure--I couldn't +believe that _she_--" + +"You haven't watched as I have," he groaned; "you haven't seen the +sparkle come back to her eye, and the colour to her cheek. You haven't +watched her learning to laugh and sing and enjoy her innocent days +as Nature bade; since she has dared to be herself. It was love that +taught her an that." + +"Love!" said Sarah. + +Her soft, red lips parted; and her breath quickened with a sudden +sensation of mingled interest, sympathy, and amusement. + +"Ay, love," said the doctor, half angrily. He detected the deepening +of Sarah's dimples. "And I am an old fool to talk to you like this. +You children think that love is reserved for boys and girls, like you +and--and Peter." + +"I don't know what Peter has to do with it," said Sarah, pouting. + +"I heard Peter explaining to his tenants just now," said the doctor, +with a harsh laugh, "that he was going to settle down here for good +and all--with his mother; that nothing was to be changed from his +father's time. Something in his words would have made me +understand the look on his mother's face, even if I hadn't read it +right--already. She will sacrifice her love for John Crewys to her +love for her son; and by the time Peter finds out--as in the course of +nature he will find out--that he can do without his mother, her chance +of happiness will be gone for ever." + +Sarah looked a little queerly at the doctor. + +"Then the sooner Peter finds out," she said slowly, "that he can live +without his mother, the better. Doesn't that seem strange?" + +"Perhaps," said the doctor, heavily. "But life gives us so few +opportunities of a great happiness as we grow older, little Sarah. The +possibilities that once seemed so boundless, lie in a circle which +narrows round us, day by day. Some day you'll find that out too." + +There was a sudden outburst of cheering. + +Sarah started forward. "Dr. Blundell," she said energetically, "you've +told me all I wanted to know. She sha'n't be unhappy if _I_ can help +it." + +"You!" said the doctor, shrugging his shoulders rather rudely. "I +don't see what _you_ can do." + +Sarah reddened with lofty indignation. "It would be very odd if you +did," she said spitefully; "you're only a man, when all is said and +done. But if you'll only promise not to interfere, I'll manage it +beautifully all by myself." + +"What will you do?" said the doctor, inattentively; and his blindness +to Sarah's charms and her powers made her almost pity such obtuseness. + +"I will go and fetch Lady Mary, for one thing, and cheer her up." + +"Not a word to her!" he cried, starting up; "remember, I told you in +confidence--though why I was such a fool--" + +"Am I likely to forget?" said Sarah; "and you will see one day whether +you were a fool to tell _me_." She said to herself, despairingly, that +the stupidity of mankind was almost past praying for. As the doctor +opened the door for Sarah, Lady Mary herself walked into the room. + +She had removed all traces of tears from her face, and, though she was +still very pale, she was quite composed, and ready to smile at them +both. + +"Were you coming to fetch me?" she said, taking Sarah's arm +affectionately. "Dr. Blundell, I am afraid luncheon will be terribly +late. The servants have all gone off their heads in the confusion, as +was to be expected. The noise and the welcome upset me so that I dared +not go out on the terrace again. Ash has just been to tell me it's +all over, and that Peter made a capital speech; quite as good as Mr. +John's, he said; but that is hardly a compliment to our K.C.," she +laughed. "I'm afraid Ash is prejudiced." + +"Ash was doing the honours with all his might," said the doctor, +gruffly; "handing round cider by the hogshead. Hallo! the speeches +must be really all over," he said, for, above vociferous cheering, the +strains of the National Anthem could just be discerned. + +Peter came striding across the terrace, and looked in at the open +window. + +"Are you better again, mother?" he called. "Could you come out now? +They've done at last, but they're calling for you." + +"Yes, yes; I'm quite ready. I won't be so silly again," said Lady +Mary. + +But Peter did not listen. "Why--" he said, and stopped short. + +"Surely you haven't forgotten Sarah," said Lady Mary, laughing--"your +little playmate Sarah? But perhaps I ought to say Miss Hewel now." + +"How do you do, Sir Peter?" said Sarah, in a very stately manner. "I +am very glad to be here to welcome you home." + +Peter, foolishly embarrassed, took the hand she offered with such +gracious composure, and blushed all over his thin, tanned face. + +"I--I should hardly have known you," he stammered. + +"Really?" said Sarah. + +"Won't you," said Peter, still looking at her, "join us on the +terrace?" + +"The people aren't calling for _me_" said Sarah. + +"But it might amuse you," said Peter, deferentially. + +He put up his eyeglass--but though Sarah's red lip quivered, she did +not laugh. + +"It's rather jolly, really," he said. "They've got banners, and flags, +and processions, and things. Won't you come?" + +"Well--I will," said Sarah. She accepted his help in descending the +step with the air of a princess. "But they'll be so disappointed to +see me instead of your mother." + +"Disappointed to see _you_!" said Peter, stupefied. + +She stepped forth, laughing, and Peter followed her closely. John +Crewys stood aside to let them pass. Lady Mary, half amazed and half +amused, realized suddenly that her son had forgotten he came back to +fetch her. She hesitated on the threshold. More cheers and confused +shouting greeted Peter's reappearance on the balcony. He turned and +waved to his mother, and the canon came hurrying over the grass. + +"The people are shouting for Lady Mary; they want Lady Mary," he +cried. + +John Crewys looked at her with a smile, and held out his hand, and she +stepped over the sill, and went away across the terrace garden with +him. + +The doctor turned his face from the crowd, and went back alone into +the empty room. + +"Who _doesn't_ want Lady Mary?" he said to himself, forlornly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Peter stood on his own front door steps, on the shady side of the +house, in the fresh air of the early morning. The unnecessary eyeglass +twinkled on his breast as he looked forth upon the goodliness and +beauty of his inheritance. The ever-encroaching green of summer had +not yet overpowered the white wealth of flowering spring; for the +season was a late one, and the month of June still young. + +The apple-trees were yet in blossom, and the snowy orchards were +scattered over the hillsides between patches of golden gorse. The +lilacs, white and purple, were in flower, amid scarlet rhododendrons +and branching pink and yellow tree-azaleas. The weeping barberry +showered gold dust upon the road. + +On the lower side of the drive, the rolling grass slopes were +thriftily left for hay; a flowering mass of daisies, and buttercups, +and red clover, and blue speedwell. + +A long way off, but still clearly visible in the valley below, +glistened the stone-tiled roof of the old square-towered church, +guarded by its sentinel yews. + +A great horse-chestnut stood like a giant bouquet of waxen bloom +beside a granite monument which threw a long shadow over the green +turf mounds towards the west, and marked the grave of Sir Timothy +Crewys. + +Peter saw that monument more plainly just now than all the rest of his +surroundings, although he was short-sighted, and although his eyes +were further dimmed by sudden tears. + +His memories of his father were not particularly tender ones, and his +grief was only natural filial sentiment in its vaguest and lightest +form. But such as it was--the sight of the empty study, which was to +be his own room in future; the strange granite monument shining in +the sun; the rush of home associations which the familiar landscape +aroused--augmented it for the time being, and made the young man glad +of a moment's solitude. + +There was the drooping ash--which had made such a cool, refreshing +tent in summer--where he had learnt his first lessons at his mother's +knee, and where he had kept his rabbit-hutch for a season, until his +father had found it out, and despatched it to the stable-yard. + +His punishments and the troubles of his childhood had always been +associated with his father, and its pleasures and indulgences with his +mother; but neither had made any very strong impression on Peter's +mind, and it was of his father that he thought with most sympathy, and +even most affection. Partly, doubtless, because Sir Timothy was dead, +and because Peter's memories were not vivid ones, any more than his +imagination was vivid; but also because his mind was preoccupied with +a vague resentment against his mother. + +He could not understand the change which was, nevertheless, so +evident. Her new-born brightness and ease of manner, and her strangely +increased loveliness, which had been yet more apparent on the previous +evening, when she was dressed for dinner, than on his first arrival. + +It was absurd, Peter thought, in all the arrogance of disdainful +youth, that a woman of her age should have learnt to care for her +appearance thus; or to wear becoming gowns, and arrange her hair like +a fashion plate. + +If it had been Sarah he could have understood. + +At the thought of Sarah the colour suddenly flushed across his thin, +tanned face, and he moved uneasily. + +Sarah, too, was changed; but not even Peter could regret the change in +Sarah. + +The loveliness of his mother, refined and white and delicate as she +was, did not appeal to him; but Sarah, in her radiant youth, with her +brilliant colouring--fresh as a May morning, buxom as a dairymaid, +scornful as a princess--had struck Sir Peter dumb with admiration, +though he had hitherto despised young women. It almost enraged him to +remember that this stately beauty had ever been an impudent little +schoolgirl, with a turned-up nose and a red pigtail. In days gone by, +Miss Sarah had actually fought and scratched the spoilt boy, who tried +to tyrannize over his playmate as he tyrannized over his mother and +his aunts. On the other hand, the recollection of those early days +also became precious to Peter for the first time. + +Sarah! + +It was difficult to be sentimental on the subject, but difficulties +are easily surmounted by a lover; and though Sarah's childhood +afforded few facilities for ecstatic reverie, still--there had been +moments, and especially towards the end of the holidays, when he and +Sarah had walked on the banks of the river, with arms round each +other's necks, sharing each other's toffee and confidences. + +Poor Sarah had been first despatched to a boarding school as +unmanageable, at the age of seven, and thereafter her life had been a +changeful one, since her father could not live without her, and her +mother would not keep her at home. She had always presented a lively +contrast to her elder brothers, who were all that a parent's heart +could desire, and too old to be much interested in their little +rebellious sister. + +Her high spirits survived disgrace and punishment and periodical +banishment. Though not destitute of womanly qualities, she was more +remarkable for hoydenish ones; and her tastes were peculiar and +varied. If there were a pony to break in, a sick child to be nursed, a +groom to scold, a pig to be killed--there was Sarah; but if a frock to +try on, a visit to be paid, a note to be written--where was she? + +Peter, recalling these things, tried to laugh at himself for his +extraordinary infatuation of the previous day; but he knew very well +in his heart that he could not really laugh, and that he had lain +awake half the night thinking of her. + +Sarah had spent the rest of the day at Barracombe after Peter's +return, and had been escorted home late in the evening. Could he ever +forget those moments on the terrace, when she had paced up and down +beside him, in the pleasant summer darkness; her white neck and arms +gleaming through transparent black tulle; sometimes listening to the +sounds of music and revelry in the village below, and looking at the +rockets that were being let off on the river-banks; and sometimes +asking him of the war, in that low voice which thrilled Peter as it +had already thrilled not a few interested hearers before him? + +Those moments had been all too few, because John Crewys also had +monopolized a share of Miss Sarah's attention. Peter did not dislike +his guardian, whose composed courtesy and absolute freedom from +self-consciousness, or any form of affectation, made it difficult +indeed not to like him. His remarks made Peter smile in spite of +himself, though he could not keep the ball of conversation rolling +like Miss Sarah, who was not at all afraid of the great counsel, but +matched his pleasant wit, with a most engaging impudence all her own. + +Lady Mary had stood clasping her son's arm, full of thankfulness for +his safe return; but she, too, had been unable to help laughing at +John, who purposely exerted himself to amuse her and to keep her from +dwelling upon their parting on the morrow. + +Her thoughtful son insisted that she must avoid exposure to the night +air, and poor Lady Mary had somewhat ruefully returned to the society +of the old ladies within; but John Crewys did not, as he might, and as +Peter had supposed he would, join the other old folk. Peter classed +his mother and aunts together, quite calmly, in his thoughts. He +listened to Sarah's light talk with John, watching her like a man in a +dream, hardly able to speak himself; and it is needless to say that he +found her chatter far more interesting and amusing than anything John +could say. + +Who could have dreamt that little Sarah would grow up into this +bewitching maiden? There was a girl coming home on board ship, the +young wife of an officer, whom every one had raved about and called so +beautiful. Peter almost laughed aloud as he contrasted Sarah with his +recollections of this lady. + +How easy it was to talk to Sarah! How much easier than to his mother; +whom, nevertheless, he loved so dearly, though always with that faint +dash of disapproval which somehow embittered his love. + +He could not shake off the impression of her first appearance, coming +singing down the oak staircase, in her white gown. _His mother!_ +Dressed almost like a girl, and, worst of all, looking almost like a +girl, so slight and white and delicate. Peter recollected that Sir +Timothy had been very particular about his wife's apparel. He liked it +to be costly and dignified, and she had worn stiff silks and poplins +inappropriate to the country, but considered eminently suited to her +position by the Brawnton dressmaker. And her hair had been parted on +her forehead, and smoothed over her little ears. Sir Timothy did not +approve of curling-irons and frippery. + +Peter did not know that his mother had cried over her own appearance +often, before she became indifferent; and if he had known, he would +have thought it only typical of the weakness and frivolity which he +had heard attributed to Lady Mary from his earliest childhood. + +His aunts were not intentionally disloyal to their sister-in-law; +but their disapproval of her was too strong to be hidden, and they +regarded a little boy as blind and deaf to all that did not directly +concern his lessons or his play. Thus Peter had grown up loving his +mother, but disapproving of her, and the disapproval was sometimes +more apparent than the love. + +After breakfast the new squire took an early walk with his guardian, +and inspected a few of the changes which had taken place in the +administration of his tiny kingdom. Though Peter was young and +inexperienced, he could not be blind to the immense improvements made. + +He had left a house and stables shabby and tumble-down and out of +repair; rotting woodwork, worn-off paint, and missing tiles had been +painfully evident. Broken fences and hingeless gates were the rule, +and not the exception, in the grounds. + +Now all deficiencies had been made good by a cunning hand that had +allowed no glaring newness to be visible; a hand that had matched old +tiles, and patched old walls, and planted creepers, and restored an +almost magical order and comfort to Peter's beautiful old house. + +Where Sir Timothy's grumbling tenants had walked to the nearest brook +for water, they now found pipes brought to their own cottage doors. +The home-farm, stables, yards, and cowsheds were drained and paved; +fallen outbuildings replaced, uneven roads gravelled and rolled; dead +trees removed, and young ones planted, shrubberies trimmed, and views +long obscured once more opened out. + +Peter did not need the assurances of Mr. Crawley to be aware that his +inheritance would be handed back to him improved a thousand-fold. + +He was astounded to find how easily John had arranged matters over +which his father had grumbled and hesitated for years. Even the +dispute with the Crown had been settled by Mr. Crawley without +difficulty, now that Sir Timothy's obstinacy no longer stood in the +way of a reasonable compromise. + +John Crewys had faithfully carried out the instructions of the will; +and there were many thousands yet left of the sum placed at his +disposal for the improvements of the estate; a surplus which would +presently be invested for Peter's benefit, and added to that carefully +tied-up capital over which Sir Timothy had given his heir no +discretionary powers. + +Peter spent a couple of hours walking about with John, and took an +intelligent interest in all that had been done, from the roof and +chimney-pots of the house, to the new cider-mill and stable fittings; +but though he was civil and amiable, he expressed no particular +gratitude nor admiration on his return to the hall, where his mother +eagerly awaited him. + +It consoled her to perceive that he was on excellent terms with his +guardian, offering to accompany him in the dog-cart to Brawnton, +whither John was bound, to catch the noon express to town. + +"You will have him all to yourself after this," said John Crewys, +smiling down upon Lady Mary during his brief farewell interview, which +took place in the oriel window of the banqueting-hall, within sight, +though not within hearing, of the two old sisters. "I am sorry to take +him off to Brawnton, but I could hardly refuse his company." + +"No, no; I am only glad you should take every opportunity of knowing +him better," she said. + +"And you will be happier without any divided feelings at stake," he +said. "Give yourself up entirely to Peter for the next three or four +months, without any remorse concerning me. For the present, at +least, I shall be hard at work, with little enough time to spare +for sentiment." There was a tender raillery in his tone, which she +understood. "When I come back we will face the situation, according to +circumstances. By-the-by, I suppose it is not to be thought of that +Miss Sarah should prolong her Whitsuntide holidays much further?" + +"She ought to have returned to town earlier, but Mrs. Hewel was ill," +said Lady Mary. "She is a tiresome woman. She moved heaven and earth +to get rid of poor Sarah, and, now the child has had a _succès_, she +is always clamouring for her to come back." + +"Ah!" said John, thoughtfully, "and you will moot to Peter the scheme +for taking a house in town? But I should advise you to be guided by +his wishes over that. Still, it would be very delightful to meet +during our time of waiting; and that would be the only way. I won't +come down here again until I can declare myself. It is a--false +position, under the circumstances." + +"I know; I understand," said Lady Mary; "but I am afraid Peter won't +want to stir from home. He is so glad to be back, poor boy, one can +hardly blame him; and he shares his father's prejudices against +London." + +"Does he, indeed?" said John, rather dryly. "Well, make the most of +your summer with him. _You_ will get only too much London--in the near +future." + +"Perhaps," Lady Mary said, smiling. + +But, in spite of herself, John's confidence communicated itself to +her. + +When Peter and John had departed, Lady Mary went and sat alone in the +quiet of the fountain garden, at the eastern end of the terrace. The +thick hedges and laurels which sheltered it had been duly thinned and +trimmed, to allow the entrance of the morning sunshine. Roses and +lilies bloomed brightly round the fountain now, but it was still +rather a lonely and deserted spot, and silent, save for the sighing of +the wind, and the tinkle of the dropping water in the stone basin. + +A young copper beech, freed from its rankly increasing enemies of +branching laurel and encroaching bramble, now spread its glory of +transparent ruddy leaf in the sunshine above trim hedges, here and +there diversified by the pale gold of a laburnum, or the violet +clusters of a rhododendron in full flower. Rare ferns fringed the +edges of the little fountain, where diminutive reptiles whisked in +and out of watery homes, or sat motionless on the brink, with fixed, +glassy eyes. + +Lady Mary had come often to this quiet corner for rest and peace and +solitude in days gone by. She came often still, because she had a +fancy that the change in her favourite garden was typical of the +change in her life,--the letting-in of the sunshine, where before +there had been only deepest shade; the pinks and forget-me-nots which +were gaily blowing, where only moss and fungi had flourished; the +blooming of the roses, where the undergrowth had crossed and recrossed +withered branches above bare, black soil. + +She brought her happiness here, where she had brought her sorrow and +her repinings long ago. + +A happiness subdued by many memories, chastened by long anxiety, +obscured by many doubts, but still happiness. + +There was to be no more of that heart-breaking anxiety. Her boy +had been spared to come home to her; and John--John, who always +understood, had declared that, for the present, at least, Peter must +come first. + +The whole beautiful summer lay before her, in which she was to be free +to devote herself to her wounded hero. She must set herself to charm +away that shadow of discontent--of disapproval--that darkened Peter's +grey eyes when they rested upon her; a shadow of which she had been +only too conscious even before he went to South Africa. + +She made a thousand excuses for him, after telling herself that he +needed none. + +Poor boy! he had been brought up in such narrow ways, such an +atmosphere of petty distrust and fault-finding and small aims. Even +his bold venture into the world of men had not enabled him to shake +off altogether the influence of his early training, though it had +changed him so much for the better; it had not altogether cured +Peter of his old ungraciousness, partly inherited, and partly due to +example. + +But he had returned full of love and tenderness and penitence, though +his softening had been but momentary; and when she had brought him +under the changed influences which now dominated her own life, she +could not doubt that Peter's nature would expand. + +He should see that home life need not necessarily be gloomy; that +all innocent pleasures and interests were to be encouraged, and not +repressed. If he wanted to spend the summer at home--and after his +long absence what could be more natural?--she would exert herself +to make that home as attractive as possible. Why should they not +entertain? John had said there was plenty of money. Peter should have +other young people about him. She remembered a scene, long ago, when +he had brought a boy of his own age in to lunch without permission. +She would have to let Peter understand how welcome she should make +his friends; he must have many more friends now. While she was yet +_châtelaine_ of Barracombe, it would be delightful to imbue him with +some idea of the duties and pleasures of hospitality. Lady Mary's eyes +sparkled at the thought of providing entertainment for many young +soldiers, wounded or otherwise. They should have the best of +everything. She was rich, and Peter was rich, and there was no harm in +making visitors welcome in that great house, and filling the rooms, +that had been silent and empty so long, with the noise and laughter of +young people. + +She would ask Peter about the horses to-morrow. John had purposely +refrained from filling the stables which had been so carefully +restored and fitted. There were very few horses. Only the cob for +the dog-cart, and a pair for the carriage, so old that the coachman +declared it was tempting Providence to sit behind them. They were +calculated to have attained their twentieth year, and were driven at a +slow jog-trot for a couple of hours every day, except Sundays, in the +barouche. James Coachman informed Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys that +either steed was liable to drop down dead at any moment, and that they +could not expect the best of horses to last for ever; but the old +ladies would neither shorten nor abandon their afternoon drive, nor +consent to the purchase of a new pair. They continued to behave as +though horses were immortal. + +Sir Timothy's old black mare was turned out to graze, partly from +sentiment, and partly because she, too, was unfitted for any practical +purposes; and Peter had outgrown his pony before he went away, though +he had ridden it to hounds many times, unknown to his father. Lady +Mary thought it would be a pleasure to see her boy well mounted and +the stables filled. John had said that the loss of his arm would +certainly not prevent Peter from riding. She found herself constantly +referring to John, even in her plans for Peter's amusement. + +Strong, calm, patient John--who was prepared to wait; and who would +not, as he said, snatch happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings. How wise he had been to agree that, for the present, she +must devote herself only to Peter! She and Peter would be all in all +to each other as Peter himself had suggested, and as she had once +dreamed her son would be to his mother; though, of course, it was not +to be expected that a boy could understand everything, like John. + +She must make great allowances; she must be patient of his inherited +prejudices; above all, she must make him happy. + +Afterwards, perhaps, when Peter had learned to do without her--as he +would learn too surely in the course of nature--she would be free +to turn to John, and put her hand in his, and let him lead her +whithersoever he would. + +Peter saw his guardian off at Brawnton, dutifully standing at +attention on the platform until the train had departed, instead of +starting home as John suggested. + +When he came out of the station he stood still for a moment, +contemplating the stout, brown cob and the slim groom, who was waiting +anxiously to know whether Sir Peter would take the reins, or whether +he was to have the honour of driving his master home. + +"I think I'll walk back, George," said Peter, with a nonchalant air. +"Take the cob along quietly, and let her ladyship know directly you +get in that I'm returning by Hewelscourt woods, and the ferry." + +"Very good, Sir Peter," said the youth, zealously. + +"It would be only civil to look in on the Hewels as Sarah is going +back to town so soon," said Peter to himself. "And it's rot driving +all those miles on the sunny side of the river, when it's barely three +miles from here to Hewelscourt and the ferry, and in the shade all the +way. I shall be back almost as soon as the cart." + +A little old lady, dressed in shabby black silk, looked up from +the corner of the sofa next the window, when Peter entered the +drawing-room at Hewelscourt, after the usual delay, apologies, and +barking of dogs which attends the morning caller at the front door of +the average country house. + +Peter, who had expected to see Mrs. Hewel and Sarah, repented himself +for a moment that he had come at all when he beheld this stranger, who +regarded him with a pair of dark eyes that seemed several times too +large for her small, wrinkled face, and who merely nodded her head in +response to his awkward salutation. + +"Ah!" said the old lady, rather as though she were talking to herself, +"so this is the returned hero, no doubt. How do you do? The rejoicing +over your home-coming kept me awake half the night." + +Peter was rather offended at this free-and-easy method of address. It +seemed to him that, since the old lady evidently knew who he was, she +might be a little more respectful in her manner. + +"The festivities were all over soon after eleven," he said stiffly. +"But perhaps you are accustomed to early hours?" + +"Perhaps I am," said the old lady; she seemed more amused than abashed +by Peter's dignity of demeanour. "At any rate, I like my beauty sleep +to be undisturbed; more especially in the country, where there are so +many noises to wake one up from four o'clock in the morning onwards." + +"I have always understood," said Peter, who inherited his father's +respect for platitudes, "that the country was much quieter than the +town. I suppose you live in a town?" + +"I suppose I do," said the old lady. + +Peter put up his eyeglass indignantly, to quell this disrespectful +old woman with a frigid look, modelled upon the expression of his +board-ship hero. + +The door opened suddenly. + +He dropped his eyeglass with a start. But it was only Mrs. Hewel who +entered, and not Sarah, after all. + +Her _embonpoint_, and consequently her breathlessness, had much +increased since Peter saw her last. + +"Oh, Peter," she cried, "this is nice of you to come over and see us +so soon. We were wondering if you would. Dear, dear, how thankful your +mother must be! I know what I was with the boys--and decorated and +all--though poor Tom and Willie got nothing; but, as the papers said, +it wasn't always those who deserved it most--still, I'm glad _you_ got +something, anyway; it's little enough, I'm sure, to make up for--" +Then she turned nervously to the old lady. "Aunt Elizabeth, this is +Sir Peter Crewys, who came home last night." + +"I have already made acquaintance with Sir Peter, since you left me to +entertain him," said the old lady, nodding affably. + +"Lady Tintern arrived unexpectedly by the afternoon train yesterday," +explained Mrs. Hewel, in her flustered manner, turning once more to +Peter. "She has only been here twice before. It was such a surprise to +Sarah to find her here when she came back." + +Peter grew very red. Who could have supposed that this shabby old +person, whom he had endeavoured to snub, was the great Lady Tintern? + +"She _didn't_ find me," said the old lady. "I was in bed long before +Sarah came back. I presume this young gentleman escorted her home?" + +"I always send a servant across for Sarah whenever she stays at all +late at Barracombe, and always have," said Mrs. Hewel, in hurried +self-defence. "You must remember we are old friends; there never was +any formality about her visits to Barracombe." + +"My guardian and I walked down to the ferry, and saw her across the +river, of course," said Peter, rather sulkily. + +"But her maid was with her," cried Mrs. Hewel. + +"Of course," Peter said again, in tones that were none too civil. + +After all, who was Lady Tintern that she should call him to task? And +as if there could be any reason why her oldest playmate should not see +Sarah home if he chose. + +At the very bottom of Peter's heart lurked an inborn conviction that +his father's son was a very much more important personage than any +Hewel, or relative of Hewel, could possibly be. + +"That was very kind of you and your guardian," said the old lady, +suddenly becoming gracious. "Emily, I will leave you to talk to your +_old friend_. I dare say I shall see him again at luncheon?" + +"I cannot stay to luncheon. My mother is expecting me," said Peter. + +He would not express any thanks. What business had the presuming old +woman to invite him to luncheon? It was not her house, after all. + +"Oh, your mother is expecting you," said Lady Tintern, whose slightly +derisive manner of repeating Peter's words embarrassed and annoyed the +young gentleman exceedingly. "I am glad you are such a dutiful son, +Sir Peter." + +She gathered together her letters and her black draperies, and +tottered off to the door, which Peter, who was sadly negligent of _les +petits soins_ forgot to open for her; nor did he observe the indignant +look she favoured him with in consequence. + +Sarah came into the drawing-room at last; fresh as the morning dew, in +her summer muslin and fluttering, embroidered ribbons; with a bunch of +forget-me-nots, blue as her eyes, nestling beneath her round, white +chin. Her bright hair was curled round her pretty ears and about her +fair throat, but Peter did not compare this _coiffure_ to a fashion +plate, though, indeed, it exactly resembled one. Neither did he cast +the severely critical glance upon Sarah's _toilette_ that he +had bestowed upon the soft, grey gown, and the cluster of white +moss-rosebuds which poor Lady Mary had ventured to wear that morning. + +"How have you managed to offend Aunt Elizabeth, Peter?" cried Sarah, +with her usual frankness. "She is in the worst of humours." + +"Sarah!" said her mother, reprovingly. + +"Well, but she _is_," said Sarah. "She called him a cub and a bear, +and all sorts of things." + +She looked at Peter and laughed, and he laughed back. The cloud of +sullenness had lifted from his brow as she appeared. + +Mrs. Hewel overwhelmed him with unnecessary apologies. She could not +grasp the fact that her polite conversation was as dull and unmeaning +to the young man as Sarah's indiscreet nothings were interesting and +delightful. + +"I'm sure I don't mind," said Peter; and his tone was quite alert and +cheerful. "She told me the country kept her awake. If she doesn't like +it, why does she come?" + +"She has come to fetch me away," said Sarah. "And she came +unexpectedly, because she wanted to see for herself whether mamma was +really ill, or whether she was only shamming." + +"Sarah!" + +"And she has decided she is only shamming," said Sarah. "Unluckily, +mamma happened to be down in the stables, doctoring Venus. You +remember Venus, her pet spaniel?" + +"Of course." + +"Nothing else would have taken me off my sofa, where I ought to be +lying at this moment, as you know very well, Sarah," cried Mrs. Hewel, +showing an inclination to shed tears. + +"To be sure you ought," said Sarah; "but what is the use of telling +Aunt Elizabeth that, when she saw you with her own eyes racing up and +down the stable-yard, with a piece of raw meat in your hand, and Venus +galloping after you." + +"The vet said that if she took no exercise she would die," said Mrs. +Hewel, tearfully, "and neither he nor Jones could get her to move. Not +even Ash, though he has known her all her life. I know it was very bad +for me; but what could I do?" + +"I wish I had been there," said Sarah, giggling; "but, however, Aunt +Elizabeth described it all to me so graphically this morning that it +is almost as good as though I had been." + +"She should not have come down like that, without giving us a notion," +said Mrs. Hewel, resentfully. + +"If she had only warned us, you could have been lying on a sofa, with +the blinds down, and I could have been holding your hand and shaking +a medicine-bottle," said Sarah. "That is how she expected to find us, +she said, from your letters." + +"I am sure I scarcely refer to my weak health in my letters," said +Mrs. Hewel, plaintively, "and it is natural I should like my only +daughter to be with me now and then. Aunt Elizabeth has never had a +child herself, and cannot understand the feelings of a mother." + +Sarah and Peter exchanged a fleeting glance. She shrugged her +shoulders slightly, and Peter looked at his boots. They understood +each other perfectly. + +Freshly to the recollection of both rose the lamentations of a little +red-haired girl, banished from the Eden of her beloved home, and +condemned to a cheap German school. Mrs. Hewel, in her palmiest days, +had never found it necessary to race up and down the stable-yard to +amuse Sarah; and when her only daughter developed scarlatina, she +had removed herself and her spaniels from home for months to escape +infection. + +"Here is papa," said Sarah, breaking the silence. "He was so vexed to +be out when you arrived yesterday. He heard nothing of it till he came +back." + +Colonel Hewel walked in through the open window, with his dog at his +heels. He was delighted to welcome his young neighbour home. A short, +sturdy man, with red whiskers, plentiful stiff hair, and bright, dark +blue eyes. From her father Sarah had inherited her colouring, her +short nose, and her unfailing good spirits. + +"I would have come over to welcome you," he said, shaking Peter's hand +cordially, "only when I came home there was all the upset of Lady +Tintern's arrival, and half a hundred things to be done to make her +sufficiently comfortable. And then I would have come to fetch Sarah +after dinner, only I couldn't be sure she mightn't have started; and +if I'd gone down by the road, ten to one she'd have come up by the +path through the woods. So I just sat down and smoked my pipe, and +waited for her to come back. You'll stay to lunch, eh, Peter?" + +"I must get back to my mother, sir," said Peter. His respect for +Sarah's father, who had once commanded a cavalry regiment, had +increased a thousand-fold since he last saw Colonel Hewel. "But won't +you--I mean she'd be very glad--I wish you'd come over and dine +to-night, all of you--as you could not come yesterday evening?" + +Thus Peter delivered his first invitation, blushing with eagerness. + +"I'm afraid we couldn't leave Lady Tintern--or persuade her to come +with us," said the colonel, shaking his head. Then he brightened up. +"But as soon as she and Sally have toddled back to town I see no +reason why we shouldn't come, eh, Emily?" he said, turning to his +wife. + +Peter looked rather blank, and a laugh trembled on Sarah's pretty +lips. + +"You know I'm not strong enough to dine out, Tom," said his wife, +peevishly. "I can't drive so far, and I'm terrified of the ferry at +night, with those slippery banks." + +"Well, well, there's plenty of time before us. Later on you may get +better; and I don't suppose you'll be running away again in a hurry, +eh, Peter?" said the colonel. "I'm told you made a capital speech +yesterday about sticking to your home, and living on your land, as +your father, poor fellow, did before you." + +"I wish Sarah felt as you do, Peter," said Mrs. Hewel; "but, of +course, she has grown too grand for us, who live contentedly in the +country all the year round. Her home is nothing to her now, it seems; +and the only thing she thinks of is rushing back to London again as +fast as she can." + +Sarah, contrary to her wont, received this attack in silence; but she +bestowed a fond squeeze on her father's arm, and cast an appealing +glance at Peter, which caused the hero's heart to leap in his bosom. + +"Of course I mean to live at Barracombe," said Peter, polishing his +eyeglass with reckless energy. "But I said nothing to the people about +living there all the year round. On the contrary, I think it more +probable that I shall--run up to town myself, occasionally--just for +the season." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +On a perfect summer afternoon in mid-July, Lady Mary sat in the +terrace garden at Barracombe, before the open windows of the silent +house, in the shade of the great ilex; sometimes glancing at the book +she held, and sometimes watching the haymakers in the valley, whose +voices and laughter reached her faintly across the distance. + +Some boys were playing cricket in a field below. She noted idly that +the sound of the ball on the bat travelled but slowly upward, and +reached her after the striker had begun to run. The effect was +curious, but it was not new to her, though she listened and counted +with idle interest. + +The old sisters had departed for their daily drive, which she daily +declined to share, having no love for the high-road, and much for the +peace which their absence brought her. + +It was an afternoon which made mere existence a delight amid such +surroundings. + +Long shadows were falling across the bend of the river, below the +wooded hill which faced the south-west; whilst the cob-built, +whitewashed cottages, and the brown, square-towered church lay full in +sunshine still. The red cattle stood knee-deep in the shallows, and an +old boat was moored high and dry upon the sloping red banks. + +The air was sweet with a thousand mingled scents of summer flowers: +carnations, stocks, roses, and jasmine. The creamy clusters of +Perpetual Felicity rioted over the corner turret of the terrace, where +a crumbling stair led to the top of a small, half-ruined observatory, +which tradition called the look-out tower. + +Flights of steps led downwards from the garden, where the bedded-out +plants blazed in all their glory of ordered colour, to the walks on +the lower levels. Here were long herbaceous borders, backed by the +mighty sloping walls of old red sandstone, which, like an ancient +fortification, supported the terrace above. + +The blue larkspur flourished beside scarlet gladioli, feather-headed +spirea, and hardy fuchsia. There were no straight lines, nor any order +of planting. The Madonna lilies stood in groups, lifting up on thin, +ragged stems their pure and spotless clusters, and overpowering with +their heavy scent the fainter fragrance of the mignonette. Tall, green +hollyhocks towered higher yet, holding the secret of their loveliness, +until these should wither; when they too would burst into blossom, and +forestall the round-budded dahlia. + +In the silence, many usually unheeded sounds made themselves very +plainly heard. + +The tapping of the great magnolia-leaves upon the windows of the south +front; the rustling of the ilex; the ceaseless murmur of the river; +the near twittering or distant song of innumerable birds; the steady +hum of the saw-mill below; the call of the poultry-woman at the +home-farm, and the shrieking response of a feathered horde flying and +fighting for their food--sounds all so familiar as to pass unnoticed, +save in the absence of companionship. + +As Lady Mary mused alone, she could not but recall other summer +afternoons, when she had not felt less lonely because her husband's +voice might at any moment break the silence, and summon her to his +side. Days when Peter had been absent at school, instead of, as now, +at play; and when the old ladies had also been absent, taking their +regular and daily drive in the big barouche. + +Then she had prized and coveted the solitude of a summer afternoon on +the lawn, and had stolen away to read and dream undisturbed in the +shadow of the ilex. + +It was now, when no vexatious restraint was exercised over her--when +there was no one to reprove her for dreaming, or to criticize or +forbid her chosen book--that solitude had become distasteful to her. +She was restless and dissatisfied, and the misty sunlit landscape had +lost its charm, and her book its power of enchaining her attention. + +She had tasted the joy of real companionship; the charm of real +sympathy; of the fearless exchange of ideas with one whose outlook +upon life was as broad and charitable as Sir Timothy's had been narrow +and prejudiced. + +She had scarcely dared to acknowledge to herself how dear John Crewys +had become to her, even though she knew that she rested thankfully +upon the certainty of his love; that she trusted him in all things; +that she was in utter sympathy with all his thoughts and words and +ways. + +Yet she had wished him to go, that she might be free to devote herself +to her boy--to be very sure that she was not a light and careless +mother, ready to abandon her son at the first call of a stranger. + +And John Crewys had understood as another might not have understood. +His clear head and great heart had divined her feelings, though +perhaps he would never quite know how passionately grateful she was +because he had divined them; because he had in no way fallen short of +the man he had seemed to be. + +She had sacrificed John to Peter; and John, who had shown so much +wisdom and delicacy in leaving her alone with her son, was avenged; +for only his absence could have made clear to her how he had grown +into the heart she had guarded so jealously for Peter's sake. + +She knew now that Peter's companionship made her more lonely than +utter solitude. + +The _joie de vivre_, which had distinguished her early days, and was +inherent in her nature, had been quenched, to all appearance, many +years since; but the spark had never died, and John had fanned it into +brightness once more. + +His strong hand had swept away the cobwebs that had been spun across +her life; and the drooping soul had revived in the sunshine of his +love, his comradeship, his warm approval. + +Timidly, she had learnt to live, to laugh, to look about her, and dare +utter her own thoughts and opinions, instead of falsely echoing those +she did not share. Lady Mary had recovered her individuality; the +serene consciousness of a power within herself to live up to the ideal +her lover had conceived of her. + +But now, in his absence, that confidence had been rudely shaken. She +had come to perceive that she, who charmed others so easily, could +not charm her sullen son. It was part of the penalty she paid for her +quick-wittedness, that she could realize herself as Peter saw her, +though she was unable to present herself before him in a more +favourable light. + +"I must be myself--or nobody," she thought despairingly. But Peter +wanted her to be once more the meek, plainly dressed, low-spirited, +silent being whom Sir Timothy had created; and who was not in the +least like the original laughing, loving, joyous Mary Setoun. + +It did not occur to her, in her sorrowful humility, that possibly her +qualities stood on a higher level than Peter's powers of appreciation. +Yet it is certain that people can only admire intelligently what +is good within their comprehension; and their highest flights of +imagination may sometimes scarcely touch mediocrity. + +The noblest ideals, the fairest dreams, the subtlest reasoning, the +finest ethics, contained in the writings of the mighty dead, meant +nothing at all to Sir Timothy. His widow knew that she had never heard +him utter one high or noble or selfless thought. But with, perhaps, +pardonable egotism, she had taken it for granted that Peter must be +different. Whatever his outward humours, he was _her_ son; rather a +part of herself, in her loving fancy, than a separate individual. + +The moment of awakening had been long in coming to Lady Mary; the +moment when a mother has to find out that her personality is not +necessarily reproduced in her child; that the being who was once the +unconscious consoler of her griefs and troubles may develop a nature +perfectly antagonistic to her own. + +She had kept her eyes shut with all her might for a long time, but +necessity was forcing them open. + +Perhaps her association with John Crewys made it easier to see Peter +as he was, and not as she had wished him to be. + +And yet, she thought miserably to herself, he had certainly tried hard +to be affectionate and kind to her--and probably it did not occur to +him, as it did to his mother, how pathetic it was that he should have +to try. + +Peter did not think much about it. + +Sometimes, during his short stay at Barracombe, he had walked through +a game of croquet with his mother--it was good practice for his left +hand--or he listened disapprovingly to something she inadvertently +(forgetting he was not John) read aloud for his sympathy or +admiration; or he took a short stroll with her; or bestowed his +company upon her in some other dutiful fashion. But these filial +attentions over, if he yawned with relief--why, he never did so in her +presence, and would have been unable to understand that Lady Mary saw +him yawning, in her mind's eye, as plainly as though he had indulged +this bad habit under her very nose. He bestowed a portion of his +time on his aunts in much the same spirit, taking less trouble to be +affectionate, because they were less exacting, as he would have put it +to himself, than she was. + +The scheme of renting a house in London had duly been laid before him, +and rejected most decisively by the young gentleman. His father had +never taken a house in town, and he could see no necessity for it. His +aunts were lost in admiration for their nephew's firmness. Peter had +inherited somewhat of his father's dictatorial manner, and their +flattery did not tend to soften it. When his aged relatives +mispronounced the magic word _kopje_, or betrayed their belief that a +_donga_ was an inaccessible mountain--he brought the big guns of his +heavy satire to bear on the little target of their ignorance without +remorse. He mistook a loud voice, and a habit of laying down the law, +for manly decision, and the gift of leadership; and imagined that in +talking down his mother's gentle protests he had convinced her of his +superior wisdom. + +When he had made it sufficiently clear, however, that he did not wish +Lady Mary to accompany him to town, young Sir Peter made haste to +depart thither himself, on the very reasonable plea that he required a +new outfit of clothes. + +Was it possible that his departure brought a dreadful relief to the +mother who had prayed day and night, for eight-and-twenty months, that +her son might return to her? + +She tried and tried, on her knees in her own room, to realize what her +feelings would have been if Peter had been killed in South Africa. +She tried to recall the first ecstasy of joy at his home-coming. She +remembered, as she might have remembered a dream, the hours of agony +she had passed, looking out over these very blue hills, and dumbly +beseeching God to spare her boy--her only son--out of all the mothers' +sons who were laying down their lives for England. + +A terrible thought assailed her now and then, like an ugly spectre +that would not be laid--that if Peter had died of his wound--if he had +fallen as so many of his comrades had fallen, in the war--he would +have been a hero for all time; a glorious memory, safely enshrined and +enthroned above all these miserable petty doubts and disappointments. +She cast the thought from her in horror and piteous grief, and +reiterated always her passionate gratitude for his preservation. But, +nevertheless, the living, breathing Peter was a daily and hourly +disappointment to the mother who loved him. His ways were not her +ways, nor his thoughts her thoughts; and often she felt that she could +have found more to say to a complete stranger, and that a stranger +would have understood her better. + +The old ladies, returning from their drive, generally took a little +turn upon the terrace. This constituted half their daily exercise, +since their morning walk consisted of a stroll round the kitchen +garden. + +"It prevents cramp after sitting so long," one would say to the other. + +"And it is only right to show the gardener that we take an interest," +the other would reply. + +The gardener translated the interest they took into a habit of +fault-finding, which nearly drove him mad. + +"It du spile the vine weather vor I," he would frequently grumble +to his greatest crony, James Coachman, who, for his part, bitterly +resented the abnormal length of the daily drives. "Zure as vate, when +I zits down tu my tea, cumes a message from one are t'other on 'em, +an' oop I goes. 'Yu bain't been lukin' round zo careful as 'ee shude; +there be a bit o' magnolia as want nailding oop, my gude man.' 'Oh, +be there, mum?' zays I. 'Yiss, there be; an' thart I'd carl yure +attention tu it,' zess she, are zum zuch. 'Thanky, mum, I'm zure,' +zezz I." + +"I knows how her goes on," groaned James Coachman. + +"Mother toime 'tis zummat else," said the aggrieved gardener. "'Thic +'ere geranum's broke, Willum; but ef yu tuke it vor cuttings, zo +vast's iver yu cude, 'twon't take no yarm, Willum. Yu zee as how us du +take a turble interest.' Ah! 'tis arl I can du tu putt oop wi' 'un; +carling a man from's tea, tu tark zuch vamous vule's tark." + +Lady Mary was not much less weary than the gardener and coachman of +the old sisters' habits of criticism. But only the shadow of their +former power of vexing her remained, now that they could no longer +appeal to Sir Timothy to join them in reproving his wife. She was +no more to be teased or exasperated into alternate submission and +rebellion. + +Their cousin John, the administrator of Barracombe, had chosen from +the first to place her opinions and wishes above all their protests or +advice. They said to each other that John, before he grew tired of her +and went away, had spoilt poor dear Mary completely; but their hopes +were centred on Peter, who was a true Crewys, and who would soon +be his own master, and the master of Barracombe; when he would, +doubtless, revert to his father's old ways. + +They chose to blame his mother for his sudden departure to London, and +remarked that the changes in his home had so wrought upon the poor +fellow, that he could not bear to look at them until he had the power +of putting them right again. + +A deeply resented innovation was the appearance of the tea-table on +the lawn before the windows, in the shade of the ilex-grove, which +sheltered the western end of the terrace from the low rays of the sun. + +During the previous summer, on their return from a drive, they had +found their cousin John in his white flannels, and Lady Mary in her +black gown, serenely enjoying this refreshment out-of-doors; and the +poor old ladies had hardly known how to express their surprise and +annoyance. + +In vain did their sister-in-law explain that she had desired a second +tea to be served in the hall, in their usual corner by the log +fireplace. + +It had never been the custom in the family. What would Ash say? What +would he think? How could so much extra trouble be given to the +servants? + +"The servants have next to nothing to do," Lady Mary had said; and +young John had actually laughed, and explained that he had had a +conversation with Ash which had almost petrified that tyrant of the +household. + +Either Ash would behave himself properly, and carry out orders without +grumbling, or he would be superseded. _Ash_ superseded! + +This John had said with quite unruffled good humour, and with a smile +on his face, as though such an upheaval of domestic politics were the +simplest thing in the world. Though for years the insolence and the +idleness of Ash had been favourite grievances with Lady Belstone and +Miss Crewys, they were speechlessly indignant with young John. + +Habit had partially inured, though it could never reconcile them, to +the appearance of that little rustic table and white cloth in Lady +Mary's favourite corner of the terrace; and though they would rather +have gone without their tea altogether than partake of it there, +they could behold her pouring it out for herself with comparative +equanimity. + +"I trust you are rested, dear Mary, after your terrible long climb in +the woods this morning?" + +"It has been very restful sitting here. I hope you had a pleasant +drive, Isabella?" "No; it was too hot to be pleasant. We passed +the rectory, and there was that idle doctor lolling in the canon's +verandah--keeping the poor man from his haymaking. Has the second post +come in? Any news of dear Peter?" + +"None at all. You know he is not much of a correspondent, and his last +letter said he would be back in a few days." + +"For my part," said Lady Belstone, "I think Peter will come home the +day he attains his majority, and not a moment before." + +"He is hardly likely to stay in London through August and September," +said Lady Mary, in rather displeased tones. + +"Perhaps not in London; but there are other places besides London," +said Miss Crewys, significantly. "We met Mrs. Hewel driving. _She_, +poor thing, does not expect to see Sarah before Christmas, if then, +from what she told us." + +"She should not have let Lady Tintern adopt Sarah if she is to be for +ever regretting it. It was her own doing," said Lady Mary. + +"That is just what I told her," said Lady Belstone, triumphantly. +"Though how she can be regretting such a daughter I cannot +conjecture." + +"Sarah is a saucy creature," said Miss Crewys. "The last time I saw +her she made one of her senseless jokes at me." + +"She has no tact," said Lady Belstone, shaking her head; "for when +Peter saw you were annoyed, and tried to pass it off by telling her +the Crewys family had no sense of humour, instead of saying, 'What +nonsense!' she said, 'What a pity!'" + +"Her mother was full of a letter from Lady Tintern about some grand +lord or other, who wanted to marry Sarah. I did my best to make her +understand how very unlikely it was that any man, noble or otherwise, +would care to marry a girl with carroty hair." + +"I doubt if you succeeded in convincing her, Georgina, though you +spoke pretty plain, and I am very far from blaming you for it. But she +is ate up with pride, poor thing, because Sarah gets noticed by +Lady Tintern's friends, who would naturally wish to gratify her by +flattering her niece." + +"I am afraid the girl is setting her cap at Peter," said Miss Crewys; +"but I took care to let her mother know, casually, what our family +would think of such a marriage for him." + +"Peter is a boy," said Lady Mary, quickly; "and Sarah, for all +practical purposes, is ten years older than he. She is only amusing +herself. Lady Tintern is much more ambitious for her than I am for +Peter." + +"How you talk, Mary!" said Miss Crewys, indignantly. "She is hardly +twenty years of age, and the most designing monkey that ever lived. +And Peter is a fine young man. A boy, indeed! I hope if she succeeds +in catching him that you will remember I warned you." + +"I will remember, if anything so fortunate should occur," said Lady +Mary, with a faint smile. "I cannot think of any girl in the world +whom I would prefer to Sarah as a daughter." + +"I, for one, should walk out of this house the day that girl entered +it as mistress, let Peter say what he would to prevent me," said Lady +Belstone, reddening with indignation. + +"I wonder where you would go to?" said Lady Mary, with some curiosity. +"Of course," she added, hastily, "there is the Dower House." + +"I am sure it is very generous of you to suggest the Dower House, dear +Mary," said Miss Crewys, softening, "since our poor brother, in his +unaccountable will, left it entirely to you, and made no mention of +his elder sisters; though we do not complain." + +"It is in accordance with custom that the widow should have the Dower +House. A widow's rights should be respected; but I thought our names +would be mentioned," said Lady Belstone, dejectedly. + +"Of course he knew," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "that Peter's +house would be always open to us all, as my boy said himself." + +"Dear boy! he has said it to us too," said the sisters, in a breath. + +"I don't say that, in my opinion," said Lady Mary, "it would not be +wiser to leave a young married couple to themselves; I have always +thought so. But Peter would not hear of your turning out of your old +home; you know that very well." + +"Peter would not; but nothing would induce _me_ to live under the +same roof as that red-haired minx," said Lady Belstone, firmly. "And +besides, as you say, my dear Mary, you could not very well live by +yourself at the Dower House." + +"Since Mary has been so kind as to mention it, there would be many +advantages in our accompanying her there, in case Sarah should succeed +in her artful aims," said Miss Crewys. "It would be near Peter, and +yet not _too_ near, and we could keep an eye on _her_." + +"If she does not succeed, somebody else will," said Lady Belstone, +sensibly; "and, at least, we know her faults, and can put Peter on his +guard against them." + +A host of petty and wretched recollections poured into Lady Mary's +mind as she listened to these words. + +Poor Timothy; poor little hunted, scolded, despairing bride; poor +married life--of futile reproaches and foolish quarrelling. + +How many small miseries she owed to those ferret searching eyes, and +those subtly poisonous tongues! But such miseries lurked in the dull +shadows of the past. Standing now in the bright sunshine of the +present, she forgave the sisters with all her heart, and thought +compassionately of their great age, their increasing infirmities, +their feeble hold on life. + +Not to them did she owe real sorrow, after all; for nothing that does +not touch the heart can reach the fountain of grief. + +Peter's hand--the hand she loved best in the world--had set the waters +of sorrow flowing not once, but many times; but she had become aware +lately of a stronger power than Peter's guarding the spring. + +She looked from one sister to the other. + +Despite the narrowness of brow, and sharpness of eye and feature, +they were both venerable of aspect, as they tottered up and down the +terrace where they had played in their childhood and sauntered through +youth and middle age to these latter days, when they leant upon +silver-headed sticks, and wore dignified silk attire and respectable +poke-bonnets. + +"Don't you think it would be better," said Lady Mary, slowly, "if you +left Peter to find out his wife's faults for himself; whether she be +Sarah--or another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Torrents of falling rain obscured the valley of the Youle. The grey +clouds floated below the ridges of the hills, and wreathed the +tree-tops. Against the dim purple of the distance, the October roses +held up melancholy, rain-washed heads; and sudden gusts of wind sent +little armies of dead, brown leaves racing over the stone pavement of +the terrace. + +Lady Mary leant her forehead against the window, and gazed out upon +the autumn landscape; and John Crewys watched her with feelings not +altogether devoid of self-reproach. + +Perhaps he had carried his prudent consideration too far. + +His reverence for his beautiful lady--who reigned in John's inmost +thoughts as both saint and queen--had caused him to determine that she +must come to him, when she did come, without a shadow of self-reproach +to sully the joy of her surrender, the fulness, of her bliss, in the +perfect sympathy and devotion which awaited her. + +But John Crewys--though passionately desiring her companionship, and +impatient of all barriers, real or imaginary, which divided her from +him--yet lived a life very full of work and interest and pleasure on +his own account. He was only conscious of his loneliness at times; +and when he was as busy as he had been during the early half of this +summer, he was hardly conscious of it at all. + +He had not fully realized the effect that this time of waiting and +uncertainty might have upon her, in the solitude to which he had left +her, and which he had at first supposed would be altogether occupied +by Peter. Her letters--infrequent as he, in his self-denial, had +suggested--were characterized by a delicate reserve and a tacit +refusal to take anything for granted in their relations to each other, +which half charmed and half tantalized John; but scarcely enlightened +him regarding the suspense and sadness which at this time she was +called upon to bear. + +When he came to Barracombe, he knew that she had suffered greatly +during these months of his absence, and reproached himself angrily for +blindness and selfishness. + +He had spent the first weeks of his long vacation in Switzerland, in +order to bring the date of his visit to the Youle Valley as near as +possible to the date of Peter's coming of age; but, also, he had been +very much overworked, and felt an absolute want of rest and change +before entering upon the struggle which he supposed might await him, +and for which he would probably need all the good humour and good +sense he possessed. So far as he was personally concerned, there +was no doubt that his proceedings had been dictated by wisdom and +judgment. + +The fatigue and irritability, consequent upon too much mental labour, +and too little fresh air and exercise, had vanished. John was in good +health and good spirits, clear of brain and eye, and vigorous of +person, when he arrived at Barracombe; in the mild, wet, misty weather +which heralded the approach of a typical Devonshire autumn. + +But when he looked at Lady Mary, he knew that he would have been +better able to dispense with that holiday interval than she was to +have endured it. + +She had always been considered marvellously young-looking for her age. +The quiet country life she had led had bestowed that advantage upon +her; and her beauty, fair as she was, had always been less dependent +on colouring than upon the exquisite delicacy of her features and +general contour. But now a heaviness beneath the blue eyes,--a little +fading of her brightness--a little droop of the beautifully shaped +mouth,--almost betrayed her seven and thirty years; and the soft, +abundant, brown hair was threaded quite perceptibly with silver. Her +sweet face smiled upon him; but the smile was no longer, he thought, +joyous--but pathetic, as of one who reproaches herself wonderingly for +light-heartedness. + +John looked at her in silence, but the words he uttered in his heart +were, "I will never leave you any more." + +Perhaps his face said everything that he did not say, for Lady Mary +had turned from him with a little sob, and leant her forehead on her +hands, looking out at the rain which swept the valley. She felt, as +she had always felt in John's presence, that here was her champion and +her protector and her slave, in one; returned to restore her failing +courage and her lost self-confidence. + +"So you saw something of Peter in London?" she said tremulously, +breaking the silence which had fallen between them after their first +greeting. "Please tell me. You know I have seen almost nothing of him +since he came home." + +"So I gather," said John. "Yes, I saw something--not very much--of +Master Peter in London. You see I am not much of a society man;" and +he laughed. + +"Was Peter a society man?" said his mother, laughing also, but rather +sadly. + +"He went out a good deal, and was to be met with in most places," John +answered. + +"I read his name in lists of dances given by people I did not know he +had ever heard of. But I did not like to ask him how he managed to +get invited. He rather dislikes being questioned," said Lady Mary, +describing Peter's prejudices as mildly as possible. + +"I fancy Miss Sarah could tell you," said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"I did not know--just a girl--could get a stranger, a boy like Peter, +invited everywhere," said Lady Mary, innocently. + +John laughed. "Peter is a very eligible boy," he said, "and Sarah is +not 'just a girl,' but a very clever young woman indeed; and Lady +Tintern is a ball-giver. But if he had been the most ordinary of +youths, a bachelor's foothold on the dance-lists is the easiest thing +in the world to obtain. It means nothing in itself." + +"I think it meant a good deal to Peter," said his mother, with a sigh. +"If only I could think Sarah were in earnest." + +"I don't see why not," said John. + +Then he came and took Lady Mary's hand, and led her to a seat next the +fire. + +"Come and sit down comfortably," he said, "and let us talk everything +over. It looks very miserable out-of-doors, and nothing could be more +delightful than this room, and nobody to disturb us. I want the real +history of the last few months. Do you know your letters told me +almost nothing?" + +The room was certainly delightful, and not the less so for the Chill +rain without, which beat against the windows, and enhanced the bright +aspect of the scene within. + +A little fire burned cheerfully in the polished grate, and cast its +glow upon the burnished fender, and the silver ornaments and +trifles on a rosewood table beyond. The furniture was bright with +old-fashioned glossy chintz; the rose-tinted walls were hung with fine +water-colour drawings; the windows with rose-silk curtains. + +The hardy outdoor flowers were banished to the oaken hall. Lady Mary's +sense of the fitness of things permitted the silver cups and Venetian +glasses of this dainty apartment to be filled only with waxen hothouse +blooms and maidenhair fern. + +She could not but be conscious of the restfulness of her surroundings, +and of John's calm, protecting presence, as he placed her tenderly in +the corner of the fireside couch, and took his place beside her. + +"I don't think the last months have had any history at all," she said +dreamily. "I have missed you, John. But that--you know already. I--I +have been very lonely--since--since Peter came home. I think it was +Sarah who persuaded him to go away again so soon. I believe she +laughed at his clothes." + +"I suppose they _were_ a little out of date, and he must surely have +outgrown them, besides," said John, smiling. + +"I suppose so; anyway, I think it must have been that which put it +into his head to go to London and buy more. It was a little awkward +for the poor boy, because he had just been scolding _me_ for wishing +to go to London. But he said he would only be a few days." + +"And he stayed to the end of the season?" + +"Yes. Of course the aunts put it down to Sarah. I dare say it _was_ +her doing. I don't know why she should wish to rob me of my boy just +for--amusement," said Lady Mary, rather resentfully. "But I have not +understood Sarah lately; she has seemed so hard and flippant. You are +laughing, John? I dare say I am jealous and inconsistent. You are +quite right. One moment I want to think Sarah in earnest--and willing +to marry my boy; and the next I remember that I began to hate his wife +the very day he was born." + +"It appears to be the nature of mothers," said John, indulgently. +"But you will allow _me_ to hope for Peter's happiness, and quite +incidentally, of course, for our own?" + +She smiled. "Seriously, John, I wish you would tell me how he got on +in London." + +"He dined with me once or twice, as you know," said John, "and was +very friendly. I think he was relieved that I made no suggestion of +tutors or universities, and that I took his eyeglass for granted. In +short, that I treated him as I should treat any other young man of my +acquaintance; whereas he had greatly feared I might presume upon my +guardianship to give him good advice. But I did not, because he is too +young to want advice just now, and prefers, like most of us, to buy +his own experience." + +"I hope he was really nice to you. You won't hide anything? You'll +tell me exactly?" + +"I am hiding nothing. The lad is a good lad at bottom, and a manly one +into the bargain," said John. "His defects are of the kind which get +up, so to speak, and hit you in the eye; and are, consequently, not +of a kind to escape observation. What is obviously wrong is easiest +cured. He has yet to learn that 'manners maketh man,' but he was +learning it as fast as possible. The mistakes of youth are rather +pathetic than annoying." + +"Sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"He fell, very naturally, into most of the conventional errors which +beset the inexperienced Londoner," said John, smiling slightly at the +recollection. "He talked in a familiar manner of persons whose names +were unknown to him the day before yesterday; and told well-known +anecdotes about well-known people whom he hadn't had time to meet, as +though they had only just happened. The kind of stories outsiders +tell to new-comers. And he professed to be bored at every party he +attended. I won't say that the _habitué_ is always too well bred, or +too grateful to his entertainers, to do anything of the kind; but he +is certainly too wise or too cautious." + +"Perhaps he was bored?" said Lady Mary, wistfully. "Knowing nobody, +poor boy." + +"The first time I met him on neutral ground was at a dance," said +John. "He looked very tall and nervous and lonely, and, of course, he +was not dancing; but, nevertheless, he was the hero of the evening, +or so Miss Sarah gave me to understand. But you can imagine it for +yourself. The war just over, and a young fellow who has lost so much +in it; the gallant nephew of the gallant Ferries; besides his own +romantic name, and his eligibility. I took him off to the National +Gallery, to make acquaintance with the portrait of our cavalier +ancestor there; and I declare there is a likeness. Miss Sarah had +visited it long ago, it appears. For my part, I am glad to think that +these fashionable young women can still be so enthusiastic about a +wounded soldier. Sarah said they were all wild to dance with him, and +ready to shed tears for his lost arm." + +"And was he much with Sarah?" + +John laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Miss Sarah is a star with +many satellites. She raised my hopes, however, by appearing to have a +few smiles to spare for Peter." + +"And she must have got him the invitation to Tintern Castle," said +Lady Mary. "That is why he went up to Scotland." + +"I see." + +"Then she got him another invitation, I suppose, for he went to the +next house she stayed at; and to a third place for some yachting." + +"What did Lady Tintern say?" + +"That's just it. Sarah is in Lady Tintern's black books just now. She +is furious with her, Mrs. Hewel tells me, because she has refused Lord +Avonwick." + +"Hum!" said John. "He has forty thousand a year." + +"I don't think money would tempt Sarah to marry a man she did not +love," said Lady Mary, reproachfully. "There was Mr. Van Graaf, the +African millionaire. She wouldn't look at him, and he offered to +settle untold sums upon her." + +"Did he? What a brute!" + +"Why?" + +"Never mind. You've not seen him. I'm glad he found Sarah wasn't for +sale. But doesn't all this look as if it were Peter, after all?" + +"If only I could think she were in earnest," Lady Mary said again. +"But he is such a boy. She has three times his cleverness in some +ways, and three times his experience, though she is younger than he. I +suppose women mature much earlier than men. It galls my pride when she +orders him about, and laughs at him. But he--he doesn't understand." + +"Perhaps," said John, slowly, "he understands better than you think. +Each generation has a freemasonry of its own. I must confess I have +heard scraps of chatter and chaff in ballrooms and theatres which have +filled me with amazement, wondering how it could be possible that +such poor stuff should pass muster as conversation, or coquetry, or +gallantry, with the youths and maidens of to-day. But when I have +observed further, instead of an offended fair, or a disillusioned +swain, behold! two young heads close together, two young faces +sparkling with smiles and satisfaction. And the older person, who +would fatuously join in with a sensible remark, spoils all the +enjoyment. The fact is, the secret of real companionship is not +quality, but equality. There's a punning platitude for you." + +"It may be a platitude, but I am beginning to discover that what are +called platitudes by the young are biting truths to the old," said +Lady Mary. "I've felt it a thousand times. Words come so easily to my +lips when I'm speaking to you, I am so certain you will understand and +respond. But with Peter, I sometimes feel as though I were dumb or +stupid. Perhaps you've been too--too kind; you've understood too +quickly. I've been too ready to believe that you've found me--" + +"Everything I wanted to find you," interrupted John, tenderly; "and +that was something quite out of the common." + +She smiled and shook her head. "I am ready to believe all the nice +things you can say, as fast as you can say them, when I am with _you_" +she said, with a raillery rather mournful than gay. "But when I am +with Peter, I seem to realize dreadfully that I'm only a middle-aged +woman of average capacity, and with very little knowledge of the +world. He does his best to teach me. That's funny, isn't it?" + +"It's very like--a very young man," said John, gently. + +"You mustn't think I'm mocking at my boy--like Sarah," she said +vehemently. "Perhaps I am wrong to tell you. Perhaps only a mother +would really understand. But it makes me a little sad and bewildered. +My boy--my little baby, who lay in my arms and learnt everything from +me. And now he looks down and lectures me from such an immense height +of superiority, never dreaming that I'm laughing in my heart, because +it's only little Peter, after all." + +"And he doesn't lecture Sarah?" + +"Oh no; he doesn't lecture Sarah. She is too young to be lectured with +impunity, and too wise. Besides, I think since he went away, and saw +Sarah flattered and spoilt, and queening it among the great people +who didn't know him even by sight, that he has realized that their +relative positions have changed a good deal. You see, little Sarah +Hewel, as she used to be, would have been making quite a great +match in marrying Peter. But Lady Tintern's adopted daughter and +heiress--old Tintern left an immense fortune to his wife, didn't +he?--is another matter altogether. And how could she settle down to +this humdrum life after all the excitement and gaiety she's been +accustomed to?" + +"Women do such things every day. Besides--" + +"Yes?" + +"Is Peter still so much enamoured of a humdrum life?" said John, +dryly. + +"I have had no opportunity of finding out; but I am sure he will want +to settle down quietly when all this is over--" + +"You mean when he's no longer in love with Sarah?" + +"He's barely one-and-twenty; it can't last," said Lady Mary. + +"I don't know. If she's so much cleverer than he, I'm inclined to +think it may," said John. + +"Oh, of course, if he married her--it would last," said Lady Mary. + +"And then?" said John, smiling. + +"Perhaps _then_," said Lady Mary; and she laid her hand softly in the +strong hand outstretched to receive it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +There was a tap at the door of Lady Mary's bedroom, and Peter's voice +sounded without. + +"Mother, could I speak to you for a moment?" + +"Come in," said Lady Mary's soft voice; and Peter entered and closed +the door, and crossed to the oriel window, where she was sitting at +her writing-table, before a pile of notes and account books. + +Long ago, in Peter's childhood, she had learned to make this bedroom +her refuge, where she could read or write or dream, in silence; away +from the two old ladies, who seemed to pervade all the living-rooms at +Barracombe. Peter had been accustomed all his life to seek his mother +here. + +She had chosen the room at her marriage, and had had an old-fashioned +paper of bunched rosebuds put up there. It was very long and low, and +looked eastward into the fountain garden, and over the tree-tops far +away to the open country. + +The sisters had thought one of the handsome modern rooms of the south +front would be more suitable for the bride, but Lady Mary had her way. +She preferred the older part of the house, and liked the steps +down into her room, the uneven floor, the low ceiling, the quaint +window-seats, and the powdering closet where she hung her dresses. + +The great oriel window formed almost a sitting-room apart. Here was +her writing-table, whereon stood now a green jar of scented arums and +trailing white fuchsias. + +A bunch of sweet peas in a corner of the window-seat perfumed the +whole room, already fragrant with potpourri and lavender. + +A low bookcase was filled with her favourite volumes; one shelf with +the story-books of her childhood, from which she had long ago read +aloud to Peter, on rainy days when he had exhausted all other kinds +of amusement; for he had never touched a book if he could help it, +therein resembling his father. + +In the corner next the window stood the cot where Peter had slept +often as a little boy, and which had been playfully designated the +hospital, because his mother had always carried him thither when +he was ill. Then she had taken him jealously from the care of his +attendant, and had nursed and guarded him herself day and night, until +even convalescence was a thing of the past. She had never suffered +that little cot to be moved; the white coverlet had been made and +embroidered by her own hands. A gaudy oleograph of a soldier on +horseback--which little Peter had been fond of, and which had been +hung up to amuse him during one of those childish illnesses--remained +in its place. How often had she looked at it through her tears when +Peter was far away! Beside the cot stood a table with a shabby book +of devotions, marked by a ribbon from which the colour had long since +faded. The book had belonged to Lady Mary's father, young Robbie +Setoun, who had become Lord Ferries but one short month before he met +with a soldier's death. His daughter said her prayers at this little +table, and had carried thither her agony and petitions for her boy in +his peril, during the many, many months of the South African War. + +The morning was brilliant and sunny, and the upper casements stood +open, to let in the fresh autumn air, and the song of the robin +balancing on a swaying twig of the ivy climbing the old walls. White +clouds were blowing brightly across a clear, blue sky. + +Lady Mary stretched out her hand and pulled a cord, which drew a rosy +curtain half across the window, and shaded the corner where she was +sitting. She looked anxiously and tenderly into Peter's face; her +quick instinct gathered that something had shaken him from his +ordinary mood of criticism or indifference. + +"Are you come to have a little talk with me, my darling?" she said. + +She was afraid to offer the caress she longed to bestow. She moved +from her stiff elbow-chair to the soft cushions in her favourite +corner of the window-seat, and held out a timid hand. Peter clasped +it in his own, threw himself on a stool at her feet, and rested his +forehead against her knee. + +"I have something to tell you, mother, and I am afraid that, when I +have told you, you will be disappointed in me; that you will think me +inconsistent." + +Her heart beat faster. "Which of us is consistent in this world, my +darling? We all change with circumstances. We are often obliged to +change, even against our wills. Tell me, Peter; I shall understand." + +"There's not really anything to tell," said Peter, nervously +contradicting himself, "because nothing is exactly settled yet. But I +think something might be--before very long, if you would help me to +smooth away some of the principal difficulties." + +"Yes, yes," said Lady Mary, venturing to stroke the closely cropped +black head resting against her lap. + +"You know--Sarah--has been teaching me the new kind of croquet, at +Hewelscourt, since we came back from Scotland?" he said. "I don't get +on so badly, considering." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Oh, I was always rather inclined to be left-handed; it comes in +usefully now," said Peter, who generally hurried over any reference to +his misfortune. "Well, this morning, whilst we were playing, I asked +Sarah, for the third time, to--to marry me. The third's the lucky +time, isn't it?" he said, with a tremulous laugh, "and--and--" + +"She said yes!" cried Lady Mary, clasping her hands. + +"She didn't go so far as that," said Peter, rather reproachfully. His +voice shook slightly. "But she didn't say no. It's the first time she +hasn't said no." + +"What did she say?" said Lady Mary. + +She tried to keep her feelings of indignation and offence against +Sarah out of her voice. After all, who was Sarah that she should +presume to refuse Peter? Or for the matter of that, to accept him? +Either course seems equally unpardonable at times to motherly +jealousy, and Lady Mary was half vexed and half amused to find herself +not exempt from this weakness. + +"Impudent little red-headed thing!" she said to herself, though she +loved Sarah dearly, and admired her red hair with all her heart. + +"She told me a few of the reasons why she--she didn't want to marry +me," said Peter. + +Lady Mary's dismay was rather too apparent. "Surely that doesn't sound +very hopeful." + +Peter moved impatiently. "Oh, mother, it is always so difficult to +make you understand." + +"Is it, indeed?" she said, with a faint, pained smile. "I do my best, +my darling." + +"Never mind; I suppose women are always rather slow of comprehension," +said the young lord of creation--"that is, except Sarah. _She_ always +understands. God bless her!" + +"God bless her, indeed!" said Lady Mary, gently, and the tears started +to her blue eyes, "if she is going to marry my boy." + +Peter repented his crossness. "Forgive me, mother. I know you mean to +be kind," he said. "You will help me, won't you?" + +"With all my heart," she said, anxiously; "only tell me how." + +"You see, I can't help feeling," said Peter, bashfully, "that she +wouldn't have told me why she _couldn't_ marry me, if she hadn't +thought she might bring herself to do it in the end, if I got over the +difficulties she mentioned. I've been--hopeful, ever since she refused +that ass of an Avonwick, in spite of Lady Tintern. It wants some +courage to defy Lady Tintern, I can tell you, though she's such a +little object to look at. By George! I'd almost rather walk up to a +loaded gun than face that woman's tongue. Of course, even if _my_ +share of the difficulties were removed, there'd still be Lady Tintern +against us. But if Sarah can defy Lady Tintern in one thing, she might +in another. She's afraid of nobody." + +"Sarah certainly does not lack courage," said Lady Mary, smiling. + +"I never saw anybody like her," said Peter, whose love possessed him, +mind, body, and soul. "Why, I've heard her keep a whole roomful of +people laughing, and every one of them as dull as ditch-water till she +came in. And to see her hold her own against men at games--she's more +strength in one of her pretty, white wrists," said Peter, looking with +an air of disparagement at his mother's slender, delicate hand, "than +you have in your whole body, I do believe." + +"She is splendidly strong," said Lady Mary; "the very personification +of youth and health." She sighed softly. + +"And beauty," said Peter, excitedly. "Don't leave that out. And a good +sort, through and through, as even _you_ must allow, mother." + +He spoke as though he suspected her of begrudging his praise of Sarah, +and she made haste to reply: + +"Indeed, she is a good sort, dear little Sarah." + +"She is very fond of you," Peter said, in a choking voice. It seemed +to him, in his infatuation, so touching that Sarah should be fond of +any one. "She was dreadfully afraid of hurting your feelings; but yet, +as she said, she was bound to be frank with me." + +"Oh, Peter, do tell me what you mean. You are keeping me on thorns," +said Lady Mary. + +She grew red and white by turns. Was John's happiness in sight +already, as well as Peter's? + +"It's--it's most awfully hard to tell you," said Peter. + +He rose, and leant his elbow against the stone mullion nearest her, +looking down anxiously upon her as he spoke. + +"After all I said to you when we first came home, it's awfully hard. +But if you would only understand, you could make it all easy enough." + +"I will--I do understand." + +But Peter could not make up his mind even now to be explicit. + +"You see," he said, "Sarah is--not like other girls." + +"Of course not," said his mother. + +She controlled her impatience, reminding herself that Peter was very +young, and that he had never been in love before. + +"She's a kind of--of queen," said Peter, dreamily. "I only wish you +could have seen what it was in London." + +"I can imagine it," said Lady Mary. + +"No, you couldn't. I hadn't an idea what she would be there, until +I went to London and saw for myself," said Peter, who measured +everybody's imagination by his own. + +"You see," he explained "my position here, which seems so important to +you and the other people round here, and _used_ to seem so important +to me--is--just nothing at all compared to what has been cast at her +feet, as it were, over and over again, for her to pick up if she +chose. And this house," said Peter, glancing round and shaking his +head--"this house, which seems so beautiful to you now it's all done +up, if you'd only _seen_ the houses _she's_ accustomed to staying at. +Tintern Castle, for instance--" + +"I was born in a greater house than Tintern Castle, Peter," said Lady +Mary, gently. + +"Oh, of course. I'm saying nothing against Ferries," said Peter, +impatiently. "But you only lived there as a child. A child doesn't +notice." + +"Some children don't," said Lady Mary, with that faint, wondering +smile which hid her pain from Peter, and would have revealed it so +clearly to John. + +"It isn't that Sarah _minds_ this old house," said Peter; "she was +saying what a pretty room she could make of the drawing-room only the +other day." + +Lady Mary felt an odd pang at her heart. She thought of the trouble +John had taken to choose the best of the water-colours for the +rose-tinted room--the room he had declared so bright and so +charming--of the pretty curtains and chintzes; and the valuable old +china she had collected from every part of the house for the cabinets. + +"You see, she's got that sort of thing at her fingers' ends, Lady +Tintern being such a connoisseur," said the unconscious Peter. "But +she's so afraid of hurting your feelings--" + +"Why should she be?" said Lady Mary, coldly, in spite of herself. "If +she does not like the drawing-room, she can easily alter it." + +"That's what I say," said Peter, with a touch of his father's +pomposity. "Surely a bride has a right to look forward to arranging +her home as she chooses. And Sarah is mad about old French +furniture--Louis Seize, I think it is--but I know nothing about such +things. I think a man should leave the choice of furniture, and all +that, to his wife--especially when her taste happens to be as good as +Sarah's." + +"I--I think so too, Peter," said Lady Mary. + +Her thoughts wandered momentarily into the past; but his eager tones +recalled her attention. + +"Then you won't mind, so far?" said Peter, anxiously. + +"I--why should I mind?" said Lady Mary, starting. "I believe--I +have read--that old French furniture is all the rage now." Then she +bethought herself, and uttered a faint laugh. "But I'm afraid your +aunts might make it a little uncomfortable for her, if she--tried to +alter anything. I--go my own way now, and don't mind--but a young +bride--does not always like to be found fault with. She might find +that relations-in-law are sometimes--a little trying." Lady Mary felt, +as she spoke these words, that she was somehow opening a way for +herself as well as for Peter. She wondered, with a beating heart, +whether the moment had come in which she ought to tell him-- + +"That's just it," said Peter's voice, breaking in on her thoughts. +"That's just what Sarah means, and what I was trying to lead up to; +only I'm no diplomatist. But that's one of the greatest objections she +has to marrying me, quite apart from disappointing her aunt. I can't +blame Lady Tintern," said Peter, with a new and strange humility, "for +not thinking me good enough for Sarah; and _that's_ not a difficulty +_I_ can ever hope to remove. Sarah is the one to decide that point. +But about relations-in-law--it's what I've been trying to tell you all +this time." He cleared his throat, which had grown dry and husky. +"She says that when she marries she--she intends to have her house to +herself." + +There was a pause. + +"I see," said Lady Mary. + +She was silent; not, as Peter thought, with mortification; but because +she could not make up her mind what words to choose, in which to tell +him that it was freedom and happiness he was thus offering her with +both hands; and not, as he thought, loneliness and disappointment. + +Twice she essayed to speak, and failed through sheer embarrassment. +The second time Peter lifted her hand to his lips. She felt through +all her consciousness the shy remorse which prompted that rare caress. + +"The--the Dower House," faltered Peter, "is only a few yards away." + +A sudden desire to laugh aloud seized Lady Mary. His former words +returned upon her memory. + +"It's--it's rather damp, isn't it?" she said, in a shaking voice. + +He looked into her face, and did not understand the brightness of the +smile that was shining through her tears. + +"But it's very picturesque," said Peter, "and--and roomy. You and +my aunts would be quite snug there; and it could be very prettily +decorated, Sarah says." + +"Perhaps Sarah would advise us on the subject?" said Lady Mary, unable +to resist this thrust. + +"I'm sure she'd be delighted," said Peter, simply. + +Lady Mary fell back on her cushions and laughed helplessly, almost +hysterically. + +"I don't see why you should laugh," said Peter, in a rather sore tone. +"I don't know how it is, but I never _can_ understand you, mother." + +"I see you can't. Never mind, Peter," said Lady Mary. She sat up, and +lifted her pretty hands to smooth the soft waves of her brown hair. +"So I'm to settle down happily in my Dower House, and take your aunts +to live with me?" + +"Why, you see," said Peter, "we couldn't very well let the poor old +things wander away alone into the world, could we?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, slowly, "that they can take care of +themselves. And it is just possible that they may have foreseen--your +change of intentions." + +"Women can never take care of themselves," said Peter. "And how can +they have foreseen? I had no idea myself of _this_ happening. But they +would be perfectly happy in the Dower House; it is close by, and I +could see them very often. It wouldn't be like leaving Barracombe." + +"Yes, I think they could be happy there," said Lady Mary. She felt +that the moment had come at last. Her heart beat thickly, and her +colour came and went. "But if _they_ were happily settled at the Dower +House," she said slowly, for her agitation was making her breathless, +and she did not want Peter to notice it,"--I would willingly give it +up to them altogether. It could not matter whether _I_ were there +or not. Though they are old, they are perfectly able to look after +themselves--and other people; and if they were not, they would not +like _me_ to take care of them. They have their own servants and +Mrs. Ash. And they have never liked me, Peter, though we have lived +together so many years." + +"That is nonsense," said Peter, very calmly; "and if _they_ don't want +you there, mother, _I_ do. Of course you must live at the Dower House; +my father left it to you. And I shall want you more than ever now." + +"I don't see how," said Lady Mary. + +"Why, _we_--Sarah and I," said Peter, lingering fondly over the words +which linked that beloved name with his own, "if we ever--if _it_ ever +came off--we shall naturally be away from home a good deal. I couldn't +ask Sarah to tie herself down to this dull old place, could I?" + +"I suppose not," said Lady Mary. + +"She's accustomed to going about the world a good deal," said Peter. + +"No doubt." + +"Even _I_," said Peter, turning a flushed face towards his mother--"I +am too young, as Sarah says--and I feel it myself since I have seen +something of the life she lives--to become a complete fixture, like my +father was. It's--it's, as Sarah says--it's narrowing. I can see the +effects of it upon you all," said Peter, calmly, "when I come back +here." + +He could not fathom the wistfulness which clouded the blue eyes she +lifted to his face. + +"It is very narrowing," she said humbly. + +"One may devote one's self to one's duties as a landed proprietor," +said Peter, with another recurrence of pomposity, "and yet see +something of one's fellow-men." + +He replaced the eyeglass, and walked up and down the room for a few +moments, as though he were pacing a quarter-deck. He looked very tall, +and very, very slight and thin; older than his years, tanned and dried +by the African sun, which had enhanced his natural darkness. Though he +spoke as a boy, he looked like a man. His mother's heart yearned over +him. + +Peter had taken his lack of perception with him into the heart of +South Africa, and brought it back intact. Because his body had +travelled many hundreds of miles over land and sea, he believed that +his mind had opened in proportion to the distance covered. He knew +that men and women of action pick up knowledge of the world without +pausing on their busy way; but he did not know that it is to the +silent, the sorrowful, and the solitary--to those who have time to +listen--that God reveals the secrets of life. + +She said to herself that everything about him was dear to her; his +grey eyes, that never saw below the surface of things; his thin, brown +face; his youthful affectation; the strange, new growth which +shaded his long upper lip, and softened the plainness of the Crewys +physiognomy, which Peter would not have bartered for the handsomest +set of Greek features ever imagined by a sculptor. Even for his faults +Lady Mary had a tender toleration; for Peter would not have been Peter +without them. + +"It would not be fair on Sarah, knowing all London--worth knowing--as +she does," said Peter with pardonable exaggeration, "to rob her of the +season altogether. We shall go up regularly, every year, if--if she +marries me. Of that I am determined, and so"--incidentally--"is she." + +"Nothing could be nicer," said Lady Mary, heartily enough to satisfy +even Peter. + +He spoke with more warmth and naturalness. "She likes to go abroad, +mother, too, now and then," he said. + +"That would be delightful," said Lady Mary, eagerly. Her blue eyes +sparkled. Her interest and enthusiasm were easily roused, after all; +and surely these new ideas would make it much easier to tell Peter. +"Oh, Peter!" she said, clasping her hands, "Paris--Rome--Switzerland!" + +"Wherever Sarah fancies," said Peter, magnanimously. "I can't say I +care much. All I am thinking of is--being with her. It doesn't matter +_where_, so long as she is pleased. What does anything matter," he +said, and his dark face softened as she had never seen it soften yet, +"so long as one is with the companion one loves best in the world?" + +"It would be--Paradise," said Lady Mary, in a low voice; and she +thought to herself resolutely, "I will tell him now." + +Peter ceased his walk, and came close to her and took her hand. The +emotion had not altogether died out of his voice and face. + +"But you are not to think, mother, that I shall ever again be the +selfish boy I used to be--the boy who didn't value your love and +devotion." + +"No, dear, no," she answered, with wet eyes; "I will never think +so. We can love each other just the same, perhaps even batter, even +though--Oh, Peter--" + +But Peter was in no mind to brook interruption. He was burning to pour +out his plans for her future, and his own. + +"Wherever we may go, and whatever we may be doing," he said +emotionally, "it will be a joy and a comfort to me to know that my +dear old mother is always _here_. Taking care of the place and looking +after the people, and waiting always to welcome me, with her old sweet +smile on her dear old face." + +Peter was not often moved to such enthusiasm, and he was almost +overcome by his own eloquence in describing this beautiful picture. + +Lady Mary was likewise overcome. She sank back once more in her +cushioned corner, looking at him with a blank dismay that could not +escape even his dull observation. How impossible it was to tell Peter, +after all! How impossible he always made it! + +"I know you must feel it just at first," he said anxiously; "but +you--you can't expect to keep me all to yourself for ever." + +She shook her head, and tried to smile. + +He grew a little impatient. "After all," he said, "you must be +reasonable, mother. Every one has to live his own life." + +Then Lady Mary found words. A sudden rush of indignation--the pent-up +feelings of years--brought the scarlet blood to her cheeks and the +fire to her gentle, blue eyes. + +"Every one--but _me_" she said, trembling violently. + +"You!" said Peter, astonished. + +She clasped her hands against her bosom to still the panting and +throbbing that, it seemed to her, must be evident outwardly, so strong +was the emotion that shook her fragile form. + +"Every one--but me," she said. "Does it never--strike you--Peter--that +I, too, would like to live before I die? Whilst you are living your +own life, why shouldn't I be living mine? Why shouldn't _I_ go to +London, and to Paris, and to Rome, and to Switzerland, or wherever I +choose, now that you--_you_--have set me free?" + +"Mother," said Peter, aghast, "are you gone mad?" + +"Perhaps I am a little mad," said poor Lady Mary. "People go mad +sometimes, who have been too long--in prison--they say." Then she saw +his real alarm, and laughed till she cried. "I am not really mad," she +said. "Do not be frightened, Peter. I--I was only joking." + +"It is enough to frighten anybody when you go on like that," said +Peter, relieved, but angry. "Talking of prison, and rushing about all +over the world--I see no joke in that." + +"Why should I be the only one who must not rush all over the world?" +said Lady Mary. + +"You must know perfectly well it would be preposterous," said Peter, +sullenly, "to break up all your habits, and leave Barracombe and--and +all of us--and start a fresh life--at your age. And if this is how +you mock at me and all my plans, I'm sorry I ever took you into my +confidence at all. I might have known I should repent it," he said; +and a sob of angry resentment broke his voice. + +"Indeed, I am not mocking at you, Peter," she said, sorely repentant +and ashamed of her outburst. "Forgive me, darling! I see it was--not +the moment. You do not understand. You are thinking only of Sarah, as +is natural just now. It was not the moment for me to be talking of +myself." + +"You never used to be selfish," said Peter, thawing somewhat, as she +threw her arms about him, and rested her head against his shoulder. + +She laughed rather sadly. "But perhaps I am growing selfish--in my old +age," said Peter's mother. + +Later, Lady Mary sought John Crewys in the smoking-room. He sprang up, +smiled at her, and held out his hand. + +"So Peter has been confiding his schemes to you?" + +"How did you know?" + +"I only guessed. When a man seeks a _tête-à -tête_ so earnestly, it is +generally to talk about himself. Did the schemes include--Sarah?" + +"They include Sarah--marriage--travelling--London--change of every +kind." + +"Already!" cried John, "Bravo, Peter! and hurray for one-and-twenty! +And you are free?" + +"Oh, no; I am not to be free." + +"What! Do his schemes include you?" + +"Not altogether." + +"That is surely illogical, if yours are to include him?" + +She smiled faintly. "I am to be always here, to look after the place +when he and Sarah are travelling or in London. I am to live with his +aunts. He wants to be able to think of me as always waiting here to +welcome him home, as--as I have been all his life. Not actually in +this house, because--Sarah--my little Sarah--wouldn't like that, it +seems; but in the Dower House, close by." + +"I see," said John. "How delightfully ingenuous, and how pleasingly +unselfish a very young man can sometimes be!" + +"Ah! don't laugh at me, John," she said tremulously. "Indeed, just +now, I cannot bear it." + +"Laugh at you, my queen--my saint! How little you know me!" said John, +tenderly. "It was at Peter that I was presuming to smile." + +"Is it a laughing matter?" she said wistfully. + +"I think it will be, Mary." + +"I tried so hard to tell him," said Lady Mary, "but I couldn't. +Somehow he made it impossible. He looks upon me as quite, quite old." + +John laughed outright. A laugh that rang true even to Lady Mary's +sensitive perceptions. + +"But didn't _you_ look upon everybody over thirty as, quite old when +you were one-and-twenty? I'm sure I did." + +"Perhaps. But yet--I don't know. I am his mother. It is natural he +should feel so. He made me realize how preposterous it was for me, +the mother of a grown-up son, to be thinking selfishly of my own +happiness, as though I were a young, fresh girl just starting life." + +"I had hoped," said John, quietly, "that you might be thinking a +little of my happiness too." + +"Oh, John! But your happiness and mine seemed all the same thing," she +said ingenuously. "Yet he thinks of my life as finished; and I was +thinking of it as though it were beginning all over again. He made +me feel so ashamed, so conscience-stricken." She hid her face in her +hands. "How could I tell him?" + +"I think," said John, "that the time has come when he must be told. I +meant to put it off until he attained his majority; but since he has +broached the subject of your leaving this house himself, he has given +us the best opportunity possible. And I also think--that the telling +had better be left to me." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +John Crewys stood on the walk below the terrace, with Peter by his +side, enjoying an after-breakfast smoke, and watching a party of +sportsmen climbing up the bracken-clothed slopes of the opposite +hillside. A dozen beaters were toiling after the guns, among whom +the short and sturdy figure of Colonel Hewel was very plainly to be +distinguished. A boy was leading a pony-cart for the game. + +Sarah had accepted an invitation to dine and spend the evening with +her beloved Lady Mary at Barracombe; but Peter had another appointment +with her besides, of which Lady Mary knew nothing. He was to meet her +at the ferry, and picnic on the moor at the top of the hill, on his +side of the river. But through all the secret joy and triumph that +possessed him at the remembrance of this rendezvous, he could not but +sigh as he watched the little procession of sportsmen opposite, and +almost involuntarily his regret escaped him in the half-muttered +words-- + +"I shall never shoot again." + +"There are things even better worth doing in life," said John, +sympathetically. + +"Colonel Hewel wouldn't give in to that," said Peter. + +"He's rather a one-idea'd man," John agreed. "But if you asked him +whether he'd sacrifice all the sport he's ever likely to enjoy, for +one chance to distinguish himself in action--why, you're a soldier, +and you know best what he'd say." + +Peter's brow cleared. "You've got a knack," he said, almost +graciously, "of putting a fellow in a good humour with himself, Cousin +John." + +"I generally find it easier to be in a good humour with myself than +with other people," said John, whimsically. "One expects so little +from one's self, that one is scarcely ever disappointed; and so +much from other people, that nothing they can do comes up to one's +expectations." + +"I don't know about that," said Peter, bluntly. "Old Crawley says +_you_ take it out of yourself like anything. Since I came back this +time, he's been holding forth to me about all you've done for me and +the estate, and all that. I didn't know my father had left things in +such a mess. And that was a smart thing you did about buying in the +farm, and settling the dispute with the Crown, which my father used to +be so worried over. I see I've got a good bit to thank you for, Cousin +John. I--I'm no end grateful, and all that." + +"All right," said John. "Don't bother to make speeches, old boy." + +"I must say one thing, though," said Peter, awkwardly. "I was against +all the changes, and thought they might have been left till I came +home; but I didn't realize it was to be now or never, as old Crawley +puts it, and that I'm not to have the right to touch my capital when I +come of age." + +"The whole arrangement was rather an unusual one; but everything's +worked out all right, and, as far as the estate goes, you'll find it +in pretty fair order to start upon, and values increased," said John, +quietly. "But Crawley has the whole thing at his fingers' ends, and +the interest of the place thoroughly at heart. You couldn't have a +better adviser." + +"He's well enough," said Peter, somewhat ungraciously. + +"Shall we take a turn up and down?" said John. He lighted a fresh +cigarette. "There is a chill feeling in the air, though it is such a +lovely morning." + +"It will be warmer when the sun has conquered the mist," said Peter, +with a slight shiver. + +The white dew on the long grass, and the gossamer cobwebs spun in a +single night from twig to twig of the rose-trees, glittered in the +sunshine. + +The autumn roses bloomed cheerfully in the long border, and the robins +were singing loudly on the terrace above. The heavy heads of the +dahlias drooped beneath their weight of moisture, in these last days +of their existence, before the frost would bring them to a sudden end. +Capucines, in every shade of brown and crimson and gold, ran riot over +the ground. + +Peter drew a pipe from his pocket, put it in his mouth, took out his +tobacco-pouch, and filled the pipe with his left hand. + +John watched him with interest. "That was dexterously done." + +"I'm getting pretty handy," said the hero, with satisfaction, striking +a match; "but"--his face fell anew--"no more football; one feels that +sort of thing just at the beginning of the season. No more games. +It wouldn't tell so much on a fellow like you, Cousin John, who's +perfectly happy with a book, and who--" + +"Who's too old for games," suggested John. + +"Oh, there's always golf," said Peter. + +"A refuge for the aged, eh?" said John, and his eyes twinkled. "But +Miss Sarah says you bid fair to beat her at croquet." + +"Oh, she was--just rotting," said Peter; and the tone touched John, +though he detested slang. "And what's croquet, after all, to a fellow +that's used to exercise? I suppose I shall be all right again hunting, +when I've got my nerve back a bit. At present it's rotten. A fellow +feels so beastly helpless and one-sided. However, that'll wear off, I +expect." + +"I hope so," said John. + +They reached the end of the long walk, and stood for a moment beneath +the eastern turret, watching the sparkles on the brown surface of the +river below, and the white mist floating away down the valley. + +"Talking of advice," said Peter, abruptly--"if I wanted _that_, I'd +rather come to you than to old Crawley. After all, though you won't be +my guardian much longer, you're still my mother's trustee." + +"Yes," said John, smiling; "the law still entitles me to take an +interest in--in your mother." + +"Of course I shouldn't dream of mentioning her affairs, or mine +either, for that matter, to any one else," said Peter. + +He made an exception in his own mind, but decided that it was not +necessary to explain this to John, for the moment. + +"Thank you, Peter," said John. + +"My mother--seems to me," said Peter, slowly, "to have changed very +much since I went to South Africa. Have you noticed it?" + +"I have," said John, dryly. + +"I don't suppose," said Peter, quickening his steps, "that any one +could realize exactly what I feel about it." + +"I think--perhaps--I could," said John, without visible satire, "dimly +and, no doubt, inadequately." + +"The fact is," said Peter, and the warm colour rushed into his brown +face, even to his thin temples, "I--I'm hoping to get married very +soon; though nothing's exactly settled yet." + +"A man in your position generally marries early," said John. "I think +you're quite right." + +"As my mother likes--the girl I want to marry," said Peter, "I hoped +it would make everything straight. But she seems quite miserable at +the thought of settling down quietly in the Dower House." + +"Ah! in the Dower House," said John. "Then you will not be wanting her +to live here with you, after all?" + +"It's the same thing, though," said Peter, "as I've tried to explain +to her. She'd be only a few yards off; and she could still be looking +after the place and my interests, and all that, as she does now. And +whenever I was down here, I should see her constantly; you know how +devoted I am to my mother. Of course I can't deny I did lead her +to hope I should be always with her. But a man can't help it if he +happens to fall in love. Of course, if--if all happens as I hope, as I +have reason to hope, I shall _have_ to be away from her a good deal. +But that's all in the course of nature as a fellow grows up. I sha'n't +be any the less glad to see her when I _do_ come home. And yet here +she is talking quite wildly of leaving Barracombe altogether, and +going to London, and travelling all over the world, and doing all +sorts of things she's never done in her life. It's not like my mother, +and I can't bear to think of her like that. I tell you she's changed +altogether," said Peter, and there were tears in his grey eyes. + +John felt an odd sympathy for the boy; he recognized that though +Peter's limitations were obvious, his anxiety was sincere. + +Peter, too, had his ideals; if they were ideals conventional and out +of date, that was hardly his fault. John figured to himself very +distinctly that imaginary mother whom Peter held sacred; the mother +who stayed always at home, and parted her hair plainly, and said many +prayers, and did much needlework; but who, nevertheless, was not, and +never could be, the real Lady Mary, whom Peter did not know. But it +was a tender ideal in its way, though it belonged to that past into +which so many tender and beautiful visions have faded. + +The maiden of to-day still dreams of the knightly armour-clad heroes +of the twelfth century; it is not her fault that she is presently glad +to fall in love with a gentleman on the Stock Exchange, in a top hat +and a frock coat. + +"I have seen something of women of the world," said Peter, who had +scarcely yet skimmed the bubbles from the surface of that society, +whose depths he believed himself to have explored. "I suppose that is +what my mother wants to turn into, when she talks of London and Paris. +_My mother_! who has lived in the country all her life." + +"I suppose some women are worldly," said John, as gravely as possible, +"and no doubt the shallow-hearted, the stupid, the selfish are to be +found everywhere, and belonging to either sex; but, nevertheless, +solid virtue and true kindness are to be met with among the dames of +Mayfair as among the matrons of the country-side. Their shibboleth is +different, that's all. Perhaps--it is possible--that the speech of the +town ladies is the more charitable, that they seek more persistently +to do good to their fellow-creatures. I don't know. Comparisons +are odious, but so," he added, with a slight laugh, "are general +conclusions, founded on popular prejudice rather than individual +experience--odious." + +Here John perceived that his words of wisdom were conveying hardly any +meaning to Peter, who was only waiting impatiently till he had come +to an end of them; so he pursued this topic no further, and contented +himself by inquiring: + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to explain to her," said Peter, eagerly, "how unsuitable +it would be; and to advise her to settle down quietly at the Dower +House, as I'm sure my father would have wished her to do. That's all." + +"I see," said John, "you want me to put the case to her from your +point of view." + +"I wish you would," said Peter, earnestly; "every one says you're so +eloquent. Surely you could talk her over?" + +"I hope I am not eloquent in private life," said John, laughing. "But +if you want to know how it appears to me--?" + +Peter nodded gravely, pipe in mouth. + +"Let us see. To start with," said John, thoughtfully, "you went off, +a boy from Eton, to serve your country when you thought, and rightly, +that your country had need of you. You distinguished yourself in South +Africa--" + +"Surely you needn't go into all that?" said Peter, staring. + +"Excuse me," said John, smiling. "In putting your case, I can't bear +to leave out vital details. Merely professional prejudice. Shortly, +then, you fully sustained your share in a long and arduous campaign; +you won your commission; you were wounded, decorated, and invalided +home." + +He stopped short in the brilliant sunshine which now flooded their +path, and looked gravely at Peter. + +"Some of us," said John, "have imagination enough to realize, even +without the help of war-correspondents, the scenes of horror through +which you, and scores of other boys, fresh from school, like you, had +to live through. We can picture the long hours on the veldt--on the +march--in captivity--in the hospitals--in the blockhouses--when +soldiers have been sick at heart, wearied to death with physical +suffering, and haunted by ghastly memories of dead comrades." + +Peter hurriedly drew his left hand from the pocket where the beloved +tobacco-pouch reposed, and pulled his brown felt hat down over his +eyes, as though the October sunlight hurt them. + +"I think at such times, Peter," said John, quietly continuing his walk +by the boy's side, "that you must have longed now and then for your +home; for this peaceful English country, your green English woods, and +the silent hall where your mother waited for you, trembled for you, +prayed for you. I think your heart must have ached then, as so many +men's hearts have ached, to remember the times when you might have +made her happy by a word, or a look, or a smile. And you didn't do it, +Peter--_you didn't do it_." + +Peter made a restless movement indicative of surprise and annoyance; +but he was silent still, and John changed his tone, and spoke lightly +and cheerfully. + +"Well, then you came home; and your joy of life, of youth, of health +all returned; and you looked forward, naturally, to taking your share +of the pleasures open to other young men of your standing. But you +never meant to forget your mother, as so many careless sons forget +those who have watched and waited for them. Even though you fell in +love, you still thought of her. When you were weary of travel, or +pleasure connected with the outside world, you meant always to return +to her. You liked to think she would still be waiting for you; +faithfully, gratefully waiting, within the sacred precincts of your +childhood's home. And now, when you remember her submission to your +father's wishes in the past, and her single-hearted devotion to +yourself, you are shocked and disappointed to find that she can wish +to descend from her beautiful and guarded solitude here, and mix with +her fellow-creatures in the work-a-day world. Why," said John, in a +tone rather of dreaming and tenderness than of argument, "that would +be to tear the jewel from its setting--the noble central figure from +the calm landscape, lit by the evening sun." + +There was a pause, during which Peter smoked energetically. + +"Well," he said presently, "of course I can't follow all that +highfalutin' style, you know--" + +"Of course not," said John, "I understand. You're a plain Englishman." + +"Exactly," said Peter, relieved; "I am. But one thing I will +say--you've got the idea." + +"Thank you," said John. + +"If you can put it like that to my mother," said Peter, still busy +with his pipe, but speaking very emphatically, "why, all I can say is, +that I believe it's the way to get round her. I've often noticed +how useless it seems to talk common-sense to her. But a word of +sentiment--and there you are. Strange to say, she likes nothing +better than--er--poetry. I hope you don't mind my calling you rather +poetical," said Peter, in a tone of sincere apology. "I wish, John, +you'd go straight to my mother, and put the whole case before her, +just like that." + +"The whole case!" said John. "But, my dear fellow, that's only half +the case." + +"What do you mean?" + +"The other half," said John, "is the case from _her_ point of view." + +"I don't see," said Peter, "how her point of view can be different +from mine." + +John's thoughts flew back to a February evening, more than two +years earlier. It seemed to him that Sir Timothy stood before him, +surprised, pompous, argumentative. But he saw only Peter, looking at +him with his father's grey eyes set in a boy's thin face. + +"My experience as a barrister," he said, with a curious sense of +repeating himself, "has taught me that it is possible for two persons +to take diametrically opposite views of the same question." + +"And what happens then?" said Peter, stupidly. + +"Our bread and butter." + +"But _why_ should my mother leave the place she's lived in for years +and years, and go gadding about all over the world--at her time of +life? I don't see what can be said for the wisdom of that?" + +"Nothing from your point of view, I dare say," said John. "Much from +hers. If you are willing to listen, and if," he added smiling, as an +afterthought, "you will promise not to interrupt?" + +"Well," said Peter, rather doubtfully, "all right, I promise. You +won't be long, I suppose?" + +He glanced stealthily down towards the ferry, though he knew that +Sarah would not be there for a couple of hours at least, and that he +could reach it in less than ten minutes. But half the pleasure of +meeting Sarah consisted in waiting for her at the trysting-place. + +John observed the glance, and smiled imperceptibly. He took out his +watch. + +"I shall speak," he said, carefully examining it, "for four minutes." + +"Let's sit," said Peter. "It's warm enough now, in all conscience." + +They sat upon an old stone bench below the turret. Peter leant back +with his black head resting against the wall, his felt hat tipped +over his eyes and his pipe in his mouth. He looked comfortable, even +good-humoured. + +"Go ahead," he murmured. + +"To understand the case from your mother's point of view, I am +afraid it is necessary," said John, "to take a rapid glance at the +circumstances of her life which have--which have made her what she +is. She came here, as a child, didn't she, when her father died; and +though he had just succeeded to the earldom, he died a very poor man? +Your father, as her guardian, spared no pains, nor expense for +that matter, in educating and maintaining her. When she was barely +seventeen years old, he married her." + +There was a slight dryness in John's voice as he made the statement, +which accounted for the gruffness of Peter's acquiescence. + +"Of course--she was quite willing," said John, understanding the +offence implied by Peter's growl. "But as we are looking at things +exclusively from her point of view just now, we must not forget that +she had seen nothing of the world, nothing of other men. She had +also"--he caught his breath--"a bright, gay, pleasure-loving +disposition; but she moulded herself to seriousness to please her +husband, to whom she owed everything. When other girls of her age were +playing at love--thinking of dances, and games and outings--she was +absorbed in motherhood and household cares. A perfect wife, a perfect +mother, as poor human nature counts perfection." + +Lady Mary would have cried out in vehement contradiction and +self-reproach, had she heard these words; but Peter again growled +reluctant acquiescence, when John paused. + +"In one day," said John, slowly, "she was robbed of husband and child. +Her husband by death; her boy, her only son, by his own will. He +deserted her without even bidding, or intending to bid her, farewell. +Hush--remember, this is from _her_ point of view." + +Peter had started to his feet with an angry exclamation; but he sat +down again, and bent his sullen gaze on the garden path as John +continued. His brown face was flushed; but John's low, deep tones, +now tender, now scornful, presently enchained and even fascinated his +attention. He listened intently, though angrily. + +"Her grief was passionate, but--her life was not over," said John. +"She, who had been guided from childhood by the wishes of others, now +found that, without neglecting any duty, she could consult her own +inclinations, indulge her own tastes, choose her own friends, enjoy +with all the fervour of an unspoilt nature the world which opened +freshly before her: a world of art, of music, of literature, of a +thousand interests which mean so much to some of us, so little to +others. To her returns this formerly undutiful son, and finds--a +passionately devoted mother, indeed, but also a woman in the full +pride of her beauty and maturity. And this boy would condemn +_her_--the most delightful, the most attractive, the most unselfish +companion ever desired by a man--to sit in the chimney-corner like an +old crone with a distaff, throughout all the years that fate may yet +hold in store for her--with no greater interest in life than to watch +the fading of her own sweet face in the glass, and to await the +intervals during which he would be graciously pleased to afford her +the consolation of his presence." + +"Have you done?" said Peter, furiously. + +"I could say a good deal more," said John, growing suddenly cool. +"But"--he showed his watch--"my time is up." + +"What--what do you mean by all this?" said the boy, stammering with +passion. "What is my mother to _you_?" + +The time had come. + +John's bright hazel eyes had grown stern; his middle-aged face, +flushed with the emotion his own words had aroused, yet controlled and +calm in every line of handsome feature and steady brow, confronted +Peter's angry, bewildered gaze. + +"She is the woman I love," said John. "The woman I mean to make my +wife." + +He remained seated, silently waiting for Peter to imbibe and +assimilate his words. + +After a quick gasp of incredulous indignation, Peter, too, sat silent +at his side. + +John gave him time to recover before he spoke again. + +"I hope," he said, very gently, "that when you have thought it over, +you won't mind it so much. As it's going to be--it would be pleasanter +if you and I could be friends. I think, later on, you may even +perceive advantages in the arrangement--under the circumstances; when +you have recovered from your natural regret in realizing that she must +leave Barracombe--" + +"It isn't that," said Peter, hoarsely. He felt he must speak; and he +also desired, it must be confessed, to speak offensively, and relieve +himself somewhat of the accumulated rage and resentment that was +burning in his breast. "It's--it's simply"--he said, flushing darkly, +and turning his face away from John's calm and friendly gaze--"that to +me--to _me_, the idea is--ridiculous." + +"Ah!" said John. He rose from the stone bench. A spark of anger came +to him, too, as he looked at Peter, but he controlled his voice and +his temper. "The time will come," he said, "when your imagination will +be able to grasp the possibility of love between a man in the forties +and a woman in the thirties. At least, for your sake, I hope it will." + +"Why for my sake?" said Peter. + +"Because I should be sorry," said John, "if you died young." + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Nearly a thousand feet above the fertile valley of the Youle, +stretched a waste of moorland. Here all the trees were gnarled and +dwarfed above the patches of rust-coloured bracken; save only the +delicate silver birch, which swayed and yielded to the wind. + +Great boulders were scattered among the thorn bushes, and over their +rough and glistening breasts were flung velvet coverings of green moss +and grey lichen. + +On this October day, the heather yet sturdily bore a few last rosy +blossoms, and the ripe blackberries shone like black diamonds on the +straggling brambles. Here and there a belated furze-bush erected its +golden crown. + +Over the dim purple of the distant hills, a brighter purple line +proclaimed the sea. Closer at hand, on a ridge exposed to every wind +of heaven, sighed a little wood of stunted larch and dull blue pine, +against a clear and brilliant sky. + +Sarah was enthroned on a mossy stone, beneath the yellowing foliage of +a sheltering beech. + +Her glorious ruddy hair was uncovered, and a Tyrolese hat was hung on +a neighbouring bramble, beside a little tweed coat. She wore a loose +white canvas shirt, and short tweed skirt; a brown leather belt, and +brown leather boots. + +Being less indifferent to creature-comforts than to the preservation +of her complexion, Miss Sarah was paying great attention to the +contents of a market-basket by her side. She had chosen a site for +the picnic near a bubbling brook, and had filled her glass with clear +sparkling water therefrom, before seating herself to enjoy her cold +chicken and bread and butter, and a slice of game-pie. + +Peter was very far from feeling any inclination towards displaying the +hilarity which an outdoor meal is supposed to provoke. He was obliged +to collect sticks, and put a senseless round-bottomed kettle on a +damp reluctant fire; to himself he used much stronger adjectives in +describing both; he relieved his feelings slightly by saying that he +never ate lunch, and by gloomily eying the game-pie instead of aiding +Sarah to demolish it. + +"It wouldn't be a picnic without a kettle and a fire; and we _must_ +have hot water to wash up with. I brought a dish-cloth on purpose," +said Sarah. "I can't think why you don't enjoy yourself. You used to +be fond of eating and drinking--_anywhere_--and most of all on the +moor--in the good old days that are gone." + +"I am not a philosopher like you," said Peter, angrily. + +"I am anything but that," said Sarah, with provoking cheerfulness. "A +philosopher is a thoughtful middle-aged person who puts off enjoying +life until it's too late to begin." + +"I hate middle-aged people," said Peter. + +"I am not very fond of them myself, as a rule," said Sarah, +indulgently. "They aren't nice and amusing to talk to, like you and +me; or rather" (with a glance at her companion's face), "like _me_; +and they aren't picturesque and fond of spoiling us, as _really_ old +people are. They are just busy trying to get all they can out of +the world, that's all. But there are exceptions; or, of course, it +wouldn't be a rule. Your mother is an exception. No one, young or old, +was ever more picturesque or--or more altogether delicious. It was I +who taught her that new way of doing her hair. By-the-by, how do you +like it?" + +"I don't like it at all," growled Peter. + +"Perhaps you preferred the old way," said Sarah, turning up her short +nose rather scornfully. "Parted, indeed, and brushed down flat over +her ears, exactly like that horrid old Mrs. Ash!" + +"Mrs. Ash has lived with us for thirty years," said Peter, in a tone +implying that he desired no liberties to be taken with the names of +his faithful retainers. + +"That doesn't make her any better looking, however," retorted Sarah. +"In fact, she might have had more chance of learning how to do her +hair properly anywhere else, now I come to think of it." + +"Of course everything at Barracombe is ugly and old-fashioned," said +Peter, gloomily. + +"Except your mother," said Sarah. + +"Sarah! I can't stand any more of this rot!" said Peter, starting from +his couch of heather. "Will you talk sense, or let me?" + +Sarah shot a keen glance of inquiry at his moody face. + +"Well," she said, in resigned tones, "I did hope to finish my lunch in +peace. I saw there was something the matter when you came striding up +the hill without a word, but I thought it was only that you found the +basket too heavy. Of course, if I had known it was only to be lunch +for one, I would not have put in so many things; and certainly not a +whole bottle of papa's best claret. In fact, if I had known I was to +picnic practically alone, I would not have crossed the river at all." + +Then she saw that Peter was in earnest, and with a sigh of regret, +Sarah returned the dish of jam-puffs to the basket. + +"I couldn't talk sense, or even listen to it, with those heavenly +puffs under my very nose," she said. "Now, what is it?" + +"I hate telling you--I hate talking of it," said Peter, and a dark +flush rose to his frowning eyebrows. He threw himself once more at +Sarah's feet, and turned his face away from her, and towards the blue +streak of distant sea. "John Crewys wants to marry--my mother," he +said in choking tones. + +"Is that all?" said Sarah. "I've seen that for ages. Aren't you glad?" + +"Glad!" said Peter. + +"I thought," Sarah said innocently, "that _you_ wanted to marry _me_?" + +"Sarah!" + +"Well!" said Sarah. She looked rather oddly at Peter's recumbent +figure. Then she pushed the loosened waves of her red hair from her +forehead with a determined gesture. "Well," she said defiantly, "isn't +that one obstacle to our marriage removed? Your aunts will go to the +Dower House, and your mother will leave Barracombe, and you'll have +the place all to yourself. And you dare to tell me you're sorry?" + +"Yes," said Peter, sitting up and facing her, "I dare." + +"I'm glad of that," said Sarah. Her deep voice softened. "I should +have thought less of you if you hadn't dared." + +Suddenly she rose from her mossy throne, shook the crumbs off her +skirt, and looked down upon Peter with blue eyes sparkling beneath her +long lashes, and the fresh red colour deepening and spreading in her +cheeks, until even the tips of her delicate ears and her creamy throat +turned pink. + +"_Well_," said Sarah, "go and stop it. Make your mother sorry and +ashamed. It would be very easy. Tell her she's too old to be happy. +But say good-bye to me first." + +"Sarah!" + +"Why is it to be all sunshine for you, and all shade for her?" said +Sarah. "Hasn't she wept enough to please you? Mayn't she have her St. +Martin's summer? God gives it to her. Will _you_ take it away?" + +"Sarah!" + +He looked up at her crimsoned tearful face in dismay. Was this Sarah +the infantile--the pink-and-white--the seductive, laughing, impudent +Sarah? And yet how passionately Peter admired her in this mood of +virago, which he had never seen since the days of her childish rages +of long ago. + +"Why do you suppose," said Sarah, disdainfully, "that I've been +letting you follow _me_ about all this summer, and desert _her_; +except to show her how little you are to be depended upon? To bring +home to her how foolish she'd be to fling away her happiness for your +sake. _You_, who at one word from me, were willing to turn her out of +her own home, to live in a wretched little villa at your very door. +Don't interrupt me," said Sarah, stamping, "and say you weren't +willing. You told her so. I meant you to tell her, and yet--I could +have killed you, Peter, when I heard her sweet voice faltering out to +me, that she would be ready and glad to give up her place to her boy's +wife, whenever the time should come." + +"_She_ told you?" cried Peter. + +"But she didn't say you'd asked her," cried Sarah, scornfully. "_I_ +knew it, but she never guessed I did. She was only gently smoothing +away, as she hoped, the difficulties that lay in the path to _your_ +happiness. Oh, that she could have believed it of me! But she thinks +only of your happiness. _You_, who would snatch away hers this minute +if you could. She never dreamt I knew you'd said a word." + +She paused in her impassioned speech, and the tears dropped from the +dark blue eyes. Sarah was crying, and Peter was speechless with awe +and dismay. + +"I think she would have died, Peter," said Sarah, solemnly, "before +she would have told me how brutal you'd been, and how stupid, and how +selfish. I meant you to show her all that. I thought it would open +her eyes. I was such a fool! As if anything could open the eyes of a +mother to the faults of her only son." + +Peter looked at her with such despair and grief in his dark face that +her heart almost softened towards him; but she hardened it again +immediately. + +"Do you mean that you--you've been playing with me all this time, +Sarah? They--everybody told me--that you were only playing--but I've +never believed it." + +"I _meant_ to play with you," said Sarah, turning, if possible, even +redder than before; "I meant to teach you a lesson, and throw you +over. And the more I saw of you, the more I didn't repent. You, who +dared to think yourself superior to your mother; and, indeed, to +any woman! Kings are enslaved by women, you know," said Miss Sarah, +tossing her head, "and statesmen are led by them, though they oughtn't +to be. And--and poets worship them, or how could they write poetry? +There would be nothing to write about. It is reserved for boys and +savages to look down upon them." + +She sat scornfully down again on her boulder, and put her hands to her +loosened hair. + +"I can't think why a scene always makes one's hair untidy," said +Sarah, suddenly bursting into a laugh; but the whiteness of Peter's +face frightened her, and she had some ado to laugh naturally. "And I +am lost without a looking-glass," she added, in a somewhat quavering +tone of bravado. + +She pulled out a great tortoise-shell dagger, and a heavy mass of +glorious red-gold hair fell about her piquant face, and her pretty +milk-white throat, down to her waist. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Sarah. She looked around. Near the bubbling +brook, dark peaty hollows held little pools, which offered Nature's +mirror for her toilet. + +She went to the side of the stream and knelt down. Her plump white +hands dexterously twisted and secured the long burnished coil. Then +she glanced slyly round at Peter. + +He lay face downwards on the grass. His shoulders heaved. The pretty +picture Miss Sarah's coquetry presented had been lost upon the foolish +youth. + +She returned in a leisurely manner to her place, and leaning her chin +on her hand, and her elbow on her knee, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"Where was I? Yes, I remember. It is a lesson for a girl, Peter, never +to marry a boy or a savage." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. He raised his face and looked at her. His eyes +were red, but he was too miserable to care; he was, as she had said, +only a boy. "Sarah, you're not in earnest! You can't be! I--I know I +ought to be angry." Miss Sarah laughed derisively. "Yes, you laugh, +for you know too well I can't be angry with you. I love you!" said +Peter, passionately, "though you are--as cruel as though I've not had +pretty well as much to bear to-day, as I know how to stand. First, +John Crewys, and now you--saying--" + +"Just the truth," said Sarah, calmly. + +"I don't deny," said Peter, in a quivering voice, "that--that some of +the beastly things he said came--came home to me. I've been a selfish +brute to _her_, I always have been. You've said so pretty plainly, and +I--I dare say it's true. I think it's true. But to _you_--and I was so +happy." He hid his face in his hand. + +"I'm glad you have the grace to see the error of your ways at last," +said Sarah, encouragingly. "It makes me quite hopeful about you. But +I'm sorry to see you're still only thinking of _our_ happiness--I mean +_yours_," she corrected herself in haste, for a sudden eager hope +flashed across Peter's miserable young face. "Yours, yours, _yours_. +It's your happiness and not hers you think of still, though you've all +your life before you, and she has only half hers. But no one has ever +thought of her--except me, and one other." + +"John Crewys?" said Peter, angrily. + +"Not John Crewys at all," snapped Sarah. "He is just thinking of his +own happiness like you are. All men are alike, except the one I'm +thinking of. But though I make no doubt that John Crewys is just as +selfish as you are, which is saying a good deal, yet, as it happens, +John Crewys is the only man who could make her happy." + +"What man are you thinking of?" said Peter. + +Jealousy was a potent factor in his love for Sarah. He forgot his +mother instantly, as he had forgotten her on the day of his return, +when Sarah had walked on to the terrace--and into his heart. + +"I name no names," said Sarah, "but I hope I know a hero when I see +him; and that man is a hero, though he is--nothing much to look at." + +It amused her to observe the varying expressions on her lover's face, +which her artless words called forth, one after another. + +"If you are really not going to eat any luncheon, Peter," she said, "I +must trouble you to help me to wash up and pack the basket. The fire +is out and the water is cold, but it can't be helped. The picnic has +been a failure." + +"We have the whole afternoon before us. I cannot see that there is any +hurry," said Peter, not stirring. + +"I didn't mean to break bad news to you," said Sarah, "until we'd had +a pleasant meal together in comfort, and rested ourselves. But +since you insist on spoiling everything with your horrid premature +disclosures, I don't see why I shouldn't do the same. I must be at +home by four o'clock, because Aunt Elizabeth is coming to Hewelscourt +this very afternoon." + +"Lady Tintern!" cried Peter, in dismay. "Then you won't be able to +come to Barracombe this evening?" + +"I am not in the habit of throwing over a dinner engagement," said +Sarah, with dignity. "But in case they won't let me come," she added, +with great inconsistency, "I'll put a lighted candle in the top window +of the tower, as usual. But you can guess how many more of these +enjoyable expeditions we shall be allowed to make. Not that we need +regret them if they are all to be as lively as this one. Still--" + +She helped herself to a jam-puff, and offered the dish to Peter, with +an engaging smile. He helped himself absently. + +"I don't deny I am fond of taking meals in the open air, and more +especially on the top of the moor," said Sarah, with a sigh of +content. + +"What has she come for?" said Peter. + +"I shall be better able to tell you when I have seen her." + +"Don't you know?" + +"I can pretty well guess. She's going to forgive me, for one thing. +Then she'll tell me that I don't deserve my good luck, but that Lord +Avonwick is so patient and so long-suffering, that he's accepted her +assurance that I don't know my own mind (and I'm not sure I do), and +he's going to give me one more chance to become Lady Avonwick, though +I was so foolish as to say 'No' to his last offer." + +"You didn't say 'No' to _my_ last offer!" cried Peter. + +"I don't believe an offer of marriage is even legal before you're +one-and-twenty," said Miss Sarah, derisively. "What did it matter what +I said? Haven't I told you I was only playing?" + +"You may tell me so a thousand times," said Peter, doggedly, "but I +shall never believe you until I see you actually married to somebody +else." + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Lady Tintern was pleased to leave Paddington by a much earlier +train than could have been expected. She hired a fly, and a pair of +broken-kneed horses, at Brawnton, and once more took her relations +at Hewelscourt by surprise. On this occasion, however, she was not +fortunate enough to find her invalid niece at play in the stable-yard, +though she detected her at luncheon, and warmly congratulated her upon +her robust appearance and her excellent appetite. + +Her journey had, no doubt, been undertaken with the very intentions +Sarah had described; but another motive also prompted her, which Sarah +had not divined. + +Much as she desired to marry her grand-niece to Lord Avonwick, she +was not blind to the young man's personal disadvantages, which were +undeniable; and which Peter had rudely summed up in a word by alluding +to his rival as an ass. He was distinguished among the admirers of +Miss Sarah's red and white beauty by his brainlessness no less than by +his eligibility. + +Nevertheless, Lady Tintern had favoured his suit. She knew him to be a +good fellow, although he was a simpleton, and she was very sure that +he loved Sarah sincerely. + +"Whoever the girl marries, she will rule him with a rod of iron. She +had better marry a fool and be done with it. So why not an eligible +and titled and good-natured fool?" the old lady had written to Mrs. +Hewel, who was very far from understanding such reasoning, and wept +resentfully over the letter. + +Why should Lady Tintern snatch her only daughter away from her in +order to marry her to a fool? Mrs. Hewel was of opinion that a +sensible young man like Peter would be a better match. She supposed +nobody would call Sir Peter Crewys of Barracombe a fool; and as for +his being young, he was only a few months younger than Lord Avonwick, +and Sarah would have just as pretty a title, even if her husband were +only a baronet instead of a baron. Thus she argued to herself, and +wrote the gist of her argument to her aunt. Why was Sarah to go +hunting the highways and byways for titled fools, when there was Peter +at her very door,--a young man she had known all her life, and one of +the oldest families in Devon, and seven thousand acres of land only +next week, when he would come of age, and could marry whomever he +liked? Though, of course, Sarah must not go against her aunt, who +had promised to do so much for her, and given her so many beautiful +things, whether young girls ought to wear jewellery or not. + +This was the distracted letter which was bringing Lady Tintern to +Hewelscourt. She had been annoyed with Sarah for refusing Lord +Avonwick, and thought it would do the rebellious young lady no harm to +return for a time to the bosom of her family, and thus miss Newmarket, +which Sarah particularly desired to attend, since no society function +interested her half so much as racing. + +The old lady had not in the least objected to Sarah's friendship for +young Sir Peter Crewys. Sarah, as John had truly said, was a star with +many satellites; and among those satellites Peter did not shine with +any remarkable brilliancy, being so obviously an awkward country-bred +lad, not at home in the surroundings to which her friendship had +introduced him, and rather inclined to be surly and quarrelsome than +pleasant or agreeable. + +Lady Tintern had not taken such a boy's attentions to her grand-niece +seriously; but if Sarah were taking them seriously, she thought she +had better inquire into the matter at once. Therefore the energetic +old woman not only arrived unexpectedly at Hewelscourt in the middle +of luncheon, but routed her niece off her sofa early in the afternoon, +and proposed that she should immediately cross the river and call upon +Peter's mother. + +"I have never seen the place except from these windows; perhaps I am +underrating it," said Lady Tintern. "I've never met Lady Mary Crewys, +though I know all the Setouns that ever were born. Never mind who +ought to call on me first! What do I care for such nonsense? The boy +is a cub and a bear--_that_ I know--since he stayed in my house for a +fortnight, and never spoke to me if he could possibly help it. He is a +nobody! Sir Peter Fiddlesticks! Who ever heard of him or his family, I +should like to know, outside this ridiculous place? His name is spelt +wrong! Of course I have heard of Crewys, K.C. Everybody has heard of +him. That has nothing to do with it. Yes, I know the young man did +well in South Africa. All our young men did well in South Africa. +Pray, is Sarah to marry them all? If _that_ is what she is after, the +sooner I take it in hand the better. Lunching by herself on the moors +indeed! No; I am not at all afraid of the ferry, Emily. If you are, I +will go alone, or take your good man." + +"The colonel is out shooting, as you know, and won't be back till +tea-time," said Mrs. Hewel, becoming more and more flurried under this +torrent of lively scolding. + +"The colonel! Why don't you say Tom? Colonel indeed!" said Lady +Tintern. "Very well, I shall go alone." + +But this Mrs. Hewel would by no means allow. She reluctantly abandoned +the effort to dissuade her aunt, put on her visiting things with as +much speed as was possible to her, and finally accompanied her across +the river to pay the proposed visit to Barracombe House. + +Lady Mary received her visitors in the banqueting hall, an apartment +which excited Lady Tintern's warmest approval. The old lady dated the +oak carving in the hall, and in the yet more ancient library; named +the artists of the various pictures; criticized the ceilings, and +praised the windows. + +Mrs. Hewel feared her outspokenness would offend Lady Mary, but she +could perceive only pleasure and amusement in the face of her hostess, +between whom and the worldly old woman there sprang up a friendliness +that was almost instantaneous. + +"And you are like a Cosway miniature yourself, my dear," said Lady +Tintern, peering out of her dark eyes at Lady Mary's delicate white +face. "Eh--the bright colouring must be a little faded--all the +Setouns have pretty complexions--and carmine is a perishable tint, as +we all know." + +"Sarah has a brilliant complexion," struck in Mrs. Hewel, zealously +endeavouring to distract her aunt from the personalities in which she +preferred to indulge. + +"Sarah looks like a milkmaid, my love," said the old lady, who did +not choose to be interrupted, "And when she can hunt as much as she +wishes, and live the outdoor life she prefers, she will get the +complexion of a boatwoman." She turned to Lady Mary with a gracious +nod. "But _you_ may live out of doors with impunity. Time seems to +leave something better than colouring to a few Heaven-blessed women, +who manage to escape wrinkles, and hardening, and crossness. I +am often cross, and so are younger folk than I; and your boy +Peter--though how he comes to be your boy I don't know--is very often +cross too." + +"You have been very kind to Peter," said Lady Mary, laughing. "I am +sorry you found him cross." + +"No; I was not kind to him. I am not particularly fond of cross +people," said the old lady. "It is Sarah who has been kind," and she +looked sharply again at Lady Mary. + +"I am getting on in years, and very infirm," said Lady Tintern, "and I +must ask you to excuse me if I lean upon a stick; but I should like to +take a turn about the garden with you. I hear you have a remarkable +view from your terrace." + +Lady Mary offered her arm with pretty solicitude, and guided her aged +but perfectly active visitor through the drawing-room--where she +stopped to comment favourably upon the water colours--to the terrace, +where John was sitting in the shade of the ilex-tree, absorbed in the +London papers. + +Lady Mary introduced him as Peter's guardian and cousin. + +"How do you do, Mr. Crewys? Your name is very familiar to me," said +the old lady. "Though to tell you the truth, Sir Peter looks so much +older than his age that I forgot he had a guardian at all." + +"He will only have one for a few days longer," said John, smiling. "My +authority will expire very shortly." + +"But you are, at any rate, the very man I wanted to see," said Lady +Tintern, who seldom wasted time in preliminaries. "I would always +rather talk business with a man than with a woman; so if Mr. Crewys +will lend me his arm to supplement my stick, I will take a turn with +him instead of with you, my dear, if you have no objection." + +"Did you ever hear anything like her?" said poor Mrs. Hewel, turning +to Lady Mary as soon as her aunt was out of hearing. "What Mr. Crewys +must think of her, I cannot guess. She always says she had to exercise +so much reticence as an ambassadress, that she has given her tongue a +holiday ever since. But there is only one possible subject _they_ can +have to talk about. And how can we be sure her interference won't +spoil everything? She is quite capable of asking what Peter's +intentions are. She is the most indiscreet person in the world," said +Sarah's mother, wringing her hands. + +"I think _Peter_ has made his intentions pretty obvious," said Lady +Mary. She smiled, but her eyes were anxious. + +"And you are sure you don't mind, dear Lady Mary? For who can depend +on Lady Tintern, after all? She is supposed to be going to do so much +for Sarah, but if she takes it into her head to oppose the marriage, I +can do nothing with her. I never could." + +"I am very far from minding," said Lady Mary. "But it is Sarah on whom +everything depends. What does she say, I wonder? What does she want?" + +"It's no use asking _me_ what Sarah wants," said Mrs. Hewel, +plaintively. "Time after time I have told her father what would come +of it all if he spoilt her so outrageously. He is ready enough to find +fault with the boys, poor fellows, who never do anything wrong; but he +always thinks Sarah perfection, and nothing else." + +"Sarah is very fortunate, for Peter has the same opinion of her." + +"Fortunate! Lady Mary, if I were to tell you the chances that girl has +had--not but what I had far rather she married Peter--though she might +have done that all the same if she had never left home in her life." + +"I am not so sure of that," said Peter's mother. + +Lady Tintern's turn took her no further than the fountain garden, +where she sank down upon a bench, and graciously requested her escort +to occupy the vacant space by her side. + +"I started at an unearthly hour this morning, and I am not so young as +I was," she said; "but I am particularly desirous of a good night's +rest, and I never can sleep with anything on my mind. So I came over +here to talk business. By-the-by, I should have come over here long +ago, if any one had had the sense to give me a hint that I had only to +cross a muddy stream, in a flat-bottomed boat, in order to see a face +like _that_--" She nodded towards the terrace. + +John's colour rose slightly. He put the nod and the smile, and the +sharp glance of the dark eyes together, and perceived that Lady +Tintern had drawn certain conclusions. + +"There is some expression in her face," said the old lady, musingly, +"which makes me think of Marie Stuart's farewell to France. I don't +know why. I have odd fancies. I believe the Queen of Scots had hazel +eyes, whereas this pretty Lady Mary has the bluest eyes I ever +saw--quite remarkable eyes." + +"Those blue eyes," said John, smiling, "have never looked beyond this +range of hills since Lady Mary's childhood." + +The old lady nodded again. "Eh--a State prisoner. Yes, yes. She has +that kind of look." Then she turned to John, with mingled slyness and +humour, "On va changer tout cela?" + +"As you have divined," he answered, laughing in spite of himself. +"Though how you have divined it passes my poor powers of +comprehension." + +Lady Tintern was pleased. She liked tributes to her intelligence as +other women enjoy recognition of their good looks. + +"It is very easy, to an observer," she said. "She is frightened at +her own happiness. Yes, yes. And that cub of a boy would not make it +easier. By-the-by, I came to talk of the boy. You are his guardian?" + +"For a week." + +"What does it signify for how long? Five minutes will settle my views. +Thank Heaven I did not come later, or I should have had to talk to +him, instead of to a man of sense. You must have seen what is going +on. What do you think of it?" + +"The arrangement suits me so admirably," said John, smiling, "that I +am hardly to be relied upon for an impartial opinion." + +"Will you tell me his circumstances?" + +John explained them in a few words, and with admirable terseness and +lucidity; and she nodded comprehensively all the while. + +"That's capital. He can't make ducks and drakes of it. All tied up +on the children. I hope they will have a dozen. It would serve Sarah +right. Now for my side. Whatever sum the trustees decide to settle +upon Sir Peter's wife, I will put down double that sum as Sarah's +dowry. Our solicitors can fight the rest out between them. The +property is much better than I had been given any reason to suspect. I +have no more to say. They can be married in a month. That is settled. +I never linger over business. We may shake hands on it." They did so +with great cordiality. "It is not that I am overjoyed at the match," +she explained, with great frankness. "I think Sarah is a fool to marry +a boy. But I have observed she is a fool who always knows her own +mind. The fancies of some girls of that age are not worth attending +to." + +"Miss Sarah is a young lady of character," said John, gravely. + +"Ay, she will settle him," said Lady Tintern. Her small, grim face +relaxed into a witchlike smile. + +"The lad is a good lad. No one has ever said a word against him, and +he is as steady as old Time. I believe Miss Sarah's choice, if he is +her choice, will be justified," said John. + +"I didn't think he was a murderer or a drunkard," said Lady Tintern, +cheerfully. Her phraseology was often startling to strangers. "But he +is absolutely devoid of--what shall I say? Chivalry? Yes, that is +it. Few young men have much nowadays, I am told. But Sir Peter has +none--absolutely none." + +"It will come." + +"No, it will not come. It is a quality you are born with or without. +He was born without. Sarah knows all about it. It won't hurt her; she +has the methods of an ox. She goes direct to her point, and tramples +over everything that stands in her way. If he were less thick-skinned +she would be the death of him; but fortunately he has the hide of a +rhinoceros." + +"I think you do them both a great deal less than justice," said John; +but he was unable to help laughing. + +"Oh, you do, do you? I like to be disagreed with." Her voice shook +a little. "You must make allowances--for an old woman--who +is--disappointed," said Lady Tintern. + +John said nothing, but his bright hazel eyes, looking down on the +small, bent figure, grew suddenly gentle and sympathetic. + +"It is a pleasure to be able to congratulate somebody," she said, +returning his look. "I congratulate _you_--and Lady Mary." + +"Thank you." + +"Most of all, because there is nothing modern about her. She has +walked straight out of the Middle Ages, with the face of a saint and a +dreamer and a beautiful woman, all in one. I am an old witch, and I am +never deceived in a woman. Men, I am sorry to say, no longer take the +trouble to deceive me. Now our business is over, will you take me +back?" + +She took the arm he offered, and tottered back to the terrace. + +"Bring her to see me in London, and bring her as soon as you can," +said. Lady Tintern. "She is the friend I have dreamed of, and never +met. When is it going to be?" + +"At once," said John, calmly. + +"You are the most sensible man I have seen for a long time," said Lady +Tintern. + + * * * * * + +Peter and Sarah hardly exchanged a word during their return journey +from the moors after the unlucky picnic; and at the door of Happy +Jack's cottage in Youlestone village she commanded her obedient swain +to deposit the luncheon basket, and bade him farewell. + +The aged road-mender, to his intense surprise and chagrin, had one +morning found himself unable to rise from his bed. He lay there for a +week, indignant with Providence for thus wasting his time. + +"There bain't nart the matter wi' I! Then why be I a-farced to lie +thic way?" he said faintly. "If zo be I wor bod, I cude understand, +but I bain't bod. There bain't no pain tu speak on no-wheres. It vair +beats my yunderstanding." + +"Tis old age be the matter wi' yu, vather," said his mate, a young +fellow of sixty or so, who lodged with him. + +"I bain't nigh so yold as zum," said Happy Jack, peevishly. "Tis a +nice way vor a man tu be tuke, wi'out a thing the matter wi' un, vor +the doctor tu lay yold on." + +Dr. Blundell soothed him by giving his illness a name. + +"It's Anno Domini, Jack." + +"What be that? I niver yeard till on't befar," he said suspiciously. + +"It's incurable, Jack," said the doctor, gravely. + +Happy Jack was consoled. He rolled out the word with relish to his +next visitor. + +"Him's vound it out at last. 'Tis the anny-dominy, and 'tis incurable. +You'm can't du nart vor I. I got tu go; and 'taint no wonder, wi' zuch +a complaint as I du lie here wi'. The doctor were vair beat at vust; +but him worried it out wi' hisself tu the last. Him's a turble gude +doctor, var arl he wuden't go tu the war." + +Sarah visited him every day. He was so frail and withered a little +object that it seemed as though he could waste no further, and yet he +dwindled daily. But he suffered no pain, and his wits were bright to +the end. + +This evening the faint whistle of his voice was fainter than ever, and +she had to bend very low to catch his gasping words. He lay propped up +on the pillows, with a red scarf tied round the withered scrag of his +throat, and his spotless bed freshly arrayed by his mate's mother, who +lived with them and "did for" both. + +"They du zay as Master Peter be _carting_ of 'ee, Miss Zairy," he +whispered. "Be it tru?" + +"Yes, Jack dear, it's true. Are you glad?" + +"I be glad if yu thinks yu'll git 'un," wheezed poor Jack. "'Twude be +a turble gude job var 'ee tu git a yusband. But doan't 'ee make tu +shar on 'un, Miss Zairy. 'Un du zay as him be turble vond on yu, and +as yu du be playing vast and loose wi' he. That's the ways a young +maid du go on, and zo the young man du slip thru' 'un's vingers." + +"Yes, Jack," said Sarah, with unwonted meekness. + +She looked round the little unceiled room, open on one side to the +wooden staircase which led to the kitchen below; at the earth-stained +corduroys hanging on a peg; at the brown mug which held Happy Jack's +last meal, and all he cared to take--a thin gruel. + +"'Twude be a grand marriage vor the likes o' yu, Miss Zairy, vor the +Crewys du be the yoldest vambly in all Devonsheer, as I've yeard tell; +and yure volk bain't never comed year at arl befar yure grandvather's +time. Eh, what a tale there were tu tell when old Sir Timothy married +Mary Ann! 'Twas a vine scandal vor the volk, zo 'twere; but I wuden't +niver give in tu leaving Youlestone. But doan't 'ee play the vule wi' +Master Peter, Miss Zairy. Take 'un while yu can git 'un, will 'ee? And +be glad tu git 'un. Yu listen tu I, vor I be a turble witty man, and I +be giving of yu gude advice, Miss Zairy." + +"I am listening, Jack, and you know I always take your advice." + +"Ah! if 'twerent' for the anny-dominy, I'd be tu yure wedding," sighed +Happy Jack, "zame as I were tu Mary Ann's. Zo I wude." + +She took his knotted hand, discoloured with the labour of eighty +years, and bade him farewell. + +"Thee be a lucky maid," said Happy Jack, closing his eyes. + + * * * * * + +The tears were yet glistening on Sarah's long lashes, when she met the +doctor on his way to the cottage she had just quitted. + +She was in no mood for talking, and would have passed him with a hasty +greeting, but the melancholy and fatigue of his bearing struck her +quick perceptions. + +She stopped short, and held out her hand impulsively. + +"Dr. Blunderbuss," said Sarah, "did you _very_ much want Peter to find +out that--that he could live without his mother?" + +"Has anything happened?" said the doctor; his thin face lighted up +instantly with eager interest and anxiety. + +"Only _that_" said Sarah. "You trusted me, so I'm trusting you. +Peter's found out everything. And--and he isn't going to let her +sacrifice her happiness to him, after all. I'll answer for that. So +perhaps, now, you won't say you're sorry you told me?" + +"For God's sake, don't jest with me, my child!" said the doctor, +putting a trembling hand on her arm. "Is anything--settled?" + +"Do I ever jest when people are in earnest? And how can I tell you if +it's settled?" said Sarah, in a tone between laughing and weeping. +"I--I'm going there to-night. I oughtn't to have said anything about +it, only I knew how much you wanted her to be happy. And--she's going +to be--that's all." + +The doctor was silent for a. moment, and Sarah looked away from him, +though she was conscious that he was gazing fixedly at her face. But +she did not know that he saw neither her blushing cheeks, nor the +groups of tall fern on the red earth-bank beyond her, nor the +whitewashed cob walls of Happy Jack's cottage. His dreaming eyes saw +only Lady Mary in her white gown, weeping and agitated, stumbling over +the threshold of a darkened room into the arms of John Crewys. + +"You said you wished it," said Sarah. + +She stole a hasty glance at him, half frightened by his silence and +his pallor, remembering suddenly how little the fulfilment of his +wishes could have to do with his personal happiness. + +The doctor recovered himself. "I wish it with all my heart," he said. +He tried to smile. "Some day, if you will, you shall tell me how you +managed it. But perhaps--not just now." + +"Can't you guess?" she said, opening her eyes in a wonder stronger +than discretion. + +How was it possible, she thought, that such a clever man should be so +dull? + +The doctor shook his head. "You were always too quick for me, little +Sarah," he said. "I am only glad, however it happened, that--she--is +to be happy at last." He had no thoughts to spare for Sarah, or any +other. As she lingered he said absently, "Is that all?" + +She looked at him, and was inspired to leave the remorseful and +sympathetic words that rushed to her lips unsaid. + +"That is all," said Sarah, gently, "for the present." + +Then she left him alone, and took her way down to the ferry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +She looked round the banqueting hall. The wax candles shed a radiance +upon their immediate surroundings, which accentuated the shadows of +each unlighted corner. Bowls of roses, red and white and golden, +bloomed delicately in every recess against the black oak of the +panels. + +The flames were leaping on the hearth about a fresh log thrown into +the red-hot wood-ash. The two old sisters sat almost in the chimney +corner, side by side, where they could exchange their confidences +unheard. + +Lady Belstone still mourned her admiral in black silk and _crêpe_, +whilst Miss Georgina's respect for her brother's memory was made +manifest in plum-coloured satin. + +Lady Mary, too, wore black to-night. Since the day of Peter's return +she had not ventured to don her favourite white. Her gown was of +velvet; her fair neck and arms shone through the yellowing folds of an +old lace scarf which veiled the bosom. A string of pearls was twisted +in her soft, brown hair, lending a dim crown to her exquisite and +gracious beauty in the tender light of the wax candles. + +Candlelight is kind to the victims of relentless time; disdaining to +notice the little lines and shadows care has painted on tired faces; +restoring delicacy to faded complexions, and brightness to sad eyes. + +The faint illumination was less kind to Sarah, in her white gown and +blue ribbons. The beautiful colour, which could face the morning +sunbeams triumphantly in its young transparency, was almost too high +in the warmth of the shadowy hall, where her golden-red hair made a +glory of its own. + +The October evening seemed chilly to the aged sisters, and even Lady +Mary felt the comfort of her velvet gown; but Sarah was impatient of +the heat of the log fire, and longed for the open air. She envied +Peter and John, who were reported to be smoking outside on the +terrace. + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +"There will be a sharp frost to-night; they won't stand that," said +Sarah, shaking her head. + +"The poor roses of autumn," said Lady Mary, rather dreamily, "they are +never so sweet as the roses of June." + +"But they are much rarer, and more precious," said Sarah. + +Lady Mary looked at her and smiled. How quickly Sarah always +understood! + +Sarah caught her hand and kissed it impulsively. Her back was turned +to the old sisters in the chimney corner. + +"Lady Mary," she said, "oh, never mind if I am indiscreet; you know I +am always that." A little sob escaped her. "But I _must_ ask you this +one thing--you--you didn't really think _that_ of me, did you?" + +"Think what, dear child?" said Lady Mary, bewildered. + +Sarah looked round at the two old ladies. + +The head of Miss Crewys was inclined towards the crochet she held in +her lap. She slumbered peacefully. + +Lady Belstone was absently gazing into the heart of the great fire. +The heat did not appear to cause her inconvenience. She was nodding. + +"They will hear nothing," said Lady Mary, softly. "Tell me, Sarah, +what you mean. I would ask you," she said, with a little smile and +flush, "to tell me something else, only, I--too--am afraid of being +indiscreet." + +"There is nothing I would not tell you," murmured Sarah, "though I +believe I would rather tell you--out in the dark--than here," she +laughed nervously. + +"The drawing-room is not lighted, except by the moon," said Lady Mary, +also a little excited by the thought of what Sarah might, perhaps, be +going to say; "but there is no fire there, I am afraid. The aunts do +not like sitting there in the evening. But if you would not be too +cold, in that thin, white gown--?" + +"I am never cold," said Sarah; "I take too much exercise, I suppose, +to feel the cold." + +"Then come," said Lady Mary. + +They stole past the sleeping sisters into the drawing-room, and closed +the communicating door as noiselessly as possible. + +Here only the moonlight reigned, pouring in through the uncurtained +windows and rendering the gay, rose-coloured room, with its pretty +contents, perfectly weird and unfamiliar. + +Sarah flung her warm, young arms about her earliest and most beloved +friend, and rested her bright head against the gentle bosom. + +"You never thought I meant all the horrid, cruel things I made Peter +say to you? You never believed it of me, did you? That I wouldn't +marry him unless _you_ went away. You whom I love best in the world, +and always have," she said defiantly, "or that I would ever alter a +single corner of this dear old house, which used to be so hideous, and +which you have made so beautiful?" + +"Sarah! My--my darling!" said Lady Mary, in frightened, trembling +tones. + +"You needn't blame Peter for saying any of it," said Sarah, "for it +was I who put the words into his mouth. It made him miserable to +say them; but he could not help himself. He wasn't really quite +responsible for his actions. He isn't now. When people are--are in +love, I've often noticed they're not responsible." + +"But why--" + +"I only wanted to show him what a goose he really was," murmured +Sarah, hanging her head. "He came back so pompous and superior; +talking about his father's place, and being the only man in the house, +and obliged to look after you all; and it was all so ridiculous, and +so out of date. I didn't mean to hurt _you_ except just for a moment, +because it could not be helped," said Sarah. She hid her face in Lady +Mary's neck, half laughing and half crying. "I was so afraid you--you +were taking him seriously; and--and he was so selfish, wanting to keep +you all to himself." + +"Oh, Sarah, hush!" Lady Mary cried. + +She divined it all in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. It was to +Sarah that she owed the pain and mortification, not to her boy. + +Sarah had said Peter was not responsible. + +Was he only a puppet in the hands of the girl he loved? Could John +ever have been thus blindly led and influenced? Her wounded heart said +quickly that John was of a different, nobler, stronger nature. But the +mother's instinct leapt to defend her son, and cried also that John +was a man, and Peter but a boy in love, ready to sacrifice the whole +world to her he worshipped. His father would never have done that. +Lady Mary was even capable of an unreasoning pride in Peter's power of +loving; though it was not her--alas! it never had been her--for whom +her boy was willing to make the smallest sacrifice. + +But he had honestly meant to devote himself to his mother, according +to his lights, had Sarah's influence not come in the way. Sarah, +who must have divined her secret all the while, and who, with the +dauntlessness of youth, had not hesitated to force open the door +into a world so bright that Lady Mary almost feared to enter it, but +trembled, as it were, upon the threshold of her own happiness--and +Peter's. + +They were silent, holding each other in a close embrace, both +conscious of the passing and repassing footsteps upon the gravel path +without. + +Sarah was the first to recover herself. She put Lady Mary into her +favourite chair, and came and knelt by her side. + +"That's over, and I'm forgiven," she said softly. + +"You will make my boy--happy?" whispered Lady Mary. + +"I can't tell whether he will be happy or not, if--if he marries me," +said Sarah. She appeared to smother a laugh. "But Aunt Elizabeth seems +reconciled to the idea. I think you bewitched her this afternoon. She +is in love with you, and with this house, and with Mr. John. But more +particularly with you. When I said I had refused Peter over and over +again, she said I was a fool. But she says that whatever I do. I--I +suppose I let her think," said Sarah, leaning her head against Lady +Mary's knee, "that _some day_--if he is still idiotic enough to wish +it--and if _you_ don't mind--" + +"My pretty Sarah--my darling!" + +"I'm sure it's only because he's your son," said Sarah, vehemently; +"I've always wanted to be your child. What's the use of pretending I +haven't? Think what a time poor mamma used to give me, and what an +angel of goodness you were to the poor little black sheep who loved +you so." + +Sarah's white dress, shining in the moonlight, caught the attention of +John Crewys, through the open window. He paused in his walk outside. +Peter's voice uttered something, and the two dark figures passed +slowly on. + +"They won't interrupt us," said Sarah, serenely. "I told Peter at +dinner that I wanted to talk to you, and that he was to go and smoke +with Mr. John, and behave as if nothing had happened. He said he +hadn't spoken to him since this morning. He is all agog to know what +Lady Tintern came for. But he won't dare to come and interrupt." + +"What have you done to my boy," said Lady Mary, half laughing and +half indignant, "that your lightest word is to be his law? And oh, +Sarah"--her tone grew wistful--"it is strange--even though he loves +you, that you should understand him better than I, who would lay down +my life for him." + +"It's very easy to see why," said Sarah, calmly. The deep contralto +music of her voice contrasted oddly with her matter-of-fact manner and +words. "It's just that Peter and I are made of common clay, and that +you are not. So, of course, we understand each other. I don't mean to +say that we don't quarrel pretty often. I dare say we always shall. +I am good-tempered, but I like my own way; and, besides"--she spoke +quite cheerfully--"anybody would quarrel with Peter. But you and he +are a little like Aunt Elizabeth and me. _She_ wants me to behave like +a _grande dame_, and to know exactly who everybody is, and treat them +accordingly, and be never too much interested in anything, but never +bored; and always look beautiful, and, above all, _appropriate_. And +_I_--would rather be taking the dogs for a run on the moors, in a +short skirt and big boots; or up at four in the morning otter-hunting; +or out with the hounds; or--or--digging in the garden, for that +matter;--than be the prettiest girl in London, and going to a State +ball or the opera. You see, I've tried both kinds of life now, and +I know which I like best. And--and flirting with people is pleasant +enough in its way, but it gives you a kind of sick feeling afterwards, +which hunting never does. I don't think I'm really much of a hand at +sentiment," said Sarah, with great truth. + +"And Peter?" asked Lady Mary, gently. + +"You wanted Peter to be a--a noble kind of person, a great statesman, +or something of that sort, didn't you?" Her soft lips caressed Lady +Mary's hand apologetically. "To be fond of reading and poetry, and all +sorts of things; and _he_ wanted to shoot rabbits and go fishing. But, +of course, he couldn't help _knowing_ you wanted him to be something +he wasn't, and never could be, and didn't want to be." + +"Oh, Sarah!" said poor Lady Mary. "But--yes, it is true what you are +saying." + +"It's true, though I say it so badly; and I know it, because, as I +tell you, Peter and I are just the same sort at heart. I've been +teasing him, pretending to be a worldling, but foreign travel and +entertaining in London are just about as unsuited to me as to Peter. +I--I'm glad"--she uttered a quick, little sob--"that I--I played my +part well while it all lasted; but you know it wasn't so much me as my +looks that did it. And because I didn't care, I was blunt and natural, +and they thought it _chic_. But it wasn't _chic_; it was that I +_really_ didn't care. And I don't think I've ever quite succeeded in +taking Peter in either; for he _couldn't_ believe I could really think +any sort of life worth living but the dear old life down here, which +he and I love best in the world, in our heart of hearts." + +The twinkling, frosty blue points of starlight glittered in the +cloudless vault of heaven, above the moonlit stillness of the valley. +The clear-cut shadows of the balcony and the stone urns fell across +the cold paths and whitened grass of the terrace. + +Ghostlike, Sarah's white form emerged from the darkness of the room, +and stood on the threshold of the window. + +John threw away the end of his cigar, and smiled. "I presume the +interview we were not to interrupt is over?" he said, good-humouredly. +"Surely it is not very prudent of Miss Sarah to venture out-of-doors +in that thin gown; or has she a cloak of some kind--" + +But Peter was not listening to him. + +Sarah, wrapped in her white cloak and hood, had already flitted across +the moonlit terrace, into the deep shadow of the ilex grove; and the +boy was by her side before John could reach the window she had just +quitted. + +"Oh, is it you, Peter?" said Miss Sarah, looking over her shoulder. "I +was looking for you. I have put on my things. It is getting late, and +I thought you would see me home." + +"Must you go already?" cried Peter. "Have they sent to fetch you?" + +"I dare say I could stay a few moments," said Sarah; "but, of course, +my maid came ages ago, as usual. But if there was anything you +particularly wanted to say--you know how tiresome she is, keeping as +close as she can, to listen to every word--why, it would be better to +say it now. I am not in such a hurry as all that." + +"You know very well I want to say a thousand things," said Peter, +vehemently. "I have been walking up and down till I thought I should +go mad, making conversation with John Crewys." Peter was honestly +unaware that it was John who had made the conversation. "Has Lady +Tintern come to take you away, Sarah? And why did she call on my +mother this afternoon, the very moment she arrived?" + +"Your mother would be the proper person to tell you that. How should I +know?" said Sarah, reprovingly. "Have you asked her?" + +"How can I ask her?" said Peter. His voice trembled. "I've not spoken +to her once--except before other people--since John Crewys told +me--what I told you this afternoon. I've scarcely seen any one since I +left you. I wandered off for a beastly walk in the woods by myself, +as miserable as any fellow would be, after all you said to me. Do you +think I--I've got no feelings?" + +His voice sounded very forlorn, and Sarah felt remorseful. After all, +Peter was her comrade and her oldest friend, as well as her lover. At +the very bottom of her heart there lurked a remnant of her childish +admiration for him, which would, perhaps, never quite be extinguished. +The boy who got into scrapes, and was thrashed by his father, and who +did not mind; the boy who vaulted over fences she had to climb or +creep through; who went fishing, and threw a fly with so light and +sure a hand, and filled his basket, whilst she wound her line about +her skirts, and caught her hook, and whipped the stream in vain. +He had climbed a tall fir-tree once, and brought down in safety a +weeping, shame-stricken little girl with a red pigtail, whose daring +had suddenly failed her; and he had gone up the tree himself like a +squirrel afterwards, and fetched her the nest she coveted. Nor did he +ever taunt her with her cowardice nor revert to his own exploit; but +this was because Peter forgot the whole adventure in an hour, though +Sarah remembered it to the end of her life. He climbed so many trees, +and went birds'-nesting every spring to his mother's despair. + +Sarah thought of him wandering all the afternoon in his own woods, +lonely and mortified, listening to the popping of the guns on the +opposite side of the hill, which echoed through the valley; she knew +what those sounds meant to Peter--the boy who had shot so straight and +true, and who would never shoulder a gun any more. + +"I don't see why you should be so miserable," she said, as lightly +as she could; but there were tears in her eyes, she was so sorry for +Peter. + +"I dare say you don't," said Peter, bitterly. "Nobody has ever made a +fool of you, no doubt. A wretched, self-confident fool, who gave you +his whole heart to trample in the dust. I suppose I ought to have +known you were only--playing with me--as you said--a wretched object +as I am now, but--" + +"An object!" cried Sarah, so anxious to stem the tide of his +reproaches that she scarce knew what she was saying, "which appeals +to the soft side of every woman's heart, high or low, rich or poor, +civilized or savage--a wounded soldier." + +"Do you think I want to be pitied?" said Peter, glowering. + +"Pitied!" said Sarah, softly. "Do you call this pity?" She leant +forward and kissed his empty sleeve. + +Peter trembled at her touch. + +"It is--because you are sorry for me," he said hoarsely. + +"Sorry!" said Sarah, scornfully; "I glory in it." Then she suddenly +began to cry. "I am a wicked girl," she sobbed, "and you _were a_ +fool, if you ever thought I could be happy anywhere but in this stupid +old valley, or with--with any one but you. And I am rightly punished +if my--my behaviour has made you change your mind. Because I _did_ +mean, just at first, to throw you over, and to--to go away from you, +Peter. But--but the arm that wasn't there--held me fast." + +"Sarah!" + +She hid her face against his shoulder. + + * * * * * + +John Crewys was playing softly on the little oak piano in the +banqueting hall, and Lady Mary stood before the open hearth, absently +watching the sparks fly upward from the burning logs, and listening. + +The old sisters had gone to bed. + +Sarah's bright face, framed in her white hood, fresh and rosy from the +cold breath of the October night, appeared in the doorway. + +"Peter is in there--waiting for you," she whispered, blushing. + +John Crewys rose from the piano, and came forward and held out his +hand to Sarah, with a smile. + +Lady Mary hurried past them into the unlighted drawing-room. Her eyes, +dazzled by the sudden change, could distinguish nothing for a moment. + +But Peter was there, waiting, and perhaps Lady Mary was thankful for +the darkness, which hid her face from her son. + +"Peter!" + +"Mother!" + +She clung to her boy, and a kiss passed between them which said all +that was in their hearts that night--of appeal--of understanding--of +forgiveness--of the love of mother and son. + +And no foolish words of explanation were ever uttered to mar the +gracious memory of that sacred reconciliation. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Peter's Mother, by Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10452 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37a0bf0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10452 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10452) diff --git a/old/10452-8.txt b/old/10452-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7150f4b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10452-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter's Mother, by Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peter's Mother + +Author: Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +Release Date: December 14, 2003 [EBook #10452] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER'S MOTHER *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +PETER'S MOTHER + +NEW EDITION + +WITH INTRODUCTION + +BY + +MRS. HENRY DE LA PASTURE + +1906 + + _And I left my youth behind + For somebody else to find_. + + +TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF MY ONLY BROTHER + +LT. COLONEL WALTER FLOYD BONHAM, D.S.O. + + + + +TO MY AMERICAN READERS + +The author of "Peter's Mother" has been bidden of the publishers, who +have incurred the responsibility of presenting her to the American +public, to write a preface to this edition of her novel. She does so +with the more diffidence because it has been impressed upon her, by +more than one wiseacre, that her novels treat of a life too narrow, +an atmosphere too circumscribed, to be understood or appreciated by +American readers. + +No one can please everybody; I suppose that no one, except the old man +in Aesop's Fable, ever tried to do so. But I venture to believe that +to some Americans, a sincere and truthful portrait of a typical +Englishwoman of a certain class may prove attractive, as to us are the +studies of a "David Harum," or others whose characteristics interest +because--and not in spite of--their strangeness and unfamiliarity. We +do not recognise the type; but as those who do have acknowledged the +accuracy of the representation, we read, learn, and enjoy making +acquaintance with an individuality and surroundings foreign to our own +experience. + +There are hundreds of Englishwomen living lives as isolated, as +guarded from all practical knowledge of the outer world, as entirely +circumscribed as the life of Lady Mary Crewys; though they are not all +unhappy. On the contrary, many diffuse content and kindness all around +them, and take it for granted that their own personal wishes are of no +account. + +Indeed it would seem that some cease to be aware what their own +personal wishes are. + +With anxious eyes fixed on others--the husband, father, sons, who +dominate them,--they live to please, to serve, to nurse, and to +console; revered certainly as queens of their tiny kingdoms, but also +helpless as prisoners. + +Calm, as fixed stars, they regard (perhaps sometimes a little +wistfully) the orbits of brighter planets, and the flashing of +occasional meteors, within their ken; knowing that their own place is +unchangeable--immutable. + +That the views of such women are often narrow, their prejudices many, +their conventions tiresome, who shall deny? That their souls are +pure and tender, their hearts open to kindness as are their hands +to charity, nobody who knows the type will dispute. They lack many +advantages which their more independent sisters (no less gifted with +noble and womanly qualities) enjoy, but they possess a peculiar +gentleness, which is all their own, whether it be adored or despised. + +When one of their number happens to be cleverer, larger minded, more +restless, and impatient, it may be, by nature than her sisters, +tragedy may ensue. But not often. Habit and public opinion are +strong restrainers, stronger sometimes than even the most carefully +inculcated abstract principles. + +To turn to another phase of the story--there was a time during the +Boer War when there was literally scarcely a woman in England who was +not mourning the death of some man--be he son, brother, or husband, +lover or friend,--and that time seems still very, very recent to some +of us. + +The rights and wrongs of a war have nothing to do with the sympathy +all civilised men and women extend to the soldiers on both sides who +take part in it. + + "_Theirs not to reason why, + Theirs but to do or die_," + +and whether they "do or die," the mingled suspense, pride, and anguish +suffered by their women-kind rouses the pity of the world; but most of +all, for the secret of sympathy is understanding, the pity of those +who have suffered likewise. So that such escapades as Peter's in the +story, being not very uncommon at that dark period (and having its +foundation in fact), may have touched hearts over here, which will be +unmoved on the other side of the Atlantic. I cannot tell. I have known +very few Americans, and though I have counted those few among my +friends, they have been rarely met. + +My only knowledge of America has been gleaned from my observation of +these, and from reading. As it happens, the favourite books of my +childhood were, with few exceptions, American. + +Partly from association and partly because I count it the most truly +delightful story of its kind that ever was written, "Little Women" has +always retained its early place in my affections. "Meg," "Jo," "Beth," +and "Amy" are my oldest and dearest friends; and when I think of them, +it is hard to believe that America could be a land of strangers to me +after all. I confess to a weakness for the "Wide, Wide World" and a +secret passion for "Queechy." I loved "Mr. Rutherford's Children," and +was always interested to hear "What Katy Did," Whilst the very thought +of "Melbourne House" thrills me with recollections of the joy I +experienced therein. + +But this is all by the way; and for the egotism which is, I fear me, +displayed in this foreword, I can but plead, not only the difficulty +of writing a preface at all, when one has no personal inclination that +way, but the nervousness which must beset a writer who is directly +addressing not a tried and friendly public, but an unknown, and, it +may be, less easily pleased and more critical audience. It appears to +me that it would be a simpler thing to write another book; and I would +rather do so. I can only hope that some of the readers of "Peter's +Mother," if she is so happy as to find favour in American eyes, would +rather I did so too; in I which case I shall very joyfully try to +gratify their wishes, and my own. + +BETTY DE LA PASTURE. + + + + +PETER'S MOTHER + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Above Youlestone village, overlooking the valley and the river, +and the square-towered church, stood Barracombe House, backed by +Barracombe Woods, and owned by Sir Timothy Crewys, of Barracombe. + +From the terrace before his windows Sir Timothy could take a +bird's-eye view of his own property, up the river and down the river; +while he also had the felicity of beholding the estate of his most +important neighbour, Colonel Hewel, of Hewelscourt, mapped out before +his eyes, as plainly visible in detail as land on the opposite side of +a narrow valley must always be. + +He cast no envious glances at his neighbour's property. The Youle +was a boundary which none could dispute, and which could only be +conveniently crossed by the ferry, for the nearest bridge was seven +miles distant, at Brawnton, the old post-town. + +From Brawnton the coach still ran once a week for the benefit of the +outlying villages, and the single line of rail which threaded the +valley of the Youle in the year 1900 was still a novelty to the +inhabitants of this unfrequented part of Devon. + +Sir Timothy sometimes expressed a majestic pity for Colonel Hewel, +because the railway ran through some of his neighbour's best fields; +and also because Hewelscourt was on the wrong side of the river--faced +due north--and was almost buried in timber. But Colonel Hewel was +perfectly satisfied with his own situation, though sorry for Sir +Timothy, who lived within full view of the railway, but was obliged +to drive many miles round by Brawnton Bridge in order to reach the +station. + +The two gentlemen seldom met. They lived in different parishes, and +administered justice in different directions. Sir Timothy's dignity +did not permit him to make use of the ferry, and he rarely drove +further than Brawnton, or rode much beyond the boundaries of his own +estate. He cared only for farming, whilst Colonel Hewel was devoted to +sport. + +The Crewys family had been Squires of Barracombe, cultivating their +own lands and living upon them contentedly, for centuries before the +Hewels had ever been heard of in Devon, as all the village knew +very well; wherefore they regarded the Hewels with a mixture of +good-natured contempt and kindly tolerance. The contempt was because +Hewelscourt had been built within the memory of living man, and only +two generations of Hewels born therein; the tolerance because the +present owner, though not a wealthy man, was as liberal in his +dealings as their squire was the reverse. + + * * * * * + +In the reign of Charles I., one Peter Crewys, an adventurous younger +son of this obscure but ancient Devonshire family, had gained local +notoriety by raising a troop of enthusiastic yeomen for his Majesty's +service; subsequently his own reckless personal gallantry won wider +recognition in many an affray with the parliamentary troops; and on +the death of his royal master, Peter Crewys was forced to fly the +country. He joined King Charles II. in his exile, whilst his prudent +elder brother severed all connection with him, denounced him as a +swashbuckler, and made his own peace with the Commonwealth. + +The Restoration, however, caused Farmer Timothy to welcome his +relative home in the warmest manner, and the brothers were not only +reconciled in their old age, but the elder made haste to transfer +the ownership of Barracombe to the younger, in terror lest his own +disloyalty should be rewarded by confiscation of the family acres. + +A careless but not ungrateful monarch, rejoicing doubtless to see his +faithful soldier and servant so well provided for, bestowed on him a +baronetcy, a portrait by Vandyck of the late king, his father, and the +promise of a handsome sum of money, for the payment of which the +new baronet forebore to press his royal patron. His services thus +recognized and rewarded, old Sir Peter Crewys settled down amicably +with his brother at Barracombe. + +Presumably there had always been an excellent understanding between +them. In any case no question of divided interests ever arose. + +Sir Peter enlarged the old Elizabethan homestead to suit his new +dignity; built a picture-gallery, which he stocked handsomely with +family portraits; designed terrace gardens on the hillside after a +fashion he had learnt in Italy, and adopted his eldest nephew as his +heir. + +Old Timothy meanwhile continued to cultivate the land undisturbed, +disdaining newfangled ideas of gentility, and adhering in all ways to +the customs of his father. Presently, soldier and farmer also passed +away, and were laid to rest side by side on the banks of the Youle, in +the shadow of the square-towered church. + +Before the house rolled rich meadows, open spaces of cornland, and +low-lying orchards. The building itself stood out boldly on a shelf of +the hill; successive generations of the Crewys family had improved or +enlarged it with more attention to convenience than to architecture. +The older portion was overshadowed by an imposing south front of white +stone, shaded in summer by a prolific vine, which gave it a foreign +appearance, further enhanced by rows of green shutters. It was +screened from the north by the hill, and from the east by a dense +wood. Myrtles, hydrangeas, magnolias, and orange-trees nourished +out-of-doors upon the sheltered terraces cut in the red sandstone. + +The woods of Barracombe stretched upwards to the skyline of the ridge +behind the house, and were intersected by winding paths, bordered +by hardy fuchsias and delicate ferns. A rushing stream dropped from +height to height on its rocky course, and ended picturesquely and +usefully in a waterfall close to the village, where it turned an old +mill-wheel before disappearing into the Youle. + +If the Squire of Barracombe overlooked from his terrace garden +the inhabitants of the village and the tell-tale doorway of the +much-frequented inn on the high-road below--his tenants in the valley +and on the hillside were privileged in turn to observe the goings-in +and comings-out of their beloved landlord almost as intimately; nor +did they often tire of discussing his movements, his doings, and even +his intentions. + +His monotonous life provided small cause for gossip or speculation; +but when the opportunity arose, it was eagerly seized. + +In the failing light of a February afternoon a group of labourers +assembled before the hospitably open door of the Crewys Arms. + +"Him baint been London ways vor uppard of vivdeen year, tu my zurtain +knowledge," said the old road-mender, jerking his empty pewter upwards +in the direction of the terrace, where Sir Timothy's solid dark form +could be discerned pacing up and down before his white house. + +"Tis vur a ligacy. You may depend on't. 'Twas vur a ligacy last time," +said a brawny ploughman. + +"Volk doan't git ligacies every day," said the road-mender, +contemptuously. "I zays 'tis Master Peter. Him du be just the age when +byes du git drubblezum, gentle are zimple. I were drubblezum myself as +a bye." + +"'Twas tu fetch down this 'ere London jintle-man as comed on here wi' +him to-day, I tell 'ee. His cousin, are zuch like. Zame name, anyways, +var James Coachman zaid zo." + +"Well, I telled 'ee zo," said the road-mender. "He's brart down the +nextest heir, var tu keep a hold over Master Peter, and I doan't blame +'un." + +"James Coachman telled me vive minutes zince as zummat were up. 'Ee +zad such arders var tu-morrer morning, 'ee says, as niver 'ee had +befar," said the landlord. + +"Thart James Coachman weren't niver lit tu come here," said the +road-mender, slyly. His toothless mouth extended into the perpetual +smile which had earned him the nickname of "Happy Jack," over sixty +years since, when he had been the prettiest lad in the parish. + +"He only snicked down vor a drop o' brandy, vur he were clean rampin' +mazed wi' tuth-ache. He waited till pretty nigh dusk var the ole +ladies tu be zafe. 'Ee says they du take it by turns zo long as +daylight du last, tu spy out wi' their microscopes, are zum zuch, as +none of Sir Timothy's volk git tarking down this ways. A drop o' my +zider might git tu their 'yeds," said the landlord, sarcastically, +"though they drinks Sir Timothy's by the bucket-vull up tu +Barracombe." + +"'Tis stronger than yars du be," said Happy Jack. "There baint no +warter put tu't, Joe Gudewyn. The warter-varl be tu handy vur yure +brewin'." + +"Zum of my customers has weak 'yeds, 'tis arl the better for they," +said Goodwyn, calmly. + +"Then charge 'em accardin', Mr. Landlord, charge 'em accardin', +zays I. Warter doan't cost 'ee nart, du 'un?" said Happy Jack, +triumphantly. + +"'Ere be the doctor goin' on in's trap, while yu du be tarking zo," +said the ploughman. "Lard, he du be a vast goer, be Joe Blundell." + +"I drove zo vast as that, and vaster, when I kip a harse," said the +road-mender, jealously. "'Ee be a young man, not turned vifty. I mind +his vather and mother down tu Cullacott befar they was wed. Why doan't +he go tu the war, that's what I zay?" + +"Sir Timothy doan't hold wi' the war," said the landlord. + +"Mar shame vor 'un," said Happy Jack. "But me and Zur Timothy, us +made up our minds tu differ long ago. I'm arl vor vighting +vurriners--Turks, Rooshans, Vrinchmen; 'tis arl one tu I." + +"Why doan't 'ee volunteer thyself, Vather Jack? Thee baint turned +nointy yit, be 'ee?" said a labourer, winking heavily, to convey to +the audience that the suggestion was a humorous one. + +"Ah, zo I wude, and shute Boers wi' the best on 'un. But the +Governmint baint got the zince tu ax me," said Happy Jack, chuckling. +"The young volk baint nigh zo knowing as I du be. Old Kruger wuden't +ha' tuke in I, try as 'un wude. I be zo witty as iver I can be." + +Dr. Blundell saluted the group before the inn as he turned his horse +to climb the steep road to Barracombe. + +No breath of wind stirred, and the smoke from the cottage chimneys was +lying low in the valley, hovering over the river in the still air. + +A few primroses peeped out of sheltered corners under the hedge, and +held out a timid promise of spring. The doctor followed the red road +which wound between Sir Timothy's carefully enclosed plantations of +young larch, passed the lodge gates, which were badly in need of +repair, and entered the drive. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The justice-room was a small apartment in the older portion of +Barracombe House; the low windows were heavily latticed, and faced +west. + +Sir Timothy sat before his writing-table, which was heaped with +papers, directories, and maps; but he could no longer see to read or +write. He made a stiff pretence of rising to greet the doctor as he +entered, and then resumed his elbow-chair. + +The rapidly failing daylight showed a large elderly, rather pompous +gentleman, with a bald head, grizzled whiskers, and heavy plebeian +features. + +His face was smooth and unwrinkled, as the faces of prosperous and +self-satisfied persons sometimes are, even after sixty, which was the +age Sir Timothy had attained. + +Dr. Blundell, who sat opposite his patient, was neither prosperous nor +self-satisfied. + +His dark clean-shaven face was deeply lined; care or over-work had +furrowed his brow; and the rather unkempt locks of black hair which +fell over it were streaked with white. From the deep-set brown eyes +looked sadness and fatigue, as well as a great kindness for his +fellow-men. + +"I came the moment I received your letter," he said. "I had no idea +you were back from London already." + +"Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, pompously, "when I took the very +unusual step of leaving home the day before yesterday, I had resolved +to follow the advice you gave me. I went to fulfil an appointment I +had made with a specialist." + +"With Sir James Power?" + +"No, with a man named Herslett. You may have heard of him." + +"Heard of him!" ejaculated Blundell. "Why, he's world-famous! A new +man. Very clever, of course. If anything, a greater authority. Only I +fancied you would perhaps prefer an older, graver man." + +"No doubt I committed a breach of medical etiquette," said Sir +Timothy, in self-satisfied tones. "But I fancied you might have +written _your_ version of the case to Power. Ah, you did? Exactly. But +I was determined to have an absolutely unbiassed opinion." + +"Well," said Blundell, gently. + +"Well--I got it, that's all," said Sir Timothy. The triumph seemed to +die out of his voice. + +"Was it--unsatisfactory?" + +"Not from your point of view," said the squire, with a heavy +jocularity which did not move the doctor to mirth. "I'm bound to say +he confirmed your opinion exactly. But he took a far more serious view +of my case than you do." + +"Did he?" said Blundell, turning away his head. + +"The operation you suggested as a possible necessity must be +immediate. He spoke of it quite frankly as the only possible chance of +saving my life, which is further endangered by every hour of delay." + +"Fortunately," said Blundell, cheerfully, "you have a fine +constitution, and you have lived a healthy abstemious life. That is +all in your favour." + +"I am over sixty years of age," said Sir Timothy, coldly, "and the +ordeal before me is a very severe one, as you must be well aware. I +must take the risk of course, but the less said about the matter the +better." + +Dr. Blundell had always regarded Sir Timothy Crewys as a commonplace +contradictory gentleman, beset by prejudices which belonged properly +to an earlier generation, and of singularly narrow sympathies and +interests. He believed him to be an upright man according to his +lights, which were not perhaps very brilliant lights after all; but he +knew him to be one whom few people found it possible to like, partly +on account of his arrogance, which was excessive; and partly on +account of his want of consideration for the feelings of others, which +arose from lack of perception. + +People are disliked more often for a bad manner than for a bad heart. +The one is their private possession--the other they obtrude on their +acquaintance. + +Sir Timothy's heart was not bad, and he cared less for being liked +than for being respected. He was the offspring of a _mésalliance_; and +greatly over-estimating the importance in which his family was held, +he imagined he would be looked down upon for this mischance, unless he +kept people at a distance and in awe of him. The idea was a foolish +one, no doubt, but then Sir Timothy was not a wise man; on the +contrary, his lifelong determination to keep himself loftily apart +from his fellow-men had resulted in an almost extraordinary ignorance +of the world he lived in--a world which Sir Timothy regarded as a wild +and misty place, peopled largely and unnecessarily with savages and +foreigners, and chiefly remarkable for containing England; as England +justified its existence by holding Devonshire, and more especially +Barracombe. + +Sir Timothy had never been sent to school, and owed such education as +he possessed almost entirely to his half-sisters. These ladies +were considerably his seniors, and had in turn been brought up at +Barracombe by their grandmother; whose maxims they still quoted, and +whose ideas they had scarcely outgrown. Under the circumstances, the +narrowness of his outlook was perhaps hardly to be wondered at. + +But the dull immovability and sense of importance which characterized +him now seemed to the doctor to be almost tragically charged with the +typical matter-of-fact courage of the Englishman; who displays neither +fear nor emotion; and who would regard with horror the suspicion that +such repression might be heroic. + +"When is it to be?" said Blundell. + +"To-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" + +"And here," said Sir Timothy; "Dr. Herslett objected, but I insisted. +I won't be ill in a strange house. I shall recover far more +rapidly--if I am to recover--among my people, in my native air. London +stifles me. I dislike crowds and noise. I hate novelty. If I am to +die, I will die at home." + +"Herslett himself performs the operation, of course?" + +"Yes. He is to arrive at Brawnton to-night, and sleep there. I shall +send the carriage over for him and his assistants early to-morrow +morning. You, of course, will meet him here, and the operation is to +take place at eleven o'clock." + +In his alarm lest the doctor might be moved to express sympathy, Sir +Timothy spoke with unusual severity. + +Dr. Blundell understood, and was silent. + +"I sent for you, of course, to let you know all this," said Sir +Timothy, "but I wished, also, to introduce you to my cousin, John +Crewys, who came down with me." + +"The Q.C.?" + +"Exactly. I have made him my executor and trustee, and guardian of my +son." + +"Jointly with Lady Mary, I presume?" said the doctor, unguardedly. + +"Certainly not," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. "Lady Mary has never been +troubled with business matters. That is why I urged John to come down +with me. In case--anything--happens to-morrow, his support will be +invaluable to her. I have a high opinion of him. He has succeeded in +life through his own energy, and he is the only member of my family +who has never applied to me for assistance. I inquired the reason on +the journey down, for I know that at one time he was in very poor +circumstances; and he replied that he would rather have starved than +have asked me for sixpence. I call that a very proper spirit." + +The doctor made no comment on the anecdote. "May I ask how Lady Mary +is bearing this suspense?" he asked. + +"Lady Mary knows nothing of the matter," said the squire, rather +peevishly. + +"You have not prepared her?" + +"No; and I particularly desire she and my sisters should hear nothing +of it. If this is to be my last evening on earth, I should not wish it +to be clouded by tears and lamentations, which might make it difficult +for me to maintain my own self-command. Herslett said I was not to +be agitated. I shall bid them all good night just as usual. In +the morning I beg you will be good enough to make the necessary +explanations. Lady Mary need hear nothing of it till it is over, for +you know she never leaves her room before twelve--a habit I have often +deplored, but which is highly convenient on this occasion." + +Dr. Blundell reflected for a moment. "May I venture to remonstrate +with you, Sir Timothy?" he said. "I fear Lady Mary may be deeply +shocked and hurt at being thus excluded from your confidence in so +serious a case. Should anything go wrong," he added bluntly, "it would +be difficult to account to her even for my own reticence." + +Sir Timothy rose majestic from his chair. "You will say that _I_ +forbade you to make the communication," he said, with rather a +displeased air. + +"I beg your pardon," said Dr. Blundell, "but--" + +"I am not offended," interrupted Sir Timothy, mistaking remonstrance +for apology. He was quite honestly incapable of supposing that his +physician would presume to argue with him. + +"You do not, very naturally, understand Lady Mary's disposition as +well as I do," he said, almost graciously. "She has been sheltered +from anxiety, from trouble of every kind, since her childhood. To me, +more than a quarter of a century her senior, she seems, indeed, still +almost a child." + +Dr. Blundell coloured. "Yet she is the mother of a grown-up son," he +said. + +"Peter grown-up! Nonsense! A schoolboy." + +"Eighteen," said the doctor, shortly. "You don't wish him sent for?" + +"Most certainly not. The Christmas holidays are only just over. Rest +assured, Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, with grim emphasis, "that I +shall give Peter no excuse for leaving his work, if I can help it." + +There was a tap at the door. The squire lowered his voice and spoke +hurriedly. + +"If it is the canon, tell him, in confidence, what I have told you, +and say that I should wish him to be present to-morrow, in his +official capacity, in case of--" + +It was the canon, whose rosy good-humoured countenance appeared in the +doorway whilst Sir Timothy was yet speaking. + +"I hope I am not interrupting," he said, "but the ladies desired +me--that is, Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys desired me--to let you know +that tea was ready." + +The canon had an innocent surprised face like a baby; he was +constitutionally timid and amiable, and his dislike of argument, or of +a loud voice, almost amounted to fear. + +Sir Timothy mistook his nervousness for proper respect, and maintained +a distant but condescending graciousness towards him. + +"I hear you came back by the afternoon train, Sir Timothy. A London +outing is a rare thing for you. I hope you enjoyed yourself," said the +canon, with a meaningless laugh. + +"I transacted my business successfully, thank you," said Sir Timothy, +gravely. + +"Brought back any fresh news of the war?" + +"None at all." + +"I hear the call for more men has been responded to all over the +country. It's a fine thing, so many young fellows ready and willing to +lay down their lives for their country." + +"Very few young men, I believe," said Sir Timothy, frigidly, "can +resist any opportunity to be concerned in brawling and bloodshed, +especially when it is legalized under the name of war. My respect is +reserved for the steady workers at home." + +"And how much peace would the steady workers at home enjoy without the +brawlers abroad to defend them, I wonder!" cried the canon, flushing +all over his rosy face, and then suddenly faltering as he met the cold +surprise of the squire's grey eyes. + +"I have some letters to finish before post time," said Sir Timothy, +after an impressive short pause of displeasure. "I will join you +presently, Dr. Blundell, at the tea-table, if you will return to the +ladies with Canon Birch." + +Sir Timothy rang for lights, and his visitors closed the door of the +study behind them. Dr. Blundell's backward glance showed him the tall +and portly form silhouetted against the window; the last gleam of +daylight illuminating the iron-grey hair; the face turned towards +the hilltop, where the spires of the skeleton larches were sharply +outlined against a clear western sky. + +"What made you harp upon the war, man, knowing what his opinions +are?" the doctor asked vexedly, as he stumbled along the uneven stone +passage towards the hall. + +"I did not exactly intend to do so; but I declare, the moment I see +Sir Timothy, every subject I wish to avoid seems to fly to the tip +of my tongue," said the poor canon, apologetically; "though I had a +reason for alluding to the war to-night--a good reason, as I think you +will acknowledge presently. I want your advice, doctor." + +"Not for yourself, I hope," said the doctor, absently. + +"Come into the gun-room for one moment," said Birch. "It is very +important. Do you know I've a letter from Peter?" + +"From Peter! Why should _you_ have a letter from Peter?" said the +doctor, and his uninterested tone became alert. + +"I'm sure I don't know why not. I was always fond of Peter," said the +canon, humbly. "Will you cast your eye over it? You see, it's written +from Eton, and posted two days later in London." + +Dr. Blundell read the letter, which was written in a schoolboy hand, +and not guiltless of mistakes in spelling. + + +"_DEAR CANON BIRCH_, + +"_As my father wouldn't hear of my going out to South Africa, I've +taken the law into my own hands. I wrote to my mother's cousin, Lord +Ferries, to ask him to include me in his yeomanry corps. Of course +I let him suppose papa was willing and anxious, which perhaps was a +low-down game, but I remembered that all's fair in love and war; and +besides, I consider papa very nearly a pro-Boer. We've orders to sail +on Friday, which is sharp work; but I should be eternally disgraced +now if they stopped me. As my father never listens to reason, far less +to me, you had better explain to him that if he's any regard for the +honour of our name, he's no choice left. I expect my mother had better +not be told till I'm gone, or she will only fret over what can't be +helped. I'll write to her on board, once we're safely started. I know +you're all right about the war, so you can tell papa I was ashamed to +be playing football while fellows younger than me, and fellows who +can't shoot or ride as I can, are going off to South Africa every +day._ + +"_Yours affectionately_, + +"_PETER CREWYS_. + +"_P.S._--_Hope you won't mind this job. I did try to get papa's leave +fair and square first_." + +"I always said Peter was a fine fellow at bottom," said Canon Birch, +anxiously scanning the doctor's frowning face. + +"He's an infernal self-willed, obstinate, heartless young cub on top, +then," said Blundell. + +"He's a chip of the old block, no doubt," said the canon; "but +still"--his admiration of Peter's boldness was perceptible in his +voice--"he doesn't share his father's reprehensible opinions on the +subject of the war." + +"Sons generally begin life by differing from their fathers, and end by +imitating them," said Blundell, sharply. "Birch, we must stop him." + +"I don't see how," said the canon; and he indulged in a gentle +chuckle. "The young rascal has laid his plans too well. He sails +to-morrow. I telegraphed inquiries. Ferries' Horse are going by the +_Rosmore Castle_ to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock." + +Dr. Blundell made an involuntary movement, which the canon did not +perceive. + +"I don't relish the notion of breaking this news to Sir Timothy. But I +thought we could consult together, you and me, how to do it," said the +innocent gentleman. "There's no doubt, you know, that it must be done +at once, or he can't get to Southampton in time to see the boy off and +forgive him. I suppose even Sir Timothy will forgive him at such a +moment. God bless the lad!" + +Dr. Blundell uttered an exclamation that did not sound like a +blessing. + +"Look here, Birch," he said, "this is no time to mince matters. If +the boy can't be stopped--and under the circumstances he's got us on +toast--he can't cry off active service--_as_ the boy can't be stopped, +you must just keep this news to yourself." + +"But I must tell Sir Timothy!" + +"You must _not_ tell Sir Timothy." + +"Though all my sympathies are with the boy--for I'm a patriot first, +and a parson afterwards--God forgive me for saying so," said Birch, +in a trembling voice, "yet I can't take the responsibility of keeping +Peter's father in ignorance of his action. I see exactly what you +mean, of course. Sir Timothy will make unpleasantness, and very likely +telegraph to his commanding officer, and disgrace the poor boy before +his comrades; and shout at me, a thing I can't bear; and you kindly +think to spare me--and Peter. But I can't take the responsibility +of keeping it dark, for all that," said the canon, shaking his head +regretfully. + +"_I_ take the responsibility," said the doctor, shortly. "As Sir +Timothy's physician, I forbid you to tell him." + +"Is Sir Timothy ill?" The canon's light eyes grew rounder with alarm. + +"He is to undergo a dangerous operation to-morrow morning." + +"God bless my soul!" + +"He desires this evening--possibly his last on earth--to be a calm and +unclouded one," said the doctor. "Respect his wishes, Birch, as you +would respect the wishes of a dying man." + +"Do you mean he won't get over it?" said the canon, in a horrified +whisper. + +"You always want the _t's_ crossed and the _i's_ dotted," said +Blundell, impatiently. "Of course there is a chance--his only chance. +He's a d----d plucky old fellow. I never thought to like Sir Timothy +half so well as I do at this moment." + +"I hope I don't _dislike_ any man," faltered the canon. "But--" + +"Exactly," said the doctor, dryly. + +"But what shall I do with Peter's letter?" said the unhappy recipient. + +"Not one word to Sir Timothy. Agitation or distress of mind at such a +moment would be the worst thing in the world for him." + +"But I can't let Peter sail without a word to his people. And his +mother. Good God, Blundell! Is Lady Mary to lose husband and son in +one day?" + +"Lady Mary," said the doctor, bitterly, "is to be treated, as usual, +like a child, and told nothing of her husband's danger till it's over. +As for Peter--well, devoted mother as she is, she must be pretty well +accustomed by this time to the captious indifference of her spoilt +boy. She won't be surprised, though she may be hurt, that he should +coolly propose to set off without bidding her good-bye." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Peter?" said the canon, +struck with a brilliant idea. + +"Certainly not; she would fly to him at once, and leave Sir Timothy +alone in his extremity." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Sir Timothy?" + +"I have allowed Sir Timothy to understand that neither you nor I will +betray his secret." + +"I'm no hand at keeping a secret," said the canon, unhappily. + +"Nonsense, canon, nonsense," said Dr. Blundell, laying a friendly hand +on his shoulder. "No man in your profession, or in mine, ought to be +able to say that. Pull yourself together, hope for the best, and play +your part." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +John Crewys looked round the hall at Barracombe House with curious, +interested eyes. + +It was divided from the outer vestibule on the western side of the +building by a massive partition of dark oak, and it retained the solid +beams and panelled walls of Elizabethan days; but the oak had been +barbarously painted, grained and varnished. Only the staircase was so +heavily and richly carved, that it had defied the ingenuity of the +comb engraver. It occupied the further end of the hall, opposite +the entrance door, and was lighted dimly by a small heavily leaded, +stained-glass window. The floor was likewise black, polished with age +and the labour of generations. A deeply sunken nail-studded door led +into a low-ceiled library, containing a finely carved frieze and +cornice, and an oak mantelpiece, which John Crewys earnestly desired +to examine more closely; the shield-of-arms above it bore the figures +of 1603, but the hall itself was of an earlier date. + +Parallel to it was the suite of lofty, modern, green-shuttered +reception-rooms, which occupied the south front of the house, and +into which an opening had been cut through the massive wall next the +chimney. + +The character of the hall was, however, completely destroyed by the +decoration which had been bestowed upon it, and by the furniture and +pictures which filled it. + +John Crewys looked round with more indignation than admiration at the +home of his ancestors. + +In the great oriel window stood a round mahogany table, bearing a +bouquet of wax flowers under a glass shade. Cases of stuffed birds +ornamented every available recess; mahogany and horsehair chairs +were set stiffly round the walls at even distances. A heap of folded +moth-eaten rugs and wraps disfigured a side-table, and beneath it +stood a row of clogs and goloshes. + +Round the walls hung full-length portraits of an early Victorian date. +The artist had spent a couple of months at Barracombe fifty years +since, and had painted three generations of the Crewys family, who +were then gathered together beneath its hospitable roof. His diligence +had been more remarkable than his ability. At any other time John +Crewys would have laughed outright at this collection of works of art. + +But the air was charged with tragedy, and he could not laugh. His +seriousness commended him favourably, had he known it, to the two +old ladies, his cousins, Sir Timothy's half-sisters, who were seated +beside the great log fire, and who regarded him with approving eyes. +For their stranger cousin had that extreme gentleness and courtesy +of manner and regard, which sometimes accompanies unusual strength, +whether of character or of person. + +It was a pity, old Lady Belstone whispered to her spinster sister, +that John was not a Crewys, for he had a remarkably fine head, and had +he been but a little taller and slimmer, would have been a credit to +the family. + +Certainly John was not a Crewys. He possessed neither grey eyes, nor a +large nose, nor the height which should be attained by every man and +woman bearing that name, according to the family record. + +But though only of middle size, and rather square-shouldered, he was, +nevertheless, a distinguished-looking man, with a finely shaped head +and well-cut features. Clean shaven, as a great lawyer ought to be, +with a firm and rather satirical mouth, a broad brow, and bright +hazel eyes set well apart and twinkling with humour. No doubt John's +appearance had been a factor in his successful career. + +The sisters, themselves well advanced in the seventies, spoke of him +and thought of him as a young man; a boy who had succeeded in life in +spite of small means, and an extravagant mother, to whom he had +been obliged to sacrifice his patrimony. But though he carried his +forty-five years lightly, John Crewys had left his boyhood very far +behind him. His crisp dark hair was frosted on the temples; he stooped +a little after the fashion of the desk-worker; he wore pince-nez; his +manner, though alert, was composed and dignified. The restlessness, +the nervous energy of youth, had been replaced by the calm confidence +of middle age--of tested strength, of ripe experience. + +On his side, John Crewys felt very kindly towards the venerable +ladies, who represented to him all the womankind of his own race. + +Both sisters possessed the family characteristics which he lacked. +They were tall and surprisingly upright, considering the weight of +years which pressed upon their thin shoulders. They retained the +manners--almost the speech--of the eighteenth century, to which the +grandmother who was responsible for their upbringing had belonged; +and, with the exception of a very short experience of matrimony +in Lady Belstone's case, they had always resided exclusively at +Barracombe. + +Lady Belstone, besides her widowed dignity, had the advantage of +her sister in appearance, mainly because she permitted art, in some +degree, to repair the ravages of time. A stiff _toupet_ of white curls +crowned the withered brow, below a widow's cap; and, when she smiled, +which was not very often, a double row of pearls was not unpleasantly +displayed. Miss Crewys had never succumbed to the temptations of +worldly vanity. She scrupulously parted her scanty grey locks above +her polished forehead, and cared not how wide the parting grew. If +she wore a velvet bow upon her scalp, it was, as she truly said, for +decency, and not for ornament; and further, she allowed her wholesome, +ruddy cheeks to fall in, as her ever-lengthening teeth fell out. The +frequent explanations which ensued, regarding the seniority of the +widow, were a source of constant satisfaction to Miss Crewys, and +vexation to her sister. + +"You might be a hundred years old, Georgina," she would angrily +lament. + +"I very soon _shall_ be a hundred years old, Isabella, if I live as +long as my grandmother did," Miss Crewys would triumphantly reply. "It +is surprising to me that a woman who was never good-looking at the +best of times, should cling to her youth as you do." + +"It is more surprising to me that you should let yourself go to rack +and ruin, and never stretch out a hand to help yourself." + +"I am what God made me," said the pious Georgina, "whereas you do +everything but paint your face, Isabella; and I have little doubt but +what you will come to that by the time you are eighty." + +But though they disputed hotly on occasion the sisters generally +preserved a united front before the world, and only argued, since +argue they must, in the most polite and affectionate terms. + +The firelight shed its cheerful glow over the laden tea-table, and was +reflected in the silver urn, and the crimson and gold and blue of the +Crown Derby tea-set. But the old ladies, though casting longing eyes +in the direction of the teapot, religiously abstained from offering to +touch it. + +"No, John," said Miss Crewys, in a tone of exemplary patience; "I +have made it a rule never to take upon myself any of the duties of +hospitality in my dear brother's house, ever since he married,--odd +as it may seem, when we remember how he used once to sit at this very +table in his little bib and tucker, whilst Isabella poured out his +milk, and I cut his bread and butter." + +"We _both_ make the rule, John," said Lady Belstone, mournfully, "or, +of course, as the elder sister, _I_ should naturally pour out the tea +in our dear Lady Mary's absence." + +"Of course, of course," said John Crewys. + +"Forgive me, Isabella, but we have discussed this point before," said +Miss Crewys. "Though I cannot deny, our cousin being, as he is, a +lawyer, his opinion would carry weight. But I think he will agree with +_me_"--John smiled--"that when the elder daughter of a house marries, +she forfeits her rights of seniority in that house, and the next +sister succeeds to her place." + +"I should suppose that might be the case," John, bowing politely in +the direction of the widow. + +"I never disputed the fact, Georgina. It is, as our cousin says, +self-evident," said Lady Belstone, returning the bow. "But I have +always maintained, and always shall, that when the married sister +comes back widowed to the home of her fathers, the privileges of birth +are restored to her." + +Both sisters turned shrewd, expectant grey eyes upon their cousin. + +"It is--it is rather a nice point," said John Crewys, as gravely as he +could. + +He welcomed thankfully the timely interruption of an opening door and +the entrance of Canon Birch and the doctor. + +At the same moment, from the archway which supported the great oak +staircase, the butler entered, carrying lights. + +"Is her ladyship not yet returned from her walk, Ash?" asked Lady +Belstone, with affected surprise. + +"Her ladyship came in some time ago, my lady, and went to see Sir +Timothy. She left word she was gone upstairs to change her walking +things, and would be down directly." + +The sisters greeted the canon with effusion, and Dr. Blundell with +frigid civility. + +John Crewys shook hands with both gentlemen. + +"I am sorry I cannot offer you tea, Canon Birch, until my +sister-in-law comes down," said Miss Crewys. + +"Our dear Lady Mary is so very unpunctual," said Lady Belstone. + +"I dare say something has detained her," said the canon, +good-humouredly. + +"It often happens that my sister and myself are kept waiting a quarter +of an hour or more for our tea. We do not complain," said Lady +Belstone. + +John Crewys began to feel a little sorry for Lady Mary. + +As the sisters appeared inclined to devote themselves to their +clerical visitor rather exclusively, he drew near the recess to which +Dr. Blundell had retired, and joined him in the oriel window. + +"Have you never been here before?" asked the doctor, rather abruptly. + +"Never," said John Crewys, smiling. "I understand my cousins are not +much given to entertaining visitors. I have never, in fact, seen any +of them but once before. That was at Sir Timothy's wedding, twenty +years ago." + +"Barely nineteen," said the doctor. + +"I believe it was nineteen, since you remind me," said John, slightly +astonished. "I remember thinking Sir Timothy a lucky man." + +"I dare say _he_ looked much about the same as he does now," said the +doctor. + +"Well," John said, "perhaps a little slimmer, you know. Not much. An +iron-grey, middle-aged-looking man. No; he has changed very little." + +"He was born elderly, and he will die elderly," said the doctor, +shortly. "Neither the follies of youth nor the softening of age +will ever be known to Sir Timothy." He paused, noting the surprised +expression of John's face, and added apologetically, "I am a native of +these parts. I have known him all my life." + +"And I am--only a stranger," said John. He hesitated, and lowered his +voice. "You know why I came?" + +"Yes, I know. I am very glad you did come," said the doctor. His tone +changed. "Here is Lady Mary," he said. + +John Crewys was struck by the sudden illumination of Dr. Blundell's +plain, dark face. The deeply sunken eyes glowed, and the sadness and +weariness of their expression were dispelled. + +His eyes followed the direction of the doctor's gaze, and his own face +immediately reflected the doctor's interest. + +Lady Mary was coming down the wide staircase, in the light of a group +of wax candles held by a tall bronze angel. + +She was dressed with almost rigid simplicity, and her abundant +light-brown hair was plainly parted. She was pale and even +sad-looking, but beautiful still; with a delicate and regular profile, +soft blue eyes, and a sweet, rather tremulous mouth. + +John's heart seemed to contract within him, and then beat fast with a +sensation that was not entirely pity, because those eyes--the bluest, +he remembered, that he had ever seen--brought back to him, suddenly +and vividly, the memory of the exquisitely fresh and lovely girl who +had married her elderly guardian nineteen years since. + +He recollected that some members of the Crewys family had agreed that +Lady Mary Setoun had done well for herself, "a penniless lass wi' a +lang pedigree;" for Sir Timothy was rich. Others had laughed, and said +that Sir Timothy was determined that his heirs should be able to boast +some of the bluest blood in Scotland on their mother's side,--but that +he might have waited a little longer for his bride. + +She was so young, barely seventeen years old, and so very lovely, that +John Crewys had felt indignant with Sir Timothy, whose appearance and +manner did not attract him. He was reminded that the bride owed almost +everything she possessed in the world to her husband, but he was not +pacified. + +The glance of the gay blue eyes,--the laugh on the curved young +mouth,--the glint of gold on the sunny brown hair,--had played havoc +with John's honest heart. He had not a penny in the world at that +time, and could not have married her if he would; but from Lady Mary's +wedding he carried away in his breast an image--an ideal--which had +perhaps helped to keep him unwed during these later years of his +successful career. + +Why did she look so sad? + +John's kind heart had melted somewhat towards Sir Timothy, when the +poor gentleman had sought him in his chambers on the previous day, +and appealed to him for help in his extremity. He was sorry for his +cousin, in spite of the pompousness and arrogance with which Sir +Timothy unconsciously did his best to alienate even those whom he most +desired to attract. + +He had come to Devonshire, at great inconvenience to himself, in +response to that appeal; and in his hurry, and his sympathy for his +cousin's trouble, he had scarcely given a thought to the momentary +romance connected with his first and only meeting with Lady Mary. Yet +now, behold, after nineteen years, the look on her sweet face thrilled +his middle-aged bosom as it had thrilled his young manhood. John +smiled or thought he smiled, as he came forward to be presented once +more to Sir Timothy's wife; but he was, nevertheless, rather pleased +to find that he had not outgrown the power of being thus romantically +attracted. + +"I hope I'm not late," said the soft voice. "You see, no one expected +Sir Timothy to come home so soon, and I was out. Is that Cousin John? +We met once before, at my wedding. You have not changed a bit; I +remember you quite well," said Lady Mary. She came forward and held +out two welcoming hands to her visitor. + +John Crewys bowed over those little white hands, and became suddenly +conscious that his vague, romantic sentiment had given place to a very +real emotion--an almost passionate anxiety to shield one so fair and +gentle from the trouble which was threatening her, and of which, as he +knew, she was perfectly unconscious. + +The warmth of her impulsive welcome did not, of course, escape the +keen eyes of the sisters-in-law, which, in such matters as these, were +quite undimmed by age. + +"Why didn't somebody pour out tea?" said Lady Mary. + +"We know your rights, Mary," said Miss Crewys. "Never shall it be said +that dear Timothy's sisters ousted his wife from her proper place, +because she did not happen to be present to occupy it." + +"Besides," said Lady Belstone, "you have, no doubt, some excellent +reason, my love, for the delay." + +Lady Mary's blue eyes, glancing at John, said quite plainly and +beseechingly to his understanding, "They are old, and rather cranky, +but they don't mean to be unkind. Do forgive them;" and John smiled +reassuringly. + +"I'm afraid I haven't much excuse to offer," she said ingenuously. "I +was out late, and I tired myself; and then I heard Sir Timothy had +come back, so I went to see him. And then I made haste to change my +dress, and it took a long time--and that's all." + +The three gentlemen laughed forgivingly at this explanation, and the +two ladies exchanged shocked glances. + +"Our cousin John did his best to entertain us, and we him," said Lady +Belstone, stiffly. + +"His best--and how good that must be!" said Lady Mary, with pretty +spirit. "The great counsel whose eloquence is listened to with +breathless attention in crowded courts, and read at every +breakfast-table in England." + +"That is a very delightful picture of the life of a briefless +barrister," said John Crewys, smiling. + +"Mary," said Miss Crewys, in lowered tones of reproof, "I understood +that _divorce_ cases, unhappily, occupied the greater part of our +cousin John's attention." + +"We've heard of you, nevertheless--we've heard of you, Mr. Crewys," +said the canon, nervously interposing, "even in this out-of-the-way +corner of the west." + +"But there is one breakfast-table, at least, in England, where +divorce cases are _not_ perused, and that is my brother Timothy's +breakfast-table," said Lady Belstone, very distinctly. + +John hastened to fill up the awkward pause which ensued, by a +reference to the beauty of the hall. + +"I'm afraid we don't live up to our beautiful old house," said Lady +Mary, shaking her head. "There are some lovely things stored away +in the gallery upstairs, and some beautiful pictures hanging there, +including the Vandyck, you know, which Charles II. gave to old +Sir Peter, your cavalier ancestor. But the gallery is almost a +lumber-room, for the floor is too unsafe to walk upon. And down here, +as you see, we are terribly Philistine." + +"This hall was furnished by my grandmother for her son's marriage," +said Miss Crewys. + +"And she sent all your great-grandmother's treasures to the attics," +said Lady Mary, with rather a wilful intonation. "I always long to +bring them to light again, and to make this place livable; but my +husband does not like change." + +"Dear Timothy is faithful to the past," said Miss Crewys, +majestically. + +"I wish old Lady Crewys had been as faithful," said Lady Mary, +shrugging her shoulders. + +"Young people always like changes," said Lady Belstone, more +leniently. + +"Young people!" said Lady Mary, with a rather pathetic smile. +"John will think you are laughing at me. Am I to be young still at +five-and-thirty?" + +"To be sure," said John, "unless you are going to be so unkind as to +make a man only ten years your senior feel elderly." + +Miss Crewys interposed with a simple statement. "In my day, the age of +a lady was never referred to in polite conversation. Least of all by +herself. I never allude to mine." + +"You are unmarried, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, unexpectedly +turning upon her ally. "Unmarried ladies are always sensitive on the +subject of age. I am sure I do not care who knows that my poor admiral +was twenty years my senior. And _his_ age can be looked up in any book +of reference. It would have been useless to try and conceal it,--a man +so well known." + +"A woman is as old as she looks," said the canon, soothingly, for the +annoyance of Miss Crewys was visible. "I am bound to say that Miss +Crewys looks exactly the same as when I first knew her." + +"Of course, a spinster escapes the wear and tear of matrimony," said +Miss Crewys, glaring at her widowed relative. + +"H'm, h'm!" said Dr. Blundell. "By-the-by, have you inspected the old +picture gallery, Mr. Crewys?" + +"Not yet," said John. + +Lady Belstone shot a glance of speechless indignation at her sister. +Sympathy between them was immediately restored. Prompt action was +necessary on the part of the family, or this presumptuous physician +would be walking round the house to show John Crewys the portraits of +his own ancestors. + +"_I_ shall be delighted to show our cousin the pictures in the gallery +and in the dining-room," said Miss Crewys, "if my sister Isabella will +accompany me, and if Lady Mary has no objections." + +"You are very kind," said John. He rose and walked to a small rosewood +cabinet of curios. "I see there are some beautiful miniatures here." + +"Oh, those do not belong to the family." + +"They are Setoun things--some of the few that came to me," said Lady +Mary, rather timidly. "I am afraid they would not interest you." + +"Not interest me! But indeed I care only too much for such things," +said John. "Here is a Cosway, and, unless I very much mistake, a +Plimer,--and an Engleheart." + +Lady Mary unlocked the cabinet with pretty eagerness, and put a small +morocco case into his hands. + +"Then here is something you will like to see." + +For a moment John did not understand. He glanced quickly from the row +of tiny, pearl-framed, old-world portraits, of handsome nobles and +rose-tinted court dames, to the very indifferent modern miniature he +held. + +The portrait of a schoolboy,--an Eton boy with a long nose and small, +grey eyes, and an expression distinctly rather sulky and lowering than +open or pleasing. Not a stupid face, however, by any means. + +"It is my boy--Peter," said Lady Mary, softly. + +To her the face was something more than beautiful. She looked up at +John with a happy certainty of his interest in her son. + +"Here he is again, when he was younger. He was a pretty little fellow +then, as you see." + +"Very pretty. But not very like you," said John, scarcely knowing what +he said. + +He was strangely moved and touched by her evident confidence in +his sympathy, though his artistic tastes were outraged by the two +portraits she asked him to admire. He reflected that women were very +extraordinary creatures; ready to be pleased with anything Providence +might care to bestow upon them in the shape of a child, even +cross-looking boys with long noses and small eyes. The heir of +Barracombe resembled his aunts rather than his parents. + +"He is a thorough Crewys; not a bit like me. All the Setouns are fair, +I believe. Peter is very dark. He is such a big fellow now; taller +than I am. I sometimes wish," said Lady Mary, laying the miniature on +the table as though she could not bear to shut it away immediately, +"that one's children never grew up. They are such darlings when they +are little, and they are bound, of course, to disappoint one sometimes +as they grow older." + +John Crewys felt almost murderously inclined towards Peter. So the +young cub had presumed to disappoint his mother as he grew older! How +dared he? + +Poor Lady Mary was quite unconscious of the feelings with which he +gazed at the little case in his hand. + +"Not that my boy has ever _really_ disappointed me--yet," she said, +with her pretty apologetic laugh. "I only mean that, in the course of +human nature, it's bound to come, now and then." + +"No doubt," said John, gently. + +Then she allowed him to examine the rest of the cabinet, whilst she +talked on, always of Peter--his horsemanship and his shooting and his +prowess in every kind of sport and game. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Lady Belstone was holding a hurried consultation with her +sister. + +"How thoughtless you are, Georgina, asking our cousin into the +dining-room just when Ash must be laying the cloth for dinner. He will +be sadly put about." + +"Dear, dear, it quite slipped my memory, Isabella." + +"You have no head at all, Georgina." + +"Can I frame an excuse?" said Miss Crewys, piteously, "or will he +think it discourteous?" + +"Leave it to me, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, with the air of a +diplomat. "Mary, my love!" + +Lady Mary started. "Yes, Isabella." + +"Georgina has very properly recalled to me that candles and lamps make +a very poor light for viewing the family portraits. You know, my love, +the Vandyck is so very dark and black. She proposes, therefore, with +your permission, to act as our cousin's cicerone to-morrow morning, in +the daytime. Shall we say--at eleven o'clock, John?" + +Canon Birch started nervously, and the doctor frowned at him. + +"At eleven o'clock," said John, in steady tones; and, as he spoke, Sir +Timothy entered the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"Some tea, Timothy?" said Lady Mary. + +"If you please, my dear," said Sir Timothy, dropping his letters into +the box. + +"I am afraid the tea will be little better than poison, brother," said +Lady Belstone, in warning tones; "it has stood so long." + +"Perhaps dear Mary intends to order fresh tea, Isabella," said Miss +Crewys. + +"It hasn't stood so _very_ long," said Lady Mary, looking appealingly +at Sir Timothy; "and you know Ash is always cross if we order fresh +tea." + +"Excuse me, my love," said Miss Crewys. "I am the last to wish to +trouble poor Ash unnecessarily, but the tea waited for ten minutes +before you came down." + +"My dear Mary," said Sir Timothy, "will you never learn to be +punctual? No; I will take it as it is. Poor Ash has enough to do, as +Georgina truly says." + +Lady Mary sighed rather impatiently, and it occurred to John Crewys +that Sir Timothy spoke to his wife exactly as he might have addressed +a troublesome child. His tone was gentler than usual, but this John +did not know. + +"I should have liked to take a turn about the grounds with you," said +Sir Timothy to his cousin, "if it had been possible; but I am afraid +it is getting too dark now." + +"Surely there will be time enough to-morrow morning for that, +brother," said Lady Belstone. + +Sir Timothy had walked to the oriel window, but he turned away as he +answered her. + +"I may be otherwise occupied to-morrow." + +"But I hope the opportunity may arise before very long," said John, +cheerfully. "I should like to explore these woods." + +"You will have to come with _me_, then," said Lady Mary, smiling. +"Timothy hates walking uphill, and I should love to show our beautiful +views to a stranger." + +"I do not like you to tire yourself, my dear," said Sir Timothy. + +"A walk through Barracombe woods means simply a climb, Mary," said +Lady Belstone; "and you are not strong." + +"I am perfectly robust, Isabella. Do allow me at least the use of my +limbs," said Lady Mary, impatiently. + +"No woman, certainly no _lady_, can be called _robust_," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +The sudden clanging of a bell changed the conversation. + +"Visitors. How tiresome!" said Lady Mary. + +"My dear Mary!" said Sir Timothy. + +"But I know it can't be anybody pleasant, Timothy," said his wife, +with rather a mischievous twinkle, "for I owe calls to all the nice +people, and it's only the dull ones who come over and over again." + +"You _owe_ calls, Mary!" said Lady Belstone, in horrified tones. + +"I am afraid," said Miss Crewys, considerately lowering her voice as +the butler and footman crossed the hall to the outer vestibule, "that +dear Mary is more than a little remiss in civility to her neighbours." + +"My dear admiral never permitted me to postpone returning a call for +more than a week. Royalty, he always said, the same day; ordinary +people within a week," said Lady Belstone. + +"When royalty calls I certainly will return the visit the same day," +said Lady Mary, petulantly. "But I cannot spend my whole life driving +along the high-roads from one house to another. I hate driving, as you +know, Isabella." + +"What did Providence create carriages for but to be driven in?" said +Lady Belstone. + +"You will give John a wrong impression of our worthy neighbours, +Mary," said Sir Timothy, pompously. "Personally, I am always glad to +see them." + +"But you don't have to return their calls, Timothy," said Lady Mary. + +The canon inadvertently laughed. Sir Timothy looked annoyed. Miss +Crewys whispered to Lady Belstone, unheard save by the doctor-- + +"How very odd and flippant poor Mary is to-night--worse than usual! +What can it be?" + +"It is just the presence of a strange gentleman that is upsetting her, +poor thing," said her sister, in the same whisper. "Her head is easily +turned. We had better take no notice." + +The doctor muttered something emphatic beneath his breath. + +"Mrs. and Miss Hewel," said Ash, advancing into the hall. + +"Is it only you and Sarah, after all? What a relief! I thought it was +visitors," cried Lady Mary, coming forward to greet them very kindly +and warmly. "Did you come across in the ferry?" + +"No, indeed. You know how I dislike the ferry. I have the long drive +home still before me. But we were so close to Barracombe, at the +Gilberts' tea-party. I thought we should be certain to meet you +there," said Mrs. Hewel, in rather reproachful tones. "Sarah, of +course, wanted to go back in the ferry, but I am always doubly +frightened at night--and in one's best clothes. It was quite a large +party." + +"I'm afraid I forgot all about it," said Lady Mary, with a +conscience-stricken glance at her husband. + +"I hope you sent the carriage round to the stables?" said Sir Timothy. + +"No, no; we mustn't stop a minute. But I couldn't help just popping +in--so very long since I've seen you--and all this happening at once," +said Mrs. Hewel. She was a large, stout woman, with breathless manner +and plaintive voice. "And I wanted to show you Sarah in her first +grown-up clothes, and tell you about _her_ too," she added. + +"Bless me!" said Sir Timothy. "You don't mean to say little Sarah is +grown up." + +"Oh yes, dear Sir Timothy; she grew up the day before yesterday," said +Mrs. Hewel. + +"Sharp work," said the doctor, grimly. + +"I mean, of course, she turned up her hair, and let her dresses down. +It's full early, I know, but it's such a chance for Sarah--that's +partly what I came about. After the trouble she's been all her life to +me, and all--just going to that excellent school in Germany--here's my +aunt wanting to adopt her, or as good as adopt her--Lady Tintern, you +know." + +Everybody who knew Mrs. Hewel knew also that Lady Tintern was her +aunt; and Lady Tintern was a very great lady indeed. + +"She is to come out this very season; that is why I took her to the +Gilberts', to prepare her for the great plunge," said Mrs. Hewel, not +intending to be funny. "It will be a change for Sarah, such a hoyden +as she has always been. But my aunt won't wait once she has got a +fancy into her head; though the child is only seventeen." + +"At seventeen _I_ was still in the nursery, playing with my dolls," +said Lady Belstone. + +"Oh, Lady Belstone!" said an odd, deep, protesting voice. + +John looked with amused interest at the speaker. The unlucky Sarah had +taken a low chair beside her hostess, and was holding one of the soft +white hands in her plump gloved fingers. + +Sarah Hewel's adoration for Lady Mary dated from the days when she had +been ferried over the Youle with her nurse, to play with Peter, in his +chubby childhood. Peter had often been cross and always tyrannical, +but it was so wonderful to find a playmate who was naughtier than +herself, that Sarah had secretly admired Peter. She was the black +sheep of her own family, and in continual disgrace for lesser crimes +than he daily committed with impunity. But her admiration of Peter was +tame and pale beside her admiration of Lady Mary. A mother who never +scolded, who told no tales, who petted black sheep when they were +bruised and torn or stained entirely through their own wickedness, who +could always be depended on for kisses and bonbons and fairy-tales, +seemed more angelic than human to poor little Sarah; whose own mother +was wrapt up in her two irreproachable sons, and had small affection +to spare for an ugly, tiresome little girl. + +Sarah, however, had slowly but surely struggled out of the ugliness +of her childhood; and John Crewys, regarding her critically in the +lamplight, decided she would develop, one of these days, into a very +handsome young woman; in spite of an ungainly stoop, a wide mouth that +pouted rather too much, and a nose that inclined saucily upwards. + +Her colouring was fresh, even brilliant--the bright rose, and creamy +tint that sometimes accompanies vivid red hair--and of a vivid, +uncompromising red were the locks that crowned Miss Sarah's little +head, and shaded her blue-veined temples. + +Miss Crewys had, in consequence, long ago pronounced her to be a +positive fright; and Lady Belstone had declared that such hair would +prove an insuperable obstacle to her chances of getting a husband. + +"I know she's very young," said Mrs. Hewel, glancing apologetically +at her offspring. "But what can I do? There's no going against Lady +Tintern; and at seventeen she ought to be something more than a +tomboy, after all." + +"_You_ were married at seventeen, weren't you?" said Sarah to Lady +Mary, in her deep, almost tragic voice--a voice that commanded +attention, though it came oddly from her girlish chest. + +"Sarah!" said Mrs. Hewel. + +Lady Mary started and smiled. "Me? Yes, Sarah; I was married at +seventeen." + +"Mamma says nobody can be married properly--before they're one and +twenty. I _knew_ it was rot," said Sarah, triumphantly. + +"Miss Sarah retains the outspokenness of her recently discarded +childhood, I perceive," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. + +"Sarah!" said her mother, indignantly, "I said not unless they had +their parents' consent. I was not thinking of Lady Mary, as you know +very well." + +"_Your_ people didn't say you were too young to marry at seventeen, +did they?" said Sarah, caressing Lady Mary's hand. + +Lady Mary smiled at her, but shook her head. "You want to know too +much, Sarah." + +"Oh, I forgot," said Sarah the artless. "Sir Timothy was your +guardian, so, of course, there was nobody to stop his marrying you if +he liked. I suppose you _had_ to do what he told you." + +"Oh, Sarah, will you cease chattering?" cried her mother. + +"I hope you have good news of your sons in South Africa, Mrs. Hewel," +said the canon, briskly advancing to the rescue. + +Mrs. Hewel's voice changed. "Thank you, canon; they were all right +when we heard last. Tom is in Natal, so I feel happier about him; +but Willie, of course, is in the thick of it all--and the news +to-day--isn't reassuring." + +"But you are proud of them both," said Lady Mary, softly. "Every +mother must be proud to have sons able and willing to fight for their +country." + +"We may feel differently concerning the justice of this war," said Sir +Timothy, clearing his throat; and Lady Mary shrugged her shoulders, +whilst the canon jumped from his chair, and sat meekly down again on +catching the doctor's eye. + +"But in our sympathy with our brave soldiers we are all one, Mrs. +Hewel." + +Sarah sprang forward. "You don't mean to say you're _still_ a +pro-Boer, Sir Timothy?" she exclaimed. "Well, mamma--talking of the +justice of the war--when Tom and Willie are risking their lives"--she +broke into a sudden sob--"and now _Peter_--" + +"Peter!" said Lady Mary. + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sarah, running to her friend. "I didn't mean to +hurt _you_--talking of the war--and--and the boys--when you must be +thinking only of Peter." She wrung her hands together piteously. + +"Of Peter!" Lady Mary repeated. + +"We only heard to-day," said Mrs. Hewel, "and came in hoping for more +details. My cousin George, who is also going out with Lord Ferries, +happened to mention in his letter that Peter had joined the corps." + +"I think I can explain how the mistake arose," said Sir Timothy, +stiffly. "Peter wrote for permission to join, and I refused. My son +is fortunately too young to be of any use in a contest I regard with +horror." + +"But Cousin George was helping Peter to get his kit, because they were +to sail at such short notice," cried Sarah. + +"Sarah," said her mother, in breathless indignation, "_will_ you be +silent?" + +"What does this mean, Timothy?" said Lady Mary, trembling. + +She stood by the centre table; and the hanging lamp above shed its +light on her brown hair, and flashed in her blue eyes, and from the +diamond ring she wore. + +The doctor rose from his chair. + +"I am at a loss to understand," said Sir Timothy. + +"It means," said Sarah, half-hysterically,--"oh, can't you see what it +means? It just means that Peter is going to South Africa, whether you +like it or not." + +"There must be some mistake, of course," said Mrs. Hewel, in +distressed tones. "And yet--George's letter was so very clear." + +Dr. Blundell touched the canon's arm. + +"Shall I--must I--" whispered the canon, nervously. + +"There is no help for it," said the doctor. He was looking at Lady +Mary as he spoke. Her face was deathly; her little frail hand grasped +the table. + +"Sir Timothy," said the canon, "I--I have a communication to make to +you." + +"On this subject?" said Sir Timothy. + +"A letter from Peter." + +"Why did you not say so earlier?" said Sir Timothy, harshly. + +"I will explain, if you will kindly give me five minutes in the +study." + +"A letter from Peter," said Lady Mary, "and not--to me." + +She looked round at them all with a little vacant smile. + +John Crewys, who knew nothing of Peter's letter, had already grasped +the situation. He divined also that Lady Mary was fighting piteously +against the conviction that Sarah's news was true. + +"How could we guess you did not know?" said Mrs. Hewel, almost +weeping. + +"I am still in the dark," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +"Birch will explain at once," said the doctor, impatiently. + +"Peter writes--asking me,--I am sure I don't know why he pitched upon +me,--to--break the news to you, that he has joined Lord Ferries' +Horse; feeling it his--his duty to his country to do so," said the +unhappy canon, folding and unfolding the letter he held, with agitated +fingers. + +"I knew there would be a satisfactory explanation," said Mrs. Hewel, +tearfully. "Dear Lady Mary, having so inadvertently anticipated +Peter's letter, there is only one thing left for me to do. I must at +least leave you and Sir Timothy in peace to read it. Come, Sarah." + +"Allow me to put you into your carriage," said Sir Timothy, in a voice +of iron. + +Sarah followed them to the door, paused irresolutely, and stole back +to Lady Mary's side. + +"Say you're not angry with me, dear, beautiful Lady Mary," she +whispered passionately. "Do say you're not angry. I didn't know it +would make you so unhappy. It was partly my fault for telling Peter +in the holidays that only old men, invalids, and--and cowards--were +shirking South Africa. I thought you'd be glad, like me, that Peter +should go and fight like all the other boys." + +"Sarah," said Dr. Blundell, gently, "don't you see that Lady Mary +can't attend to you now? Come away, like a good girl." + +He took her arm, and led her out of the hall; and Sarah forgot she had +grown up the day before yesterday, and sobbed loudly as she went away. + +Lady Mary lifted the miniature from the table, and looked at it +without a word; but from the sofa, the two old sisters babbled audibly +to each other. + +"I always said, Isabella, that if poor Mary spoilt Peter so terribly, +_something_ would happen to him." + +"What sad nonsense you talk, Georgina. Nothing has happened to +him--_yet_." + +"He has defied his father, Isabella." + +"He has obeyed his country's call, Georgina. Had the admiral been +alive, he would certainly have volunteered." + +John Crewys made an involuntary step forward and placed himself +between the sofa and the table, as though to shield Lady Mary from +their observation, but he could not prevent their words from reaching +her ears. + +She whispered to him very softly. "Will you get the letter for me? I +want to see--for myself--what--what Peter says." + +"Go quietly into the library," said John, bending over her for a +moment. "I will bring it you there immediately." + +She obeyed him without a word. + +John turned to the sofa. "I beg your pardon, canon," he said +courteously, "but Lady Mary cannot bear this suspense. Allow me to +take her son's letter to her at once." + +"I--I am only waiting for Sir Timothy. It is to him I have to break +the news; though, of course, there is nothing that Lady Mary may not +know," said the canon, in a polite but flurried tone. "I really should +not like--" + +"My brother must see it first," said Miss Crewys, decidedly. + +"Exactly. I am sure Sir Timothy would not be pleased if--Bless my +soul!" + +For John, with a slight bow of apology, and his grave air of +authority, had quietly taken the letter from the canon's undecided +fingers, and walked away with it into the library. + +"How very oddly our cousin John behaves!" said Lady Belstone, +indignantly. "Almost snatching the letter from your hand." + +"Depend upon it, Mary inspired his action," said Miss Crewys, angrily. +"I saw her whispering away to him. A man she never set eyes on +before." + +"Pray are _we_ not to hear the contents?" said Lady Belstone, +quivering with indignation. + +"I suppose he thinks Lady Mary should make the communication herself +to Sir Timothy," gasped the canon. "I am sure I have no desire to +fulfil so unpleasing a task. Still, the matter _was_ entrusted to me. +However, the main substance has been told; there can be no further +secret about it. My only care was that Sir Timothy should not be +unduly agitated." + +"It is a comfort to find that _some one_ can consider the feelings of +our poor brother," said Miss Crewys. + +"Do give me your arm to the drawing-room, canon," said Lady Belstone, +rightly judging that the canon would reveal the whole contents of +Peter's letter to her more easily in private. "The shock has made me +feel quite faint. You, too, Georgina, are looking pale." + +"It is not the shock, but the draught, which is affecting me, +Isabella,--Sir Timothy thoughtlessly keeping the door open so long. I +will accompany you to the drawing-room." + +"But Sir Timothy may want me," said the canon, uneasily. + +"Bless the man! they've got the letter itself, what can they want with +_you?_" said her ladyship, vigorously propelling her supporter out of +reach of possible interruption. "Close the door behind us, Georgina, I +beg, or that odious doctor will be racing after us." + +"He takes far too much upon himself. I have no idea of permitting +country apothecaries to be so familiar," said Miss Crewys. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Lady Mary, coming from the library with the letter in her hand, met +her husband in the hall. + +"Timothy!" + +She looked at him wistfully. Her face was very pale as she gave him +the letter. Sir Timothy took out his glasses, wiped them deliberately, +and put them on. + +"Never mind reading it. I can tell you in one word," she said, +trembling with impatience. "My boy is sailing for South Africa +to-morrow morning." + +"I prefer," said Sir Timothy, "to read the letter for myself." + +"Oh, do be quick!" she said, half under her breath. + +But he read it slowly twice, and folded it. He was really +thunderstruck. Peter was accustomed to write polite platitudes to his +parent, and had presumably not intended that his letter to the canon +should be actually read by Sir Timothy, when he had asked that the +contents of it should be broken to him. + +"Selfish, disobedient, headstrong, deceitful boy!" said Sir Timothy. + +Lady Mary started. "How can you talk so!" Her gentle voice sounded +almost fierce. "At least he has proved himself a man.' And he is +right. It was a shame and a disgrace for him to stay at home, whilst +his comrades did their duty. I say it a thousand times, though I am +his mother." + +Then she broke down. "Oh, Peter, my boy, my boy, how could you leave +me without a word!" + +"Perhaps this step was taken with your connivance after all?" said Sir +Timothy, suspiciously. He could not follow her rapid changes of mood, +and had listened resentfully to her defence of her son. + +"Timothy!" said Lady Mary, trembling, "when have I ever been disloyal +to you in word or deed?" + +"Never, I hope," said Sir Timothy. His voice shook a little. "I do +not doubt you for a moment, Mary. But you spoke with such strange +vehemence, so unlike your usual propriety of manner." + +She broke into a wild laugh which pained and astonished him. + +"Did I? I must have forgotten myself for a moment." + +"You must, indeed. Pray be calm. I understand that this must be a +terrible shock to you." + +"It is not a shock," said Lady Mary, defiantly. "I glory in it. I--I +_wish_ him to go. Oh, Peter, my darling!" + +She hid her face in her hands. + +"It would be more to the purpose," said Sir Timothy, "to consider what +is to be done." + +"Could we stop him?" she cried eagerly, and then changed once more. +"No, no; I wouldn't if I could. He would never forgive me." + +"Of course, we cannot stop him," said Sir Timothy. He raised his voice +as he was wont when he was angry. Canon Birch, in the drawing-room, +heard the loud threatening tones, and was thankful for the door which +shut him from Sir Timothy's presence. "He has laid his plans for +thwarting my known wishes too well. I do not know what might be said +if we stopped him. I--I won't have my name made a laughing-stock. I am +a Crewys, and the honour of the family lies in my hands. I can't give +the world a right to suspect a Crewys of cowardice, by preventing +his departure on active service. We have fought before--in a better +cause." + +"We won't discuss the cause," said Lady Mary, gently. When Sir Timothy +began to shout, she always grew calm. "Then you will not telegraph to +my cousin Ferries?" + +"Ferries ought to have written to _me_, and not taken the word of a +mere boy, like Peter," stormed Sir Timothy. "But the fact is, I never +flattered Ferries as he expected; it is not my way to natter any one; +and consequently he took a dislike to me. He must have known what my +views are. I am sure he did it on purpose." + +"It was natural he should believe Peter, and I don't think he knows +you well enough to dislike you," said Lady Mary, simply. "He has only +seen you twice, Timothy." + +"That was evidently sufficient," said Sir Timothy, meaning to be +ironical, and unaware that he was stating a plain fact. "I shall +certainly not telegraph to tell him that my son has lied to him, well +as Peter deserves that I should do so." + +"Oh, don't, don't; you are so hard!" she said piteously. "If you'd +only listened to him when he implored you to let him go, we could have +made his last days at home all they should be. He's been hiding in +London, poor Peter; getting his outfit by stealth, ashamed, whilst +other boys are being _fêted_ and praised by their people, proud of +earning so early their right to be considered men. And--and he's +only a boy. And he said himself, all's fair in love and war. Indeed, +Timothy, it is an exceptional case." + +"Mary, your weakness is painful, and your idolatry of Peter will bring +its own punishment. The part of his deception that should pain you +most is the want of heart he has displayed," said Sir Timothy, +bitterly. + +"And doesn't it?" she said, with a pathetic smile. "But one oughtn't +to expect too much heart from a boy, ought one? It's--it's not a +healthy sign. You said once you were glad he wasn't sentimental, like +me." + +"I should have wished him to exhibit proper feeling on proper +occasions. His present triumph over my authority involves his +departure to certain danger and possible death, without even affording +us the opportunity of bidding him farewell. He is ready and willing to +leave us thus." + +Lady Mary uttered a stifled scream. "But I won't let him. How can you +think his mother will let him go like that?" + +"How can you help it?" + +She pressed her trembling hands to her forehead. "I will think. There +is a way. There are plenty of ways. I can drive to the junction--it's +not much further than Brawnton--and catch the midnight express, and +get to Southampton by daybreak. I know it can be done. Ash will look +out the trains. Why do you look at me like that? You're not going to +stop my going, are you? You're not going to _try_ and stop me, are +you? For you won't succeed. Oh yes, I know I've been an obedient wife, +Timothy. But I--I defied you once before for Peter's sake; when he was +such a little boy, and you wanted to punish him--don't you remember?" + +"Don't talk so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, almost soothingly. Her +vehemence really alarmed and distressed him. "It is not like you to +talk like this. You will be sorry--afterwards," he said; and his voice +softened. + +She responded instantly. She came closer to him, and took his big +shaking hand into her gentle clasp. + +"I should be sorry afterwards," she said, "and so would you. Even +_you_ would be sorry, Timothy, if anything happened to Peter. I'll try +and not make any more excuses for him, if you like. I know he's not +a child now. He's almost a man; and men seem to me to grow harsh and +unloving as they grow older. I try, now and then, to shut my eyes and +see him as he once was; but all the time I know that the little boy +who used to be Peter has gone away for ever and ever and ever. If he +had died when he was little he would always have been my little boy, +wouldn't he? But, thank God, he didn't die. He's going to be a great +strong man, and a brave soldier, and--and all I've ever wanted him to +be--when he's got over these wilful days of boyhood. But he mustn't go +without his father's blessing and his mother's kiss." + +"He has chosen to do so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +She clung to him caressingly. "But you're going to forgive him before +he goes, Timothy. There's no time to be angry before he goes. It may +be too late to-morrow." + +"It may be too late to-morrow," repeated Sir Timothy, heavily. + +He resented, in a dull, self-pitying fashion, the fact that his wife's +thoughts were so exclusively fixed on Peter, in her ignorance of his +own more immediate danger. + +"Don't think I'm blind to his faults," urged Lady Mary, "only I can +laugh at them better than you can, because I _know_ all the while that +at the very bottom of his heart he's only my baby Peter after all. +He's not--God bless him--he's _not_ the dreary, cold-blooded, priggish +boy he sometimes pretends to be. Don't remember him like that now, +Timothy. Think of that morning in June--that glorious, sunny morning +in June, when you knelt by the open window in my room and thanked God +because you had a son. Think of that other summer day when we couldn't +bear even to look at the roses because little Peter was so ill, and we +were afraid he was going back to heaven." + +Her soft, rapid words touched Sir Timothy to a vague feeling of pity +for her, and for Peter, and for himself. But the voice of the charmer, +charm she never so wisely, had no power, after all, to dispel the dark +cloud that was hanging over him. + +The sorrow gave way to a keener anxiety. The calmness of mind which +the great surgeon had prescribed--the placid courage, largely aided by +dulness of imagination, which had enabled poor Sir Timothy to keep +in the very background of his thoughts all apprehensions for the +morrow--where were they? + +He repressed with an effort the emotion which threatened to master +him, and forced himself to be calm. When he spoke again his voice +sounded not much less measured and pompous than usual. + +"My dear, you are agitating yourself and me. Let us confine ourselves +to the subject in hand." + +Lady Mary dropped the unresponsive hand she held so warmly pressed +between her own, and stepped back. + +"Ah, forgive me!" she said in clear tones. "It's so difficult to--" + +"To--?" + +"To be exactly what you wish. To be always on guard. My feelings broke +bounds for once." + +"Calm yourself," said Sir Timothy. "And besides, so far as I am +concerned, your pleading for Peter is unnecessary." + +"You have forgiven him?" she cried joyfully, yet almost incredulously. + +He paused, and then said with solemnity: "I have forgiven him, Mary. +It is not the moment for me to cherish resentment, least of all +against my only son." + +"Ah, thank God! Then you will come to Southampton?" + +"That is impossible. But I will telegraph my forgiveness and the +blessing which he has not sought that he may receive it before the +ship sails." + +"I am grateful to you for doing even so much as that, Timothy, and for +not being angry. Then I must go alone?" + +"No, no." + +"Understand me," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "for I am in earnest. +I have never deceived you. I will not defy you in secret, like Peter; +but I _will_ go and bid my only son God-speed, though the whole world +conspired to prevent me. _I will go!_" + +There was a pause. + +"You speak," said Sir Timothy, resentfully, "as though I had +habitually thwarted your wishes." + +"Oh, no," said his wife, softly, "you never even found out what they +were." + +He did not notice the words; it is doubtful whether he heard them. + +"It has been my best endeavour to promote your happiness throughout +our married life, Mary, so far as I considered it compatible with your +highest welfare. I do not pretend I can enter into the high-flown +and romantic feelings engendered by your reprehensible habit of +novel-reading." + +"You've scolded me so often for that," said Lady Mary, half mockingly, +half sadly. "Can't we--keep to the subject in hand, as you said just +now?" + +"I have a reason, a strong reason," said Sir Timothy, "for wishing you +to remain at home to-morrow. I had hoped, by concealing it from you, +to spare you some of the painful suspense and anxiety which I am +myself experiencing." + +Lady Mary laughed. + +"How like a man to suppose a woman is spared anything by being kept in +the dark! I knew something was wrong. Dr. Blundell and Canon Birch are +in your confidence, I presume? They kept exchanging glances like two +mysterious owls. Your sisters are not, or they would be sighing and +shaking their heads. And John--John Crewys? Oh, he is a lawyer. When +does a visitor ever come here except on business? He has something to +do with it. Ah, to advise you for nothing over your purchase of the +Crown lands! You have got into some difficulty over that, or something +of the kind? You brought him down here for some special purpose, I am +sure; but I did not know him well enough, and I knew you too well, to +ask why." + +"Mary, what has come to you? I never knew you quite like this before. +I dislike this extraordinary flippancy of tone very much." + +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Mary; make allowance for me this once. +I learnt ten minutes ago that my boy was going to the war. I must +either laugh or--or cry, and you wouldn't like me to do that; but it's +a way women have when their hearts are half broken." + +"I don't understand you," he said helplessly. + +Lady Mary looked at him as though she had awakened, frightened, to the +consciousness of her own temerity. + +"I don't quite understand myself, I think," she said, in a subdued +voice. "I won't torment you any more, Timothy; I will be as calm and +collected--as you wish. Only let me go." + +"Will you not listen to my reason for wishing you to remain at home?" +he said sternly. "It is an important one." + +"I had forgotten," she said indifferently. "How can there be any +business in the world half so important to _me_ as seeing my boy once +more before he sails?" + +The colour of Sir Timothy's ruddy face deepened almost to purple, his +grey eyes glowered sullen resentment at his wife. + +"Since you desire to have your way in opposition to my wishes, _go!_" +he thundered. "I will not hinder you further." + +But his sonorous wrath was too familiar to be impressive. + +Lady Mary's expression scarcely changed when Sir Timothy raised his +voice. She turned, however, at the foot of the staircase, and spoke to +him again. + +"Let me just go and give the order for my things to be packed, +Timothy, and tell Ash to go and find out about the trains, and I will +return and listen to whatever you wish--I will, indeed. I could not +pay proper attention to anything until I knew that was being done." + +Sir Timothy did not trust himself to speak. He bowed his head, and the +slender figure passed swiftly up the stairs. + +Sir Timothy walked twice deliberately up and down the empty hall, and +felt his pulse. The slow, steady throb reassured him. He opened the +door of the study. + +"John," said Sir Timothy, "would you kindly come out here and speak to +me for a moment? Dr. Blundell, would you have the goodness to await me +a little longer? You will find the London papers there." + +"I have them," said Dr. Blundell, from the armchair by the study fire. + +John Crewys closed the door behind him, and looked rather anxiously at +his cousin. It struck him that Sir Timothy had lost some of his ruddy +colour, and that his face looked drawn and old. + +But the squire placed himself with his back to the log fire, and made +an effort to speak in his voice of everyday. His slightly pompous, +patronizing manner returned upon him. + +"You are doubtless accustomed, John, in the course of your +professional work," he said, "to advise in difficult matters. You +come among us a stranger--and unprejudiced. Will you--er--give me the +benefit of your opinion?" + +"To the best of my ability," said John. He paused, and added gently, +"I am sorry for this fresh trouble that has come upon you." + +"That is the subject on which I mean to consult you. Do you consider +that--that her husband or her child should stand first in a woman's +eyes?" + +"Her husband, undoubtedly," said John, readily, "but--" + +"But what?" said Sir Timothy, impatiently. A gleam of satisfaction had +broken over his heavy face at his cousin's reply. + +"I speak from a man's point of view," said John. "Woman--and possibly +Nature--may speak differently." + +"Your judgment, however, coincides with mine, which is all that +matters," said Sir Timothy. He did not perceive the twinkle in John's +eyes at this reply. "In my opinion there are only two ways of looking +at every question--the right way and the wrong way." + +"My profession teaches me," said John, "that there are as many +different points of view as there are parties to a case." + +"Then--from _my_ point of view," said Sir Timothy, with an air of +waving all other points of view away as irrelevant, "since my wife, +very naturally, desires to see her son again before he sails, am I +justified in allowing her to set off in ignorance of the ordeal that +awaits me?" + +"Good heavens, no!" cried John. "Should the operation prove +unsuccessful, you would be entailing upon her a lifelong remorse." + +"I did not look upon it in that light," said Sir Timothy, rather +stiffly. "The propriety or the impropriety of her going remains in +any, case the same, whether the operation succeeds or fails. I feared +that it would be the wrong thing to allow her to go at all; that it +might cause comment were she absent from my side at such a critical +juncture." + +"I see," said John. His mobile, expressive face and bright hazel eyes +seemed to light up for one instant with scorn and wonder; then he +recollected himself. "It is natural you should wish for her sustaining +presence, no doubt," he said. + +"I trust you do not suppose that I should be selfishly considering my +own personal feelings at such a time," said Sir Timothy, in a lofty +tone of reproof. "I am only desirous of doing what is right in the +matter. I am asking your advice because I feel that my self-command +has been shaken considerably by this unexpected blow. I am less sure +of my judgment than usual in consequence. However, if you think my +wife ought to be told"--John nodded very decidedly--"let her be told. +I am bound to say Dr. Blundell thought so too, though his opinion is +neither here nor there in such a matter, but so long as you understand +that my only desire is that both she and I should do what is most +correct and proper." He came closer to John. "It is of vital +importance for me to preserve my composure," said Sir Timothy. "I am +not fitted for--for any kind of scene just now. Will you undertake for +me the task of explaining to--to my dear wife the situation in which I +am placed?" + +"I will do my best," said John. He was touched by the note of piteous +anxiety which had crept into the squire's harsh voice. + +"Thank you," said Sir Timothy. "Will you await her here? She is +returning immediately. Break it to her as gently as you can. I shall +rest and compose myself by a talk with Dr. Blundell." + +He went slowly to the study, leaving John Crewys alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Is that you, Cousin John?" said Lady Mary. "Is Sir Timothy gone? I +have not been away more than a few minutes, have I?" + +She spoke quite brightly. Her cheeks were flushed, and her blue eyes +were sparkling with excitement. + +John looked at her, and found himself wishing that her soft, brown +hair were not strained so tightly from her forehead, nor brushed so +closely to her head; the fashion would have been trying to a younger +face, and fatal to features less regularly delicate and correct. He +also wished she were not dressed like a Quaker's wife. The stiff, grey +poplin fitted like a glove the pretty curves of Lady Mary's slender +figure, but it lacked distinction, and appropriateness, to John's +fastidious eye. Then he reproached himself vehemently for allowing his +thoughts to dwell on such trifles at such a moment. + +"Will you forgive me for going away the very day you come?" said Lady +Mary. + +How quickly, how surprisingly, she recovered her spirits! She had +looked so weary and sad as she came down the stairs an hour ago. Now +she was almost gay. A feverish and unnatural gaiety, no doubt; but +those flushed cheeks, and glittering blue eyes--how they restored the +youthful loveliness of the face he had once thought the most beautiful +he ever saw! + +"I am going to see the last of my boy. You'll understand, won't you? +You were an only son too. And your mother would have gone to the ends +of the earth to look upon your face once more, wouldn't she? Mothers +are made like that." + +"Some mothers," said John; and he turned away his head. + +"Not yours? I'm sorry," said Lady Mary, simply. + +"Oh, well--you know, she was a good deal--in the world," he said, +repenting himself. + +"I use to wish so much to live in the world too," said Lady +Mary, dreamily; "but ever since I was fifteen I've lived in this +out-of-the-way place." + +"Don't be too sorry for that," said John; "you don't know what a +revelation this out-of-the-way place may be to a tired worker like me, +who lives always amid the unlovely sights and sounds of a city." + +"Ah! but that's just it," she said quickly. "You see I'm not +tired--yet; and I've done no work." + +"That is why it's such a rest to look at you," said John, smiling. +"Flowers have their place in creation as vegetables have theirs. But +we only ask the flowers to bloom peacefully in sheltered gardens; +we don't insist on popping them into the soup with the onions and +carrots." + +Lady Mary laughed as though she had not a care in the world. + +"It is quite refreshing to find that a big-wig like you can talk just +as much nonsense as a little-wig like me," she said; "but you don't +know, for all that, what the silence and monotony of life here _can_ +be. The very voice of a stranger falls like music on one's ears. I was +so glad to see you, and you were so kind and sympathetic about--my +boy. And then, all in a moment, my joy was turned into mourning, +wasn't it? And Peter is going to the war, and it's all like a dreadful +dream; except that I know I shall wake up every morning only to +realize more strongly that it's true." + +John remembered that he was dallying with his mission, instead of +fulfilling it. + +"Sir Timothy cannot go to see his son off? That must be a grief to +him," he said. + +"No; he isn't coming. He has business, I believe," said Lady Mary, a +little coldly. "There has been a dispute over some Crown lands, which +march with ours. Officials are often very dilatory and difficult to +deal with. Probably, however, you know more about it than I do. I am +going alone. I have just been giving the necessary orders. I shall +take a servant with me, as well as my maid, for I am such an +inexperienced traveller--though it seems absurd, at my age--that I am +quite frightened of getting into the wrong trains. I dread a journey +by myself. Even such a little journey as that. But, of course, nothing +would keep me at home." + +"Only one thing," said John, in a low voice, "if I have judged your +character rightly in so short a time." + +"What is that?" + +"Duty." + +She looked at him with sweet, puzzled eyes, like a child. + +"Are you pleading Sir Timothy's cause, Cousin John?" she said, with a +little touch of offence in her tone that was only charming. + +"I am pleading Sir Timothy's cause," said John, seriously. + +"Love is stronger than duty, isn't it?" said Lady Mary. + +"I hope not," said John, very simply. + +"You mean my husband doesn't wish me to go?" + +"Don't think me too presuming," he said pleadingly. + +"I couldn't," said Lady Mary, naively. "You are older than I am, you +know," she laughed, "and a Q.C. And you know you would be my trustee +and my boy's guardian if anything ever happened to Sir Timothy. He +told me so long ago. And he reminded me of it to-day most solemnly. I +suppose he was afraid I shouldn't treat you with proper respect." + +"He has honoured me very highly," said John. "In that case, it would +be almost my--my duty to advise you in any difficulty that might +arise, wouldn't it?" + +"That means you want to advise me now?" + +"Frankly, it does." + +"And are _you_ going to tell me that I ought to stay at home, and let +my only boy leave England without bidding him God-speed?" said Lady +Mary incredulously. "If so, I warn you that you will never convince me +of that, argue as you may." + +"No one is ever convinced by argument," said John. "But stern facts +sometimes command even a woman's attention." + +"When backed by such powers of persuasion as yours, perhaps." + +She faced him with sparkling eyes. Lady Mary was timid and gentle by +nature, but Peter's mother knew no fear. Yet she realized that if +John Crewys were moved to put forth his full powers, he might be a +difficult man to oppose. She met his glance, and observed that he +perfectly understood the spirit which animated her, and that it was +not opposition that shone from his bright hazel eyes, as he regarded +her steadily through his pince-nez. + +"I am going to deal with a hard fact, which your husband is afraid to +tell you," said John, "because, in his tenderness for your womanly +weakness, he underrates, as I venture to think, your womanly courage. +Sir Timothy wants you to be with him here to-morrow because he has +to--to fight an unequal battle--" + +"With the Crown?" + +"With Death." + +"What do you mean?" said Lady Mary. + +"He has been silently combating a mortal disease for many months +past," said John, "and to-morrow morning the issue is to be decided. +Every day, every hour of delay, increases the danger. The great +surgeon, Dr. Herslett, will be here at eleven o'clock, and on the +success of the operation he will perform, hangs the thread of your +husband's life." + +Lady Mary put up a little trembling hand entreatingly, and John's +great heart throbbed with pity. He had chosen his words deliberately +to startle her from her absorption in her son; but she looked so +fragile, so white, so imploring, that his courage almost failed him. +He came to her side, and took the little hand reassuringly in his +strong, warm clasp. + +"Be brave, my dear," he said, with faltering voice, "and put aside, +if you can, the thought of your bitter, terrible disappointment. Only +_you_ can cheer, and inspire, and aid your husband to maintain the +calmness of spirit which is of such vital importance to his chance of +recovery. You can't leave him against his wish at such a moment; +not if you are the--the angel I believe you to be," said John, with +emotion. + +There was a pause, and though he looked away from her, he knew that +she was crying. + +John released the little hand gently, and walked to the fireplace to +give her time to recover herself. Perhaps his eye-glasses were dimmed; +he polished them very carefully. + +Lady Mary dashed away her tears, and spoke in a hard voice he scarcely +recognized as hers. + +"I might be all--you think me, John," she said, "if--" + +"Ah! don't let there be an _if_," said John. + +"But--" + +"Or a _but_." + +"It is that you don't understand the situation," she said; "you +talk as though Sir Timothy and I were an ordinary husband and wife, +entirely dependent on one another's love and sympathy. Don't you know +_he_ stands alone--above all the human follies and weaknesses of a +mere woman? Can't you guess," said Lady Mary, passionately, "that it's +my boy, my poor faulty, undutiful boy--oh, that I should call him +so!--who needs me? that it's his voice that would be calling in my +heart whilst I awaited Sir Timothy's pleasure to-morrow?" + +"His _pleasure_?" said John, sternly. + +"I am shocking you, and I didn't want to shock you," she cried, almost +wildly. "But you don't suppose he needs _me_--me myself? He only wants +to be sure I'm doing the right thing. He wants to give people no +chance of saying that Lady Mary Crewys rushed off to see her spoilt +boy whilst her husband hovered between life and death. A lay figure +would do just as well; if it would only sit in an armchair and hold +its handkerchief to its eyes; and if the neighbours, and his sisters, +and the servants could be persuaded to think it was I." + +"Hush, hush!" said John. + +"Do let me speak out; pray let me speak out," she said, breathless and +imploring, "and you can think what you like of me afterwards, when I +am gone, if only you won't scold now. I am so sick of being scolded," +said Lady Mary. "Am I to be a child for ever--I, that am so old, and +have lost my boy?" + +He thought there was something in her of the child that never grows +up; the guilelessness, the charm, the ready tears and smiles, the +quick changes of mood. + +He rolled an elbow-chair forward, and put her into it tenderly. + +"Say what you will," said John. + +"This is comfortable," she said, leaning her head wearily on her hand; +"to talk to a--a friend who understands, and who will not scold. +But you can't understand unless I tell you everything; and Timothy +himself, after all, would be the first to explain to you that it isn't +my tears nor my kisses, nor my consolation he wants. You didn't think +so _really_, did you?" + +John hesitated, remembering Sir Timothy's words, but she did not wait +for an answer. + +"Yes," she said calmly, "he wishes me to be in my proper place. It +would be a scandal if I did such a remarkable thing as to leave +home on any pretext at such a moment. Only by being extraordinarily +respectable and dignified can we live down the memory of his father's +unconventional behaviour. I must remember my position. I must smell +my salts, and put my feet up on the sofa, and be moderately overcome +during the crisis, and moderately thankful to the Almighty when it's +over, so that every one may hear how admirably dear Lady Mary behaved. +And when I am reading the _Times_ to him during his convalescence," +she cried, wringing her hands, "Peter--Peter will be thousands of +miles away, marching over the veldt to his death." + +"You make very sure of Peter's death," said John, quietly. + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary, listlessly. "He's an only son. It's always +the only sons who die. I've remarked that." + +"You make very sure of Sir Timothy's recovery." + +"Oh yes," Lady Mary said again. "He's a very strong man." + +Something ominous in John's face and voice attracted her attention. + +"Why do you look like that?" + +"Because," said John, slowly--"you understand I'm treating you as a +woman of courage--Dr. Blundell told me just now that--the odds are +against him." + +She uttered a little cry. + +The doctor's voice at the end of the hall made them both start. + +"Lady Mary," he said, "you will forgive my interruption. Sir Timothy +desired me to join you. He feared this double blow might prove too +much for your strength." + +"I am quite strong," said Lady Mary. + +"He wished me to deliver a message," said the doctor. + +"Yes." + +"On reflection, Sir Timothy believes that he may be partly influenced +by a selfish desire for the consolation of your presence in wishing +you to remain with him to-morrow. He was struck, I believe, with +something Mr. Crewys said--on this point." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary. + +"Hush!" said John, shaking his head. + +Dr. Blundell's voice sounded, John thought, as though he were putting +force upon himself to speak calmly and steadily. His eyes were bent on +the floor, and he never once looked at Lady Mary. + +"Sir Timothy desires, consequently," he said, "that you will consider +yourself free to follow your own wishes in the matter; being guided, +as far as possible, by the advice of Mr. Crewys. He is afraid of +further agitation, and therefore asks you to convey to him, as quickly +as possible, your final decision. As his physician, may I beg you not +to keep him waiting?" + +He left them, and returned to the study. + +Though it was only a short silence that followed his departure, John +had time to learn by heart the aspect of the half-lighted, shadowy +hall. + +There are some pauses which are illustrated to the day of a man's +death, by a vivid impression on his memory of the surroundings. + +The heavy, painted beams crossing and re-crossing the lofty roof; the +black staircase lighted with wax candles, that made a brilliancy which +threw into deeper relief the darkness of every recess and corner; the +full-length, Early Victorian portraits of men and women of his own +race--inartistic daubs, that were yet horribly lifelike in the +semi-illumination; the uncurtained mullioned windows,--all formed a +background for the central figure in his thoughts; the slender womanly +form in the armchair; the little brown head supported on the white +hand; the delicate face, robbed of its youthful freshness, and yet so +lovely still. + +"John," said Lady Mary, in a voice from which all passion and strength +had died away, "tell me what I ought to do." + +"Remain with your husband." + +"And let my boy go?" said Lady Mary, weeping. "I had thought, when +he was leaving me, perhaps for ever, that--that his heart would be +touched--that I should get a glimpse once more of the Peter he used to +be. Oh, can't you understand? He--he's a little--hard and cold to me +sometimes--God forgive me for saying so!--but you--you've been a young +man too." + +"Yes," John said, rather sadly, "I've been young too." + +"It's only his age, you know," she said. "He couldn't always be as +gentle and loving as when he was a child. A young man would think that +so babyish. He wants, as he says, to be independent, and not tied to a +woman's apron-string. But in his heart of hearts he loves me best in +the whole world, and he wouldn't have been ashamed to let me see it +at such a moment. And I should have had a precious memory of him for +ever. You shake your head. Don't you understand me? I thought you +seemed to understand," she said wistfully. + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "and life is just opening for him. It is +a hard saying to _you_, but his thoughts are full of the world he +is entering. There is no room in them just now for the home he is +leaving. That is human nature. If he be sick or sorry later on--as I +know your loving fancy pictures him--his heart would turn even then, +not to the mother he saw waving and weeping on the quay, amid all the +confusion of departure, but to the mother of his childhood, of his +happy days of long ago. It may be "--John hesitated, and spoke very +tenderly--"it may be that his heart will be all the softer then, +because he was denied the parting interview he never sought. The young +are strangely wayward and impatient. They regret what might have been. +They do not, like the old, dwell fondly upon what the gods actually +granted them. It is _you_ who will suffer from this sacrifice, not +Peter; that will be some consolation to you, I suppose, even if it be +also a disappointment." + +"Ah, how you understand!" said Peter's mother, sadly. + +"Perhaps because, as you said just now, I have been a young man too," +he said, forcing a smile. "Oh, forgive me, but let me save you; for I +believe that if you deserted your husband to-day, you would sorrow for +it to the end of your life." + +"And Peter--" she murmured. + +He came to her side, and straightened himself, and spoke hopefully. + +"Give me your last words and your last gifts--and a letter--for Peter, +and send me in your stead to-night. I will deliver them faithfully. I +will tell him--for he should be told--of the sore straits in which you +find yourself. Set him this noble example of duty, and believe me, it +will touch his heart more nearly than even that sacred parting which +you desire." + +Lady Mary held out her hand to him. + +"Tell Sir Timothy that I will stay," she whispered. + +John bent down and kissed the little hand in silence, and with +profound respect. + +Then he went to the study without looking back. + +When he was gone, Lady Mary laid her face upon the badly painted +miniature of Peter, and cried as one who had lost all hope in life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Her didn't make much account on him while him were alive; but now 'ce +be dead, 'tis butivul tu zee how her du take on," said Happy Jack. + +There was a soft mist of heat; the long-delayed spring coming +suddenly, after storms of cold rain and gales of wind had swept the +Youle valley. Two days' powerful sunshine had excited the buds to +breaking, and drawn up the tender blades of young grass from the +soaked earth. + +The flowering laurels hung over the shady banks, whereon large +families of primroses spent their brief and lovely existence +undisturbed. The hawthorn put forth delicate green leaves, and the +white buds of the cherry-trees in the orchard were swelling on their +leafless boughs. + +In such summer warmth, and with the concert of building birds above +and around, it was strange to see the dead and wintry aspect of the +forest trees; still bare and brown, though thickening with the red +promise of foliage against the April sky. + +John Crewys, climbing the lane next the waterfall, had been hailed by +the roadside by the toothless, smiling old rustic. + +"I be downright glad to zee 'ee come back, zur; ay, that 'a be. What +vur du 'ee go gadding London ways, zays I, when there be zuch a turble +lot to zee arter? and the ladyship oop Barracombe ways, her bain't vit +var tu du 't, as arl on us du know. Tis butivul tu zee how her takes +on," he repeated admiringly. + +John glanced uneasily at his companion, who stood with downcast eyes. + +"Lard, I doan't take no account on Miss Zairy," said the road-mender, +leaning on his hoe and looking sharply from the youthful lady to the +middle-aged gentleman. "I've knowed her zince her wur a little maid. I +used tu give her lolly-pops. Yu speak up, Miss Zairy, and tell 'un if +I didn't." + +"To be sure you did, Father Jack," said Sarah, promptly. + +"Ah, zo 'a did," said the old man, chuckling. "Zo 'a did, and her +ladyship avore yu. I mind _her_ when her was a little maid, and pretty +ways her had wi' her, zame as now. None zo ramshacklin' as yu du be, +Miss Zairy." + +"There's nobody about that he doesn't remember as a child," said +Sarah, apologetically. "He's so old, you see. He doesn't remember how +old he is, and nobody can tell him. But he knows he was born in the +reign of George the Third, because his mother told him so; and he +remembers his father coming in with news of the Battle of Waterloo, So +I think he must be about ninety." + +"Lard, mar like a hunderd year old, I be," said Happy Jack, offended. +"And luke how I du wark yit. Yif I'd 'a give up my wark, I shude 'a +bin in the churchyard along o' the idlers, that 'a shude." He chuckled +and winked. "I du be a turble vunny man," quavered the thin falsetto +voice. "They be niver a dune a laughin' along o' my jokes. An' I du +remember Zur Timothy's vather zo well as Zur Timothy hisself, though +'ee bin dead nigh sixty year. Lard, 'ee was a bad 'un, was y' ould +squire. An old devil. That's what 'ee was." + +"He only means Sir Timothy's father had a bad temper," explained +Sarah. "It's quite true." + +"Ah, was it timper?" said Jack, sarcastically. "I cude tell 'ee zum +tales on 'un. There were a right o' way, zur, acrust the mead thereby, +as the volk did claim. And 'a zays, 'A'll putt a stop tu 'un,' 'a +zays. And him zat on a style, long zide the tharn bush, and 'a took +'ee's gun, and 'a zays, 'A'll shute vust man are maid as cumes acrust +thiccy vield,' 'a zays. And us knowed 'un wude du 't tu. And 'un +barred the gate, and there t'was." + +He laughed till the tears ran down his face, brown as gingerbread, and +wrinkled as a monkey's. + +"Mr. Crewys is in a hurry, Jack," said Sarah. "He's only just arrived +from London, and he's walked all the way from Brawnton." + +"'Tain't but a stip vur a vine vellar like 'ee, and wi' a vine maiden +like yu du be grown, var tu kip 'ee company," said Happy Jack. "But +'ee'll be in a yurry tu git tu Barracombe, and refresh hisself, in arl +this turble yeat. When the zun du search, the rain du voller." + +"I dare say you want a glass of beer yourself," said John, producing a +coin from his pocket. + +"No, zur, I doan't," said the road-mender, unexpectedly. "Beer doan't +agree wi' my inzide, an' it gits into my yead, and makes me proper +jolly, zo the young volk make game on me. But I cude du wi' a drop +o' zider zur; and drink your health and the young lady's, zur, zo 'a +cude." + +He winked and nodded as he pocketed the coin; and John, half laughing +and half vexed, pursued his road with Sarah. + +"It seems to me that the old gentleman has become a trifle free and +easy with advancing years," he observed. + +"He thinks he has a right to be interested in the family," said Sarah, +"because of the connection, you see." + +"The connection?" + +"Didn't you know?" she asked, with wide-open eyes. "Though you were +Sir Timothy's own cousin." + +"A very distant cousin," said John. + +"But every one in the valley knows," said Sarah, "that Sir Timothy's +father married his own cook, who was Happy Jack's first cousin. When I +was a little girl, and wanted to tease Peter," she added ingenuously, +"I always used to allude to it. It is the skeleton in their cupboard. +We haven't got a skeleton in our family," she added regretfully; +"least of all the skeleton of a cook." + +John remembered vaguely that there was a story about the second +marriage of Sir Timothy the elder. + +"So she was a cook!" he said. "Well, what harm?" and he laughed in +spite of himself. "I wonder why there is something so essentially +unromantic in the profession of a cook?" + +"Her family went to Australia, and they are quite rich people now: +no more cooks than you and me," said Sarah, gravely. "But Happy Jack +won't leave Youlestone, though he says they tempted him with untold +gold. And he wouldn't touch his hat to Sir Timothy, because he was his +cousin. That was another skeleton." + +"But a very small one," said John, laughing. + +"It might seem small to _us_, but I'm sure it was one reason why Sir +Timothy never went outside his own gates if he could help it," said +Sarah, shrewdly. "Luckily the cook died when he was born." + +"Why luckily, poor thing?" said John, indignantly. + +"She wouldn't have had much of a time, would she, do you think, with +Sir Timothy's sisters?" asked Sarah, with simplicity. "They were in +the schoolroom when their papa married her, or I am sure they would +never have allowed it. Their own mother was a most select person; and +little thought when she gave the orders for dinner, and all that, who +the old gentleman's _next_ wife would be," said Sarah, giggling. "They +always talk of her as the _Honourable Rachel_, since _Lady Crewys_, +you know, might just as well mean the cook. I suppose the old squire +got tired of her being so select, and thought he would like a change. +He was a character, you know. I often think Peter will be a character +when he grows old. He is so disagreeable at times." + +"I thought you were so fond of Peter?" said John, looking amusedly +down on the little chatterbox beside him. + +"Not exactly fond of him. It's just that I'm _used_ to him," said +Sarah, colouring all over her clear, fresh face, even to the little +tendrils of red hair on her white neck. + +She wore a blue cotton frock, and a brown mushroom hat, with a wreath +of wild roses which had somewhat too obviously been sewn on in a hurry +and crookedly; and she looked far more like a village schoolgirl than +a young lady who was shortly to make her _début_ in London society. +But he was struck with the extraordinary brilliancy of her complexion, +transparent and pure as it was, in the searching sunlight. + +"If she were not so round-shouldered--if the features were better--her +expression softer," said John to himself--"if divine colouring were +all--she would be beautiful." + +But her wide, smiling mouth, short-tipped nose, and cleft chin, +conveyed rather the impression of childish audacity than of feminine +charm. The glance of those bright, inquisitive eyes was like a wild +robin's, half innocent, half bold. Though her round throat were white +as milk, and though no careless exposure to sun and wind had yet +succeeded in dimming the exquisite fairness of her skin, yet the +defects and omissions incidental to extreme youth, country breeding, +and lack of discipline, rendered Miss Sarah not wholly pleasing in +John's fastidious eyes. Her carriage was slovenly, her ungloved hands +were red, her hair touzled, and her deep-toned voice over-loud and +confident. Yet her frankness and her trustfulness could not fail to +evoke sympathy. + +"It is--Lady Mary that I am fond of," said the girl, with a yet more +vivid blush. + +He was touched. "She will miss you, I am sure, when you go to town," +he said kindly. + +"If I thought so really, I wouldn't go," said Sarah, vehemently. She +winked a tear from her long eyelashes. "But I know it's only your good +nature. She thinks of nothing and nobody but Peter. And--and, after +all, when I get better manners, and all that, I shall be more of a +companion to her. I'm very glad to go, if it wasn't for leaving _her_. +I like Aunt Elizabeth, whereas mamma and I never _did_ get on. She +cares most for the boys, which is very natural, no doubt, as I was +only an afterthought, and nobody wanted me. And Aunt Elizabeth has +always liked me. She says I amuse her with my sharp tongue." + +"But you will have to be a little careful of the sharp tongue when you +get to London," said John, smiling. He was struck by the half-sly, +half-acquiescent look that Sarah stole at him from beneath those long +eyelashes. Perhaps her outspokenness was not so involuntary as he had +imagined. + +"If I had known you were coming to-day, I would have gone up to say +good-bye to Lady Mary last night," said Sarah, mournfully. "She won't +want me now you are here." + +"I have a thousand and one things to look after. I sha'n't be in your +way," said John, good-naturedly, "if she is not busy otherwise." + +"Busy!" echoed Sarah. "She sits _so_, with her hands in her lap, +looking over the valley. And she has grown, oh, so much thinner and +sadder-looking. I thought you would never come." + +"I have my own work," said John, hurriedly, "and I thought, besides, +she would rather be alone these first few weeks." + +Sarah looked up with a flash in her blue eyes, which were so dark, and +large-pupilled, and heavily lashed, that they looked almost black. She +ground her strong white teeth together. + +"If I were Lady Mary," she said, "I would have slammed the old front +door behind me the very day after Sir Timothy was buried--and gone +away; I would. There she is, like a prisoner, with the old ladies +counting every tear she sheds, and adding them up to see if it is +enough; and measuring every inch of crape on her gowns; and finding +fault with all she does, just as they used when Sir Timothy was alive +to back them up. And she is afraid to do anything he didn't like; and +she never listens to the doctor, the only person in the world who's +ever had the courage to fight her battles." + +"The doctor," said John, sharply. "Has she been ill?" + +"No, no." + +"What has _he_ to do with Lady Mary?" said John. + +His displeasure was so great that the colour rose in his clean-shaven +face, and did not escape little Sarah's observation, for all her +downcast lashes. + +"Somebody must go and see her," said Sarah; "and you were away. And +the canon is just nobody, always bothering her for subscriptions; +though he is very fond of her, like everybody else," she added, with +compunction. "Dear me, Mr. Crewys, how fast you are walking!" + +John had unconsciously quickened his pace so much that she had some +ado to keep up with him without actually running. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. + +"It is so hot, and the hill is steep, and I am rather fat. I dare say +I shall fine down as I get older," said Sarah, apologetically. "It +would be dreadful if I grew up like mamma. But I am more like my +father, thank goodness, and _he_ is simply a mass of hard muscle. I +dare say even I could beat you on the flat. But not up this drive. +Doesn't it look pretty in the spring?" + +"It was very different when I left Barracombe," said John. + +He looked round with all a Londoner's appreciation. + +In the sunny corner next the ivy-clad lodge an early rhododendron +had burst into scarlet bloom. The steep drive was warmly walled and +sheltered on the side next the hill by horse-chestnuts, witch-elms, +tall, flowering shrubs and evergreens, and a variety of tree-azaleas +and rhododendrons which promised a blaze of beauty later in the +season. + +But the other side of the drive lay in full view of the open +landscape; rolling grass slopes stretching down to the orchards +and the valley. Violets, white and blue, scented the air, and the +primroses clustered at the roots of the forest trees. + +The gnarled and twisted stems of giant creepers testified to the age +of Barracombe House. Before the entrance was a level space, which made +a little spring garden, more formal and less varied in its arrangement +than the terrace gardens on the south front; but no less gay and +bright, with beds of hyacinths, red and white and purple, and +daffodils springing amidst their bodyguards of pale, pointed spears. + +A wild cherry-tree at the corner of the house had showered snowy +petals before the latticed window of the study; the window whence Sir +Timothy had taken his last look at the western sky, and from which +his watchful gaze had once commanded the approach to his house, and +observed almost every human being who ventured up the drive. + +On the ridge of the hill above, and in clumps upon the fertile slopes +of the side of the little valley, the young larches rose, newly +clothed in that light and brilliant foliage which darkens almost +before spring gives place to summer. + +They found Lady Mary in the drawing-room; the sunshine streamed +towards her through the golden rain of a _planta-genista_, which stood +on a table in the western corner of the bow window. She was looking +out over the south terrace, and the valley and the river, just as +Sarah had said. + +He was shocked at her pallor, which was accentuated by her black +dress; her sapphire blue eyes looked unnaturally large and clear; the +little white hands clasped in her lap were too slender; a few silver +threads glistened in the soft, brown hair. Above all, the hopeless +expression of the sad and gentle face went to John's heart. + +_Was_ the doctor the only man in the world who had the courage to +fight her battles for this fading, grieving woman who had been the +lovely Mary Setoun; whom John remembered so careless, so laughing, so +innocently gay? + +He was relieved that she could smile as he approached to greet her. + +"I did not guess you would come by the early train," she said, in glad +tones. "But, oh--you must have walked all the way from Brawnton! What +will James Coachman say?" + +"I wanted a walk," said John, "and I knew you would send to meet me if +I let you know. My luggage is at the station. James Coachman, as you +call him, can fetch that whenever he will." + +"And I have come to say good-bye," said Sarah, forlornly. + +She watched with jealous eyes their greeting, and Lady Mary's obvious +pleasure in John's arrival, and half-oblivion of her own familiar +little presence. + +When Peter had first gone to school, his mother in her loneliness had +almost made a _confidante_ of little Sarah, the odd, intelligent child +who followed her about so faithfully, and listened so eagerly to those +dreamy, half-uttered confidences. She knew that Lady Mary wept because +her boy had left her; but she understood also that when Peter +came home for the holidays he brought little joy to his mother. A +self-possessed stripling now walked about the old house, and laid down +the law to his mamma--instead of that chubby creature in petticoats +who had once been Peter. + +Lady Mary had dwelt on the far-off days of Peter's babyhood very +tenderly when she was alone with little Sarah, who sat and nursed her +doll, and liked very much to listen; she often felt awed, as though +some one had died; but she did not connect the story much with the +Peter of every day, who went fishing and said girls were rather a +nuisance. + +Sarah, too, had had her troubles. She was periodically banished to +distant schools by a mother who disliked romping and hoydenish little +girls, as much as she doted on fat and wheezing lap-dogs. But as her +father, on the other hand, resented her banishment from home almost as +sincerely as Sarah herself, she was also periodically sent for to take +up her residence once more beneath the parental roof. Thus her life +was full of change and uncertainty; but, through it all, her devotion +to Lady Mary never wavered. + +She looked at her now with a melancholy air which sat oddly upon her +bright, comical face, and which was intended to draw attention to the +pathetic fact of her own impending departure. + +"I only came to say good-bye," said Sarah, in slightly injured tones. + +"Ah! by-the-by, and I have promised not to intrude on the parting," +said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"It is not an eternal farewell," said Lady Mary, drawing Sarah kindly +towards her. + +"It may be for _years_," said Sarah, rather offended. "My aunt +Elizabeth is as good as adopting me. Mamma said I was very lucky, and +I believe she is glad to be rid of me. But papa says he shall come and +see me in London. Aunt Elizabeth is going to take me to Paris and to +Scotland, and abroad every winter." + +"Oh, Sarah, how you will be changed when you come back!" said Lady +Mary; and she laughed a little, with a hand on Sarah's shoulder; but +Sarah knew that Lady Mary was not thinking very much about her, all +the same. + +"There is no fresh news, John?" she asked. + +"Nothing since my last telegram," he answered. "But I have arranged +with the Exchange Telegraph Company to wire me anything of importance +during my stay here." + +"You are always so good," she said. + +Then he took pity on Sarah's impatience, and left the little +worshipper to the interview with her idol which she so earnestly +desired. + +"I will go and pay my respects to my cousins," said John. + +But the banqueting-hall was deserted, and gaps in the row of clogs and +goloshes suggested that the old ladies were taking a morning stroll. +They had not thought it proper to drive, save in a close carriage, +since their brother's death; and on such a warm day of spring weather +a close carriage was not inviting to country-bred people. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +John took his hat and stepped out once more upon the drive, and there +met Dr. Blundell, who had left his dog-cart at the stables, and was +walking up to the house. + +He did not pause to analyze the sentiment of slight annoyance which +clouded his usual good humour; but Dr. Blundell divined it, with the +quickness of an ultra-sensitive nature. He showed no signs that he had +done so. + +"It was you I came to see," he said, shaking hands with John. "I +heard--you know how quickly news spreads here--that you had arrived. I +hoped you might spare me a few moments for a little conversation." + +"Certainly," said John. "Will you come in, or shall we take a turn?" + +"You will be glad of a breath of fresh air after your journey," +said the doctor, and he led the way across the south terrace, to a +sheltered corner of the level plateau upon which the house was built, +which was known as the fountain garden. + +It was rather a deserted garden, thickly surrounded and overgrown +by shrubs. Through the immense spreading Portuguese laurels which +sheltered it from the east, little or no sunshine found its way to the +grey, moss-grown basin and the stone figures supporting it; over which +a thin stream of water continually flowed with a melancholy rhythm, in +perpetual twilight. + +A giant ivy grew rankly and thickly about the stone buttresses of this +eastern corner of the house, and around a great mullioned window which +overlooked the fountain garden, and which was the window of Lady +Mary's bedroom. + +"These shrubberies want thinning," said John, looking round him rather +disgustedly. "This place is reeking with damp. I should like to cut +down some of these poisonous laurels, and let in the air and the +sunshine, and open out the view of the Brawnton hills." + +"And why don't you?" said the doctor, with such energy in his tone +that John stopped short in his pacing of the gravel walk, and looked +at him. + +The two men were almost as unlike in appearance as in character. + +The doctor was nervous, irritable, and intense in manner; with +deep-set, piercing eyes that glowed like hot coal when he was moved +or excited. A tall, gaunt man, lined and wrinkled beyond his years; +careless of appearance, so far as his shabby clothes were concerned, +yet careful of detail, as was proven by spotless linen and +well-preserved, delicate hands. + +He was indifferent utterly to the opinion of others, to his own +worldly advancement, or to any outer consideration, when in pursuit of +the profession he loved; and he knew no other interest in life, save +one. He had the face of a fanatic or an enthusiast; but also of a man +whose understanding had been so cultivated as to temper enthusiasm +with judgment. + +He had missed success, and was neither resigned to his disappointment, +nor embittered by it. + +The gaze of those dark eyes was seldom introspective; rather, as it +seemed, did they look out eagerly, sadly, pitifully at the pain and +sorrow of the world; a pain he toiled manfully to lessen, so far as +his own infinitesimal corner of the universe was concerned. + +John Crewys, on the other hand, was, to the most casual observer, a +successful man; a man whose personality would never be overlooked. + +There was a more telling force in his composure than in the doctor's +nervous energy. His clear eyes, his bright, yet steady glance, +inspired confidence. + +The doctor might have been taken for a poet, but John looked like a +philosopher. + +He was also, as obviously, in appearance, a man of the world, and a +Londoner, as the doctor was evidently a countryman, and a hermit. His +advantages over the doctor included his voice, which was as deep and +musical as the tones of his companion were harsh. + +The manner, no less than the matter of John's speech, had early +brought him distinction. + +Nature, rather than cultivation, had bestowed on him the faculty of +conveying the impression he wished to convey, in tones that charm; and +held his auditors, and penetrated ears dulled and fatigued by monotony +and indistinctness. + +The more impassioned his pleading, the more utterly he held his own +emotion in check; the more biting his subtly chosen words, the more +courteous his manner; now deadly earnest, now humorously scornful, +now graciously argumentative, but always skilfully and designedly +convincing. + +The doctor, save in the presence of a patient, had no such control +over himself as John Crewys carried from the law-courts, into his life +of every day. + +"Why don't you," he said, in fiery tones, "let in air and life, and a +view of the outside world, and as much sunshine as possible into this +musty old house? You have the power, if you had only the will." + +"You speak figuratively, I notice," said John. "I should be much +obliged if you would tell me exactly what you mean." + +He would have answered in warmer and more kindly tones had Sarah's +words not rung upon his ear. + +Was the doctor going to fight Lady Mary's battles now, and with him, +of all people in the world? As though there were any one in the world +to whom her interests could be dearer than-- + +John stopped short in his thoughts, and looked attentively at the +doctor. His heart smote him. How pallid was that tired face; and the +hollow eyes, how sad and tired too! The doctor had been up all night, +in a wretched isolated cottage, watching a man die--but John did not +know that. + +He perceived that this was no meddler, but a man speaking of something +very near his heart; no presuming and interfering outsider who +deserved a snub, but a man suffering from some deep and hidden cause. + +The doctor's secret was known to John long before he had finished what +he had to say; but he listened attentively, and gave no sign that this +was so. + +"She will die," said Blundell, "if this goes on;" and he neither +mentioned any name, nor did John Crewys require him to do so. + +The doctor's words came hurrying out incoherently from the depths of +his anxiety and earnestness. + +"She will die if this goes on. There were few hopes and little enough +pleasure in her life before; but what is left to her now? _De mortuis +nil nisi bonum._ But just picture to yourself for a moment, man, what +her life has been." + +He stopped and drew breath, and strove to speak calmly and +dispassionately. + +"I was born in the valley of the Youle," he said. "My people live in +a cottage--they call it a house, but it's just a farm--on the +river,--Cullacott. I was a raw medical student when _she_ came here as +a child. Her father was killed in the Afghan War. He had quarrelled +with his uncle, they said, who afterwards succeeded to the earldom; +so she was left to the guardianship of Sir Timothy, a distant cousin. +Every one was sorry for her, because Sir Timothy was her guardian, and +because she was a little young thing to be left to the tender mercies +of the two old ladies, who were old even then. If you will excuse my +speaking frankly about the family"--John nodded--"they bullied their +brother always; what with their superiority of birth, and his being so +much younger, and so on. Their bringing-up made him what he was, I am +sure. He went nowhere; he always fancied people were laughing at him. +His feeling about his--his mother's lowly origin seemed to pervade +his whole life. He exaggerated the importance of birth till it became +almost a mania. If you hadn't known the man, you couldn't have +believed a human being--one of the million crawling units on the +earth--could be so absurdly inflated with self-importance. It was +pitiful. He went nowhere, and saw no one. I believe he thought that +Providence had sent a wife of high rank to his very door to enable him +partially to wipe out his reproach. She looked like a child when she +came, but she shot up very suddenly into womanhood. If you ask me if +she was unhappy, I declare I don't think so. She had never realized, +I should think, what it was to be snubbed or found fault with in +her life. She was a motherless child, and had lived with her old +grandfather and her young father, and had been very much spoilt. And +they were both snatched away from her, as it were, in a breath; and +she alone in the world, with an uncle who was only glad to get rid of +her to her stranger guardian. Well,--she was too young and too bright +and too gay to be much downcast for all the old women could do. She +laughed at their scolding, and when they tried severity she appealed +to Sir Timothy. The old doctor who was my predecessor here told me at +the time that he thought she had bewitched Sir Timothy; but afterwards +he said that he believed it was only that Sir Timothy had made up his +mind even then to quarter the Setoun arms with his own. Anyway, he +went against his sisters for the first and only time in his life, and +they learnt that Lady Mary was not to be interfered with. Whether it +was gratitude or just the childish satisfaction of triumphing over her +two enemies, I can't tell, but she married him in less than two years +after she came to live at Barracombe. The old ladies didn't know +whether to be angry or pleased. They wanted him to marry, and they +wanted his wife to be well-born, no doubt; but to have a mere child +set over them! Well, the marriage took place in London." + +"I was present," said John. + +"The people here said things about it that may have got round to Sir +Timothy; but I don't know. He never came down to the village, except +to church, where he sat away from everybody, in the gallery curtained +off. Anyway, he wouldn't have the wedding down here. He invited all +her relatives, and none of them had a word to say. It wasn't as if she +were an heiress. I believe she had next to nothing. She was just like +a child, laughing, and pleased at getting married, and with all her +finery, perhaps,--or at getting rid of her lessons with the old women +may be,--and the thought of babies of her own. Who knows what a girl +thinks of?" said the doctor, harshly. "I didn't see her again for a +long time after. But then I came down; the Brawnton doctor was getting +old, and it was a question whether I should succeed him or go on in +London, where I was doing well enough. And--and I came here," said the +doctor, abruptly. + +John nodded again. He filled in the gaps of the doctor's narrative for +himself, and understood. + +"She had changed very much. All the gaiety and laughter gone. But she +was wrapt up in the child as I never saw any woman wrapt up in a brat +before or since; and I've known some that were pretty ridiculous in +that way," said the doctor, and his voice shook more than ever. "It +was--touching, for she was but a child herself; and Peter, between you +and me, was an unpromising doll for a child to play with. He was ugly +and ill-tempered, and he wouldn't be caressed, or dressed up, or made +much of, from the first minute he had a will of his own. As he grew +bigger he was for ever having rows with his father, and his mother +was for ever interceding for him. He was idle at school; but he was a +manly boy enough over games and sport, and a capital shot. Anyway, she +managed to be proud of him, God knows how. I shouldn't wonder if this +war was the making of him, though, poor chap, if he's spared to see +the end of it all." + +"I have no doubt the discipline will do him a great deal of good," +said John, dryly. + +It cannot be said that his brief interview at Southampton had +impressed John with a favourable opinion of the sulky and irresponsive +youth, who had there listened to his mother's messages with lowering +brow and downcast eye. Peter had betrayed no sign of emotion, and +almost none of gratitude for John's hurried and uncomfortable journey +to convey that message. + +"A few hard knocks will do you no harm, my young friend; and I almost +wish you may get them," John had said to himself on his homeward +journey; dreading, yet expecting, the news that awaited him at Peter's +home, and for which he had done his best to prepare the boy. + +"Too much consideration hitherto has ruined him," said the doctor, +shortly. "But it's not of Peter I'm thinking, one way or the other. +From the time he went first to school, she's had to depend entirely on +her own resources--and what are they?" + +He paused, as though to gather strength and energy for his indictment. + +"From the time she was brought here--except for that one outing and a +change to Torquay, I believe, after Peter's birth--she has scarce set +foot outside Barracombe. Sir Timothy would not, so he was resolved she +should not. His sisters, who have as much cultivation as that stone +figure, disapproved of novel-reading--or of any other reading, I +should fancy--and he followed suit. Books are almost unknown in this +house. The library bookcases were locked. Sir Timothy opened them once +in a while, and his sisters dusted the books with their own hands; +it was against tradition to handle such valuable bindings. He hated +music, and the piano was not to be played in his presence. Have you +ever tried it? I'm told you're musical. It belonged to Lady Belstone's +mother, the Honourable Rachel. That is her harp which stands in the +corner of the hall. Her daughter once tinkled a little, I believe; but +the prejudices of the ruling monarch were religiously obeyed. Music +was _taboo_ at Barracombe. Dancing was against their principles, and +theatres they regard with horror, and have never been inside one in +their lives. Nothing took Sir Timothy to London but business; and +if it were possible to have the business brought to Barracombe, his +solicitor, Mr. Crawley, visited him here." + +The doctor spoke in lower tones, as he recurred to his first theme. + +"I don't think she found out for years, or realized what a prisoner +she was. They caught and pinned her down so young. There are no very +near neighbours--I mean, not the sort of people they would recognize +as neighbours--except the Hewels. Youlestone is such an out-of-the-way +place, and Sir Timothy was never on intimate terms with any one. Mrs. +Hewel is a fool--there was only little Sarah whom Lady Mary made a pet +of--but she had no friends. Sir Timothy and his sisters made visiting +such a stiff and formal business, that it was no wonder she hated +paying calls; the more especially as it could lead to nothing. He +would not entertain; he grudged the expense. I was present at a scene +he once made because a large party drove over from a distant house and +stayed to tea. He said he could not entertain the county. She dared +ask no one to her house--she, who was so formed and fitted by nature +to charm and attract, and enjoy social intercourse." His voice +faltered. "They stole her youth," he said. + +"What do you want me to do?" said John, though he was vaguely +conscious that he understood for what the doctor was pleading. + +He sat down by the fountain; and the doctor, resting a mended boot +on the end of the bench, leant on his bony knee, and looked down +wistfully at John's thoughtful face, broad brow, and bright, intent +eyes. + +"You are a very clever man, Mr. Crewys," he said humbly. "A man of the +world, successful, accomplished, and, I believe, honest"--he spoke +with a simplicity that disarmed offence--"or I should not have +ventured as I have ventured. Somehow you inspire me with confidence. I +believe you can save her. I believe you could find a way to bring back +her peace of mind; the interest in life--the gaiety of heart--that is +natural to her. If I were in your place, not the two old women--not +Sir Timothy's ghost--not that poor conceited slip of a lad who may be +shot to-morrow--would stand in my way. I would bring back the colour +to her cheek, and the light to her eye, and the music to her voice--" + +"Whilst her boy is in danger?" John asked, almost scornfully. He +thought he knew Lady Mary better than the doctor did, after all. + +"I tell you _nothing_ would stop me," said Blundell, vehemently. +"Before I would let her fret herself to death--afraid to break the +spells that have been woven round her, bound as she is, hand and foot, +with the prejudices of the dead--I would--I would--take her to South +Africa myself," he said brilliantly. "The voyage would bring her back +to life." + +John got up. "That is an idea," he said. He paused and looked at the +doctor. "You have known her longer than I. Have you said nothing to +her of all this?" + +The doctor smiled grimly. "Mr. Crewys," he said, "some time since I +spoke my mind--a thing I am over-apt to do--_of_ Peter, and _to_ him. +The lad has forgiven me; he is a man, you see, with all his faults. +But Lady Mary, though she has all the virtues of a woman, is also a +mother. A woman often forgives; a mother, never. Don't forget." + +"I will not," said John. + +"And you'll do it--" + +"Use the unlimited authority that has been placed in my hands, by +improving this tumble-down, overgrown place?" said John, slowly. "Let +in light, air, and sunshine to Barracombe, and do my best to brighten +Lady Mary's life, without reference to any one's prejudices, past or +present?" + +"You've got the idea," said the doctor, joyfully. "Will you carry it +out?" + +"Yes," said John. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The new moon brightened above the rim of the opposite hill, and +touched the river below with silver reflections. On the grass banks +sloping away beneath the terrace gardens, sheets of bluebells shone +almost whitely on the grass. The silent house rose against the +dark woods, whitened also here and there by the blossom of wild +cherry-trees. + +Lady Mary stepped from the open French windows of the drawing-room +into the still, scented air of the April night. She stood leaning +against the stone balcony, and gazing at the wonderful panorama of +the valley and overlapping hills; where the little river threaded its +untroubled course between daisied meadows and old orchards and red +crumbling banks. + +A broad-shouldered figure appeared in the window, and a man's step +crunched the gravel of the path which Lady Mary had crossed. + +"For once I have escaped, you see," she said, without turning round. +"They will not venture into the night air. Sometimes I think they will +drive me mad--Isabella and Georgina." + +"Mary!" cried a shrill voice from the drawing-room, "how can you be so +imprudent! John, how can you allow her!" + +John stepped back to the window. "It is very mild," he said. "Lady +Mary likes the air." + +There was a note of authority in his tone which somehow impressed Lady +Belstone, who withdrew, muttering to herself, into the warm lamplight +of the drawing-room. + +Perhaps the two old ladies were to be pitied, too, as they sat +together, but forlorn, sincerely shocked and uneasy at their +sister-in-law's behaviour. + +"Dear Timothy not dead three months, and she sitting out there in the +night air, as he would never have permitted, talking and laughing; +yes, I actually hear her laughing--with John." + +"There is no telling what she may do _now_," said Miss Crewys, +gloomily. + +"I declare it is a judgment, Georgina. Why did Timothy choose to trust +a perfect stranger--even though John is a cousin--with the care of his +wife and son, and his estate, rather than his own sisters?" + +"It was a gentleman's work," said Miss Crewys. + +"Gentleman's fiddlesticks! Couldn't old Crawley have done it? I +should hope he is as good a lawyer as young John any day," said Lady +Belstone, tossing her head. "But I have often noticed that people will +trust any chance stranger with the property they leave behind, rather +than those they know best." + +"Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "blame not the dead, and especially on a +moonlight night. It makes my blood run cold." + +"I am blaming nobody, Georgina; but I will say that if poor Timothy +thought proper to leave everything else in the hands of young John, he +might have considered that you and I had a better right to the Dower +House than poor dear Mary, who, of course, must live with her son." + +"I am far from wishing or intending to leave my home here, Isabella," +said Miss Crewys. "It is very different in your case. You forfeited +the position of daughter of the house when you married. But I have +always occupied my old place, and my old room." + +This was a sore subject. On Lady Belstone's return as a widow, to the +home of her fathers, she had been torn with anxiety and indecision +regarding her choice of a sleeping apartment. Sentiment dictated her +return to her former bedroom; but she was convinced that the married +state required a domicile on the first floor. Etiquette prevailed, +and she descended; but the eighty-year-old legs of Miss Crewys still +climbed the nursery staircase, and she revenged herself for her +inferior status by insisting, in defiance of old associations, that +her maid should occupy the room next to her own, which her sister had +abandoned. + +"For my part, I can sleep in one room as well as another, provided it +be comfortable and _appropriate_," said Lady Belstone, with dignity. +"There are very pleasant rooms in the Dower House, and our great-aunts +managed to live there in comfort, and yet keep an eye on their nephew +here, as I have always been told. I don't know why we should object to +doing the same. You have never tried being mistress of your own house, +Georgina, but I can assure you it has its advantages; and I found them +out as a married woman." + +"A married woman has her husband to look after her," said Miss Crewys. +"It is very different for a widow." + +"You are for ever throwing my widowhood in my teeth, Georgina," said +Lady Belstone, plaintively. "It is not my fault that I am a widow. I +did not murder the admiral." + +"I don't say you did, Isabella," said Georgina, grimly; "but he only +survived his marriage six months." + +"It is nice to be silent sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"Does that mean that I am to go away?" said John, "or merely that I am +not to speak to you?" + +She laughed a little. "Neither. It means that I am tired of being +scolded." + +"I have wondered now and then," said John, deliberately, "why you put +up with it?" + +"I suppose--because I can't help it," she said, startled. + +"You are a free agent." + +"You mean that I could go away?" she said, in a low voice. "But there +is only one place I should care to go to now." + +"To South Africa?" + +"You always understand," she said gratefully. + +"Supposing this--this ghastly war should not be over as soon as we all +hope," he said, rather huskily, "I could escort you myself, in a few +weeks' time, to the Cape. Or--or arrange for your going earlier if +you desired, and if I could not get away. Probably you would get +no further than Cape Town; but it might be easier for you waiting +there--than here." + +"I shall thank you, and bless you always, for thinking of it," she +interrupted, softly; "but there is something--that I never told +anybody." + +He waited. + +"After Peter had the news of his father's death," said Lady Mary, with +a sob in her throat, "you did not know that he--he telegraphed to me, +from Madeira. He foresaw immediately, I suppose, whither my foolish +impulses would lead me; and he asked me--I should rather say he +ordered me--under no circumstances whatever to follow him out to South +Africa." + +John remembered the doctor's warning, and said nothing. + +"So, you see--I can't go," said Lady Mary. + +There was a pause. + +"I am bound to say," said John, presently, "that, in Peter's place, I +should not have liked my mother, or any woman I loved, to come out to +the seat of war. He showed only a proper care for you in forbidding +it. Perhaps I am less courageous than he, in thinking more of the +present benefit you would derive from the voyage and the change of +scene, than of the perils and discomforts which might await you, for +aught we can foretell now, at the end of it. Peter certainly showed +judgment in telegraphing to you." + +"Do you really think so? That it was care for me that made him do it?" +she asked. A distant doubtful joy sounded in her voice. "Somehow I +never thought of that. I remembered his old dislike of being followed +about, or taken care of, or--or spied upon, as he used to call it." + +"Boys just turning into men are often sensitive on those points," said +John, heedful always of the doctor's warning. + +"It is odd I did not see the telegram in that light," said poor Lady +Mary. "I must read it again." + +She spoke as hopefully as though she had not read it already a hundred +times over, trying to read loving meanings, that were not there, +between the curt and peremptory lines. + +"It is not odd," thought John to himself; "it is because you knew him +too well;" and he wondered whether his explanation of Peter's action +were charitable, or merely unscrupulous. + +But Lady Mary was not really deceived; only very grateful to the man +who was so tender of heart, so tactful of speech, as to make it seem +even faintly possible that she had misjudged her boy. + +She said to herself that parents were often unreasonable, expecting +impossibilities, in their wild desire for perfection in their +offspring. An outsider, being unprejudiced by anxiety, could judge +more fairly. John found that the telegram, which had almost broken her +heart, was reasonable and justified; nay, even that it displayed a +dutiful regard for her safety and comfort, of which no one but a +stranger could possibly have suspected Peter. She was grateful to +John. It was a relief and joy to feel that it was she who was to +blame, and not Peter, whose heart was in the right place, after all. +And yet, though John was so clever and had such an experience of human +nature, it was the doctor who had put the key into his hands, which +presently unlocked Lady Mary's confidence. + +"You mustn't think, John, that I don't understand what it will be like +later, when Peter comes of age. Of course this house will be his, +and he is not the kind of young man to be tied to his mother's +apron-string. He always wanted to be independent." + +"It is human nature," said John. + +"I am not blind to his faults," said Lady Mary, humbly, "though they +all think so. It is of little use to try and hide them from you, who +will see them for yourself directly my darling comes back. I pray God +it may be soon. Of course he is spoilt; but I am to blame, because I +made him my idol." + +"An only son is always more or less spoilt," said John. He remembered +his own boyhood, and smiled sardonically in the darkness. "He will +grow out of it. He will come back a man after this experience." + +"Yes, yes, and he will want to live his life, and I--I shall have to +learn to do without him, I know," she said. "I must learn while he is +away to--to depend on myself. It is not likely that--that a woman +of my age should have much in common with a manly boy like Peter. +Sometimes I wonder whether I really understand my boy at all." + +"It is my belief," said John, "that no generation is in perfect touch +with another. Each stands on a different rung of the ladder of Time. +You may stoop to lend a helping hand to the younger, or reach upwards +to take a farewell of the older. But there must be a looking down or +a looking up. No face-to-face talk is possible except upon the same +level. No real and true comradeship. The very word implies a marching +together, under the same circumstances, to a common goal; and how can +we, who have to be the commanding officers of the young, be their true +companions?" he said, lightly and cheerfully. + +"I dare say I have expected impossibilities," said Lady Mary, as +though reproaching herself. "It comforts me to think so. But I have +had time to reflect on many things since--February." She paused. "I +don't deny I have tried to make plans for the future. But there are +these days to be lived through first--until he comes home." + +"I was going to propose," said John, "that, if agreeable to you, I +should spend my summer and autumn holiday here, instead of going, as +usual, to Switzerland." + +"I should be only too glad," she said, in tones of awakened interest. +"But surely--it would be very dull for you?" + +"Not at all. There is a great deal to be done, and in accordance with +my trust I am bound to set about it," said John. "I propose to spend +the next few days in examining the reports of the surveys that have +already been made, and in judging of their accuracy for myself. When I +return here later, I could have the work begun, and then for some time +I could superintend matters personally, which is always a good thing." + +"Do you mean--the woods?" she asked. "I know they have been neglected. +Sir Timothy would never have a tree cut down; but they are so wild and +beautiful." + +"There are hundreds of pounds' worth of timber perishing for want of +attention. I am responsible for it all until Peter comes of age," said +John, "as I am for the rest of his inheritance. It is part of my trust +to hand over to him his house and property in the best order I can, +according to my own judgment. I know something of forestry," he added, +simply; "you know I was not bred a Cockney. I was to have been +a Hertfordshire squire, on a small scale, had not circumstances +necessitated the letting of my father's house when he died." + +"But it will be yours again some day?" + +"No," said John, quietly; "it had to be sold--afterwards." + +He gave no further explanation, but Lady Mary recollected instantly +the abuse that had been showered on his mother, by her sisters-in-law, +when John was reported to have sacrificed his patrimony to pay her +debts. + +"I rather agree with you about the woods," she said. "It vexes me +always to see a beautiful young tree, that should be straight and +strong, turned into a twisted dwarf, in the shade of the overgrowth +and the overcrowding. The woodman will be delighted; he is always +grumbling." + +"It is not only the woods. There is the house." + +"I suppose it wants repairing?" said Lady Mary. "Hadn't that better be +put off till Peter comes home?" + +"I cannot neglect my trust," said John, gravely; "besides," he added, +"the state of the roof is simply appalling. Many of the beams are +actually rotten. Then there are the drains; they are on a system that +should not be tolerated in these days. Nothing has been done for over +sixty years, and I can hardly say how long before." + +"Won't it all cost a great deal of money?" said Lady Mary. + +"A good deal; but there is a very large sum of money lying idle, +which, as the will directs, may be applied to the general improvement +of the house and estate during Peter's minority; but over which he is +to have no control, should it remain unspent, until he comes of age. +That is to say, it will then--or what is left of it--be invested with +the rest of his capital, which is all strictly tied up. So, as old +Crawley says, it will relieve Peter's income in the future, if we +spend what is necessary now, according to our powers, in putting his +house and estate in order. It would have to be done sooner or later, +most assuredly. Sir Timothy, as you must know," said John, gently, +"did not spend above a third of his actual income; and, so far as Mr. +Crawley knows, spent nothing at all on repairs, beyond jobs to the +village carpenter and mason." + +"I did not know," said Lady Mary. "He always told me we were very +badly off--for our position. I know nothing of business. I did not +attend much to Mr. Crawley's explanations at the time." + +"You were unable to attend to him then," said John; "but now, I think, +you should understand the exact position of affairs. Surely my cousins +must have talked it over?" + +"Isabella and Georgina never talk business before me. You forget I am +still a child in their eyes," she said, smiling. "I gathered that they +were disappointed poor Timothy had left them nothing, and that they +thought I had too much; that is all." + +"Their way of looking at it is scarcely in accordance with justice," +said John, shrugging his shoulders. "They each have ten thousand +pounds left to them by their father in settlement. This was to return +to the estate if they died unmarried or childless. You have two +thousand a year and the Dower House for your life; but you forfeit +both if you re-marry." + +"Of course," said Lady Mary, indifferently. "I suppose that is the +usual thing?" + +"Not quite, especially when your personal property is so small." + +"I didn't know I had any personal property." + +"About five hundred pounds a year; perhaps a little more." + +"From the Setouns!" she cried. + +"From your father. Surely you must have known?" + +Lady Mary was silent a moment. "No; I didn't know," she said +presently. "It doesn't matter now, but Timothy never told me. I +thought I hadn't a farthing in the world. He never mentioned money +matters to me at all." Then she laughed faintly. "I could have lived +all by myself in a cottage in Scotland, without being beholden to +anybody--on five hundred pounds a year, couldn't I?" + +"There is no reason you should not have a cottage in Scotland now, if +you fancy one," said John, cheerfully. + +"The only memories I have in the world, outside my life in this place, +are of my childhood at home," she said. + +John suddenly realized how very, very limited her experiences had +been, and wondered less at the almost childish simplicity which +characterized her, and which in no way marred her natural graciousness +and dignity. Lady Mary did not observe his silence, because her own +thoughts were busy with a scene which memory had painted for her, and +far away from the moonlit valley of the Youle. She saw a tall, narrow, +turreted building against a ruddy sunset sky; a bare ridge of hills +crowned sparsely with ragged Scotch firs; a sea of heather which had +seemed boundless to a childish imagination. + +"I could not go back to Scotland now," she said, with that little +wistful-sounding, patient sob which moved John to such pity that he +could scarce contain himself; "but some day, when I am free--when +nobody wants me." + +"London is the only place worth living in just now, whilst we are in +such terrible anxiety," he said boldly. "At least there are the papers +and telegrams all day long, and none of this dreary, long waiting +between the posts; and there are other things--to distract one's +attention, and keep up one's courage." + +"I do not know what Isabella and Georgina would say," said Lady Mary. + +"But you--would you not care to come?" + +"Oh!" she said, half sobbing, "it is because I am afraid of caring too +much. Life seems to call so loudly to me now and then; as though I +were tired of sitting alone, and looking up the valley and down the +valley. I know it all by heart. It would be fresh life; the stir, the +movement; other people, fresh ideas, beautiful new things to see. But, +indeed, you must not tempt me." There was an accent of yearning in her +tone, a hint of eager anticipation, as of a good time coming; a dream +postponed, which she would nevertheless be willing one day to enjoy. +"I mustn't go anywhere; I couldn't--until my boy comes home, if he +ever comes home," she added, under her breath. + +"But when he comes home safe and sound, as please God he may," said +John, cheerfully, "why, then you have a great deal of lost time to +make up." + +"Ah, yes!" said Lady Mary, and again that wistful note of longing +sounded. "I have thought sometimes I would not like to die before I +have seen my birthplace once more. And there is--_Italy_," she said, +as though the one word conveyed every vision of earthly beauty which +mortal could desire to behold--as, indeed, it does. And again she +added, "But I don't know what my sisters-in-law would say. It would be +against all the traditions." + +"Surely Lady Belstone, at least, must be less absurdly narrow-minded," +said John, almost impatiently. + +"Shall I tell you the history of her marriage?" said Lady Mary. + +Her pretty laugh rang out softly in the darkness, and thrilled +John's heart, and shocked yet further the old ladies who sat within, +straining their ears for the sound of returning footsteps. + +"It took place about forty years ago or less. A cousin of her +mother's, Sir William Belstone, came to spend a few days here. I +believe the poor man invited himself, because he happened to be +staying in the neighbourhood. He was a gallant old sailor, and very +polite to both his cousins; and one day Isabella interpreted his +compliments into a proposal of marriage. Georgina has given me to +understand that no one was ever more astounded and terrified than the +admiral when he found himself engaged to Isabella. But apparently he +was a chivalrous old gentleman, and would not disappoint her. It is +really rather a sad little story, because he died of heart disease +very soon after the marriage. Old Mrs. Ash, the housekeeper, always +declares her mistress came home even more old-maidish in her ways than +she went away, and that she quarrelled with the poor admiral from +morning till night. Perhaps that is why she has never lightened her +garb of woe. And she makes my life a burden to me because I won't wear +a cap. Ah! how heartless it all sounds, and yet how ridiculous! Dear +Cousin John, haven't I bored you? Let us go in." + +With characteristic energy John Crewys set in hand the repairs which +he had declared to be so necessary. + +The late squire had apparently been as well aware of the neglected +state of his ancestral halls as of his tangled and overgrown woods; +but he had also, it seemed, been unable to make up his mind to take +any steps towards amending the condition of either--or to part with +his ever-increasing balance at his bankers'. + +Sir Timothy had carried both his obstinacy and his dullness into his +business affairs. + +The family solicitor, Mr. Crawley, backed up the new administrator +with all his might. + +"Over sixty thousand pounds uninvested, and lying idle at the bank," +he said, lifting his hands and eyes, "and one long, miserable +grumbling over the expense of keeping up Barracombe. One good tenant +after another lost because the landlord would keep nothing in repair; +gardener after gardener leaving for want of a shilling increase in +weekly wages. In case Sir Peter should turn out to resemble his +father, we had best not let the grass grow under our feet, Mr. +Crewys," said the shrewd gentleman, chuckling, "but take full +advantage of the powers entrusted to you for the next two years and +a quarter. Sir Peter, luckily, does not come of age until October, +1902." + +"That is just what I intend to do," said John. + +"Odd, isn't it," said the lawyer, confidentially, "how often a man +will put unlimited power into the hands of a comparative stranger, and +leave his own son tied hand and foot? Not a penny of all this capital +will Sir Peter ever have the handling of. Perhaps a good job too. +Oh, dear! when I look at the state of his affairs in general, I feel +positively guilty, and ashamed to have had even the nominal management +of them. But what could a man do under the circumstances? He paid for +my advice, and then acted directly contrary to it, and thought he had +done a clever thing, and outwitted his own lawyer. But now we shall +get things a bit straight, I hope. What about buying Speccot Farm, Mr. +Crewys? It's been our Naboth's vineyard for many a day; but we haggled +over the price, and couldn't make up our minds to give what the farmer +wants. He'll have to sell in the end, you know; but I suppose he could +hold out a few years longer if we don't give way." + +"He's been to me already," said John. "The price he asked is no doubt +a bit above its proper value; but it's accommodation land, and it +would be disappointing if it slipped through our fingers. I propose to +offer him pretty nearly what he asks." + +"He'll take it," said Mr. Crawley, with satisfaction. "I could never +make Sir Timothy see that it wouldn't pay the fellow to turn out +unless he got something over and above the value of his mortgages." + +"The next thing I want you to arrange is the purchase of those +twenty acres of rough pasture and gorse, right in the centre of the +property," said John, "rented by the man who lives outside Youlestone, +at what they call Pott's farm, for his wretched, half-starved beasts +to graze upon. He's saved us the trouble of exterminating the rabbits +there, I notice." + +"He's an inveterate poacher. A good thing to give him no further +excuse to hang about the place. What do you propose to do?" + +"Compensate him, burn the gorse, cut the bracken, and plant larch. +There are enough picturesque commons on the top of the hill, where the +soil is poor, and land is cheap. We don't want them in the valley. +Now I propose to give our minds to the restoration of the house, the +drains, the stables, and the home farm. Here are my estimates." + +Though Mr. Crawley was so loyal a supporter of the regent of +Barracombe, yet John's projected improvements were far too +thorough-going to gain the approval of the pottering old retainers of +the Crewys family, though they were unable to question his knowledge +or his judgment. + +"I telled 'im tu du things by the littles," said the woodman, who was +kept at work marking trees and saplings as he had never worked before; +though John was generous of help, and liberal of pay. "But lard, he +bain't one tu covet nobody's gude advice. I was vair terrified tu zee +arl he knowed about the drees. The squoire 'ee wur like a babe unbarn +beside 'un. He lukes me straight in the eyes, and 'Luke,' sezzee, 'us +'a' got tu git the place in vamous arder vur young Zur Peter,' sezzee, +'An' I be responsible, and danged but what 'a'll du't,' 'ee zays. An' +I touched my yead, zo, and I zays, 'Very gude, zur,' 'a zays. 'An' zo +'twill be, yu may depend on't.'" + +Perhaps the unwonted stir and bustle, the coming and going of John +Crewys, the confusion of workmen, the novel interest of renovating and +restoring the old house, helped to brace and fortify Lady Mary during +the months which followed; months, nevertheless, of suspense and +anxiety, which reduced her almost to a shadow of her former self. + +For Peter's career in South Africa proved an adventurous one. + +He had the good luck to distinguish himself in a skirmish almost +immediately after his arrival, and to win not only the approval of his +noble relative and commander, but his commission. His next exploit, +however, ended rather disastrously, and Peter found himself a prisoner +in the now historic bird-cage at Pretoria, where he spent a dreary, +restless, and perhaps not wholly unprofitable time, in the society of +men greatly his superior in soldierly and other qualities. + +John feared that his mother's resolution not to follow her boy must +inevitably be broken when the news of his capture reached Barracombe; +but perhaps Peter's letters had repeated the peremptory injunctions +of his telegram, for she never proposed to take the journey to South +Africa. + +The wave of relief and thankfulness that swept over the country, when +the release of the imprisoned officers became known, restored not a +little of Lady Mary's natural courage and spirits. She became more +hopeful about her son, and more interested daily in the beautifying +and restoration of his house. + +She said little in her letters to Peter of the work at Barracombe, for +John advised her that the boy would probably hardly understand the +necessity for it, and she herself was doubtful of Peter's approval +even if he had understood. She had too much intelligence to be +doubtful of John's wisdom, or of Mr. Crawley's zeal for his interest. + +The letters she received were few and scanty, for Peter was but a poor +correspondent, and he made little comment on the explanatory letter +regarding his father's will which John and Mr. Crawley thought proper +to send him. The solicitor was justly indignant at Sir Peter's neglect +to reply to this carefully thought-out and faultlessly indited +epistle. + +"He is just a chip of the old block," said Mr. Crawley. + +But his mother divined that Peter was partly offended at his own +utter exclusion from any share of responsibility, and partly too much +occupied to give much attention to any matter outside his soldiering. +She said to herself that he was really too young to be troubled +with business; and she began to believe, as the work at Barracombe +advanced, that the results of so much planning and forethought must +please him, after all. The consolation of working in his interests was +delightful to her. Her days were filling almost miraculously, as it +seemed to her, with new occupations, fresh hopes, and happier ideas, +than the idle dreaming which was all that had hitherto been permitted +to her. John desired her help, or her suggestions, at every turn, and +constantly consulted her taste. Her artistic instinct for decoration +was hardly less strong than his own, though infinitely less +cultivated. He sent her the most engrossing and delightful books to +repair the omission, and he brought her plans and drawings, which he +begged her to copy for him. The days which had hung so heavily on her +hands were scarcely long enough. + +The careful restoration of the banqueting-hall necessitated new +curtains and chair-covers. Lady Mary looked doubtfully at John when +this matter had been decided, and then at the upholstery of the +drawing-rooms facing the south terrace. + +The faded magenta silk, tarnished gilded mirrors, and gold-starred +wall-paper which decorated these apartments had offended her eye for +years. John laughed at her hesitation, and advised her to consult her +sisters-in-law on the subject; and this settled the question. + +"They would choose bottle-green" she said, in horror; and she salved +her conscience by paying for the redecoration of the drawing-rooms out +of her own pocket. + +John discovered that Lady Mary had never drawn a cheque in her life, +and that Mr. Crawley's lessons in the management of her own affairs +filled her with as much awe as amusement. + + * * * * * + +So the old order changed and gave place to the new at Barracombe; and +the summer grew to winter, and winter to summer again; and Peter did +not return, as he might, with the corps in which he had the honour to +serve. + +Want of energy was not one of his defects; he was a strong, hardy +young man, a fine horseman and a good shot, and eager to gain +distinction for himself. He passed into a fresh corps of newly raised +Yeomanry, and went through the Winter Campaign of 1901, from April to +September, without a scratch. His mother implored him to come home; +but Peter's letters were contemptuous of danger. If he were to be +shot, plenty of better fellows than he had been done for, he wrote; +and coming home to go to Oxford, or whatever his guardian might be +pleased to order him to do, was not at all in his line, when he was +really wanted elsewhere. + +To do him justice, he had no idea how boastfully his letters read; he +had not the art of expressing himself on paper, and he was always in +a hurry. The moments when he was moved by a vague affection for his +home, or his mother, were seldom the actual moments which he devoted +to correspondence; and the passing ideas of the moment were all Peter +knew how to convey. + +Lady Mary could not but be aware of her son's complete independence of +her, but the realization of it no longer filled her with such dismay +as formerly. Her outlook upon life was widening insensibly. The young +soldier's luck deserted him at last. Barely six weeks before the +declaration of peace, Peter was wounded at Rooiwal. The War Office, +and the account of the action in the newspapers, reported his injuries +as severe; but a telegram from Peter himself brought relief, and even +rejoicing, to Barracombe-- + +"_Shot in the arm. Doing splendidly. Invalided home. Sailing as soon +as doctor allows_." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"I never complain, Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, resignedly; "but +it is a great relief, as I cannot deny, to open my mind to you, who +know so well what this place used to be like in my dear brother's +time." + +The canon had been absent from Youlestone on a long holiday, and on +his return found that the workmen, who had reigned over Barracombe for +nearly two years, had at length departed. + +The inhabitants had been hunted from one part of the house to another +as the work proceeded; but now the usual living-rooms had been +restored to their occupants, and peace and order prevailed, where all +had been noise and confusion. + +"I should not have known the place," said the canon, gazing round him. + +"Nor I. We make a point of _saying_ nothing," said Miss Crewys, +pathetically, "but it's almost impossible not to _look_ now and then." + +"Speak for yourself, Georgina," said her sister, with asperity. "One +can't _look_ furniture out of one room and into another." + +The old ladies sat forlornly in their corner by the great open hearth, +whereon the logs were piled in readiness for a fire, because they +often found the early June evenings chilly. But the sofa with +broken springs, which they specially affected, had been mended, and +recovered; and was no longer, they sadly agreed, near so comfortable +as in its crippled past. + +The banqueting-hall, which was the very heart of Barracombe House, had +been carefully and skilfully restored to its ancient dignity. + +The paint and graining, which had disfigured its mighty beams and +solid panelling, had been removed; and the freshly polished oak shone +forth in its noble age, shorn of all tawdry disguise. + +The spaces of wall and roof between the beams, and above the panels, +were now of a creamy tint not far removed, as the two indignant +critics pointed out, from common whitewash. A great screen of Spanish +leather sheltered the door from the vestibule, and secured somewhat +more privacy for the hall as a sitting-room. + +The Vandyck commanded the staircase, attracting immediate attention, +as it faced the principal entry. In the wide space between the two +great windows were two portraits of equal size; the famous Sir Peter +Crewys, by Lely, painted to resemble, as nearly as possible, his royal +master, in dress and attitude; and his brother Timothy, by Kneller. + +Farmer Timothy's small, shrewd, grey eyes appeared to follow the gazer +all over the hall; and his sober wearing apparel, a plain green coat +without collar or cape, contrasted effectively with the cavalier's +laced doublet and feathered hat. + +Gone were the Early Victorian portraits; gone the big glass cases of +stuffed birds and weasels; gone the round mahogany table, the waxen +bouquets, and the horsehair chairs. The ancient tapestry beside the +carven balustrade of the staircase remained, but it had been cleaned, +and even mended. + +An oak dresser, black with age, and laden with blue and white +china, lurked in a shadowy corner. Comfortable easy-chairs and odd, +old-fashioned settees furnished the hall. In the oriel window stood a +spinning-wheel and a grandfather's chair. A great bowl of roses stood +on the broad window-seat. There were roses, indeed, everywhere, and +books on every table. But the crowning grievance of all was the +cottage piano which John had sent to Lady Mary. The case had been +specially made of hand-carven oak to match the room as nearly as might +be. It was open, and beside it was a heap of music, and on it another +bowl of roses. + +"Ay, you may well look horrified," said Miss Crewys to the canon, +whose admiration and delight were very plainly depicted on his +rubicund countenance. "Where are our cloaks and umbrellas? That's what +I say to Isabella. Where are our goloshes? Where is anything, indeed, +that one would expect to find in a gentleman's hall? Not so much as a +walking-stick. Everything to be kept in the outer hall, where tramps +could as easily step in and help themselves; but our poor foolish +Mary fancies that Peter will be delighted to find his old home turned +upside down." + +"My belief is," said Lady Belstone, "that Peter will just insist on +all this wooden rubbish trotting back to the attics, where my dear +granny, not being accustomed to wooden furniture, very properly hid it +away. If you will believe me, canon, that dresser was brought up from +the _kitchen_, and every single pot and pan that decorates it used to +be kept in the housekeeper's room. That lumbering old chest was in +the harness-room. Pretty ornaments for a gentleman's sitting-room! If +Peter has grown up anything like my poor brother, he won't put up with +it at all." + +"I suppose, in one sense, it's Peter's house, or will be very +shortly?" said the canon. + +"In _every_ sense it's Peter's house," cried Lady Belstone; "and he +comes of age, thank Heaven, in October." + +"I had hoped to hear he had sailed," said the canon. "No news is good +news, I hope." + +"The last telegram said his wound was doing well, but did not give any +date for his return. Young John says we may expect him any time. I do +not know what he knows about it more than any one else, however," said +Miss Crewys. + +"His letters give no details about himself," said Lady Belstone; "he +makes no fuss about his wounded arm. He is a thorough Crewys, not +given to making a to-do about trifles." + +"He could only write a few words with his left hand," said Miss +Crewys; "more could not have been expected of him. Yet poor Mary was +quite put out, as I plainly saw, though she said nothing, because the +boy had not written at greater length." + +"I find they've made a good many preparations for his welcome down in +the village," said the canon, "in case he should take us by surprise. +So many of the officers have got passages at the last moment, +unexpectedly. And we shall turn out to receive him _en masse_. Mr. +Crewys has given us _carte blanche_ for fireworks and flags; and they +are to have a fine bean-feast." + +"Our cousin John takes a great deal upon himself, and has made +uncommonly free with Peter's money," said Lady Belstone, shaking her +head. "I wish he may not find himself pretty nigh ruined when he comes +to look into his own affairs. In my opinion, Fred Crawley is little +better than a fool." + +"He is most devoted to Peter's interests, my dear lady," said the +canon, warmly, "and he informed me that Mr. John Crewys had done +wonders in the past two years." + +"He has turned the whole place topsy-turvy in two years, in my +opinion," said Miss Crewys. "I don't deny that he is a rising young +man, and that his manners are very taking. But what can a Cockney +lawyer know, about timber, pray?" + +"No man on earth, lawyer or no lawyer," said Lady Belstone, +emphatically, "will ever convince me that one can be better than +_well_." + +"My sister alludes to the drains. It is a sore point, canon," said +Miss Crewys. "In my opinion, it is all this modern drainage that sets +up typhoid fever, and nothing else." + +"Bless me!" said the canon. + +"Our poor Mary has grown so dependent on John, however, that she will +hear nothing against him. One has to mind one's p's and q's," said +Lady Belstone. + +"He planned the alterations in this very hall," said Miss Crewys, "and +the only excuse he offered, so far as I could understand, was that it +would amuse poor Mary to carry them out." + +"Does a widow wish to be amused?" said Lady Belstone, indignantly. + +"And was she amused, dear lady?" asked the canon, anxiously. + +"When she saw our horror and dismay she smiled." + +"Did you call that a smile, Georgina? I called it a laugh. It takes +almost nothing to make her laugh nowadays." + +"You would not wish her to be too melancholy," said the canon, almost +pleadingly; "one so--so charming, so--" + +"Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, in awful tones, "she is a widow." + +The canon was silent, displaying an embarrassment which did not escape +the vigilant observation of the sisters, who exchanged a meaning +glance. + +"Well may you remind us of the fact, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "for +she has discarded the last semblance of mourning." + +"Time flies so fast," said the canon, as though impelled to defend +the absent. "It is--getting on for three years since poor Sir Timothy +died." + +"It is but two years and four months," said Miss Crewys. + +"It is thirty-three years since the admiral went aloft," said Lady +Belstone, who often became slightly nautical in phrase when alluding +to her departed husband; "and look at me." + +The pocket-handkerchief she held up was deeply bordered with ink. +Orthodox streamers floated on either side her severe countenance. + +The canon looked and shook his head. He felt that the mysteries of a +widow's garments had best not be discussed by one who dwelt, so to +speak, outside them. + +"Poor Mary can do nothing gradually," said Miss Crewys. "She leapt in +a single hour out of a black dress into a white one." + +"Her anguish when our poor Timothy succumbed to that fatal operation +surpassed even the bounds of decorum," said Lady Belstone, "and +yet--she would not wear a cap!" + +She appealed to the canon with such a pathetic expression in her +small, red-rimmed, grey eyes that he could not answer lightly. + +They faced him with anxious looks and drooping, tremulous mouths. +They had grown curiously alike during the close association of nearly +eighty years, though in their far-off days of girlhood no one had +thought them to resemble each other. + +Miss Crewys crocheted a shawl with hands so delicately cared for and +preserved, that they scarce showed any sign of her great age; her +sister wore gloves, as was the habit of both when unoccupied, and she +grasped her handkerchief in black kid fingers that trembled slightly +with emotion. + +The canon realized that the old ladies were seriously troubled +concerning their sister-in-law's delinquencies. + +"We speak to you, of course, as our _clergyman_," said Miss Crewys; +and the poor gentleman could only bow sympathetically. + +"I am an old friend," he said feelingly, "and your confidences are +sacred. But I think in your very natural--er--affection for Lady +Mary"--the word stuck in his throat--"you are, perhaps, over-anxious. +In judging those younger than ourselves," said the canon, gallantly +coupling himself with his auditors,' though acutely conscious that he +was some twenty years the junior of both, "we must not forget that +they recover their spirits, by a merciful dispensation of Providence, +more quickly than we should ourselves in the like circumstances," said +the canon, who was as light-hearted a cleric as any in England. + +"They do, indeed," said Lady Belstone, emphatically; "when they can +sing and play all the day and half the night, like our dear Mary and +young John." + +"You see the piano blocking up the hall, though Sir Timothy hated +music?" said Miss Crewys. + +Her own mourning was thoughtfully graduated to indicate the time which +had elapsed since Sir Timothy's decease. She wore a violet silk of +sombre hue, ornamented by a black silk apron and a black lace scarf. +The velvet bow which served so very imperfectly as a skull-cap was +also violet, intimating a semi-assuaged, but respectfully lengthened, +grief for the departed. + +"And now this maddest scheme of all," said Miss Crewys. + +"Bless me! What mad scheme?" + +"A house in London is to be hired as soon as Peter comes home." + +"Is that all? But surely that is very natural. For my part, I have +often wondered why none of you ever cared to go to London, if only for +your shopping. I am very fond of a trip to town myself, now and then, +for a few days." + +"A few days, it seems, would not suffice our cousin John's notions. He +is pleased to think Peter may require skilled medical attendance; and, +since he wrote he was in rags, a new outfit. These, it seems, can only +be obtained in the Metropolis nowadays. My brother's tailor still +lives in Exeter; and with all his faults--and nobody can dislike him +more than I do--I have never heard it denied that Dr. Blundell is a +skilful apothecary." + +"_Very_ skilful," added Miss Crewys. "You remember, Isabella, how +quickly he put your poor little Fido out of his agony." + +"That is nothing; all doctors understand animals' illnesses. They kill +numbers of guinea-pigs before they are allowed to try their hands on +human beings," said Lady Belstone. "The point is, that if my poor +brother Timothy had not been mad enough to go to London, he would have +been alive at this moment. I have never heard of Dr. Blundell finding +it necessary--much as I detest the man--to perform an operation on +anybody." + +"Apart from this painful subject, my dear lady," murmured the canon, +"I presume it is only a furnished house that Lady Mary contemplates?" + +"During all the years of his married life Sir Timothy never hired a +furnished house," said Miss Crewys. "The home of his fathers sufficed +him." + +"She may want a change?" suggested the canon. + +Miss Crewys interpreted him literally. "No; she is in the best of +health." + +"Better than I have ever seen her, and--and _gayer_" said Lady +Belstone, with emphasis. + +"People who are gay and bright in disposition are the very ones +who--who pine for a little excitement at times," said the courageous +canon. "There is so much to be seen and done and heard in London. For +instance, as you say--she is passionately fond of music." + +"She gets plenty. _We_ get more than enough," said Miss Crewys, +grimly. + +"I mean _good_ music;" then he recollected himself in alarm. "No, +no; I don't mean hers is not charming, and Mr. John's playing is +delightful, but--" + +"There is an organ in the parish church," said Miss Crewys, crocheting +more busily than ever. "I have heard no complaints of the choir. Have +you?" + +"No, no; but--besides music, there are so many other things," he said +dismally. "She likes pictures, too." + +"It does not look like it, canon," said Lady Belstone, sorrowfully. +She waved her handkerchief towards the panelled walls. "She has +removed the family portraits to the lumber-room." + +"At least the Vandyck has never been seen to greater advantage," +said the canon, hopefully; "and I hear the gallery upstairs has been +restored and supported, to render it safe to walk upon, which will +enable you to take pleasure in the fine pictures there." + +"I am sadly afraid that it is not pictures that poor Mary hankers +after, but _theatres_," said Miss Crewys. "John has persuaded her, +if persuasion was needed, which I take leave to doubt, that there is +nothing improper in visiting such places. My dear brother thought +otherwise." + +"You know I do not share your opinions on that point," said the canon. +"Though not much of a theatre-goer myself, still--" + +"A widow at the theatre!" said Lady Belstone. "Even in the admiral's +lifetime I did not go. Being a sailor, and _not_ a clergyman," she +added sternly, "he frequented such places of amusement. But he said +he could not have enjoyed a ballet properly with me looking on. His +feelings were singularly delicate." "I am afraid people must be +talking about dear Mary a good deal, canon," said Miss Crewys, +whisking a ball of wool from the floor to her knee with much +dexterity. + +Her keen eyes gleamed at her visitor through her spectacles, though +her fingers never stopped for a moment. + +"I hope not. I've heard nothing." + +"My experience of men," said Lady Belstone, "is that they never _do_ +hear anything. But a widow cannot be too cautious in her behaviour. +All eyes are fixed, I know not why, upon a widow," she added modestly. + +"We do our best to guard dear Mary's reputation," said Miss Crewys. + +The impetuous canon sprang to his feet with a half-uttered +exclamation; then recollecting the age and temperament of the speaker, +he checked himself and tried to laugh. + +"I do not know," he said, "who has said, or ever could say, one single +word against that--against our dear and sweet Lady Mary. But if there +_is_ any one, I can only say that such word had better not be uttered +in my presence, that's all." + +"Dear me, Canon Birch, you excite yourself very unnecessarily," said +Lady Belstone, with assumed surprise. "You are just confirming our +suspicions." + +"What suspicions?" almost shouted the canon, + +"That our dear Lady Mary's extraordinary partiality for our cousin +John has _not_ escaped the observation of a censorious world." + +"Though we have done our best never to leave him alone with her for a +single moment," interpolated Miss Crewys. + +The canon turned rather pale. "There can be no question of censure," +he said. "Lady Mary is a very charming and beautiful woman. Who could +dare to blame her if she contemplated such a step as--as a second +marriage?" + +"A second marriage! We said nothing of a second marriage," said Lady +Belstone, sharply. "You go a great deal too fast, canon. Luckily, our +poor Mary is debarred from any such act of folly. I have no patience +with widows who re-marry." + +"Debarred from a second marriage!" + +"Is it possible you don't know?" + +The sisters exchanged meaning glances. + +He looked from one to the other in bewilderment. + +"If our sister-in-law remarries," said Miss Crewys, "she forfeits the +whole of her jointure." + +"Is that all?" he cried. + +"Is that all!" echoed Miss Crewys, much offended. "It is no less than +two thousand a year. In my opinion, far too heavy a charge on poor +Peter's estate." + +"No man with any self-respect," said Lady Belstone, "would desire to +marry a widow without a jointure. I should have formed a low opinion, +indeed, of any gentleman who asked _me_ to marry him without first +making sure that the admiral had provided for me as he ought, and as +he _has_." + +The canon, though mentally echoing the sentiment with much warmth, +thought it wiser to change the topic of conversation. Experience +had taught him to discredit most of the assumptions of Lady Mary's +sisters-in-law, where she was concerned, and he rose in hope of +effecting his escape without further ado. + +"I believe I am to meet Mr. Crewys at luncheon," he said, "and with +your permission I will stroll out into the grounds, and look him up. +He told me where he was to be found." + +"He is to be found all over the place. He seizes every opportunity +of coming down here. I cannot believe in his making so much money in +London, when he manages to get away so often. As for Mary, you know +her way of inviting people to lunch, and then going out for a walk, +or up to her room, as likely as not. But I suppose she will be down +directly, if you like to wait here," said Lady Belstone, who had +plenty more to say. + +"I should be glad of a turn before luncheon," said the canon, who had +no mind to hear it. "And there is an hour and a half yet. You lunch at +two? I came straight from the school-house, as Lady Mary suggested. I +wanted to have a look at the improvements." + +"Sarah Hewel is coming to lunch," said Miss Crewys. "I cannot say we +approve of her, since she has been out so much in London, and become +such a notorious young person." + +"It's very odd to me," said the canon, benevolently, "little Sarah +growing up into a fashionable beauty. I often see her name in the +papers." + +"She is exactly the kind of person to attract our cousin John, who is +quite foolish about her red hair. In my young days, red hair was just +a misfortune like any other," said Miss Crewys. "Dr. Blundell is +lunching here also, I need hardly say. Since my dear brother's death +we keep open house." + +"It used not to be the fashion to encourage country doctors to be tame +cats," said Lady Belstone, viciously; "but he pretends to like the +innovations, and gets round young John; and inquires after Peter, and +pleases Mary." + +"Ay, ay; it will be a great moment for her when the boy comes back. A +great moment for you all," said the canon, absently. + +He stood with his back to the tall leather screen which guarded the +entrance to the hall, and did not hear the gentle opening of the great +door. + +"I trust," said Miss Crewys, "that we are not a family prone to +display weak emotion even on the most trying occasions." + +"To be sure not," said the canon, disconcerted; "still, I cannot think +of it myself without a little--a great deal--of thankfulness for his +preservation through this terrible war, now so happily ended. And to +think the boy should have earned so much distinction for himself, and +behaved so gallantly. God bless the lad! You are well aware," said the +canon, blowing his nose, "that I have always been fond of Peter." + +"Thank you, canon," said Peter. + +For a moment no one was sure that it was Peter, who had come so +quietly round the great screen and into the hall, though he stood +somewhat in the shadow still. + +A young man, looking older than his age, and several inches taller +than Peter had been when he went away; a young man deeply tanned, and +very wiry and thin in figure; with a brown, narrow face, a dark streak +of moustache, a long nose, and a pair of grey eyes rendered unfamiliar +by an eyeglass, which was an ornament Peter had not worn before his +departure. + +The old ladies sat motionless, trembling with the shock; but the canon +seized the hand which Peter held out, and, scarcely noticing that it +was his left hand, shook it almost madly in both his own. + +"Peter! good heavens, Peter!" he cried, and the tears ran unheeded +down his plump, rosy cheeks. "Peter, my boy, God bless you! Welcome +home a thousand thousand times!" + +"Peter!" gasped Lady Belstone. "Is it possible?" + +"Why, he's grown into a man," said Miss Crewys, showing symptoms of an +inclination to become hysterical. + +Peter was aghast at the commotion, and came hurriedly forward to +soothe his agitated relatives. + +"Is this your boasted self-command, Georgina?" said Lady Belstone, +weeping. + +"We cannot always be consistent, Isabella. It was the unexpected joy," +sobbed Miss Crewys. + +"Peter! your _arm_!" screamed Lady Belstone and she fell back almost +fainting upon the sofa. + +Peter stood full in the light now, and they saw that he had lost his +right arm. The empty sleeve was pinned to his breast. + +His aunt tottered towards him. "My poor boy!" she sobbed. + +"Oh, that's all right," said Peter, in rather annoyed tones. "I can +use my left hand perfectly well. I hardly notice it now." + +Something in the tone of this speech caused his aunts to exclaim +simultaneously-- + +"Dear boy, he has not changed one bit!" + +"You never told us, Peter," said the canon, huskily. + +"I didn't want a fuss," Peter said, very simply, "so I just got the +newspaper chap to cork it down about my being shot in the arm, without +any details. It had to be amputated first thing, as a matter of fact." + +"It has given your aunt Georgina and me a terrible shock," said Lady +Belstone, faintly. + +"You can't expect a fellow who has been invalided home to turn up +without a single scratch," said Peter, in rather surly tones. + +"How like his father!" said Miss Crewys. + +"Besides, you know very well my mother would have tormented herself to +death if I had told her," said Peter. "I want her to see with her own +eyes how perfectly all right I am before she knows anything about it." + +"It was a noble thought," said the canon. + +"Where is she?" demanded Peter. + +He seemed about to cross the hall to the staircase but the canon +detained him. + +"Oughtn't some one to prepare her?" + +"Oh, joy never kills," said Peter. "She's quite well, isn't she?" + +"Quite well." + +"Very well _indeed_" said Miss Crewys, with emphasis that seemed to +imply Lady Mary was better than she had any need to be. + +"I have never," said the canon, with a nervous side-glance at Peter, +"seen her look so well, nor so--so lovely, nor so--so brilliant. Only +your return was needed to complete--her happiness." + +Peter looked at the canon through his newly acquired eyeglass with +some slight surprise. + +"Well," he said, "I wouldn't telegraph. I wanted to slip home quietly, +that's the fact; or I knew the place would be turned upside down to +receive me." + +"The people are preparing a royal welcome for you," said the canon, +warmly. "Banners, music, processions, addresses, and I don't know +what." + +"That's awful rot!" said Peter. "Tell them I hate banners and music +and addresses, and everything of the kind." + +"No, no, my dear boy," said the canon, in rather distressed tones. +"Don't say that, Peter, pray. You must think of _their_ feelings, you +know. There's hardly one of them who hasn't sent somebody to the war; +son or brother or sweetheart. And all that's left for--for those who +stay behind--not always the least hard thing to do for a patriot, +Peter--is to honour, as far as they can, each one who returns. They +work off some of their accumulated feelings that way, you know; and in +their rejoicings they do not forget those who, alas! will never return +any more." + +There was a pause; and Peter remained silent, embarrassed by the +canon's emotion, and not knowing very well how to reply. + +"There, there," said the canon, saving him the trouble; "we can +discuss it later. You are thinking of your mother now." + +As he spoke, they all heard Lady Mary's voice in the corridor above. +She was humming a song, and as she neared the open staircase the words +of her song came very distinctly to their ears-- + + _Entends tu ma pensée qui le réspond tout bas_? + _Ton doux chant me rappelle les plus beaux de mes jours_. + +"My mother's voice," said Peter, in bewildered accents; and he dropped +his eyeglass. + +The canon showed a presence of mind that seldom distinguished him. + +He hurried away the old ladies, protesting, into the drawing-room, and +closed the door behind him. + +Peter scarcely noticed their absence. + + _Ah! le rire fidèle prouve un coeur sans détours, + Ah! riez, riez--ma belle--riez, riez toujours_, + +sang Lady Mary. + +"I never heard my mother sing before," said Peter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Lady Mary came down the oak staircase singing. The white draperies of +her summer gown trailed softly on the wide steps, and in her hands she +carried a quantity of roses. A black ribbon was bound about her waist, +and seemed only to emphasize the slenderness of her form. Her brown +hair was waved loosely above her brow; it was not much less abundant, +though much less bright, than in her girlhood. The freshness of youth +had gone for ever; but her loveliness had depended less upon that +radiant colouring which had once been hers than upon her clear-cut +features, and exquisitely shaped head and throat. Her blue eyes looked +forth from a face white and delicate as a shell cameo, beneath finely +pencilled brows; but they shone now with a new hopefulness--a timid +expectancy of happiness; they were no longer pensive and downcast as +Peter had known them best. + +The future had been shrouded by a heavy mist of hopelessness +always--for Lady Mary. But the fog had lifted, and a fair landscape +lay before her. Not bright, alas! with the brightness and the promise +of the morning-time; but yet--there are sunny afternoons; and the +landscape was bright still, though long shadows from the past fell +across it. + +Peter saw only that his mother, for some extraordinary reason, looked +many years younger than when he had left her, and that she had +exchanged her customary dull, old-fashioned garb for a beautiful and +becoming dress. He gave an involuntary start, and immediately she +perceived him. + +She stretched out her arms to him with a cry that rang through the +rafters of the hall. The roses were scattered. + +"My boy! O God, my darling boy!" + +In the space of a flash--a second--Lady Mary had seen and understood. +Her arms were round him, and her face hidden upon his empty sleeve. +She was as still as death. Peter stooped his head and laid his cheek +against her hair; he felt for one fleeting moment that he had never +known before how much he loved his mother. + +"Forgive me for keeping it dark, mother," he whispered presently; "but +I knew you'd think I was dying, or something, if I told you. It had to +be done, and I don't care--much--now; one gets used to anything. My +aunts nearly had a fit when I came in; but I knew _you'd_ be too +thankful to get me home safe and sound, to make a fuss over what can't +be helped. It's--it's just the fortune of war." + +"Oh, if I could meet the man who did it!" she cried, with fire in her +blue eyes. + +"It wasn't a man; it was a gun," said Peter. "Let's forget it. I +say--doesn't it feel rummy to be at home again?" + +"But you have come back a man, Peter. Not a boy at all," said Lady +Mary, laughing through her tears. "Do let me look at you. You must be +six feet three, surely." + +"Barely six feet one in my boots," said Peter, reprovingly. + +"And you have a moustache--more or less." + +"Of course I have a moustache," said Peter, gravely stroking it. He +mechanically replaced his eyeglass. + +Lady Mary laughed till she cried. + +"Do forgive me, darling. But oh, Peter, it seems so strange. My boy +grown into a tall gentleman with an eyeglass. Nothing has happened to +your eye?" she cried, in sudden anxiety. + +"No, no; I am just a little short-sighted, that is all," he mumbled, +rather awkwardly. + +He found it difficult to explain that he had travelled home with a +distinguished man who had captivated his youthful fancy, and caused +him to fall into a fit of hero-worship, and to imitate his idol as +closely as possible. Hence the eyeglass, and a few harmless mannerisms +which temporarily distinguished Peter, and astonished his previous +acquaintance. + +But there was something else in Peter's manner, too, for the moment. +A new tenderness, which peeped through his old armour of sulky +indifference; the chill armour of his boyhood, which had grown +something too strait and narrow for him even now, and from which he +would doubtless presently emerge altogether--but not yet. + +Though Lady Mary laughed, she was trembling and shaken with emotion. +Peter came to the sofa and knelt beside her there, and she took his +hand in both hers, and laid her face upon it, and they were very still +for a few moments. + +"Mother dear," said Peter presently, without looking at her, "coming +home like this, and not finding my father here, makes me _realize_ for +the first time--though it's all so long ago--what's happened." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Poor mother! You must have been terribly lonely all this time I've +been away." + +"I've longed for your return, my darling," said Lady Mary. + +Her tone was embarrassed, but Peter did not notice that. + +"You see--I went away a boy, but I've come back a man, as you said +just now," said Peter. + +"You're still very young, my darling--not one-and-twenty," she said +fondly. + +"I'm older than my age; and I've been through a lot; more than you'd +think, all this time I've been away. I dare say it hasn't seemed so +long to you, who've had no experiences to go through," he said simply. + +She kissed him silently. + +"Now just listen, mother dear," said Peter, firmly. "I made up my mind +to say something to you the very first minute I saw you, and it's got +to be said. I'm sorry I used to be such a beast to you--there." + +"Oh, Peter!" + +"I dare say," said Peter, "that it's all this rough time in South +Africa that's made me feel what a fool I used to make of myself, when +I was a discontented ass of a boy; that, or being ill, or something, +used to--make one think a bit. And that's why I made up my mind to +tell you. I know I used to disappoint you horribly, and be bored by +your devotion, and all that. But you'll see," said Peter, decidedly, +"that I mean to be different now; and you'll forgive me, won't you?" + +"My darling, I forgave you long ago--if there was anything to +forgive," she cried, + +"You know there was," said Peter; and he sounded like the boy Peter +again, now that she could not see his face. "Well, my soldiering's +done for." A faint note of regret sounded in his voice. "I had a good +bout, so I suppose I oughtn't to complain; but I had hoped--however, +it's all for the best. And there's no doubt," said Peter, "that my +duty lies here now. In a very few months I shall be my own master, and +I mean to keep everything going here exactly as it was in my father's +time. You shall devote yourself to me, and I'll devote myself to +Barracombe; and we'll just settle down into all the old ways. Only it +will be me instead of my father--that's all." + +"You instead of your father--that's all," echoed Lady Mary. She felt +as though her mind had suddenly become a blank. + +"I used to rebel against poor papa," said Peter, remorsefully. "But +now I look back, I know he was just the kind of man I should like to +be." + +She kissed his hand in silence. Her face was hidden. + +"I want you--and my aunts, to feel that, though I am young and +inexperienced, and all that," said Peter, tenderly, "there are to be +no changes." + +"But, Peter," said his mother, rather tremulously, "there are--sure +to be--changes. You will want to marry, sooner or later. In your +position, you are almost bound to marry." + +"Oh, of course," said Peter. He released his hand gently, in order to +stroke the cherished moustache. "But I shall put off the evil day as +long as possible, like my father did." + +"I see," said Lady Mary. She smiled faintly. + +"And when it _does_ arrive," said Peter, "my wife will just have to +understand that she comes second. I've no notion of being led by the +nose by any woman, particularly a young woman. I'm sure my father +never dreamt of putting his sisters on one side, or turning them out +of their place, when he married _you_, did he?" + +"Never," said Lady Mary. + +"Of course they were snappish at times. I suppose all old people +get like that. But, on the whole, you managed to jog along pretty +comfortably, didn't you?" + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary. "We jogged along pretty comfortably." + +"Then don't you see how snug we shall be?" said Peter, triumphantly. +"I can tell you a fellow learns to appreciate home when he has been +without one, so to speak, for over two years. And home wouldn't be +home without you, mother dear." + +Lady Mary sank suddenly back among the cushions. Her feelings were +divided between dismay and self-reproach. Yet she was faintly amused +too--amused at Peter and herself. Her boy had returned to her with +sentiments that were surely all that a mother could desire; and +yet--yet she felt instinctively that Peter was Peter still; that +his thoughts were not her thoughts, nor his ways her ways. Then the +self-reproach began to predominate in Lady Mary's mind. How could she +criticize her boy, her darling, who had proved himself a son to be +proud of, and who had come back to her with a heart so full of love +and loyalty? + +"And _you_ couldn't live without _me_, could you?" said Peter, +affectionately; and he laughed. "I suppose you meant to go into that +little, damp, tumble-down Dower House, and watch over me from there; +now didn't you, mummy?" + +"I--I thought, when you came of age," faltered Lady Mary, "that I +should give up Barracombe House to you, naturally. I could come and +stay with you sometimes--whether you were married or not, you know. +And--and, of course, the Dower House _does_ belong to me." + +"I won't hear of your going there," said Peter, stoutly, "whether I'm +married or not. It's a beastly place." + +"It's very picturesque," said Lady Mary, guiltily; "and I--I wasn't +thinking of living there all the year round." + +"Why, where on earth else could you have gone?" he demanded, regarding +her with astonishment through the eyeglass. + +"There are several places--London," she faltered. + +"London!" said Peter; "but my father had a perfect horror of London. +He wouldn't have liked it at all." + +"He belonged--to the old school," said Lady Mary, meekly; "to +younger people, perhaps--an occasional change might be pleasant and +profitable." + +"Oh! to _younger_ people," said Peter, in mollified tones. "I don't +say I shall _never_ run up to London. I dare say I shall be obliged, +now and then, on business. Not often though. I hate absentee +landlords, as my father did." + +"Travelling is said to open the mind," murmured Lady Mary, weakly +pursuing her argument, as she supposed it to be. + +"I've seen enough of the world now to last me a lifetime," said Peter, +in sublime unconsciousness that any fate but his own could be in +question. + +"I didn't think you would have changed so much as this, Peter," she +said, rather dismally. "You used to find this place so dull." + +"I know I used," Peter agreed; "but oh, mother, if you knew how sick +I've been now and then with longing to get back to it! I made up my +mind a thousand times how it should all be when I came home again; and +that you and me would be everything in the world to each other, as you +used to wish when I was a selfish boy, thinking only of getting +away and being independent. I'm afraid I used to be rather selfish, +mother?" + +"Perhaps you were--a little," said Lady Mary. + +"You will never have to complain of _that_ again," said Peter. + +She looked at him with a faint, pathetic smile. + +"I shall take care of you, and look after you, just as my father used +to do," said Peter. "Now you rest quietly here"--and he gently laid +her down among the cushions on the sofa--"whilst I take a look round +the old place." + +"Let me come with you, darling." + +"Good heavens, no! I should tire you to death. My father never liked +you to go climbing about." + +"I am much more active than I used to be," said Lady Mary. + +"No, no; you must lie down, you look quite pale." Peter's voice took +an authoritative note, which came very naturally to him. "The sudden +joy of my return has been too much for you, poor old mum." + +He leant over her fondly, and kissed the sweet, pale face, and then +regarded her in a curious, doubtful manner. + +"You're changed, mother. I can't think what it is. Isn't your hair +done differently--or something?" + +Poor Lady Mary lifted both hands to her head, and looked at him with +something like alarm in her blue eyes. + +"Is it? Perhaps it is," she faltered. "Don't you like it, Peter?" + +"I like the old way best," said Peter. + +"But this is so much more becoming, Peter." + +"A fellow doesn't care," said Peter, loftily, "whether his mother's +hair is becoming or not. He likes to see her always the same as when +he was a little chap." + +"It is--sweet of you, to have such a thought," murmured Lady Mary. She +took her courage in both hands. "But the other way is out of fashion, +Peter." + +"Why, mother, you never used to follow the fashions before I went +away; you won't begin now, at your age, will you?" + +"_At my age_" repeated Lady Mary, blankly. Then she looked at him with +that wondering, pathetic smile, which seemed to have replaced already, +since Peter came home, the joyousness which had timidly stolen back +from her vanished youth. "At my age!" said Lady Mary; "you are not +very complimentary, Peter." + +"You don't expect a fellow to pay compliments to his mother," said +Peter, staring at her. "Why, mother, what has come to you? And +besides--" + +"Besides?" + +"I'm sure papa hated compliments, and all that sort of rot," Peter +blurted out, in boyish fashion. "Don't you remember how fond he was of +quoting, 'Praise to the face is open disgrace'?" + +The late Sir Timothy, like many middle-class people, had taken a +compliment almost as a personal offence; and regarded the utterer, +however gracious or sincere, with suspicion. Neither had the squire +himself erred on the side of flattering his fellow-creatures. + +"Oh yes, I remember," said Lady Mary; and she rose from the sofa. + +"Why, what's the matter?" asked Peter. "I haven't vexed you, have I?" + +She turned impetuously and threw her arms round him as he stood by the +hearth, gazing down upon her in bewilderment. + +"Vexed with my boy, my darling, my only son, on the very day when God +has given him back to me?" she cried passionately. "My poor wounded +boy, my hero! Oh no, no! But I want only love from you to-day, and no +reproaches, Peter." + +"Why, I wasn't dreaming of reproaching you, mother." He hesitated. +"Only you're a bit different from what I expected--that's all." + +"Have I disappointed you?" + +"No, no! Only I--well, I thought I might find you changed, but in a +different way," he said, half apologetically. "Perhaps older, you +know, or--or sadder." + +Lady Mary's white face flushed scarlet from brow to chin; but Peter, +occupied with his monocle, observed nothing. + +"I'd prepared myself for that," he said, "and to find you all in +black. And--" + +"I threw off my mourning," she murmured, "the very day I heard you +were coming home." She paused, and added hurriedly, "It was very +thoughtless. I'm sorry; I ought to have thought of your feelings, my +darling." + +"Aunt Isabella has never changed hers, has she?" said Peter. + +"Aunt Isabella is a good deal more conventional than I am; and a great +many years older," said Lady Mary, tremulously. + +"I don't see what that has to do with it," said Peter. + +She turned away, and began to gather up her scattered roses. A few +moments since the roses had been less than nothing to her. What were +roses, what was anything, compared to Peter? Now they crept back into +their own little place in creation; their beauty and fragrance dumbly +conveyed a subtle comfort to her soul, as she lovingly laid one +against another, until a glowing bouquet of coppery golden hue was +formed. She lifted an ewer from the old dresser, and poured water into +a great silver goblet, wherein she plunged the stalks of her roses. +Why should they be left to fade because Peter had come home? + +"You remember these?" she said, "from the great climber round my +bedroom window? I leant out and cut them--little thinking--" + +Peter signified a gloomy assent. He stood before the chimneypiece +watching his mother, but not offering to help her; rather as though +undecided as to what his next words ought to be. + +"Peter, darling, it's so funny to see you standing there, so tall, and +so changed--" But though it was so funny the tears were dropping from +her blue eyes, which filled and overflowed like a child's, without +painful effort or grimaces. "You--you remind me so of your father," +she said, almost involuntarily. + +"I'm glad I'm like him," said Peter. + +She sighed. "How I used to wish you were a little tiny bit like me +too!" + +"But I'm not, am I?" + +"No, you're not. Not one tiny bit," she answered wistfully. "But you +do love me, Peter?" + +"Haven't I proved I love you?" said Peter; and she perceived that +his feelings were hurt. "Coming back, and--and thinking only of you, +and--and of never leaving you any more. Why, mother"--for in an agony +of love and remorse she was clinging to him and sobbing, with her face +pressed against his empty sleeve--"why, mother," Peter repeated, in +softened tones, "of course I love you." + +The drawing-room door was cautiously opened, and Peter's aunts came +into the hall on tiptoe, followed by the canon. + +"Ah, I thought so," said Lady Belstone, in the self-congratulatory +tones of the successful prophet, "it has been too much for poor Mary. +She has been overcome by the joy of dear Peter's return." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +"Try my salts, dear Mary," said Miss Crewys, hastening to apply the +remedies which were always to be found in her black velvet reticule. + +"I blame myself," said the canon, distressfully--"I blame myself. I +should have insisted on breaking the news to her gently." + +Lady Mary smiled upon them all. "On the contrary," she said, "I was +offering, not a moment ago, to take Peter round and show him the +improvements. We have been so much occupied with each other that he +has not had time to look round him." + +"I wish he may think them improvements, my love," said Lady Belstone. + +Miss Crewys, joyously scenting battle, hastened to join forces with +her sister. + +"We are far from criticizing any changes your dear mother may have +been induced to make," she said; "but as your Aunt Isabella has +frequently observed to me, what _can_ a Londoner know of landscape +gardening?" + +"A Londoner?" said Peter. + +"Your guardian, my boy," said the canon, nervously. "He has slightly +opened out the views; that is all your good aunt is intending to say." + +Peter's good aunt opened her mouth to contradict this assertion +indignantly, but Lady Mary broke in with some impatience. + +"I do not mean the trees. Of course the house was shut in far too +closely by the trees at the back and sides. We wanted more air, more +light, more freedom." She drew a long breath and flung out her hands +in unconscious illustration. "But there are many very necessary +changes that--that Peter will like to see," said Lady Mary, glancing +almost defiantly at the pursed-up mouths and lowered eyelids of the +sisters. + +Peter walked suddenly into the middle of the banqueting-hall and +looked round him. + +"Why, what's come to the old place? It's--it's changed somehow. What +have you been doing to it?" he demanded. + +"Don't you--don't you like it, Peter?" faltered Lady Mary. "The roof +was not safe, you know, and had to be mended, and--and when it was +all done up, the furniture and curtains looked so dirty and ugly and +inappropriate. I sent them away and brought down some of the beautiful +old things that belonged to your great-grandmother, and made the hall +brighter and more livable." + +Peter examined the new aspect of his domain with lowering brow. + +"I don't like it at all," he announced, finally. "I hate changes." + +The sisters breathed again. "So like his father!" + +Their allegiance to Sir Timothy had been transferred to his heir. + +"Your guardian approved," said Lady Mary. + +She turned proudly away, but she could not keep the pain altogether +out of her voice. Neither would she stoop to solicit Peter's approval +before her rejoicing opponents. + +"Mr. John Crewys is a very great connoisseur," said the canon. He +taxed his memory for corroborative evidence, and brought out the +result with honest pride. "I believe, curiously enough, that he spends +most of his spare time at the British Museum." + +Lady Mary's lip quivered with laughter in the midst of her very real +distress and mortification. + +But the argument appeared to the canon a most suitable one, and he was +further encouraged by Peter's reception of it. + +"If my guardian approves, I suppose it's all right," said the young +man, with an effort. "My father left all that sort of thing in his +hands, I understand, and he knew what he was doing. I say, where's +that great vase of wax flowers that used to stand on the centre table +under a glass shade?" + +"Darling," said Lady Mary, "it jarred so with the whole scheme of +decoration." + +"I am taking care of that in my room, Peter," said Miss Crewys. + +"And the stuffed birds, and the weasels, and the ferrets that I was so +fond of when I was a little chap. You don't mean to say you've done +away with those too?" cried Peter, wrathfully. + +"They--they are in the gun-room," said Lady Mary. "It seemed such +a--such--an appropriate place for them." + +"I believe," said the canon, nervously, "that stuffing is no longer +considered decorative. After all, _why_ should we place dead animals +in our sitting-rooms?" + +He looked round with the anxious smile of the would-be peacemaker. + +"They were very much worm-eaten, Peter," said Lady Mary. "But if you +would like them brought back--" + +Perhaps the pain in her voice penetrated even Peter's perception, for +he glanced hastily towards her. + +"It doesn't matter," he said magnanimously. "If you and my guardian +decided they were rotten, there's an end of it. Of course I'd rather +have things as they used to be; but after all this time, I expect +there's bound to be a few changes." He turned from the contemplation +of the hall to face his relatives squarely, with the air of an +autocrat who had decreed that the subject was at an end. + +"By-the-by," said Peter, "where _is_ John Crewys? They told me he was +stopping here." + +"He will be in directly," said Lady Mary, "and Sarah Hewel ought to be +here presently too. She is coming to luncheon." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. "I should like to see her again. Is she still +such a rum little toad? Always getting into scrapes, and coming to you +for comfort?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, and her blue eyes twinkled--"I think you +may be surprised to see little Sarah. She is grown up now." + +"Of course," said Peter. "She's only a year younger than I am." + +Lady Mary wondered why Peter's way of saying _of course_ jarred upon +her so much. He had always been brusque and abrupt; it was the family +fashion. Was it because she had grown accustomed to the tactful and +gentle methods of John Crewys that it seemed to have become suddenly +such an intolerable fashion? Sir Timothy had quite honestly believed +tactfulness to be a form of insincerity. He did not recognize it as +the highest outward expression of self-control. But Lady Mary, since +she had known John Crewys, knew also that it is consideration for +the feelings of others which causes the wise man to order his speech +carefully. + +The canon shook his head when Peter stated that Miss Hewel was his +junior by a twelvemonth. + +"She might be ten years older," he said, in awe-struck tones. "I have +always heard that women were extraordinarily adaptable, but I never +realized it before. However, to be sure, she has seen a good deal more +of the world than you have. More than most of us, though in such a +comparatively short space of time. But she is one in a thousand for +quickness." + +"Seen more of the world than I have?" said Peter, astonished. "Why, +I've been soldiering in South Africa for over two years." + +"I don't think soldiering brings much worldly wisdom in its train. I +should be rather sorry to think it did," said Lady Mary, gently. "But +Sarah has been with Lady Tintern all this while." + +"A very worldly woman, indeed, from all I have heard," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +"But a very great lady," said Lady Mary, "who knows all the famous +people, not only in England, but in Europe. The daughter of a viceroy, +and the wife of a man who was not only a peer, and a great landowner, +but also a distinguished ambassador. And she has taken Sarah +everywhere, and the child is an acknowledged beauty in London and +Paris. Lady Tintern is delighted with her, and declares she has taken +the world by storm." + +"We never thought her a beauty down here," said Peter, rather +contemptuously. + +"Perhaps we did not appreciate her sufficiently down here," said Lady +Mary, smiling. + +"Why, who is she, after all?" cried Peter. + +"A very beautiful and self-possessed young woman, and Lady Tintern's +niece, 'whom not to know argues yourself unknown,'" said Lady Mary, +laughing outright. "John says people were actually mobbing her picture +in the Academy; he could not get near it." + +"I mean," said Peter, almost sulkily, "that she's only old Colonel +Hewel's daughter, whom we've known all our lives." + +"Perhaps one is in danger of undervaluing people one has known all +one's life," said Lady Mary, lightly. + +Peter muttered something to the effect that he was sorry to hear Sarah +had grown up like that; but his words were lost in the tumultuous +entry of Dr. Blundell, who pealed the front door bell, and rushed into +the hall, almost simultaneously. + +His dark face was flushed and enthusiastic. He came straight to Peter, +and held out his hand. + +"A thousand welcomes, Sir Peter. Lady Mary, I congratulate you. I came +up in my dog-cart as fast as possible, to let you know the people +are turning out _en masse_ to welcome you. They're assembling at +the Crewys Arms, and going to hurry up to the house in a regular +procession, band and all." + +"We're proud of our young hero, you see," said the canon; and he laid +his hand affectionately on Peter's shoulder. + +"You will have to say a few words to them," said Lady Mary. + +"Must I?" said the hero. "Let's go out on the terrace and see what's +going on. We can watch them the whole way up." + +He opened the door into the south drawing-rooms; and through the open +windows there floated the distant strains of the village band. + +"Canon, your arm," said Lady Belstone. + +Lady Mary and her son had hastened out on to the terrace. + +The old ladies paused in the doorway; they were particular in such +matters. + +"I believe I take precedence, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, +apologetically. + +"I am far from disputing it, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, drawing back +with great dignity. "You are the elder." + +"Age does not count in these matters. I take precedence, as a married +woman. Will you bring up the rear, Georgina, as my poor admiral would +have said?" + +Miss Crewys bestowed a parting toss of the head upon the doctor, and +followed her victorious sister. + +The doctor laughed silently to himself, standing in the pretty shady +drawing-room; now gay with flowers, and chintz, and Dresden china. + +"I wonder if she would not have been even more annoyed with my +presumption if I _had_ offered her my arm," he said to himself, +amusedly, "than she is offended by my neglect to do so?" + +He did not follow the others into the blinding sunshine of the +terrace. He had had a long morning's work, and was hot and tired. He +looked at his watch. + +"Past one o'clock; h'm! we are lucky if we get anything to eat before +half-past two. All the servants have run out, of course. No use +ringing for whisky and seltzer. All the better. But, at least, one can +rest." + +The pleasantness of the room refreshed his spirit. The interior of his +own house in Brawnton was not much more enticing than the exterior. +The doctor had no time to devote to such matters. He sat down very +willingly in a big armchair, and enjoyed a moment's quiet in the +shade; glancing through the half-closed green shutters at the +brilliant picture without. + +The top level of the terrace garden was carpeted with pattern beds of +heliotrope, and lobelia, and variegated foliage. Against the faint +blue-green of the opposite hill rose the grey stone urns on the +pillars of the balcony; and from the urns hung trailing ivy geraniums +with pink or scarlet blossom, making splashes of colour on the +background of grey distance. Round the pillars wound large blue +clematis, and white passion-flowers. + +Lady Mary stood full in the sunshine, which lent once more the golden +glory of her vanished youth to her brown hair, and the dazzle of +new-fallen snow to her summer gown. + +Close to her side, touching her, stood the young soldier; straight and +tall, with uncovered head, towering above the little group. + +The old sisters had parasols, and the canon wore his shovel hat; but +the doctor wasted no time in observing their manifestations of delight +and excitement. + +"So my beautiful lady has got her precious boy back safe and sound, +save for his right arm, and doubly precious because that is missing. +God bless her a thousand times!" he thought to himself. "But her sweet +face looked more sorrowful than joyful when I came in. What had he +been saying, I wonder, to make her look like that, _already_?" + +John Crewys entered from the hall. "What's this I hear," he said, in +glad tones--"the hero returned?" + +"Ay," said the doctor. "Sir Timothy is forgotten, and Sir Peter reigns +in his stead." + +"Where is Lady Mary?" + +The doctor drew him to the window. "There," he said grimly. "Why don't +you go out and join her?" + +"She has her son," said John, smiling. + +He looked with interest at the group on the terrace; then he started +back with an exclamation of horror. + +"Why, good heavens--" + +"Yes," said the doctor quietly, "the poor fellow has lost his right +arm." + +There was a sound of distant cheering, and the band could be heard +faintly playing the _Conquering Hero_. + +"He said nothing of it," said John. + +"No; he's a plucky chap, with all his faults." + +"Has he so many faults?" said John. + +The doctor shook his head. "I'm mistaken if he won't turn out a chip +of the old block. Though he's better-looking than his father, he's got +Sir Timothy's very expression." + +"He's turned out a gallant soldier, anyway," said John, cheerily. +"Don't croak, Blundell; we'll make a man of him yet." + +"Please God you may, for his mother's sake," said the doctor; and he +returned to his armchair. + +John Crewys stood by the open French window, and drank in the +refreshing breeze which fluttered the muslin curtains. His calm and +thoughtful face was turned away from the doctor, who knew very well +why John's gaze was so intent upon the group without. + +"Shall I warn him, or shall I let it alone?" thought Blundell. "I +suppose they have been waiting only for this. If that selfish cub +objects, as he will--I feel very sure of that--will she be weak enough +to sacrifice her happiness, or can I trust John Crewys? He looks +strong enough to take care of himself, and of her." + +He looked at John's decided profile, silhouetted against the curtain, +and thought of Peter's narrow face. "Weak but obstinate," he muttered +to himself. "Shrewd, suspicious eyes, but a receding chin. What chance +would the boy have against a man? A man with strength to oppose him, +and brains to outwit him. None, save for the one undoubted fact--the +boy holds his mother's heart in the hollow of his careless hands." + +There was a tremendous burst of cheering, no longer distant, and the +band played louder. + +Lady Mary came hurrying across the terrace. Weeping and agitated, and +half blinded by her tears, she stumbled over the threshold of the +window, and almost fell into John's arms. He drew her into the shadow +of the curtain. + +"John," she cried; she saw no one else. "Oh, I can't bear it! Oh, +Peter, Peter, my boy, my poor boy!" + +The doctor, with a swift and noiseless movement, turned the handle of +the window next him, and let himself out on to the terrace. + +When John looked up he was already gone. Lady Mary did not hear the +slight sound. + +"Oh, John," she said, "my boy's come home--but--but--" + +"I know," John said, very tenderly. + +"I was afraid of breaking down before them all," she whispered. "Peter +was afraid I should break down, and I felt my weakness, and came +away." + +"To me," said John. + +His heart beat strongly. He drew her more closely into his arms, +deeply conscious that he held thus, for the first time, all he loved +best in the world. + +"To you," said poor Lady Mary, very simply; as though aware only +of the rest and support that refuge offered, and not of all of its +strangeness. "Alas! it has grown so natural to come to _you_ now." + +"It will grow more natural every day," said John. + +She shook her head. "There is Peter now," she said faintly. Then, +looking into his face, she realized that John was not thinking of +Peter. + +For a moment's space Lady Mary, too, forgot Peter. She leant against +the broad shoulder of the man who loved her; and felt as though all +trouble, and disappointment, and doubt had slidden off her soul, and +left her only the blissful certainty of happy rest. + +Then she laid her hand very gently and entreatingly on his arm. + +"I will not let you go," said John. "You came to me--at last--of your +own accord, Mary." + +She coloured deeply and leant away from his arm, looking up at him in +distress. + +"I could not help it, John," she said, very simply and naturally. "But +oh, I don't know if I can--if I ought--to come to you any more." + +"What do you mean?" said John. + +"I--we--have been thinking of Peter as a boy--as the boy he was when +he went away," she said, in low, hurrying tones; "but he has come home +a man, and, in some ways, altogether different. He never used to +want me; he used to think this place dull, and long to get away from +it--and from me, for that matter. But now he's--he's wounded, as you +know; maimed, my poor boy, for life; and--and he's counting on me to +make his home for him. We never thought of that. He says it wouldn't +be home without me; and he asked my pardon for being selfish in the +past; my poor Peter! I used to fear he had such a little, cold heart; +but I was all wrong, for when he was so far away he thought of me, +and was sorry he hadn't loved me more. He's come home wanting to be +everything to me, as I am to be everything to him. And I should have +been so glad, so thankful, only two years ago. Oh, have I changed so +much in two little years?" + +John put her out of his arms very gently, and walked towards the +window. His face was pale, but he still smiled, and his hazel eyes +were bright. + +"You're angry, John," said Lady Mary, very sweetly and humbly. "You've +a right to be angry." + +"I am not angry," he said gently. "I may be--a little--disappointed." +He did not look round. + +"You know I was too happy," said poor Lady Mary. She sank into a +chair, and covered her face with her hands. "It was wicked of me to be +so happy, and now I'm going to be punished for it." + +John's great heart melted within him. He came swiftly back to her and +knelt by her side, and kissed the little hand she gave him. + +"Too happy, were you?" he said, with a tenderness that rendered his +deep voice unsteady. "Because you promised to marry me when Peter came +home?" + +"That, and--and everything else," she whispered. "Life seemed to have +widened out, and grown so beautiful. All the dull, empty hours were +filled. Our music, our reading, our companionship, our long walks and +talks, our letters to each other--all those pleasures which you showed +me were at once so harmless and so delightful. And as if that were +not enough--came love. Such love as I had only dreamed of--such +understanding of each other's every thought and word, as I did not +know was possible between man and woman--or at least"--she corrected +herself sadly--"between any man and a woman--of my age." + +"You talk of your age," said John, smiling tenderly, "as though it +were a crime." + +"It is not a crime, but it is a tragedy," said Lady Mary. "Age is a +tragedy to every woman who wants to be happy." + +"No more, surely, than to every man who loves his work, and sees it +slipping from his grasp," said John, slowly. "It's a tragedy we all +have to face, for that matter." + +"But so much later," said Lady Mary, quickly. + +"I don't see why women should leave off wanting to be happy any sooner +than men," he said stoutly. + +"But Nature does," she answered. + +John's eyes twinkled. "For my part, I am thankful to fate, which +caused me to fall in love with a woman only ten years my junior, +instead of with a girl young enough to be my daughter. I have gained a +companion as well as a wife; and marvellously adaptive as young women +are, I am conceited enough to think my ideas have travelled beyond +the ideas of most girls of eighteen; and I am not conceited enough to +suppose the girl of eighteen would not find me an old fogey very much +in the way. Let boys mate with girls, say I, and men with women." + +Lady Mary smiled in spite of herself. "You know, John, you would +argue entirely the other way round if you happened to be in love +with--Sarah," she said. + +"To be sure," said John; "it's my trade to argue for the side which +retains my services. I am your servant, thank Heaven, and not Sarah's. +And I have no intention of quitting your service," he added, more +gravely. "We have settled the question of the future." + +"The empty future that suddenly grew so bright," said Lady Mary, +dreamily. "Do you remember how you talked of--Italy?" + +"Where we shall yet spend our honeymoon," said John. "But I believe +you liked better to hear of my shabby rooms in London which you meant +to share." + +"Of course," she said simply. "I knew I should bring you so little +money." + +"And you thought barristers always lived from hand to mouth, and made +no allowance for my having got on in my profession." + +"Ah! what did it matter?" + +"I think you will find it makes just a little difference," John said, +smiling. + +"Outside circumstances make less difference to women than men +suppose," said Lady Mary. "They are, oh, so willing to be pampered +in luxury; and, oh, so willing to fly to the other extreme, and do +without things." + +"Are they really?" said John, rather dryly. + +He glanced at the little, soft, white hand he held, and smiled. It +looked so unfitted to help itself. + +Lady Mary was resting in her armchair, her delicate face still flushed +with emotion. A transparent purple shade beneath the blue eyes +betrayed that she had been weeping; but she was calmed by John's +strong and tranquil presence. The shady room was cool and fragrant +with the scent of heliotrope and mignonette. + +The band had reached a level plateau below the terrace garden, and was +playing martial airs to encourage stragglers in the procession, and to +give the principal inhabitants of Youlestone time to arrive, and to +regain their wind after the steep ascent. + +Every time a batch of new arrivals recognized Peter's tall form on the +terrace, a fresh burst of cheering rose. + +From all sides of the valley, hurrying figures could be seen +approaching Barracombe House. + +The noise and confusion without seemed to increase the sense of quiet +within, and the sounds of the gathering crowd made them feel apart and +alone together as they had never felt before. + +"So all our dreams are to be shattered," said John, quietly, "because +your prayer has been granted, and Peter has come home?" + +"If you could have heard all he said," she whispered sadly. "He has +come home loving me, trusting me, dependent on me, as he has never +been before, since his babyhood. Don't you see--that even if it breaks +my heart, I couldn't fail my boy--just now?" + +There was a pause, and she regarded him anxiously; her hands were +clasped tightly together in the effort to still their trembling, her +blue eyes looked imploring. + +John knew very well that it lay within his powers to make good his +claim upon that gentle heart, and enforce his will and her submission +to it. But the strongest natures are those which least incline to +tyranny; and he had already seen the results of coercion upon that +bright and joyous, but timid nature. He knew that her love for him was +of the fanciful, romantic, high-flown order; and as such, it appealed +to every chivalrous instinct within him. Though his love for her was, +perhaps, of a different kind, he desired her happiness and her peace +of mind, as strongly as he desired her companionship and the sympathy +which was to brighten his lonely life. He was silent for a moment, +considering how he should act. If love counselled haste, common sense +suggested patience. + +"I couldn't disappoint him now. You see that, John?" said the anxious, +gentle voice. + +"I am afraid I do see it, Mary," he said. "Our secret must remain our +secret for the present." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary, softly. "You always +understand." + +"I am old enough, at least, to know that happiness cannot be attained +by setting duty aside," he said, as cheerfully as he could. + +There was a pause in the music outside, and a voice was heard +speaking. + +John rose and straightened himself. + +"Have you decided what is to be done--what we had best do?" she said +timidly. + +"I am going to prove that a lover can be devoted, and yet perfectly +reasonable; in defiance of all tradition to the contrary," he +said gaily. "I shall return to town as soon as I can decently get +away--probably to-morrow." + +She uttered a cry. "You are going to leave me?" + +"I must give place to Peter." + +She came to his side, and clung to his arm as though terrified by the +success of her own appeal. + +"But you'll come back?" + +"I have to account for my stewardship when Peter comes of age in the +autumn," he said, smiling down upon her. + +She was too quick of perception not to know that strength, and +courage, too, were needed for the smile wherewith John strove to hide +a disappointment too deep for words. He answered the look she +gave him; a look which implored forgiveness, understanding, even +encouragement. + +"I'm not yielding a single inch of my claim upon you when the time +comes, my darling; only I think, with you, that the time has not come +yet. I think Peter may reasonably expect to be considered first +for the present; and that you should be free to devote your whole +attention to him, especially as he has such praiseworthy intentions. +We will postpone the whole question until the autumn, when he comes of +age; and when I shall, consequently, be able to tackle him frankly, +man to man, and not as one having authority and abusing that same," he +laughed. "Meantime, we must be patient. Write often, but not so often +as to excite remark; and I shall return in the autumn." + +"To stay?" + +"Ah!" said John, "that depends on you." + +He had not meant to be satirical, but the slight inflection of his +tone cut Lady Mary to the heart. + +Her vivid imagination saw her conduct in its worst light: vacillating, +feeble, deserting the man she loved at the moment she had led him to +expect triumph; dismissing her faithful servant without his reward. +Then, in a flash, came the other side of the picture--the mother of +a grown-up son--a wounded soldier dependent on her love--seeking +her personal happiness as though there existed no past memories, no +present duties, to hinder the fulfilling of her own belated romance. + +"Oh, John," said Lady Mary, "tell me what to do? No, no; don't tell +me--or I shall do it--and I mustn't." + +"My darling," he said, "I only tell you to wait." He rallied himself +to speak cheerfully, and to bring the life and colour back to her sad, +white face. + +"Just at this moment I quite realize I should be a disturbing element, +and I am going to get myself out of the way as quickly as politeness +permits. And you are to devote yourself to Peter, and not to be torn +with self-reproach. If we act sensibly, and don't precipitate matters, +nobody need have a grievance, and Peter and I will be the best of +friends in the future, I hope. There is little use in having grown-up +wits if we snatch our happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings, as young folk so often do." + +The twinkle in his bright eyes, and the kindly humour of his smile, +restored her shaken self-confidence. + +"Oh, John, no one else could ever understand--as you understand. If +only Peter--" + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "dreaming as a boy dreams, resolving as +a boy resolves; and his dreams and his resolutions are as light as +thistledown: the first breath of a new fancy, or a fresh interest, +will blow them away. I put my faith in the future, in the near future. +Time works wonders." + +He stooped and kissed her hands, one after the other, with a +possessive tenderness that told her better than words, that he had not +resigned his claims. + +"Now I'll go and offer my congratulations to the hero of the day," +said John. "I must not put off any longer; and it is quite settled +that our secret is to remain our secret--for the present." + +Then he stepped out on to the terrace, and Lady Mary looked after him +with a little sigh and smile. + +She lifted a hand-mirror from the silver table that stood at her +elbow, and shook her head over it. + +"It's all very well for him, and it's all very well for Peter," she +said; "but Time--Time is _my_ worst enemy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Sarah Hewel ran into the drawing-room before Lady Mary found courage +to put her newly gained composure to the test, by joining the crowd on +the terrace. + +"Oh, Lady Mary, are you there?" she cried, pausing in her eager +passage to the window. "I thought you would be out-of-doors with the +others!" + +"Sarah, my dear!" said Lady Mary, kissing her. + +"I--I saw all the people," said Sarah, in a breathless, agitated +way, "I heard the news, and I wasn't sure whether I ought to come to +luncheon all the same or not; so I slipped in by the side door to +see whether I could find some one to ask quietly. Oh!" cried Sarah, +throwing her arms impetuously round Lady Mary's neck, "tell me it +isn't true?" + +"My boy has come home," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah turned from red to white, and from white to red again. + +"But they said," she faltered--"they said he--" + +"Yes, my dear," said Lady Mary, understanding; and the tears started +to her own eyes. "Peter has lost an arm, but otherwise--otherwise," +she said, in trembling tones, "my boy is safe and sound." + +Sarah turned away her face and cried. + +Lady Mary was touched. "Why, Sarah!" she said; and she drew the girl +down beside her on the sofa and kissed her softly. + +"I am sorry to be so silly," said Sarah, recovering herself. "It isn't +a bit like me, is it?" + +"It is like you, I think, to have a warm heart," said Lady Mary, +"though you don't show it to every one; and, after all, you and Peter +are old friends--playmates all your lives." + +"It's been like a lump of lead on my heart all these months and +years," said Sarah, "to think how I scoffed at Peter in the Christmas +holidays before he went to the war, because my brothers had gone, +whilst he stayed at home. Perhaps that was the reason he went. I used +to lie awake at night sometimes, thinking that if Peter were killed it +would be all my fault. And now his arm has gone--and Tom and Willie +came back safely long ago." She cried afresh. + +"It may not have been that at all," said Lady Mary, consolingly. "I +don't think Peter was a boy to take much notice of what a goose of +a little girl said. He felt he was a man, and ought to go--and his +grandfather was a soldier--it is in the blood of the Setouns to want +to fight for their country," said Lady Mary, with a smile and a little +thrill of pride; for, after all, if her boy were a Crewys, he was also +a Setoun. "Besides, poor child, you were so young; you didn't think; +you didn't know--" + +"You always make excuses for me," said Sarah, with subdued enthusiasm; +"but I understand better now what it means--to send an only son away +from his mother." + +"The young take responsibility so lightly," said Lady Mary. "But now +he has come home, my darling, why, you needn't reproach yourself any +longer. It is good of you to care so much for my boy." + +"It--it isn't only that. Of course, I was always fond of Peter," said +Sarah; "but even if I had nothing to do with his going"--her voice +sounded incredulous--"you know how one feels over our soldiers coming +home--and a boy who has given his right arm for England. It makes one +so choky and yet so proud--I can't say all I mean--but you know--" + +"Yes, I know," said Lady Mary; and she smiled, but the tears were +rolling down her cheeks. + +"And what it must be to _you_," sobbed Sarah, "the day you were to +have been so happy, to see him come back like _that_! No wonder you +are sad. One feels one could never do enough to--to make it up to +him." + +"But I'm far more happy than sad," said Lady Mary; and to prove her +words she leant back upon the cushions and cried. + +"You're not," said Sarah, kneeling by her; "how can you be, my +darling, sweet Lady Mary? But you _must_ be happy," she said; and her +odd, deep tones took a note of coaxing that was hard to resist. "Think +how proud every one will be of him, and how--how all the other mothers +will envy you! You--you mustn't care so terribly. It--it isn't as if +he had to work for his living. It won't make any real difference to +his life. And he'll let you do everything for him--even write his +letters--" + +"Oh, Sarah, Sarah, stop!" said Lady Mary, faintly. "It--it isn't +that." + +"Not that!" said Sarah, changing her tone. She pounced on the +admission like a cat on a mouse. "Then why do you cry?" + +Lady Mary looked up confused into the severely inquiring young face. + +Sarah's apple-blossom beauty, as was to have been expected, had +increased a thousand-fold since her school girl days. She had grown +tall to match the plumpness of her figure, which had not decreased. +Her magnificent hair showed its copper redness in every variety of +curl and twist upon her white forehead, and against her whiter throat. + +She was no longer dressed in blue cotton. Lady Tintern knew how to +give such glorious colouring its true value. A gauzy, transparent +black flowed over a close-fitting white gown beneath, and veiled her +fair arms and neck. Black bébé ribbon gathered in coquettishly the +folds which shrouded Sarah's abundant charms, and a broad black sash +confined her round young waist. A black chip hat shaded the glowing +hair and the face, "ruddier than the cherry, and whiter than milk;" +and the merry, dark blue eyes had a penthouse of their own, of +drooping lashes, which redeemed the boldness of their frank and open +gaze. + +"If it is not that--why do you cry?" she demanded imperiously. + +"It's--just happiness," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah looked wise, and shook her head. "Oh no," she quoth. "Those +aren't happy tears." + +"You're too old, dear Sarah, to be an _enfant terrible_ still," said +Lady Mary; but Sarah was not so easily disarmed. + +"I will know! Come, I'm your godchild, and you always spoil me. He's +not come back in one of his moods, has he?" + +"Who?" cried Lady Mary, colouring. + +"Who! Why, who are we talking of but Peter?" said Sarah, opening her +big-pupilled eyes. + +"Oh no, no! He's changed entirely--" + +"Changed!" + +"I don't mean exactly changed, but he's--he's grown so loving and so +sweet--not that he wasn't always loving in his heart, but-- + +"Oh," cried Sarah, impatiently, "as if I didn't know Peter! But if +it wasn't _that_ which made you so unhappy, what was it?" She bent +puzzled brows upon her embarrassed hostess. + +"Let me go, Sarah; you ask too much!" said Lady Mary. "Oh no, my +darling, I'm not angry! How could I be angry with my little loyal +Sarah, who's always loved me so? It's only that I can't bear to +be questioned just now." She caressed the girl eagerly, almost +apologetically. "I must have a few moments to recover myself. I'll go +quietly away into the study--anywhere. Wait for me here, darling, and +make some excuse for me if any one comes. I want to be alone for a few +moments. Peter mustn't find me crying again." + +"Yes--that's all very well," said Sarah to herself, as the slight form +hurried from the drawing-room into the dark oak hall beyond. "But +_why_ is she unhappy? There is something else." + +It was Dr. Blundell who found the answer to Sarah's riddle. + +He had seen the signs of weeping on Lady Mary's face as she stumbled +over the threshold of the window into the very arms of John Crewys, +and his feelings were divided between passionate sympathy with his +divinity, and anger with the returned hero, who had no doubt reduced +his mother to this distressful state. The doctor was blinded by love +and misery, and ready to suspect the whole world of doing injustice to +this lady; though he believed himself to be destitute of jealousy, and +capable of judging Peter with perfect impartiality. + +His fancy leapt far ahead of fact; and he supposed, not only that Lady +Mary must be engaged to John Crewys, but that she must have confided +her engagement to her son, and that Peter had already forbidden the +banns. + +He wandered miserably about the grounds, within hearing of the +rejoicings; and had just made up his mind that he ought to go and join +the speechmakers, when he perceived John Crewys himself standing next +to Peter, apparently on the best possible terms with the hero of the +day. + +The doctor hastened round to the hall, intending to enter the +drawing-room unobserved, and find out for himself whether Lady Mary +had recovered, or whether John Crewys had heartlessly abandoned her to +her grief. + +The brilliant vision Miss Sarah presented, as she stood, drawn up to +her full height, in the shaded drawing-room, met his anxious gaze as +he entered. + +"Why, Miss Sarah! Not gone back to London yet? I thought you only came +down for Whitsuntide." + +"Mamma wasn't well, so I am staying on for a few days. I am supposed +to be nursing her," said Sarah, demurely. + +She was a favourite with the doctor, as she was very well aware, and, +in consequence, was always exceedingly gracious to him. + +"Where is Lady Mary?" he asked. + +She stole to his side, and put her finger on her lips, and lowered her +voice. + +"She went through the hall--into the study. And she's alone--crying." + +"Crying!" said the doctor; and he made a step towards the open door, +but Sarah's strong, white hand held him fast. + +"Play fair," she said reproachfully; "I told you in confidence. You +can't suppose she wants _you_ to see her crying." + +"No, no," said the poor doctor, "of course not--of course not." + +She closed the doors between the rooms. "Look here, Dr. Blundell, +we've always been friends, haven't we, you and me?" + +"Ever since I had the honour of ushering you into the world you now +adorn," said the doctor, with an ironical bow. + +"Then tell me the truth," said Sarah. "Why is she unhappy, to-day of +all days?" + +The doctor looked uneasily away from her. "Perhaps--the joy of Peter's +return has been too much for her," he suggested. + +"Yes," said Sarah. "That's what we'll tell the other people. But you +and I--why, Dr. Blunderbuss," she said reproachfully, using the +name she had given him in her saucy childhood, "you know how I've +worshipped Lady Mary ever since I was a little girl?" + +"Yes, yes, my dear, I know," said the doctor. + +"You love her too, don't you?" said Sarah. + +He started. "I--I love Lady Mary! What do you mean?" he said, almost +violently. + +"Oh, I didn't mean _that_ sort of love," said Sarah, watching him +keenly. Then she laid her plump hand gently on his shabby sleeve. "I +wouldn't have said it, if I'd thought--" + +"Thought what?" said the doctor, agitated. + +"What I think now," said Sarah. + +He walked up and down in a silence she was too wise to break. When +he looked at her again, Sarah was leaning against the piano. She had +taken off the picture-hat, and was swinging it absently to and fro by +the black ribbons which had but now been tied beneath her round, white +chin. She presented a charming picture--and it is possible she knew +it--as she stood in that restful pose, with her long lashes pointed +downwards towards her buckled shoes. + +The doctor stopped in front of her. "You are too quick for me, Sarah. +You always were, even as a little girl," he said. "You've surprised +my--my poor secret. You can laugh at the old doctor now, if you like." + +"I don't feel like laughing," said Sarah, simply. "And your secret is +safe with me. I'm honest; you know that." + +"Yes, my dear; I know that. God bless you!" said the doctor. + +"I'm sorry, Dr. Blundell," said Sarah, softly. + +The deep voice which came from the full, white chest, and which had +once been so unmanageable, was one of Sarah's surest weapons now. + +When she sang, she counted her victims by the dozen; when she lowered +it, as she lowered it now, to speak only to one man, every note went +straight to his heart--if he had an ear for music and a heart for +love. + +When Sarah said, in these dulcet tones, therefore, that she was sorry +for her old friend, the tears gathered to the doctor's kind, tired +eyes. + +"For me!" he said gratefully. "Oh, you mustn't be sorry for me. +She--she could hardly be further out of _my_ reach, you know, if she +were--an angel in heaven, instead of being what she is--an angel on +earth. It is--of _her_ that I was thinking." + +"I know," said Sarah; "but she has been looking so bright and hopeful, +ever since we heard Peter was coming home--until to-day--when he has +actually come; and that is what puzzles me." + +"To-day--to-day!" said the doctor, as though to himself. "Yes; it was +to-day I saw her touch happiness timidly, and come face to face with +disappointment." + +"You saw her?" + +"Oh, when one loves," he said bitterly, "one has intuitions which +serve as well as eyes and ears. You will know all about it one day, +little Sarah." + +"Shall I?" said Sarah. She turned her face away from the doctor. + +"You've not been here very much lately," he said, "but you've been +here long enough to guess her secret, as you--you've guessed mine. Eh? +You needn't pretend, for my sake, to misunderstand me." + +"I wasn't going to," said Sarah, gently. + +"John Crewys is the very man I would have chosen--I did choose him," +said the doctor, looking at her almost fiercely. It was an odd +consolation to him to believe he had first led John Crewys to +interest himself in Lady Mary. He recognized his rival's superior +qualifications very fully and humbly. "You know all about it, Miss +Sarah, don't tell me; so quick as you are to find out what doesn't +concern you." + +"I saw that--Mr. John Crewys--liked _her_," said Sarah, in a low +voice; "but, then, so does everybody. I wasn't sure--I couldn't +believe that _she_--" + +"You haven't watched as I have," he groaned; "you haven't seen the +sparkle come back to her eye, and the colour to her cheek. You haven't +watched her learning to laugh and sing and enjoy her innocent days +as Nature bade; since she has dared to be herself. It was love that +taught her an that." + +"Love!" said Sarah. + +Her soft, red lips parted; and her breath quickened with a sudden +sensation of mingled interest, sympathy, and amusement. + +"Ay, love," said the doctor, half angrily. He detected the deepening +of Sarah's dimples. "And I am an old fool to talk to you like this. +You children think that love is reserved for boys and girls, like you +and--and Peter." + +"I don't know what Peter has to do with it," said Sarah, pouting. + +"I heard Peter explaining to his tenants just now," said the doctor, +with a harsh laugh, "that he was going to settle down here for good +and all--with his mother; that nothing was to be changed from his +father's time. Something in his words would have made me +understand the look on his mother's face, even if I hadn't read it +right--already. She will sacrifice her love for John Crewys to her +love for her son; and by the time Peter finds out--as in the course of +nature he will find out--that he can do without his mother, her chance +of happiness will be gone for ever." + +Sarah looked a little queerly at the doctor. + +"Then the sooner Peter finds out," she said slowly, "that he can live +without his mother, the better. Doesn't that seem strange?" + +"Perhaps," said the doctor, heavily. "But life gives us so few +opportunities of a great happiness as we grow older, little Sarah. The +possibilities that once seemed so boundless, lie in a circle which +narrows round us, day by day. Some day you'll find that out too." + +There was a sudden outburst of cheering. + +Sarah started forward. "Dr. Blundell," she said energetically, "you've +told me all I wanted to know. She sha'n't be unhappy if _I_ can help +it." + +"You!" said the doctor, shrugging his shoulders rather rudely. "I +don't see what _you_ can do." + +Sarah reddened with lofty indignation. "It would be very odd if you +did," she said spitefully; "you're only a man, when all is said and +done. But if you'll only promise not to interfere, I'll manage it +beautifully all by myself." + +"What will you do?" said the doctor, inattentively; and his blindness +to Sarah's charms and her powers made her almost pity such obtuseness. + +"I will go and fetch Lady Mary, for one thing, and cheer her up." + +"Not a word to her!" he cried, starting up; "remember, I told you in +confidence--though why I was such a fool--" + +"Am I likely to forget?" said Sarah; "and you will see one day whether +you were a fool to tell _me_." She said to herself, despairingly, that +the stupidity of mankind was almost past praying for. As the doctor +opened the door for Sarah, Lady Mary herself walked into the room. + +She had removed all traces of tears from her face, and, though she was +still very pale, she was quite composed, and ready to smile at them +both. + +"Were you coming to fetch me?" she said, taking Sarah's arm +affectionately. "Dr. Blundell, I am afraid luncheon will be terribly +late. The servants have all gone off their heads in the confusion, as +was to be expected. The noise and the welcome upset me so that I dared +not go out on the terrace again. Ash has just been to tell me it's +all over, and that Peter made a capital speech; quite as good as Mr. +John's, he said; but that is hardly a compliment to our K.C.," she +laughed. "I'm afraid Ash is prejudiced." + +"Ash was doing the honours with all his might," said the doctor, +gruffly; "handing round cider by the hogshead. Hallo! the speeches +must be really all over," he said, for, above vociferous cheering, the +strains of the National Anthem could just be discerned. + +Peter came striding across the terrace, and looked in at the open +window. + +"Are you better again, mother?" he called. "Could you come out now? +They've done at last, but they're calling for you." + +"Yes, yes; I'm quite ready. I won't be so silly again," said Lady +Mary. + +But Peter did not listen. "Why--" he said, and stopped short. + +"Surely you haven't forgotten Sarah," said Lady Mary, laughing--"your +little playmate Sarah? But perhaps I ought to say Miss Hewel now." + +"How do you do, Sir Peter?" said Sarah, in a very stately manner. "I +am very glad to be here to welcome you home." + +Peter, foolishly embarrassed, took the hand she offered with such +gracious composure, and blushed all over his thin, tanned face. + +"I--I should hardly have known you," he stammered. + +"Really?" said Sarah. + +"Won't you," said Peter, still looking at her, "join us on the +terrace?" + +"The people aren't calling for _me_" said Sarah. + +"But it might amuse you," said Peter, deferentially. + +He put up his eyeglass--but though Sarah's red lip quivered, she did +not laugh. + +"It's rather jolly, really," he said. "They've got banners, and flags, +and processions, and things. Won't you come?" + +"Well--I will," said Sarah. She accepted his help in descending the +step with the air of a princess. "But they'll be so disappointed to +see me instead of your mother." + +"Disappointed to see _you_!" said Peter, stupefied. + +She stepped forth, laughing, and Peter followed her closely. John +Crewys stood aside to let them pass. Lady Mary, half amazed and half +amused, realized suddenly that her son had forgotten he came back to +fetch her. She hesitated on the threshold. More cheers and confused +shouting greeted Peter's reappearance on the balcony. He turned and +waved to his mother, and the canon came hurrying over the grass. + +"The people are shouting for Lady Mary; they want Lady Mary," he +cried. + +John Crewys looked at her with a smile, and held out his hand, and she +stepped over the sill, and went away across the terrace garden with +him. + +The doctor turned his face from the crowd, and went back alone into +the empty room. + +"Who _doesn't_ want Lady Mary?" he said to himself, forlornly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Peter stood on his own front door steps, on the shady side of the +house, in the fresh air of the early morning. The unnecessary eyeglass +twinkled on his breast as he looked forth upon the goodliness and +beauty of his inheritance. The ever-encroaching green of summer had +not yet overpowered the white wealth of flowering spring; for the +season was a late one, and the month of June still young. + +The apple-trees were yet in blossom, and the snowy orchards were +scattered over the hillsides between patches of golden gorse. The +lilacs, white and purple, were in flower, amid scarlet rhododendrons +and branching pink and yellow tree-azaleas. The weeping barberry +showered gold dust upon the road. + +On the lower side of the drive, the rolling grass slopes were +thriftily left for hay; a flowering mass of daisies, and buttercups, +and red clover, and blue speedwell. + +A long way off, but still clearly visible in the valley below, +glistened the stone-tiled roof of the old square-towered church, +guarded by its sentinel yews. + +A great horse-chestnut stood like a giant bouquet of waxen bloom +beside a granite monument which threw a long shadow over the green +turf mounds towards the west, and marked the grave of Sir Timothy +Crewys. + +Peter saw that monument more plainly just now than all the rest of his +surroundings, although he was short-sighted, and although his eyes +were further dimmed by sudden tears. + +His memories of his father were not particularly tender ones, and his +grief was only natural filial sentiment in its vaguest and lightest +form. But such as it was--the sight of the empty study, which was to +be his own room in future; the strange granite monument shining in +the sun; the rush of home associations which the familiar landscape +aroused--augmented it for the time being, and made the young man glad +of a moment's solitude. + +There was the drooping ash--which had made such a cool, refreshing +tent in summer--where he had learnt his first lessons at his mother's +knee, and where he had kept his rabbit-hutch for a season, until his +father had found it out, and despatched it to the stable-yard. + +His punishments and the troubles of his childhood had always been +associated with his father, and its pleasures and indulgences with his +mother; but neither had made any very strong impression on Peter's +mind, and it was of his father that he thought with most sympathy, and +even most affection. Partly, doubtless, because Sir Timothy was dead, +and because Peter's memories were not vivid ones, any more than his +imagination was vivid; but also because his mind was preoccupied with +a vague resentment against his mother. + +He could not understand the change which was, nevertheless, so +evident. Her new-born brightness and ease of manner, and her strangely +increased loveliness, which had been yet more apparent on the previous +evening, when she was dressed for dinner, than on his first arrival. + +It was absurd, Peter thought, in all the arrogance of disdainful +youth, that a woman of her age should have learnt to care for her +appearance thus; or to wear becoming gowns, and arrange her hair like +a fashion plate. + +If it had been Sarah he could have understood. + +At the thought of Sarah the colour suddenly flushed across his thin, +tanned face, and he moved uneasily. + +Sarah, too, was changed; but not even Peter could regret the change in +Sarah. + +The loveliness of his mother, refined and white and delicate as she +was, did not appeal to him; but Sarah, in her radiant youth, with her +brilliant colouring--fresh as a May morning, buxom as a dairymaid, +scornful as a princess--had struck Sir Peter dumb with admiration, +though he had hitherto despised young women. It almost enraged him to +remember that this stately beauty had ever been an impudent little +schoolgirl, with a turned-up nose and a red pigtail. In days gone by, +Miss Sarah had actually fought and scratched the spoilt boy, who tried +to tyrannize over his playmate as he tyrannized over his mother and +his aunts. On the other hand, the recollection of those early days +also became precious to Peter for the first time. + +Sarah! + +It was difficult to be sentimental on the subject, but difficulties +are easily surmounted by a lover; and though Sarah's childhood +afforded few facilities for ecstatic reverie, still--there had been +moments, and especially towards the end of the holidays, when he and +Sarah had walked on the banks of the river, with arms round each +other's necks, sharing each other's toffee and confidences. + +Poor Sarah had been first despatched to a boarding school as +unmanageable, at the age of seven, and thereafter her life had been a +changeful one, since her father could not live without her, and her +mother would not keep her at home. She had always presented a lively +contrast to her elder brothers, who were all that a parent's heart +could desire, and too old to be much interested in their little +rebellious sister. + +Her high spirits survived disgrace and punishment and periodical +banishment. Though not destitute of womanly qualities, she was more +remarkable for hoydenish ones; and her tastes were peculiar and +varied. If there were a pony to break in, a sick child to be nursed, a +groom to scold, a pig to be killed--there was Sarah; but if a frock to +try on, a visit to be paid, a note to be written--where was she? + +Peter, recalling these things, tried to laugh at himself for his +extraordinary infatuation of the previous day; but he knew very well +in his heart that he could not really laugh, and that he had lain +awake half the night thinking of her. + +Sarah had spent the rest of the day at Barracombe after Peter's +return, and had been escorted home late in the evening. Could he ever +forget those moments on the terrace, when she had paced up and down +beside him, in the pleasant summer darkness; her white neck and arms +gleaming through transparent black tulle; sometimes listening to the +sounds of music and revelry in the village below, and looking at the +rockets that were being let off on the river-banks; and sometimes +asking him of the war, in that low voice which thrilled Peter as it +had already thrilled not a few interested hearers before him? + +Those moments had been all too few, because John Crewys also had +monopolized a share of Miss Sarah's attention. Peter did not dislike +his guardian, whose composed courtesy and absolute freedom from +self-consciousness, or any form of affectation, made it difficult +indeed not to like him. His remarks made Peter smile in spite of +himself, though he could not keep the ball of conversation rolling +like Miss Sarah, who was not at all afraid of the great counsel, but +matched his pleasant wit, with a most engaging impudence all her own. + +Lady Mary had stood clasping her son's arm, full of thankfulness for +his safe return; but she, too, had been unable to help laughing at +John, who purposely exerted himself to amuse her and to keep her from +dwelling upon their parting on the morrow. + +Her thoughtful son insisted that she must avoid exposure to the night +air, and poor Lady Mary had somewhat ruefully returned to the society +of the old ladies within; but John Crewys did not, as he might, and as +Peter had supposed he would, join the other old folk. Peter classed +his mother and aunts together, quite calmly, in his thoughts. He +listened to Sarah's light talk with John, watching her like a man in a +dream, hardly able to speak himself; and it is needless to say that he +found her chatter far more interesting and amusing than anything John +could say. + +Who could have dreamt that little Sarah would grow up into this +bewitching maiden? There was a girl coming home on board ship, the +young wife of an officer, whom every one had raved about and called so +beautiful. Peter almost laughed aloud as he contrasted Sarah with his +recollections of this lady. + +How easy it was to talk to Sarah! How much easier than to his mother; +whom, nevertheless, he loved so dearly, though always with that faint +dash of disapproval which somehow embittered his love. + +He could not shake off the impression of her first appearance, coming +singing down the oak staircase, in her white gown. _His mother!_ +Dressed almost like a girl, and, worst of all, looking almost like a +girl, so slight and white and delicate. Peter recollected that Sir +Timothy had been very particular about his wife's apparel. He liked it +to be costly and dignified, and she had worn stiff silks and poplins +inappropriate to the country, but considered eminently suited to her +position by the Brawnton dressmaker. And her hair had been parted on +her forehead, and smoothed over her little ears. Sir Timothy did not +approve of curling-irons and frippery. + +Peter did not know that his mother had cried over her own appearance +often, before she became indifferent; and if he had known, he would +have thought it only typical of the weakness and frivolity which he +had heard attributed to Lady Mary from his earliest childhood. + +His aunts were not intentionally disloyal to their sister-in-law; +but their disapproval of her was too strong to be hidden, and they +regarded a little boy as blind and deaf to all that did not directly +concern his lessons or his play. Thus Peter had grown up loving his +mother, but disapproving of her, and the disapproval was sometimes +more apparent than the love. + +After breakfast the new squire took an early walk with his guardian, +and inspected a few of the changes which had taken place in the +administration of his tiny kingdom. Though Peter was young and +inexperienced, he could not be blind to the immense improvements made. + +He had left a house and stables shabby and tumble-down and out of +repair; rotting woodwork, worn-off paint, and missing tiles had been +painfully evident. Broken fences and hingeless gates were the rule, +and not the exception, in the grounds. + +Now all deficiencies had been made good by a cunning hand that had +allowed no glaring newness to be visible; a hand that had matched old +tiles, and patched old walls, and planted creepers, and restored an +almost magical order and comfort to Peter's beautiful old house. + +Where Sir Timothy's grumbling tenants had walked to the nearest brook +for water, they now found pipes brought to their own cottage doors. +The home-farm, stables, yards, and cowsheds were drained and paved; +fallen outbuildings replaced, uneven roads gravelled and rolled; dead +trees removed, and young ones planted, shrubberies trimmed, and views +long obscured once more opened out. + +Peter did not need the assurances of Mr. Crawley to be aware that his +inheritance would be handed back to him improved a thousand-fold. + +He was astounded to find how easily John had arranged matters over +which his father had grumbled and hesitated for years. Even the +dispute with the Crown had been settled by Mr. Crawley without +difficulty, now that Sir Timothy's obstinacy no longer stood in the +way of a reasonable compromise. + +John Crewys had faithfully carried out the instructions of the will; +and there were many thousands yet left of the sum placed at his +disposal for the improvements of the estate; a surplus which would +presently be invested for Peter's benefit, and added to that carefully +tied-up capital over which Sir Timothy had given his heir no +discretionary powers. + +Peter spent a couple of hours walking about with John, and took an +intelligent interest in all that had been done, from the roof and +chimney-pots of the house, to the new cider-mill and stable fittings; +but though he was civil and amiable, he expressed no particular +gratitude nor admiration on his return to the hall, where his mother +eagerly awaited him. + +It consoled her to perceive that he was on excellent terms with his +guardian, offering to accompany him in the dog-cart to Brawnton, +whither John was bound, to catch the noon express to town. + +"You will have him all to yourself after this," said John Crewys, +smiling down upon Lady Mary during his brief farewell interview, which +took place in the oriel window of the banqueting-hall, within sight, +though not within hearing, of the two old sisters. "I am sorry to take +him off to Brawnton, but I could hardly refuse his company." + +"No, no; I am only glad you should take every opportunity of knowing +him better," she said. + +"And you will be happier without any divided feelings at stake," he +said. "Give yourself up entirely to Peter for the next three or four +months, without any remorse concerning me. For the present, at +least, I shall be hard at work, with little enough time to spare +for sentiment." There was a tender raillery in his tone, which she +understood. "When I come back we will face the situation, according to +circumstances. By-the-by, I suppose it is not to be thought of that +Miss Sarah should prolong her Whitsuntide holidays much further?" + +"She ought to have returned to town earlier, but Mrs. Hewel was ill," +said Lady Mary. "She is a tiresome woman. She moved heaven and earth +to get rid of poor Sarah, and, now the child has had a _succès_, she +is always clamouring for her to come back." + +"Ah!" said John, thoughtfully, "and you will moot to Peter the scheme +for taking a house in town? But I should advise you to be guided by +his wishes over that. Still, it would be very delightful to meet +during our time of waiting; and that would be the only way. I won't +come down here again until I can declare myself. It is a--false +position, under the circumstances." + +"I know; I understand," said Lady Mary; "but I am afraid Peter won't +want to stir from home. He is so glad to be back, poor boy, one can +hardly blame him; and he shares his father's prejudices against +London." + +"Does he, indeed?" said John, rather dryly. "Well, make the most of +your summer with him. _You_ will get only too much London--in the near +future." + +"Perhaps," Lady Mary said, smiling. + +But, in spite of herself, John's confidence communicated itself to +her. + +When Peter and John had departed, Lady Mary went and sat alone in the +quiet of the fountain garden, at the eastern end of the terrace. The +thick hedges and laurels which sheltered it had been duly thinned and +trimmed, to allow the entrance of the morning sunshine. Roses and +lilies bloomed brightly round the fountain now, but it was still +rather a lonely and deserted spot, and silent, save for the sighing of +the wind, and the tinkle of the dropping water in the stone basin. + +A young copper beech, freed from its rankly increasing enemies of +branching laurel and encroaching bramble, now spread its glory of +transparent ruddy leaf in the sunshine above trim hedges, here and +there diversified by the pale gold of a laburnum, or the violet +clusters of a rhododendron in full flower. Rare ferns fringed the +edges of the little fountain, where diminutive reptiles whisked in +and out of watery homes, or sat motionless on the brink, with fixed, +glassy eyes. + +Lady Mary had come often to this quiet corner for rest and peace and +solitude in days gone by. She came often still, because she had a +fancy that the change in her favourite garden was typical of the +change in her life,--the letting-in of the sunshine, where before +there had been only deepest shade; the pinks and forget-me-nots which +were gaily blowing, where only moss and fungi had flourished; the +blooming of the roses, where the undergrowth had crossed and recrossed +withered branches above bare, black soil. + +She brought her happiness here, where she had brought her sorrow and +her repinings long ago. + +A happiness subdued by many memories, chastened by long anxiety, +obscured by many doubts, but still happiness. + +There was to be no more of that heart-breaking anxiety. Her boy +had been spared to come home to her; and John--John, who always +understood, had declared that, for the present, at least, Peter must +come first. + +The whole beautiful summer lay before her, in which she was to be free +to devote herself to her wounded hero. She must set herself to charm +away that shadow of discontent--of disapproval--that darkened Peter's +grey eyes when they rested upon her; a shadow of which she had been +only too conscious even before he went to South Africa. + +She made a thousand excuses for him, after telling herself that he +needed none. + +Poor boy! he had been brought up in such narrow ways, such an +atmosphere of petty distrust and fault-finding and small aims. Even +his bold venture into the world of men had not enabled him to shake +off altogether the influence of his early training, though it had +changed him so much for the better; it had not altogether cured +Peter of his old ungraciousness, partly inherited, and partly due to +example. + +But he had returned full of love and tenderness and penitence, though +his softening had been but momentary; and when she had brought him +under the changed influences which now dominated her own life, she +could not doubt that Peter's nature would expand. + +He should see that home life need not necessarily be gloomy; that +all innocent pleasures and interests were to be encouraged, and not +repressed. If he wanted to spend the summer at home--and after his +long absence what could be more natural?--she would exert herself +to make that home as attractive as possible. Why should they not +entertain? John had said there was plenty of money. Peter should have +other young people about him. She remembered a scene, long ago, when +he had brought a boy of his own age in to lunch without permission. +She would have to let Peter understand how welcome she should make +his friends; he must have many more friends now. While she was yet +_châtelaine_ of Barracombe, it would be delightful to imbue him with +some idea of the duties and pleasures of hospitality. Lady Mary's eyes +sparkled at the thought of providing entertainment for many young +soldiers, wounded or otherwise. They should have the best of +everything. She was rich, and Peter was rich, and there was no harm in +making visitors welcome in that great house, and filling the rooms, +that had been silent and empty so long, with the noise and laughter of +young people. + +She would ask Peter about the horses to-morrow. John had purposely +refrained from filling the stables which had been so carefully +restored and fitted. There were very few horses. Only the cob for +the dog-cart, and a pair for the carriage, so old that the coachman +declared it was tempting Providence to sit behind them. They were +calculated to have attained their twentieth year, and were driven at a +slow jog-trot for a couple of hours every day, except Sundays, in the +barouche. James Coachman informed Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys that +either steed was liable to drop down dead at any moment, and that they +could not expect the best of horses to last for ever; but the old +ladies would neither shorten nor abandon their afternoon drive, nor +consent to the purchase of a new pair. They continued to behave as +though horses were immortal. + +Sir Timothy's old black mare was turned out to graze, partly from +sentiment, and partly because she, too, was unfitted for any practical +purposes; and Peter had outgrown his pony before he went away, though +he had ridden it to hounds many times, unknown to his father. Lady +Mary thought it would be a pleasure to see her boy well mounted and +the stables filled. John had said that the loss of his arm would +certainly not prevent Peter from riding. She found herself constantly +referring to John, even in her plans for Peter's amusement. + +Strong, calm, patient John--who was prepared to wait; and who would +not, as he said, snatch happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings. How wise he had been to agree that, for the present, she +must devote herself only to Peter! She and Peter would be all in all +to each other as Peter himself had suggested, and as she had once +dreamed her son would be to his mother; though, of course, it was not +to be expected that a boy could understand everything, like John. + +She must make great allowances; she must be patient of his inherited +prejudices; above all, she must make him happy. + +Afterwards, perhaps, when Peter had learned to do without her--as he +would learn too surely in the course of nature--she would be free +to turn to John, and put her hand in his, and let him lead her +whithersoever he would. + +Peter saw his guardian off at Brawnton, dutifully standing at +attention on the platform until the train had departed, instead of +starting home as John suggested. + +When he came out of the station he stood still for a moment, +contemplating the stout, brown cob and the slim groom, who was waiting +anxiously to know whether Sir Peter would take the reins, or whether +he was to have the honour of driving his master home. + +"I think I'll walk back, George," said Peter, with a nonchalant air. +"Take the cob along quietly, and let her ladyship know directly you +get in that I'm returning by Hewelscourt woods, and the ferry." + +"Very good, Sir Peter," said the youth, zealously. + +"It would be only civil to look in on the Hewels as Sarah is going +back to town so soon," said Peter to himself. "And it's rot driving +all those miles on the sunny side of the river, when it's barely three +miles from here to Hewelscourt and the ferry, and in the shade all the +way. I shall be back almost as soon as the cart." + +A little old lady, dressed in shabby black silk, looked up from +the corner of the sofa next the window, when Peter entered the +drawing-room at Hewelscourt, after the usual delay, apologies, and +barking of dogs which attends the morning caller at the front door of +the average country house. + +Peter, who had expected to see Mrs. Hewel and Sarah, repented himself +for a moment that he had come at all when he beheld this stranger, who +regarded him with a pair of dark eyes that seemed several times too +large for her small, wrinkled face, and who merely nodded her head in +response to his awkward salutation. + +"Ah!" said the old lady, rather as though she were talking to herself, +"so this is the returned hero, no doubt. How do you do? The rejoicing +over your home-coming kept me awake half the night." + +Peter was rather offended at this free-and-easy method of address. It +seemed to him that, since the old lady evidently knew who he was, she +might be a little more respectful in her manner. + +"The festivities were all over soon after eleven," he said stiffly. +"But perhaps you are accustomed to early hours?" + +"Perhaps I am," said the old lady; she seemed more amused than abashed +by Peter's dignity of demeanour. "At any rate, I like my beauty sleep +to be undisturbed; more especially in the country, where there are so +many noises to wake one up from four o'clock in the morning onwards." + +"I have always understood," said Peter, who inherited his father's +respect for platitudes, "that the country was much quieter than the +town. I suppose you live in a town?" + +"I suppose I do," said the old lady. + +Peter put up his eyeglass indignantly, to quell this disrespectful +old woman with a frigid look, modelled upon the expression of his +board-ship hero. + +The door opened suddenly. + +He dropped his eyeglass with a start. But it was only Mrs. Hewel who +entered, and not Sarah, after all. + +Her _embonpoint_, and consequently her breathlessness, had much +increased since Peter saw her last. + +"Oh, Peter," she cried, "this is nice of you to come over and see us +so soon. We were wondering if you would. Dear, dear, how thankful your +mother must be! I know what I was with the boys--and decorated and +all--though poor Tom and Willie got nothing; but, as the papers said, +it wasn't always those who deserved it most--still, I'm glad _you_ got +something, anyway; it's little enough, I'm sure, to make up for--" +Then she turned nervously to the old lady. "Aunt Elizabeth, this is +Sir Peter Crewys, who came home last night." + +"I have already made acquaintance with Sir Peter, since you left me to +entertain him," said the old lady, nodding affably. + +"Lady Tintern arrived unexpectedly by the afternoon train yesterday," +explained Mrs. Hewel, in her flustered manner, turning once more to +Peter. "She has only been here twice before. It was such a surprise to +Sarah to find her here when she came back." + +Peter grew very red. Who could have supposed that this shabby old +person, whom he had endeavoured to snub, was the great Lady Tintern? + +"She _didn't_ find me," said the old lady. "I was in bed long before +Sarah came back. I presume this young gentleman escorted her home?" + +"I always send a servant across for Sarah whenever she stays at all +late at Barracombe, and always have," said Mrs. Hewel, in hurried +self-defence. "You must remember we are old friends; there never was +any formality about her visits to Barracombe." + +"My guardian and I walked down to the ferry, and saw her across the +river, of course," said Peter, rather sulkily. + +"But her maid was with her," cried Mrs. Hewel. + +"Of course," Peter said again, in tones that were none too civil. + +After all, who was Lady Tintern that she should call him to task? And +as if there could be any reason why her oldest playmate should not see +Sarah home if he chose. + +At the very bottom of Peter's heart lurked an inborn conviction that +his father's son was a very much more important personage than any +Hewel, or relative of Hewel, could possibly be. + +"That was very kind of you and your guardian," said the old lady, +suddenly becoming gracious. "Emily, I will leave you to talk to your +_old friend_. I dare say I shall see him again at luncheon?" + +"I cannot stay to luncheon. My mother is expecting me," said Peter. + +He would not express any thanks. What business had the presuming old +woman to invite him to luncheon? It was not her house, after all. + +"Oh, your mother is expecting you," said Lady Tintern, whose slightly +derisive manner of repeating Peter's words embarrassed and annoyed the +young gentleman exceedingly. "I am glad you are such a dutiful son, +Sir Peter." + +She gathered together her letters and her black draperies, and +tottered off to the door, which Peter, who was sadly negligent of _les +petits soins_ forgot to open for her; nor did he observe the indignant +look she favoured him with in consequence. + +Sarah came into the drawing-room at last; fresh as the morning dew, in +her summer muslin and fluttering, embroidered ribbons; with a bunch of +forget-me-nots, blue as her eyes, nestling beneath her round, white +chin. Her bright hair was curled round her pretty ears and about her +fair throat, but Peter did not compare this _coiffure_ to a fashion +plate, though, indeed, it exactly resembled one. Neither did he cast +the severely critical glance upon Sarah's _toilette_ that he +had bestowed upon the soft, grey gown, and the cluster of white +moss-rosebuds which poor Lady Mary had ventured to wear that morning. + +"How have you managed to offend Aunt Elizabeth, Peter?" cried Sarah, +with her usual frankness. "She is in the worst of humours." + +"Sarah!" said her mother, reprovingly. + +"Well, but she _is_," said Sarah. "She called him a cub and a bear, +and all sorts of things." + +She looked at Peter and laughed, and he laughed back. The cloud of +sullenness had lifted from his brow as she appeared. + +Mrs. Hewel overwhelmed him with unnecessary apologies. She could not +grasp the fact that her polite conversation was as dull and unmeaning +to the young man as Sarah's indiscreet nothings were interesting and +delightful. + +"I'm sure I don't mind," said Peter; and his tone was quite alert and +cheerful. "She told me the country kept her awake. If she doesn't like +it, why does she come?" + +"She has come to fetch me away," said Sarah. "And she came +unexpectedly, because she wanted to see for herself whether mamma was +really ill, or whether she was only shamming." + +"Sarah!" + +"And she has decided she is only shamming," said Sarah. "Unluckily, +mamma happened to be down in the stables, doctoring Venus. You +remember Venus, her pet spaniel?" + +"Of course." + +"Nothing else would have taken me off my sofa, where I ought to be +lying at this moment, as you know very well, Sarah," cried Mrs. Hewel, +showing an inclination to shed tears. + +"To be sure you ought," said Sarah; "but what is the use of telling +Aunt Elizabeth that, when she saw you with her own eyes racing up and +down the stable-yard, with a piece of raw meat in your hand, and Venus +galloping after you." + +"The vet said that if she took no exercise she would die," said Mrs. +Hewel, tearfully, "and neither he nor Jones could get her to move. Not +even Ash, though he has known her all her life. I know it was very bad +for me; but what could I do?" + +"I wish I had been there," said Sarah, giggling; "but, however, Aunt +Elizabeth described it all to me so graphically this morning that it +is almost as good as though I had been." + +"She should not have come down like that, without giving us a notion," +said Mrs. Hewel, resentfully. + +"If she had only warned us, you could have been lying on a sofa, with +the blinds down, and I could have been holding your hand and shaking +a medicine-bottle," said Sarah. "That is how she expected to find us, +she said, from your letters." + +"I am sure I scarcely refer to my weak health in my letters," said +Mrs. Hewel, plaintively, "and it is natural I should like my only +daughter to be with me now and then. Aunt Elizabeth has never had a +child herself, and cannot understand the feelings of a mother." + +Sarah and Peter exchanged a fleeting glance. She shrugged her +shoulders slightly, and Peter looked at his boots. They understood +each other perfectly. + +Freshly to the recollection of both rose the lamentations of a little +red-haired girl, banished from the Eden of her beloved home, and +condemned to a cheap German school. Mrs. Hewel, in her palmiest days, +had never found it necessary to race up and down the stable-yard to +amuse Sarah; and when her only daughter developed scarlatina, she +had removed herself and her spaniels from home for months to escape +infection. + +"Here is papa," said Sarah, breaking the silence. "He was so vexed to +be out when you arrived yesterday. He heard nothing of it till he came +back." + +Colonel Hewel walked in through the open window, with his dog at his +heels. He was delighted to welcome his young neighbour home. A short, +sturdy man, with red whiskers, plentiful stiff hair, and bright, dark +blue eyes. From her father Sarah had inherited her colouring, her +short nose, and her unfailing good spirits. + +"I would have come over to welcome you," he said, shaking Peter's hand +cordially, "only when I came home there was all the upset of Lady +Tintern's arrival, and half a hundred things to be done to make her +sufficiently comfortable. And then I would have come to fetch Sarah +after dinner, only I couldn't be sure she mightn't have started; and +if I'd gone down by the road, ten to one she'd have come up by the +path through the woods. So I just sat down and smoked my pipe, and +waited for her to come back. You'll stay to lunch, eh, Peter?" + +"I must get back to my mother, sir," said Peter. His respect for +Sarah's father, who had once commanded a cavalry regiment, had +increased a thousand-fold since he last saw Colonel Hewel. "But won't +you--I mean she'd be very glad--I wish you'd come over and dine +to-night, all of you--as you could not come yesterday evening?" + +Thus Peter delivered his first invitation, blushing with eagerness. + +"I'm afraid we couldn't leave Lady Tintern--or persuade her to come +with us," said the colonel, shaking his head. Then he brightened up. +"But as soon as she and Sally have toddled back to town I see no +reason why we shouldn't come, eh, Emily?" he said, turning to his +wife. + +Peter looked rather blank, and a laugh trembled on Sarah's pretty +lips. + +"You know I'm not strong enough to dine out, Tom," said his wife, +peevishly. "I can't drive so far, and I'm terrified of the ferry at +night, with those slippery banks." + +"Well, well, there's plenty of time before us. Later on you may get +better; and I don't suppose you'll be running away again in a hurry, +eh, Peter?" said the colonel. "I'm told you made a capital speech +yesterday about sticking to your home, and living on your land, as +your father, poor fellow, did before you." + +"I wish Sarah felt as you do, Peter," said Mrs. Hewel; "but, of +course, she has grown too grand for us, who live contentedly in the +country all the year round. Her home is nothing to her now, it seems; +and the only thing she thinks of is rushing back to London again as +fast as she can." + +Sarah, contrary to her wont, received this attack in silence; but she +bestowed a fond squeeze on her father's arm, and cast an appealing +glance at Peter, which caused the hero's heart to leap in his bosom. + +"Of course I mean to live at Barracombe," said Peter, polishing his +eyeglass with reckless energy. "But I said nothing to the people about +living there all the year round. On the contrary, I think it more +probable that I shall--run up to town myself, occasionally--just for +the season." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +On a perfect summer afternoon in mid-July, Lady Mary sat in the +terrace garden at Barracombe, before the open windows of the silent +house, in the shade of the great ilex; sometimes glancing at the book +she held, and sometimes watching the haymakers in the valley, whose +voices and laughter reached her faintly across the distance. + +Some boys were playing cricket in a field below. She noted idly that +the sound of the ball on the bat travelled but slowly upward, and +reached her after the striker had begun to run. The effect was +curious, but it was not new to her, though she listened and counted +with idle interest. + +The old sisters had departed for their daily drive, which she daily +declined to share, having no love for the high-road, and much for the +peace which their absence brought her. + +It was an afternoon which made mere existence a delight amid such +surroundings. + +Long shadows were falling across the bend of the river, below the +wooded hill which faced the south-west; whilst the cob-built, +whitewashed cottages, and the brown, square-towered church lay full in +sunshine still. The red cattle stood knee-deep in the shallows, and an +old boat was moored high and dry upon the sloping red banks. + +The air was sweet with a thousand mingled scents of summer flowers: +carnations, stocks, roses, and jasmine. The creamy clusters of +Perpetual Felicity rioted over the corner turret of the terrace, where +a crumbling stair led to the top of a small, half-ruined observatory, +which tradition called the look-out tower. + +Flights of steps led downwards from the garden, where the bedded-out +plants blazed in all their glory of ordered colour, to the walks on +the lower levels. Here were long herbaceous borders, backed by the +mighty sloping walls of old red sandstone, which, like an ancient +fortification, supported the terrace above. + +The blue larkspur flourished beside scarlet gladioli, feather-headed +spirea, and hardy fuchsia. There were no straight lines, nor any order +of planting. The Madonna lilies stood in groups, lifting up on thin, +ragged stems their pure and spotless clusters, and overpowering with +their heavy scent the fainter fragrance of the mignonette. Tall, green +hollyhocks towered higher yet, holding the secret of their loveliness, +until these should wither; when they too would burst into blossom, and +forestall the round-budded dahlia. + +In the silence, many usually unheeded sounds made themselves very +plainly heard. + +The tapping of the great magnolia-leaves upon the windows of the south +front; the rustling of the ilex; the ceaseless murmur of the river; +the near twittering or distant song of innumerable birds; the steady +hum of the saw-mill below; the call of the poultry-woman at the +home-farm, and the shrieking response of a feathered horde flying and +fighting for their food--sounds all so familiar as to pass unnoticed, +save in the absence of companionship. + +As Lady Mary mused alone, she could not but recall other summer +afternoons, when she had not felt less lonely because her husband's +voice might at any moment break the silence, and summon her to his +side. Days when Peter had been absent at school, instead of, as now, +at play; and when the old ladies had also been absent, taking their +regular and daily drive in the big barouche. + +Then she had prized and coveted the solitude of a summer afternoon on +the lawn, and had stolen away to read and dream undisturbed in the +shadow of the ilex. + +It was now, when no vexatious restraint was exercised over her--when +there was no one to reprove her for dreaming, or to criticize or +forbid her chosen book--that solitude had become distasteful to her. +She was restless and dissatisfied, and the misty sunlit landscape had +lost its charm, and her book its power of enchaining her attention. + +She had tasted the joy of real companionship; the charm of real +sympathy; of the fearless exchange of ideas with one whose outlook +upon life was as broad and charitable as Sir Timothy's had been narrow +and prejudiced. + +She had scarcely dared to acknowledge to herself how dear John Crewys +had become to her, even though she knew that she rested thankfully +upon the certainty of his love; that she trusted him in all things; +that she was in utter sympathy with all his thoughts and words and +ways. + +Yet she had wished him to go, that she might be free to devote herself +to her boy--to be very sure that she was not a light and careless +mother, ready to abandon her son at the first call of a stranger. + +And John Crewys had understood as another might not have understood. +His clear head and great heart had divined her feelings, though +perhaps he would never quite know how passionately grateful she was +because he had divined them; because he had in no way fallen short of +the man he had seemed to be. + +She had sacrificed John to Peter; and John, who had shown so much +wisdom and delicacy in leaving her alone with her son, was avenged; +for only his absence could have made clear to her how he had grown +into the heart she had guarded so jealously for Peter's sake. + +She knew now that Peter's companionship made her more lonely than +utter solitude. + +The _joie de vivre_, which had distinguished her early days, and was +inherent in her nature, had been quenched, to all appearance, many +years since; but the spark had never died, and John had fanned it into +brightness once more. + +His strong hand had swept away the cobwebs that had been spun across +her life; and the drooping soul had revived in the sunshine of his +love, his comradeship, his warm approval. + +Timidly, she had learnt to live, to laugh, to look about her, and dare +utter her own thoughts and opinions, instead of falsely echoing those +she did not share. Lady Mary had recovered her individuality; the +serene consciousness of a power within herself to live up to the ideal +her lover had conceived of her. + +But now, in his absence, that confidence had been rudely shaken. She +had come to perceive that she, who charmed others so easily, could +not charm her sullen son. It was part of the penalty she paid for her +quick-wittedness, that she could realize herself as Peter saw her, +though she was unable to present herself before him in a more +favourable light. + +"I must be myself--or nobody," she thought despairingly. But Peter +wanted her to be once more the meek, plainly dressed, low-spirited, +silent being whom Sir Timothy had created; and who was not in the +least like the original laughing, loving, joyous Mary Setoun. + +It did not occur to her, in her sorrowful humility, that possibly her +qualities stood on a higher level than Peter's powers of appreciation. +Yet it is certain that people can only admire intelligently what +is good within their comprehension; and their highest flights of +imagination may sometimes scarcely touch mediocrity. + +The noblest ideals, the fairest dreams, the subtlest reasoning, the +finest ethics, contained in the writings of the mighty dead, meant +nothing at all to Sir Timothy. His widow knew that she had never heard +him utter one high or noble or selfless thought. But with, perhaps, +pardonable egotism, she had taken it for granted that Peter must be +different. Whatever his outward humours, he was _her_ son; rather a +part of herself, in her loving fancy, than a separate individual. + +The moment of awakening had been long in coming to Lady Mary; the +moment when a mother has to find out that her personality is not +necessarily reproduced in her child; that the being who was once the +unconscious consoler of her griefs and troubles may develop a nature +perfectly antagonistic to her own. + +She had kept her eyes shut with all her might for a long time, but +necessity was forcing them open. + +Perhaps her association with John Crewys made it easier to see Peter +as he was, and not as she had wished him to be. + +And yet, she thought miserably to herself, he had certainly tried hard +to be affectionate and kind to her--and probably it did not occur to +him, as it did to his mother, how pathetic it was that he should have +to try. + +Peter did not think much about it. + +Sometimes, during his short stay at Barracombe, he had walked through +a game of croquet with his mother--it was good practice for his left +hand--or he listened disapprovingly to something she inadvertently +(forgetting he was not John) read aloud for his sympathy or +admiration; or he took a short stroll with her; or bestowed his +company upon her in some other dutiful fashion. But these filial +attentions over, if he yawned with relief--why, he never did so in her +presence, and would have been unable to understand that Lady Mary saw +him yawning, in her mind's eye, as plainly as though he had indulged +this bad habit under her very nose. He bestowed a portion of his +time on his aunts in much the same spirit, taking less trouble to be +affectionate, because they were less exacting, as he would have put it +to himself, than she was. + +The scheme of renting a house in London had duly been laid before him, +and rejected most decisively by the young gentleman. His father had +never taken a house in town, and he could see no necessity for it. His +aunts were lost in admiration for their nephew's firmness. Peter had +inherited somewhat of his father's dictatorial manner, and their +flattery did not tend to soften it. When his aged relatives +mispronounced the magic word _kopje_, or betrayed their belief that a +_donga_ was an inaccessible mountain--he brought the big guns of his +heavy satire to bear on the little target of their ignorance without +remorse. He mistook a loud voice, and a habit of laying down the law, +for manly decision, and the gift of leadership; and imagined that in +talking down his mother's gentle protests he had convinced her of his +superior wisdom. + +When he had made it sufficiently clear, however, that he did not wish +Lady Mary to accompany him to town, young Sir Peter made haste to +depart thither himself, on the very reasonable plea that he required a +new outfit of clothes. + +Was it possible that his departure brought a dreadful relief to the +mother who had prayed day and night, for eight-and-twenty months, that +her son might return to her? + +She tried and tried, on her knees in her own room, to realize what her +feelings would have been if Peter had been killed in South Africa. +She tried to recall the first ecstasy of joy at his home-coming. She +remembered, as she might have remembered a dream, the hours of agony +she had passed, looking out over these very blue hills, and dumbly +beseeching God to spare her boy--her only son--out of all the mothers' +sons who were laying down their lives for England. + +A terrible thought assailed her now and then, like an ugly spectre +that would not be laid--that if Peter had died of his wound--if he had +fallen as so many of his comrades had fallen, in the war--he would +have been a hero for all time; a glorious memory, safely enshrined and +enthroned above all these miserable petty doubts and disappointments. +She cast the thought from her in horror and piteous grief, and +reiterated always her passionate gratitude for his preservation. But, +nevertheless, the living, breathing Peter was a daily and hourly +disappointment to the mother who loved him. His ways were not her +ways, nor his thoughts her thoughts; and often she felt that she could +have found more to say to a complete stranger, and that a stranger +would have understood her better. + +The old ladies, returning from their drive, generally took a little +turn upon the terrace. This constituted half their daily exercise, +since their morning walk consisted of a stroll round the kitchen +garden. + +"It prevents cramp after sitting so long," one would say to the other. + +"And it is only right to show the gardener that we take an interest," +the other would reply. + +The gardener translated the interest they took into a habit of +fault-finding, which nearly drove him mad. + +"It du spile the vine weather vor I," he would frequently grumble +to his greatest crony, James Coachman, who, for his part, bitterly +resented the abnormal length of the daily drives. "Zure as vate, when +I zits down tu my tea, cumes a message from one are t'other on 'em, +an' oop I goes. 'Yu bain't been lukin' round zo careful as 'ee shude; +there be a bit o' magnolia as want nailding oop, my gude man.' 'Oh, +be there, mum?' zays I. 'Yiss, there be; an' thart I'd carl yure +attention tu it,' zess she, are zum zuch. 'Thanky, mum, I'm zure,' +zezz I." + +"I knows how her goes on," groaned James Coachman. + +"Mother toime 'tis zummat else," said the aggrieved gardener. "'Thic +'ere geranum's broke, Willum; but ef yu tuke it vor cuttings, zo +vast's iver yu cude, 'twon't take no yarm, Willum. Yu zee as how us du +take a turble interest.' Ah! 'tis arl I can du tu putt oop wi' 'un; +carling a man from's tea, tu tark zuch vamous vule's tark." + +Lady Mary was not much less weary than the gardener and coachman of +the old sisters' habits of criticism. But only the shadow of their +former power of vexing her remained, now that they could no longer +appeal to Sir Timothy to join them in reproving his wife. She was +no more to be teased or exasperated into alternate submission and +rebellion. + +Their cousin John, the administrator of Barracombe, had chosen from +the first to place her opinions and wishes above all their protests or +advice. They said to each other that John, before he grew tired of her +and went away, had spoilt poor dear Mary completely; but their hopes +were centred on Peter, who was a true Crewys, and who would soon +be his own master, and the master of Barracombe; when he would, +doubtless, revert to his father's old ways. + +They chose to blame his mother for his sudden departure to London, and +remarked that the changes in his home had so wrought upon the poor +fellow, that he could not bear to look at them until he had the power +of putting them right again. + +A deeply resented innovation was the appearance of the tea-table on +the lawn before the windows, in the shade of the ilex-grove, which +sheltered the western end of the terrace from the low rays of the sun. + +During the previous summer, on their return from a drive, they had +found their cousin John in his white flannels, and Lady Mary in her +black gown, serenely enjoying this refreshment out-of-doors; and the +poor old ladies had hardly known how to express their surprise and +annoyance. + +In vain did their sister-in-law explain that she had desired a second +tea to be served in the hall, in their usual corner by the log +fireplace. + +It had never been the custom in the family. What would Ash say? What +would he think? How could so much extra trouble be given to the +servants? + +"The servants have next to nothing to do," Lady Mary had said; and +young John had actually laughed, and explained that he had had a +conversation with Ash which had almost petrified that tyrant of the +household. + +Either Ash would behave himself properly, and carry out orders without +grumbling, or he would be superseded. _Ash_ superseded! + +This John had said with quite unruffled good humour, and with a smile +on his face, as though such an upheaval of domestic politics were the +simplest thing in the world. Though for years the insolence and the +idleness of Ash had been favourite grievances with Lady Belstone and +Miss Crewys, they were speechlessly indignant with young John. + +Habit had partially inured, though it could never reconcile them, to +the appearance of that little rustic table and white cloth in Lady +Mary's favourite corner of the terrace; and though they would rather +have gone without their tea altogether than partake of it there, +they could behold her pouring it out for herself with comparative +equanimity. + +"I trust you are rested, dear Mary, after your terrible long climb in +the woods this morning?" + +"It has been very restful sitting here. I hope you had a pleasant +drive, Isabella?" "No; it was too hot to be pleasant. We passed +the rectory, and there was that idle doctor lolling in the canon's +verandah--keeping the poor man from his haymaking. Has the second post +come in? Any news of dear Peter?" + +"None at all. You know he is not much of a correspondent, and his last +letter said he would be back in a few days." + +"For my part," said Lady Belstone, "I think Peter will come home the +day he attains his majority, and not a moment before." + +"He is hardly likely to stay in London through August and September," +said Lady Mary, in rather displeased tones. + +"Perhaps not in London; but there are other places besides London," +said Miss Crewys, significantly. "We met Mrs. Hewel driving. _She_, +poor thing, does not expect to see Sarah before Christmas, if then, +from what she told us." + +"She should not have let Lady Tintern adopt Sarah if she is to be for +ever regretting it. It was her own doing," said Lady Mary. + +"That is just what I told her," said Lady Belstone, triumphantly. +"Though how she can be regretting such a daughter I cannot +conjecture." + +"Sarah is a saucy creature," said Miss Crewys. "The last time I saw +her she made one of her senseless jokes at me." + +"She has no tact," said Lady Belstone, shaking her head; "for when +Peter saw you were annoyed, and tried to pass it off by telling her +the Crewys family had no sense of humour, instead of saying, 'What +nonsense!' she said, 'What a pity!'" + +"Her mother was full of a letter from Lady Tintern about some grand +lord or other, who wanted to marry Sarah. I did my best to make her +understand how very unlikely it was that any man, noble or otherwise, +would care to marry a girl with carroty hair." + +"I doubt if you succeeded in convincing her, Georgina, though you +spoke pretty plain, and I am very far from blaming you for it. But she +is ate up with pride, poor thing, because Sarah gets noticed by +Lady Tintern's friends, who would naturally wish to gratify her by +flattering her niece." + +"I am afraid the girl is setting her cap at Peter," said Miss Crewys; +"but I took care to let her mother know, casually, what our family +would think of such a marriage for him." + +"Peter is a boy," said Lady Mary, quickly; "and Sarah, for all +practical purposes, is ten years older than he. She is only amusing +herself. Lady Tintern is much more ambitious for her than I am for +Peter." + +"How you talk, Mary!" said Miss Crewys, indignantly. "She is hardly +twenty years of age, and the most designing monkey that ever lived. +And Peter is a fine young man. A boy, indeed! I hope if she succeeds +in catching him that you will remember I warned you." + +"I will remember, if anything so fortunate should occur," said Lady +Mary, with a faint smile. "I cannot think of any girl in the world +whom I would prefer to Sarah as a daughter." + +"I, for one, should walk out of this house the day that girl entered +it as mistress, let Peter say what he would to prevent me," said Lady +Belstone, reddening with indignation. + +"I wonder where you would go to?" said Lady Mary, with some curiosity. +"Of course," she added, hastily, "there is the Dower House." + +"I am sure it is very generous of you to suggest the Dower House, dear +Mary," said Miss Crewys, softening, "since our poor brother, in his +unaccountable will, left it entirely to you, and made no mention of +his elder sisters; though we do not complain." + +"It is in accordance with custom that the widow should have the Dower +House. A widow's rights should be respected; but I thought our names +would be mentioned," said Lady Belstone, dejectedly. + +"Of course he knew," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "that Peter's +house would be always open to us all, as my boy said himself." + +"Dear boy! he has said it to us too," said the sisters, in a breath. + +"I don't say that, in my opinion," said Lady Mary, "it would not be +wiser to leave a young married couple to themselves; I have always +thought so. But Peter would not hear of your turning out of your old +home; you know that very well." + +"Peter would not; but nothing would induce _me_ to live under the +same roof as that red-haired minx," said Lady Belstone, firmly. "And +besides, as you say, my dear Mary, you could not very well live by +yourself at the Dower House." + +"Since Mary has been so kind as to mention it, there would be many +advantages in our accompanying her there, in case Sarah should succeed +in her artful aims," said Miss Crewys. "It would be near Peter, and +yet not _too_ near, and we could keep an eye on _her_." + +"If she does not succeed, somebody else will," said Lady Belstone, +sensibly; "and, at least, we know her faults, and can put Peter on his +guard against them." + +A host of petty and wretched recollections poured into Lady Mary's +mind as she listened to these words. + +Poor Timothy; poor little hunted, scolded, despairing bride; poor +married life--of futile reproaches and foolish quarrelling. + +How many small miseries she owed to those ferret searching eyes, and +those subtly poisonous tongues! But such miseries lurked in the dull +shadows of the past. Standing now in the bright sunshine of the +present, she forgave the sisters with all her heart, and thought +compassionately of their great age, their increasing infirmities, +their feeble hold on life. + +Not to them did she owe real sorrow, after all; for nothing that does +not touch the heart can reach the fountain of grief. + +Peter's hand--the hand she loved best in the world--had set the waters +of sorrow flowing not once, but many times; but she had become aware +lately of a stronger power than Peter's guarding the spring. + +She looked from one sister to the other. + +Despite the narrowness of brow, and sharpness of eye and feature, +they were both venerable of aspect, as they tottered up and down the +terrace where they had played in their childhood and sauntered through +youth and middle age to these latter days, when they leant upon +silver-headed sticks, and wore dignified silk attire and respectable +poke-bonnets. + +"Don't you think it would be better," said Lady Mary, slowly, "if you +left Peter to find out his wife's faults for himself; whether she be +Sarah--or another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Torrents of falling rain obscured the valley of the Youle. The grey +clouds floated below the ridges of the hills, and wreathed the +tree-tops. Against the dim purple of the distance, the October roses +held up melancholy, rain-washed heads; and sudden gusts of wind sent +little armies of dead, brown leaves racing over the stone pavement of +the terrace. + +Lady Mary leant her forehead against the window, and gazed out upon +the autumn landscape; and John Crewys watched her with feelings not +altogether devoid of self-reproach. + +Perhaps he had carried his prudent consideration too far. + +His reverence for his beautiful lady--who reigned in John's inmost +thoughts as both saint and queen--had caused him to determine that she +must come to him, when she did come, without a shadow of self-reproach +to sully the joy of her surrender, the fulness, of her bliss, in the +perfect sympathy and devotion which awaited her. + +But John Crewys--though passionately desiring her companionship, and +impatient of all barriers, real or imaginary, which divided her from +him--yet lived a life very full of work and interest and pleasure on +his own account. He was only conscious of his loneliness at times; +and when he was as busy as he had been during the early half of this +summer, he was hardly conscious of it at all. + +He had not fully realized the effect that this time of waiting and +uncertainty might have upon her, in the solitude to which he had left +her, and which he had at first supposed would be altogether occupied +by Peter. Her letters--infrequent as he, in his self-denial, had +suggested--were characterized by a delicate reserve and a tacit +refusal to take anything for granted in their relations to each other, +which half charmed and half tantalized John; but scarcely enlightened +him regarding the suspense and sadness which at this time she was +called upon to bear. + +When he came to Barracombe, he knew that she had suffered greatly +during these months of his absence, and reproached himself angrily for +blindness and selfishness. + +He had spent the first weeks of his long vacation in Switzerland, in +order to bring the date of his visit to the Youle Valley as near as +possible to the date of Peter's coming of age; but, also, he had been +very much overworked, and felt an absolute want of rest and change +before entering upon the struggle which he supposed might await him, +and for which he would probably need all the good humour and good +sense he possessed. So far as he was personally concerned, there +was no doubt that his proceedings had been dictated by wisdom and +judgment. + +The fatigue and irritability, consequent upon too much mental labour, +and too little fresh air and exercise, had vanished. John was in good +health and good spirits, clear of brain and eye, and vigorous of +person, when he arrived at Barracombe; in the mild, wet, misty weather +which heralded the approach of a typical Devonshire autumn. + +But when he looked at Lady Mary, he knew that he would have been +better able to dispense with that holiday interval than she was to +have endured it. + +She had always been considered marvellously young-looking for her age. +The quiet country life she had led had bestowed that advantage upon +her; and her beauty, fair as she was, had always been less dependent +on colouring than upon the exquisite delicacy of her features and +general contour. But now a heaviness beneath the blue eyes,--a little +fading of her brightness--a little droop of the beautifully shaped +mouth,--almost betrayed her seven and thirty years; and the soft, +abundant, brown hair was threaded quite perceptibly with silver. Her +sweet face smiled upon him; but the smile was no longer, he thought, +joyous--but pathetic, as of one who reproaches herself wonderingly for +light-heartedness. + +John looked at her in silence, but the words he uttered in his heart +were, "I will never leave you any more." + +Perhaps his face said everything that he did not say, for Lady Mary +had turned from him with a little sob, and leant her forehead on her +hands, looking out at the rain which swept the valley. She felt, as +she had always felt in John's presence, that here was her champion and +her protector and her slave, in one; returned to restore her failing +courage and her lost self-confidence. + +"So you saw something of Peter in London?" she said tremulously, +breaking the silence which had fallen between them after their first +greeting. "Please tell me. You know I have seen almost nothing of him +since he came home." + +"So I gather," said John. "Yes, I saw something--not very much--of +Master Peter in London. You see I am not much of a society man;" and +he laughed. + +"Was Peter a society man?" said his mother, laughing also, but rather +sadly. + +"He went out a good deal, and was to be met with in most places," John +answered. + +"I read his name in lists of dances given by people I did not know he +had ever heard of. But I did not like to ask him how he managed to +get invited. He rather dislikes being questioned," said Lady Mary, +describing Peter's prejudices as mildly as possible. + +"I fancy Miss Sarah could tell you," said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"I did not know--just a girl--could get a stranger, a boy like Peter, +invited everywhere," said Lady Mary, innocently. + +John laughed. "Peter is a very eligible boy," he said, "and Sarah is +not 'just a girl,' but a very clever young woman indeed; and Lady +Tintern is a ball-giver. But if he had been the most ordinary of +youths, a bachelor's foothold on the dance-lists is the easiest thing +in the world to obtain. It means nothing in itself." + +"I think it meant a good deal to Peter," said his mother, with a sigh. +"If only I could think Sarah were in earnest." + +"I don't see why not," said John. + +Then he came and took Lady Mary's hand, and led her to a seat next the +fire. + +"Come and sit down comfortably," he said, "and let us talk everything +over. It looks very miserable out-of-doors, and nothing could be more +delightful than this room, and nobody to disturb us. I want the real +history of the last few months. Do you know your letters told me +almost nothing?" + +The room was certainly delightful, and not the less so for the Chill +rain without, which beat against the windows, and enhanced the bright +aspect of the scene within. + +A little fire burned cheerfully in the polished grate, and cast its +glow upon the burnished fender, and the silver ornaments and +trifles on a rosewood table beyond. The furniture was bright with +old-fashioned glossy chintz; the rose-tinted walls were hung with fine +water-colour drawings; the windows with rose-silk curtains. + +The hardy outdoor flowers were banished to the oaken hall. Lady Mary's +sense of the fitness of things permitted the silver cups and Venetian +glasses of this dainty apartment to be filled only with waxen hothouse +blooms and maidenhair fern. + +She could not but be conscious of the restfulness of her surroundings, +and of John's calm, protecting presence, as he placed her tenderly in +the corner of the fireside couch, and took his place beside her. + +"I don't think the last months have had any history at all," she said +dreamily. "I have missed you, John. But that--you know already. I--I +have been very lonely--since--since Peter came home. I think it was +Sarah who persuaded him to go away again so soon. I believe she +laughed at his clothes." + +"I suppose they _were_ a little out of date, and he must surely have +outgrown them, besides," said John, smiling. + +"I suppose so; anyway, I think it must have been that which put it +into his head to go to London and buy more. It was a little awkward +for the poor boy, because he had just been scolding _me_ for wishing +to go to London. But he said he would only be a few days." + +"And he stayed to the end of the season?" + +"Yes. Of course the aunts put it down to Sarah. I dare say it _was_ +her doing. I don't know why she should wish to rob me of my boy just +for--amusement," said Lady Mary, rather resentfully. "But I have not +understood Sarah lately; she has seemed so hard and flippant. You are +laughing, John? I dare say I am jealous and inconsistent. You are +quite right. One moment I want to think Sarah in earnest--and willing +to marry my boy; and the next I remember that I began to hate his wife +the very day he was born." + +"It appears to be the nature of mothers," said John, indulgently. +"But you will allow _me_ to hope for Peter's happiness, and quite +incidentally, of course, for our own?" + +She smiled. "Seriously, John, I wish you would tell me how he got on +in London." + +"He dined with me once or twice, as you know," said John, "and was +very friendly. I think he was relieved that I made no suggestion of +tutors or universities, and that I took his eyeglass for granted. In +short, that I treated him as I should treat any other young man of my +acquaintance; whereas he had greatly feared I might presume upon my +guardianship to give him good advice. But I did not, because he is too +young to want advice just now, and prefers, like most of us, to buy +his own experience." + +"I hope he was really nice to you. You won't hide anything? You'll +tell me exactly?" + +"I am hiding nothing. The lad is a good lad at bottom, and a manly one +into the bargain," said John. "His defects are of the kind which get +up, so to speak, and hit you in the eye; and are, consequently, not +of a kind to escape observation. What is obviously wrong is easiest +cured. He has yet to learn that 'manners maketh man,' but he was +learning it as fast as possible. The mistakes of youth are rather +pathetic than annoying." + +"Sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"He fell, very naturally, into most of the conventional errors which +beset the inexperienced Londoner," said John, smiling slightly at the +recollection. "He talked in a familiar manner of persons whose names +were unknown to him the day before yesterday; and told well-known +anecdotes about well-known people whom he hadn't had time to meet, as +though they had only just happened. The kind of stories outsiders +tell to new-comers. And he professed to be bored at every party he +attended. I won't say that the _habitué_ is always too well bred, or +too grateful to his entertainers, to do anything of the kind; but he +is certainly too wise or too cautious." + +"Perhaps he was bored?" said Lady Mary, wistfully. "Knowing nobody, +poor boy." + +"The first time I met him on neutral ground was at a dance," said +John. "He looked very tall and nervous and lonely, and, of course, he +was not dancing; but, nevertheless, he was the hero of the evening, +or so Miss Sarah gave me to understand. But you can imagine it for +yourself. The war just over, and a young fellow who has lost so much +in it; the gallant nephew of the gallant Ferries; besides his own +romantic name, and his eligibility. I took him off to the National +Gallery, to make acquaintance with the portrait of our cavalier +ancestor there; and I declare there is a likeness. Miss Sarah had +visited it long ago, it appears. For my part, I am glad to think that +these fashionable young women can still be so enthusiastic about a +wounded soldier. Sarah said they were all wild to dance with him, and +ready to shed tears for his lost arm." + +"And was he much with Sarah?" + +John laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Miss Sarah is a star with +many satellites. She raised my hopes, however, by appearing to have a +few smiles to spare for Peter." + +"And she must have got him the invitation to Tintern Castle," said +Lady Mary. "That is why he went up to Scotland." + +"I see." + +"Then she got him another invitation, I suppose, for he went to the +next house she stayed at; and to a third place for some yachting." + +"What did Lady Tintern say?" + +"That's just it. Sarah is in Lady Tintern's black books just now. She +is furious with her, Mrs. Hewel tells me, because she has refused Lord +Avonwick." + +"Hum!" said John. "He has forty thousand a year." + +"I don't think money would tempt Sarah to marry a man she did not +love," said Lady Mary, reproachfully. "There was Mr. Van Graaf, the +African millionaire. She wouldn't look at him, and he offered to +settle untold sums upon her." + +"Did he? What a brute!" + +"Why?" + +"Never mind. You've not seen him. I'm glad he found Sarah wasn't for +sale. But doesn't all this look as if it were Peter, after all?" + +"If only I could think she were in earnest," Lady Mary said again. +"But he is such a boy. She has three times his cleverness in some +ways, and three times his experience, though she is younger than he. I +suppose women mature much earlier than men. It galls my pride when she +orders him about, and laughs at him. But he--he doesn't understand." + +"Perhaps," said John, slowly, "he understands better than you think. +Each generation has a freemasonry of its own. I must confess I have +heard scraps of chatter and chaff in ballrooms and theatres which have +filled me with amazement, wondering how it could be possible that +such poor stuff should pass muster as conversation, or coquetry, or +gallantry, with the youths and maidens of to-day. But when I have +observed further, instead of an offended fair, or a disillusioned +swain, behold! two young heads close together, two young faces +sparkling with smiles and satisfaction. And the older person, who +would fatuously join in with a sensible remark, spoils all the +enjoyment. The fact is, the secret of real companionship is not +quality, but equality. There's a punning platitude for you." + +"It may be a platitude, but I am beginning to discover that what are +called platitudes by the young are biting truths to the old," said +Lady Mary. "I've felt it a thousand times. Words come so easily to my +lips when I'm speaking to you, I am so certain you will understand and +respond. But with Peter, I sometimes feel as though I were dumb or +stupid. Perhaps you've been too--too kind; you've understood too +quickly. I've been too ready to believe that you've found me--" + +"Everything I wanted to find you," interrupted John, tenderly; "and +that was something quite out of the common." + +She smiled and shook her head. "I am ready to believe all the nice +things you can say, as fast as you can say them, when I am with _you_" +she said, with a raillery rather mournful than gay. "But when I am +with Peter, I seem to realize dreadfully that I'm only a middle-aged +woman of average capacity, and with very little knowledge of the +world. He does his best to teach me. That's funny, isn't it?" + +"It's very like--a very young man," said John, gently. + +"You mustn't think I'm mocking at my boy--like Sarah," she said +vehemently. "Perhaps I am wrong to tell you. Perhaps only a mother +would really understand. But it makes me a little sad and bewildered. +My boy--my little baby, who lay in my arms and learnt everything from +me. And now he looks down and lectures me from such an immense height +of superiority, never dreaming that I'm laughing in my heart, because +it's only little Peter, after all." + +"And he doesn't lecture Sarah?" + +"Oh no; he doesn't lecture Sarah. She is too young to be lectured with +impunity, and too wise. Besides, I think since he went away, and saw +Sarah flattered and spoilt, and queening it among the great people +who didn't know him even by sight, that he has realized that their +relative positions have changed a good deal. You see, little Sarah +Hewel, as she used to be, would have been making quite a great +match in marrying Peter. But Lady Tintern's adopted daughter and +heiress--old Tintern left an immense fortune to his wife, didn't +he?--is another matter altogether. And how could she settle down to +this humdrum life after all the excitement and gaiety she's been +accustomed to?" + +"Women do such things every day. Besides--" + +"Yes?" + +"Is Peter still so much enamoured of a humdrum life?" said John, +dryly. + +"I have had no opportunity of finding out; but I am sure he will want +to settle down quietly when all this is over--" + +"You mean when he's no longer in love with Sarah?" + +"He's barely one-and-twenty; it can't last," said Lady Mary. + +"I don't know. If she's so much cleverer than he, I'm inclined to +think it may," said John. + +"Oh, of course, if he married her--it would last," said Lady Mary. + +"And then?" said John, smiling. + +"Perhaps _then_," said Lady Mary; and she laid her hand softly in the +strong hand outstretched to receive it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +There was a tap at the door of Lady Mary's bedroom, and Peter's voice +sounded without. + +"Mother, could I speak to you for a moment?" + +"Come in," said Lady Mary's soft voice; and Peter entered and closed +the door, and crossed to the oriel window, where she was sitting at +her writing-table, before a pile of notes and account books. + +Long ago, in Peter's childhood, she had learned to make this bedroom +her refuge, where she could read or write or dream, in silence; away +from the two old ladies, who seemed to pervade all the living-rooms at +Barracombe. Peter had been accustomed all his life to seek his mother +here. + +She had chosen the room at her marriage, and had had an old-fashioned +paper of bunched rosebuds put up there. It was very long and low, and +looked eastward into the fountain garden, and over the tree-tops far +away to the open country. + +The sisters had thought one of the handsome modern rooms of the south +front would be more suitable for the bride, but Lady Mary had her way. +She preferred the older part of the house, and liked the steps +down into her room, the uneven floor, the low ceiling, the quaint +window-seats, and the powdering closet where she hung her dresses. + +The great oriel window formed almost a sitting-room apart. Here was +her writing-table, whereon stood now a green jar of scented arums and +trailing white fuchsias. + +A bunch of sweet peas in a corner of the window-seat perfumed the +whole room, already fragrant with potpourri and lavender. + +A low bookcase was filled with her favourite volumes; one shelf with +the story-books of her childhood, from which she had long ago read +aloud to Peter, on rainy days when he had exhausted all other kinds +of amusement; for he had never touched a book if he could help it, +therein resembling his father. + +In the corner next the window stood the cot where Peter had slept +often as a little boy, and which had been playfully designated the +hospital, because his mother had always carried him thither when +he was ill. Then she had taken him jealously from the care of his +attendant, and had nursed and guarded him herself day and night, until +even convalescence was a thing of the past. She had never suffered +that little cot to be moved; the white coverlet had been made and +embroidered by her own hands. A gaudy oleograph of a soldier on +horseback--which little Peter had been fond of, and which had been +hung up to amuse him during one of those childish illnesses--remained +in its place. How often had she looked at it through her tears when +Peter was far away! Beside the cot stood a table with a shabby book +of devotions, marked by a ribbon from which the colour had long since +faded. The book had belonged to Lady Mary's father, young Robbie +Setoun, who had become Lord Ferries but one short month before he met +with a soldier's death. His daughter said her prayers at this little +table, and had carried thither her agony and petitions for her boy in +his peril, during the many, many months of the South African War. + +The morning was brilliant and sunny, and the upper casements stood +open, to let in the fresh autumn air, and the song of the robin +balancing on a swaying twig of the ivy climbing the old walls. White +clouds were blowing brightly across a clear, blue sky. + +Lady Mary stretched out her hand and pulled a cord, which drew a rosy +curtain half across the window, and shaded the corner where she was +sitting. She looked anxiously and tenderly into Peter's face; her +quick instinct gathered that something had shaken him from his +ordinary mood of criticism or indifference. + +"Are you come to have a little talk with me, my darling?" she said. + +She was afraid to offer the caress she longed to bestow. She moved +from her stiff elbow-chair to the soft cushions in her favourite +corner of the window-seat, and held out a timid hand. Peter clasped +it in his own, threw himself on a stool at her feet, and rested his +forehead against her knee. + +"I have something to tell you, mother, and I am afraid that, when I +have told you, you will be disappointed in me; that you will think me +inconsistent." + +Her heart beat faster. "Which of us is consistent in this world, my +darling? We all change with circumstances. We are often obliged to +change, even against our wills. Tell me, Peter; I shall understand." + +"There's not really anything to tell," said Peter, nervously +contradicting himself, "because nothing is exactly settled yet. But I +think something might be--before very long, if you would help me to +smooth away some of the principal difficulties." + +"Yes, yes," said Lady Mary, venturing to stroke the closely cropped +black head resting against her lap. + +"You know--Sarah--has been teaching me the new kind of croquet, at +Hewelscourt, since we came back from Scotland?" he said. "I don't get +on so badly, considering." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Oh, I was always rather inclined to be left-handed; it comes in +usefully now," said Peter, who generally hurried over any reference to +his misfortune. "Well, this morning, whilst we were playing, I asked +Sarah, for the third time, to--to marry me. The third's the lucky +time, isn't it?" he said, with a tremulous laugh, "and--and--" + +"She said yes!" cried Lady Mary, clasping her hands. + +"She didn't go so far as that," said Peter, rather reproachfully. His +voice shook slightly. "But she didn't say no. It's the first time she +hasn't said no." + +"What did she say?" said Lady Mary. + +She tried to keep her feelings of indignation and offence against +Sarah out of her voice. After all, who was Sarah that she should +presume to refuse Peter? Or for the matter of that, to accept him? +Either course seems equally unpardonable at times to motherly +jealousy, and Lady Mary was half vexed and half amused to find herself +not exempt from this weakness. + +"Impudent little red-headed thing!" she said to herself, though she +loved Sarah dearly, and admired her red hair with all her heart. + +"She told me a few of the reasons why she--she didn't want to marry +me," said Peter. + +Lady Mary's dismay was rather too apparent. "Surely that doesn't sound +very hopeful." + +Peter moved impatiently. "Oh, mother, it is always so difficult to +make you understand." + +"Is it, indeed?" she said, with a faint, pained smile. "I do my best, +my darling." + +"Never mind; I suppose women are always rather slow of comprehension," +said the young lord of creation--"that is, except Sarah. _She_ always +understands. God bless her!" + +"God bless her, indeed!" said Lady Mary, gently, and the tears started +to her blue eyes, "if she is going to marry my boy." + +Peter repented his crossness. "Forgive me, mother. I know you mean to +be kind," he said. "You will help me, won't you?" + +"With all my heart," she said, anxiously; "only tell me how." + +"You see, I can't help feeling," said Peter, bashfully, "that she +wouldn't have told me why she _couldn't_ marry me, if she hadn't +thought she might bring herself to do it in the end, if I got over the +difficulties she mentioned. I've been--hopeful, ever since she refused +that ass of an Avonwick, in spite of Lady Tintern. It wants some +courage to defy Lady Tintern, I can tell you, though she's such a +little object to look at. By George! I'd almost rather walk up to a +loaded gun than face that woman's tongue. Of course, even if _my_ +share of the difficulties were removed, there'd still be Lady Tintern +against us. But if Sarah can defy Lady Tintern in one thing, she might +in another. She's afraid of nobody." + +"Sarah certainly does not lack courage," said Lady Mary, smiling. + +"I never saw anybody like her," said Peter, whose love possessed him, +mind, body, and soul. "Why, I've heard her keep a whole roomful of +people laughing, and every one of them as dull as ditch-water till she +came in. And to see her hold her own against men at games--she's more +strength in one of her pretty, white wrists," said Peter, looking with +an air of disparagement at his mother's slender, delicate hand, "than +you have in your whole body, I do believe." + +"She is splendidly strong," said Lady Mary; "the very personification +of youth and health." She sighed softly. + +"And beauty," said Peter, excitedly. "Don't leave that out. And a good +sort, through and through, as even _you_ must allow, mother." + +He spoke as though he suspected her of begrudging his praise of Sarah, +and she made haste to reply: + +"Indeed, she is a good sort, dear little Sarah." + +"She is very fond of you," Peter said, in a choking voice. It seemed +to him, in his infatuation, so touching that Sarah should be fond of +any one. "She was dreadfully afraid of hurting your feelings; but yet, +as she said, she was bound to be frank with me." + +"Oh, Peter, do tell me what you mean. You are keeping me on thorns," +said Lady Mary. + +She grew red and white by turns. Was John's happiness in sight +already, as well as Peter's? + +"It's--it's most awfully hard to tell you," said Peter. + +He rose, and leant his elbow against the stone mullion nearest her, +looking down anxiously upon her as he spoke. + +"After all I said to you when we first came home, it's awfully hard. +But if you would only understand, you could make it all easy enough." + +"I will--I do understand." + +But Peter could not make up his mind even now to be explicit. + +"You see," he said, "Sarah is--not like other girls." + +"Of course not," said his mother. + +She controlled her impatience, reminding herself that Peter was very +young, and that he had never been in love before. + +"She's a kind of--of queen," said Peter, dreamily. "I only wish you +could have seen what it was in London." + +"I can imagine it," said Lady Mary. + +"No, you couldn't. I hadn't an idea what she would be there, until +I went to London and saw for myself," said Peter, who measured +everybody's imagination by his own. + +"You see," he explained "my position here, which seems so important to +you and the other people round here, and _used_ to seem so important +to me--is--just nothing at all compared to what has been cast at her +feet, as it were, over and over again, for her to pick up if she +chose. And this house," said Peter, glancing round and shaking his +head--"this house, which seems so beautiful to you now it's all done +up, if you'd only _seen_ the houses _she's_ accustomed to staying at. +Tintern Castle, for instance--" + +"I was born in a greater house than Tintern Castle, Peter," said Lady +Mary, gently. + +"Oh, of course. I'm saying nothing against Ferries," said Peter, +impatiently. "But you only lived there as a child. A child doesn't +notice." + +"Some children don't," said Lady Mary, with that faint, wondering +smile which hid her pain from Peter, and would have revealed it so +clearly to John. + +"It isn't that Sarah _minds_ this old house," said Peter; "she was +saying what a pretty room she could make of the drawing-room only the +other day." + +Lady Mary felt an odd pang at her heart. She thought of the trouble +John had taken to choose the best of the water-colours for the +rose-tinted room--the room he had declared so bright and so +charming--of the pretty curtains and chintzes; and the valuable old +china she had collected from every part of the house for the cabinets. + +"You see, she's got that sort of thing at her fingers' ends, Lady +Tintern being such a connoisseur," said the unconscious Peter. "But +she's so afraid of hurting your feelings--" + +"Why should she be?" said Lady Mary, coldly, in spite of herself. "If +she does not like the drawing-room, she can easily alter it." + +"That's what I say," said Peter, with a touch of his father's +pomposity. "Surely a bride has a right to look forward to arranging +her home as she chooses. And Sarah is mad about old French +furniture--Louis Seize, I think it is--but I know nothing about such +things. I think a man should leave the choice of furniture, and all +that, to his wife--especially when her taste happens to be as good as +Sarah's." + +"I--I think so too, Peter," said Lady Mary. + +Her thoughts wandered momentarily into the past; but his eager tones +recalled her attention. + +"Then you won't mind, so far?" said Peter, anxiously. + +"I--why should I mind?" said Lady Mary, starting. "I believe--I +have read--that old French furniture is all the rage now." Then she +bethought herself, and uttered a faint laugh. "But I'm afraid your +aunts might make it a little uncomfortable for her, if she--tried to +alter anything. I--go my own way now, and don't mind--but a young +bride--does not always like to be found fault with. She might find +that relations-in-law are sometimes--a little trying." Lady Mary felt, +as she spoke these words, that she was somehow opening a way for +herself as well as for Peter. She wondered, with a beating heart, +whether the moment had come in which she ought to tell him-- + +"That's just it," said Peter's voice, breaking in on her thoughts. +"That's just what Sarah means, and what I was trying to lead up to; +only I'm no diplomatist. But that's one of the greatest objections she +has to marrying me, quite apart from disappointing her aunt. I can't +blame Lady Tintern," said Peter, with a new and strange humility, "for +not thinking me good enough for Sarah; and _that's_ not a difficulty +_I_ can ever hope to remove. Sarah is the one to decide that point. +But about relations-in-law--it's what I've been trying to tell you all +this time." He cleared his throat, which had grown dry and husky. +"She says that when she marries she--she intends to have her house to +herself." + +There was a pause. + +"I see," said Lady Mary. + +She was silent; not, as Peter thought, with mortification; but because +she could not make up her mind what words to choose, in which to tell +him that it was freedom and happiness he was thus offering her with +both hands; and not, as he thought, loneliness and disappointment. + +Twice she essayed to speak, and failed through sheer embarrassment. +The second time Peter lifted her hand to his lips. She felt through +all her consciousness the shy remorse which prompted that rare caress. + +"The--the Dower House," faltered Peter, "is only a few yards away." + +A sudden desire to laugh aloud seized Lady Mary. His former words +returned upon her memory. + +"It's--it's rather damp, isn't it?" she said, in a shaking voice. + +He looked into her face, and did not understand the brightness of the +smile that was shining through her tears. + +"But it's very picturesque," said Peter, "and--and roomy. You and +my aunts would be quite snug there; and it could be very prettily +decorated, Sarah says." + +"Perhaps Sarah would advise us on the subject?" said Lady Mary, unable +to resist this thrust. + +"I'm sure she'd be delighted," said Peter, simply. + +Lady Mary fell back on her cushions and laughed helplessly, almost +hysterically. + +"I don't see why you should laugh," said Peter, in a rather sore tone. +"I don't know how it is, but I never _can_ understand you, mother." + +"I see you can't. Never mind, Peter," said Lady Mary. She sat up, and +lifted her pretty hands to smooth the soft waves of her brown hair. +"So I'm to settle down happily in my Dower House, and take your aunts +to live with me?" + +"Why, you see," said Peter, "we couldn't very well let the poor old +things wander away alone into the world, could we?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, slowly, "that they can take care of +themselves. And it is just possible that they may have foreseen--your +change of intentions." + +"Women can never take care of themselves," said Peter. "And how can +they have foreseen? I had no idea myself of _this_ happening. But they +would be perfectly happy in the Dower House; it is close by, and I +could see them very often. It wouldn't be like leaving Barracombe." + +"Yes, I think they could be happy there," said Lady Mary. She felt +that the moment had come at last. Her heart beat thickly, and her +colour came and went. "But if _they_ were happily settled at the Dower +House," she said slowly, for her agitation was making her breathless, +and she did not want Peter to notice it,"--I would willingly give it +up to them altogether. It could not matter whether _I_ were there +or not. Though they are old, they are perfectly able to look after +themselves--and other people; and if they were not, they would not +like _me_ to take care of them. They have their own servants and +Mrs. Ash. And they have never liked me, Peter, though we have lived +together so many years." + +"That is nonsense," said Peter, very calmly; "and if _they_ don't want +you there, mother, _I_ do. Of course you must live at the Dower House; +my father left it to you. And I shall want you more than ever now." + +"I don't see how," said Lady Mary. + +"Why, _we_--Sarah and I," said Peter, lingering fondly over the words +which linked that beloved name with his own, "if we ever--if _it_ ever +came off--we shall naturally be away from home a good deal. I couldn't +ask Sarah to tie herself down to this dull old place, could I?" + +"I suppose not," said Lady Mary. + +"She's accustomed to going about the world a good deal," said Peter. + +"No doubt." + +"Even _I_," said Peter, turning a flushed face towards his mother--"I +am too young, as Sarah says--and I feel it myself since I have seen +something of the life she lives--to become a complete fixture, like my +father was. It's--it's, as Sarah says--it's narrowing. I can see the +effects of it upon you all," said Peter, calmly, "when I come back +here." + +He could not fathom the wistfulness which clouded the blue eyes she +lifted to his face. + +"It is very narrowing," she said humbly. + +"One may devote one's self to one's duties as a landed proprietor," +said Peter, with another recurrence of pomposity, "and yet see +something of one's fellow-men." + +He replaced the eyeglass, and walked up and down the room for a few +moments, as though he were pacing a quarter-deck. He looked very tall, +and very, very slight and thin; older than his years, tanned and dried +by the African sun, which had enhanced his natural darkness. Though he +spoke as a boy, he looked like a man. His mother's heart yearned over +him. + +Peter had taken his lack of perception with him into the heart of +South Africa, and brought it back intact. Because his body had +travelled many hundreds of miles over land and sea, he believed that +his mind had opened in proportion to the distance covered. He knew +that men and women of action pick up knowledge of the world without +pausing on their busy way; but he did not know that it is to the +silent, the sorrowful, and the solitary--to those who have time to +listen--that God reveals the secrets of life. + +She said to herself that everything about him was dear to her; his +grey eyes, that never saw below the surface of things; his thin, brown +face; his youthful affectation; the strange, new growth which +shaded his long upper lip, and softened the plainness of the Crewys +physiognomy, which Peter would not have bartered for the handsomest +set of Greek features ever imagined by a sculptor. Even for his faults +Lady Mary had a tender toleration; for Peter would not have been Peter +without them. + +"It would not be fair on Sarah, knowing all London--worth knowing--as +she does," said Peter with pardonable exaggeration, "to rob her of the +season altogether. We shall go up regularly, every year, if--if she +marries me. Of that I am determined, and so"--incidentally--"is she." + +"Nothing could be nicer," said Lady Mary, heartily enough to satisfy +even Peter. + +He spoke with more warmth and naturalness. "She likes to go abroad, +mother, too, now and then," he said. + +"That would be delightful," said Lady Mary, eagerly. Her blue eyes +sparkled. Her interest and enthusiasm were easily roused, after all; +and surely these new ideas would make it much easier to tell Peter. +"Oh, Peter!" she said, clasping her hands, "Paris--Rome--Switzerland!" + +"Wherever Sarah fancies," said Peter, magnanimously. "I can't say I +care much. All I am thinking of is--being with her. It doesn't matter +_where_, so long as she is pleased. What does anything matter," he +said, and his dark face softened as she had never seen it soften yet, +"so long as one is with the companion one loves best in the world?" + +"It would be--Paradise," said Lady Mary, in a low voice; and she +thought to herself resolutely, "I will tell him now." + +Peter ceased his walk, and came close to her and took her hand. The +emotion had not altogether died out of his voice and face. + +"But you are not to think, mother, that I shall ever again be the +selfish boy I used to be--the boy who didn't value your love and +devotion." + +"No, dear, no," she answered, with wet eyes; "I will never think +so. We can love each other just the same, perhaps even batter, even +though--Oh, Peter--" + +But Peter was in no mind to brook interruption. He was burning to pour +out his plans for her future, and his own. + +"Wherever we may go, and whatever we may be doing," he said +emotionally, "it will be a joy and a comfort to me to know that my +dear old mother is always _here_. Taking care of the place and looking +after the people, and waiting always to welcome me, with her old sweet +smile on her dear old face." + +Peter was not often moved to such enthusiasm, and he was almost +overcome by his own eloquence in describing this beautiful picture. + +Lady Mary was likewise overcome. She sank back once more in her +cushioned corner, looking at him with a blank dismay that could not +escape even his dull observation. How impossible it was to tell Peter, +after all! How impossible he always made it! + +"I know you must feel it just at first," he said anxiously; "but +you--you can't expect to keep me all to yourself for ever." + +She shook her head, and tried to smile. + +He grew a little impatient. "After all," he said, "you must be +reasonable, mother. Every one has to live his own life." + +Then Lady Mary found words. A sudden rush of indignation--the pent-up +feelings of years--brought the scarlet blood to her cheeks and the +fire to her gentle, blue eyes. + +"Every one--but _me_" she said, trembling violently. + +"You!" said Peter, astonished. + +She clasped her hands against her bosom to still the panting and +throbbing that, it seemed to her, must be evident outwardly, so strong +was the emotion that shook her fragile form. + +"Every one--but me," she said. "Does it never--strike you--Peter--that +I, too, would like to live before I die? Whilst you are living your +own life, why shouldn't I be living mine? Why shouldn't _I_ go to +London, and to Paris, and to Rome, and to Switzerland, or wherever I +choose, now that you--_you_--have set me free?" + +"Mother," said Peter, aghast, "are you gone mad?" + +"Perhaps I am a little mad," said poor Lady Mary. "People go mad +sometimes, who have been too long--in prison--they say." Then she saw +his real alarm, and laughed till she cried. "I am not really mad," she +said. "Do not be frightened, Peter. I--I was only joking." + +"It is enough to frighten anybody when you go on like that," said +Peter, relieved, but angry. "Talking of prison, and rushing about all +over the world--I see no joke in that." + +"Why should I be the only one who must not rush all over the world?" +said Lady Mary. + +"You must know perfectly well it would be preposterous," said Peter, +sullenly, "to break up all your habits, and leave Barracombe and--and +all of us--and start a fresh life--at your age. And if this is how +you mock at me and all my plans, I'm sorry I ever took you into my +confidence at all. I might have known I should repent it," he said; +and a sob of angry resentment broke his voice. + +"Indeed, I am not mocking at you, Peter," she said, sorely repentant +and ashamed of her outburst. "Forgive me, darling! I see it was--not +the moment. You do not understand. You are thinking only of Sarah, as +is natural just now. It was not the moment for me to be talking of +myself." + +"You never used to be selfish," said Peter, thawing somewhat, as she +threw her arms about him, and rested her head against his shoulder. + +She laughed rather sadly. "But perhaps I am growing selfish--in my old +age," said Peter's mother. + +Later, Lady Mary sought John Crewys in the smoking-room. He sprang up, +smiled at her, and held out his hand. + +"So Peter has been confiding his schemes to you?" + +"How did you know?" + +"I only guessed. When a man seeks a _tête-à-tête_ so earnestly, it is +generally to talk about himself. Did the schemes include--Sarah?" + +"They include Sarah--marriage--travelling--London--change of every +kind." + +"Already!" cried John, "Bravo, Peter! and hurray for one-and-twenty! +And you are free?" + +"Oh, no; I am not to be free." + +"What! Do his schemes include you?" + +"Not altogether." + +"That is surely illogical, if yours are to include him?" + +She smiled faintly. "I am to be always here, to look after the place +when he and Sarah are travelling or in London. I am to live with his +aunts. He wants to be able to think of me as always waiting here to +welcome him home, as--as I have been all his life. Not actually in +this house, because--Sarah--my little Sarah--wouldn't like that, it +seems; but in the Dower House, close by." + +"I see," said John. "How delightfully ingenuous, and how pleasingly +unselfish a very young man can sometimes be!" + +"Ah! don't laugh at me, John," she said tremulously. "Indeed, just +now, I cannot bear it." + +"Laugh at you, my queen--my saint! How little you know me!" said John, +tenderly. "It was at Peter that I was presuming to smile." + +"Is it a laughing matter?" she said wistfully. + +"I think it will be, Mary." + +"I tried so hard to tell him," said Lady Mary, "but I couldn't. +Somehow he made it impossible. He looks upon me as quite, quite old." + +John laughed outright. A laugh that rang true even to Lady Mary's +sensitive perceptions. + +"But didn't _you_ look upon everybody over thirty as, quite old when +you were one-and-twenty? I'm sure I did." + +"Perhaps. But yet--I don't know. I am his mother. It is natural he +should feel so. He made me realize how preposterous it was for me, +the mother of a grown-up son, to be thinking selfishly of my own +happiness, as though I were a young, fresh girl just starting life." + +"I had hoped," said John, quietly, "that you might be thinking a +little of my happiness too." + +"Oh, John! But your happiness and mine seemed all the same thing," she +said ingenuously. "Yet he thinks of my life as finished; and I was +thinking of it as though it were beginning all over again. He made +me feel so ashamed, so conscience-stricken." She hid her face in her +hands. "How could I tell him?" + +"I think," said John, "that the time has come when he must be told. I +meant to put it off until he attained his majority; but since he has +broached the subject of your leaving this house himself, he has given +us the best opportunity possible. And I also think--that the telling +had better be left to me." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +John Crewys stood on the walk below the terrace, with Peter by his +side, enjoying an after-breakfast smoke, and watching a party of +sportsmen climbing up the bracken-clothed slopes of the opposite +hillside. A dozen beaters were toiling after the guns, among whom +the short and sturdy figure of Colonel Hewel was very plainly to be +distinguished. A boy was leading a pony-cart for the game. + +Sarah had accepted an invitation to dine and spend the evening with +her beloved Lady Mary at Barracombe; but Peter had another appointment +with her besides, of which Lady Mary knew nothing. He was to meet her +at the ferry, and picnic on the moor at the top of the hill, on his +side of the river. But through all the secret joy and triumph that +possessed him at the remembrance of this rendezvous, he could not but +sigh as he watched the little procession of sportsmen opposite, and +almost involuntarily his regret escaped him in the half-muttered +words-- + +"I shall never shoot again." + +"There are things even better worth doing in life," said John, +sympathetically. + +"Colonel Hewel wouldn't give in to that," said Peter. + +"He's rather a one-idea'd man," John agreed. "But if you asked him +whether he'd sacrifice all the sport he's ever likely to enjoy, for +one chance to distinguish himself in action--why, you're a soldier, +and you know best what he'd say." + +Peter's brow cleared. "You've got a knack," he said, almost +graciously, "of putting a fellow in a good humour with himself, Cousin +John." + +"I generally find it easier to be in a good humour with myself than +with other people," said John, whimsically. "One expects so little +from one's self, that one is scarcely ever disappointed; and so +much from other people, that nothing they can do comes up to one's +expectations." + +"I don't know about that," said Peter, bluntly. "Old Crawley says +_you_ take it out of yourself like anything. Since I came back this +time, he's been holding forth to me about all you've done for me and +the estate, and all that. I didn't know my father had left things in +such a mess. And that was a smart thing you did about buying in the +farm, and settling the dispute with the Crown, which my father used to +be so worried over. I see I've got a good bit to thank you for, Cousin +John. I--I'm no end grateful, and all that." + +"All right," said John. "Don't bother to make speeches, old boy." + +"I must say one thing, though," said Peter, awkwardly. "I was against +all the changes, and thought they might have been left till I came +home; but I didn't realize it was to be now or never, as old Crawley +puts it, and that I'm not to have the right to touch my capital when I +come of age." + +"The whole arrangement was rather an unusual one; but everything's +worked out all right, and, as far as the estate goes, you'll find it +in pretty fair order to start upon, and values increased," said John, +quietly. "But Crawley has the whole thing at his fingers' ends, and +the interest of the place thoroughly at heart. You couldn't have a +better adviser." + +"He's well enough," said Peter, somewhat ungraciously. + +"Shall we take a turn up and down?" said John. He lighted a fresh +cigarette. "There is a chill feeling in the air, though it is such a +lovely morning." + +"It will be warmer when the sun has conquered the mist," said Peter, +with a slight shiver. + +The white dew on the long grass, and the gossamer cobwebs spun in a +single night from twig to twig of the rose-trees, glittered in the +sunshine. + +The autumn roses bloomed cheerfully in the long border, and the robins +were singing loudly on the terrace above. The heavy heads of the +dahlias drooped beneath their weight of moisture, in these last days +of their existence, before the frost would bring them to a sudden end. +Capucines, in every shade of brown and crimson and gold, ran riot over +the ground. + +Peter drew a pipe from his pocket, put it in his mouth, took out his +tobacco-pouch, and filled the pipe with his left hand. + +John watched him with interest. "That was dexterously done." + +"I'm getting pretty handy," said the hero, with satisfaction, striking +a match; "but"--his face fell anew--"no more football; one feels that +sort of thing just at the beginning of the season. No more games. +It wouldn't tell so much on a fellow like you, Cousin John, who's +perfectly happy with a book, and who--" + +"Who's too old for games," suggested John. + +"Oh, there's always golf," said Peter. + +"A refuge for the aged, eh?" said John, and his eyes twinkled. "But +Miss Sarah says you bid fair to beat her at croquet." + +"Oh, she was--just rotting," said Peter; and the tone touched John, +though he detested slang. "And what's croquet, after all, to a fellow +that's used to exercise? I suppose I shall be all right again hunting, +when I've got my nerve back a bit. At present it's rotten. A fellow +feels so beastly helpless and one-sided. However, that'll wear off, I +expect." + +"I hope so," said John. + +They reached the end of the long walk, and stood for a moment beneath +the eastern turret, watching the sparkles on the brown surface of the +river below, and the white mist floating away down the valley. + +"Talking of advice," said Peter, abruptly--"if I wanted _that_, I'd +rather come to you than to old Crawley. After all, though you won't be +my guardian much longer, you're still my mother's trustee." + +"Yes," said John, smiling; "the law still entitles me to take an +interest in--in your mother." + +"Of course I shouldn't dream of mentioning her affairs, or mine +either, for that matter, to any one else," said Peter. + +He made an exception in his own mind, but decided that it was not +necessary to explain this to John, for the moment. + +"Thank you, Peter," said John. + +"My mother--seems to me," said Peter, slowly, "to have changed very +much since I went to South Africa. Have you noticed it?" + +"I have," said John, dryly. + +"I don't suppose," said Peter, quickening his steps, "that any one +could realize exactly what I feel about it." + +"I think--perhaps--I could," said John, without visible satire, "dimly +and, no doubt, inadequately." + +"The fact is," said Peter, and the warm colour rushed into his brown +face, even to his thin temples, "I--I'm hoping to get married very +soon; though nothing's exactly settled yet." + +"A man in your position generally marries early," said John. "I think +you're quite right." + +"As my mother likes--the girl I want to marry," said Peter, "I hoped +it would make everything straight. But she seems quite miserable at +the thought of settling down quietly in the Dower House." + +"Ah! in the Dower House," said John. "Then you will not be wanting her +to live here with you, after all?" + +"It's the same thing, though," said Peter, "as I've tried to explain +to her. She'd be only a few yards off; and she could still be looking +after the place and my interests, and all that, as she does now. And +whenever I was down here, I should see her constantly; you know how +devoted I am to my mother. Of course I can't deny I did lead her +to hope I should be always with her. But a man can't help it if he +happens to fall in love. Of course, if--if all happens as I hope, as I +have reason to hope, I shall _have_ to be away from her a good deal. +But that's all in the course of nature as a fellow grows up. I sha'n't +be any the less glad to see her when I _do_ come home. And yet here +she is talking quite wildly of leaving Barracombe altogether, and +going to London, and travelling all over the world, and doing all +sorts of things she's never done in her life. It's not like my mother, +and I can't bear to think of her like that. I tell you she's changed +altogether," said Peter, and there were tears in his grey eyes. + +John felt an odd sympathy for the boy; he recognized that though +Peter's limitations were obvious, his anxiety was sincere. + +Peter, too, had his ideals; if they were ideals conventional and out +of date, that was hardly his fault. John figured to himself very +distinctly that imaginary mother whom Peter held sacred; the mother +who stayed always at home, and parted her hair plainly, and said many +prayers, and did much needlework; but who, nevertheless, was not, and +never could be, the real Lady Mary, whom Peter did not know. But it +was a tender ideal in its way, though it belonged to that past into +which so many tender and beautiful visions have faded. + +The maiden of to-day still dreams of the knightly armour-clad heroes +of the twelfth century; it is not her fault that she is presently glad +to fall in love with a gentleman on the Stock Exchange, in a top hat +and a frock coat. + +"I have seen something of women of the world," said Peter, who had +scarcely yet skimmed the bubbles from the surface of that society, +whose depths he believed himself to have explored. "I suppose that is +what my mother wants to turn into, when she talks of London and Paris. +_My mother_! who has lived in the country all her life." + +"I suppose some women are worldly," said John, as gravely as possible, +"and no doubt the shallow-hearted, the stupid, the selfish are to be +found everywhere, and belonging to either sex; but, nevertheless, +solid virtue and true kindness are to be met with among the dames of +Mayfair as among the matrons of the country-side. Their shibboleth is +different, that's all. Perhaps--it is possible--that the speech of the +town ladies is the more charitable, that they seek more persistently +to do good to their fellow-creatures. I don't know. Comparisons +are odious, but so," he added, with a slight laugh, "are general +conclusions, founded on popular prejudice rather than individual +experience--odious." + +Here John perceived that his words of wisdom were conveying hardly any +meaning to Peter, who was only waiting impatiently till he had come +to an end of them; so he pursued this topic no further, and contented +himself by inquiring: + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to explain to her," said Peter, eagerly, "how unsuitable +it would be; and to advise her to settle down quietly at the Dower +House, as I'm sure my father would have wished her to do. That's all." + +"I see," said John, "you want me to put the case to her from your +point of view." + +"I wish you would," said Peter, earnestly; "every one says you're so +eloquent. Surely you could talk her over?" + +"I hope I am not eloquent in private life," said John, laughing. "But +if you want to know how it appears to me--?" + +Peter nodded gravely, pipe in mouth. + +"Let us see. To start with," said John, thoughtfully, "you went off, +a boy from Eton, to serve your country when you thought, and rightly, +that your country had need of you. You distinguished yourself in South +Africa--" + +"Surely you needn't go into all that?" said Peter, staring. + +"Excuse me," said John, smiling. "In putting your case, I can't bear +to leave out vital details. Merely professional prejudice. Shortly, +then, you fully sustained your share in a long and arduous campaign; +you won your commission; you were wounded, decorated, and invalided +home." + +He stopped short in the brilliant sunshine which now flooded their +path, and looked gravely at Peter. + +"Some of us," said John, "have imagination enough to realize, even +without the help of war-correspondents, the scenes of horror through +which you, and scores of other boys, fresh from school, like you, had +to live through. We can picture the long hours on the veldt--on the +march--in captivity--in the hospitals--in the blockhouses--when +soldiers have been sick at heart, wearied to death with physical +suffering, and haunted by ghastly memories of dead comrades." + +Peter hurriedly drew his left hand from the pocket where the beloved +tobacco-pouch reposed, and pulled his brown felt hat down over his +eyes, as though the October sunlight hurt them. + +"I think at such times, Peter," said John, quietly continuing his walk +by the boy's side, "that you must have longed now and then for your +home; for this peaceful English country, your green English woods, and +the silent hall where your mother waited for you, trembled for you, +prayed for you. I think your heart must have ached then, as so many +men's hearts have ached, to remember the times when you might have +made her happy by a word, or a look, or a smile. And you didn't do it, +Peter--_you didn't do it_." + +Peter made a restless movement indicative of surprise and annoyance; +but he was silent still, and John changed his tone, and spoke lightly +and cheerfully. + +"Well, then you came home; and your joy of life, of youth, of health +all returned; and you looked forward, naturally, to taking your share +of the pleasures open to other young men of your standing. But you +never meant to forget your mother, as so many careless sons forget +those who have watched and waited for them. Even though you fell in +love, you still thought of her. When you were weary of travel, or +pleasure connected with the outside world, you meant always to return +to her. You liked to think she would still be waiting for you; +faithfully, gratefully waiting, within the sacred precincts of your +childhood's home. And now, when you remember her submission to your +father's wishes in the past, and her single-hearted devotion to +yourself, you are shocked and disappointed to find that she can wish +to descend from her beautiful and guarded solitude here, and mix with +her fellow-creatures in the work-a-day world. Why," said John, in a +tone rather of dreaming and tenderness than of argument, "that would +be to tear the jewel from its setting--the noble central figure from +the calm landscape, lit by the evening sun." + +There was a pause, during which Peter smoked energetically. + +"Well," he said presently, "of course I can't follow all that +highfalutin' style, you know--" + +"Of course not," said John, "I understand. You're a plain Englishman." + +"Exactly," said Peter, relieved; "I am. But one thing I will +say--you've got the idea." + +"Thank you," said John. + +"If you can put it like that to my mother," said Peter, still busy +with his pipe, but speaking very emphatically, "why, all I can say is, +that I believe it's the way to get round her. I've often noticed +how useless it seems to talk common-sense to her. But a word of +sentiment--and there you are. Strange to say, she likes nothing +better than--er--poetry. I hope you don't mind my calling you rather +poetical," said Peter, in a tone of sincere apology. "I wish, John, +you'd go straight to my mother, and put the whole case before her, +just like that." + +"The whole case!" said John. "But, my dear fellow, that's only half +the case." + +"What do you mean?" + +"The other half," said John, "is the case from _her_ point of view." + +"I don't see," said Peter, "how her point of view can be different +from mine." + +John's thoughts flew back to a February evening, more than two +years earlier. It seemed to him that Sir Timothy stood before him, +surprised, pompous, argumentative. But he saw only Peter, looking at +him with his father's grey eyes set in a boy's thin face. + +"My experience as a barrister," he said, with a curious sense of +repeating himself, "has taught me that it is possible for two persons +to take diametrically opposite views of the same question." + +"And what happens then?" said Peter, stupidly. + +"Our bread and butter." + +"But _why_ should my mother leave the place she's lived in for years +and years, and go gadding about all over the world--at her time of +life? I don't see what can be said for the wisdom of that?" + +"Nothing from your point of view, I dare say," said John. "Much from +hers. If you are willing to listen, and if," he added smiling, as an +afterthought, "you will promise not to interrupt?" + +"Well," said Peter, rather doubtfully, "all right, I promise. You +won't be long, I suppose?" + +He glanced stealthily down towards the ferry, though he knew that +Sarah would not be there for a couple of hours at least, and that he +could reach it in less than ten minutes. But half the pleasure of +meeting Sarah consisted in waiting for her at the trysting-place. + +John observed the glance, and smiled imperceptibly. He took out his +watch. + +"I shall speak," he said, carefully examining it, "for four minutes." + +"Let's sit," said Peter. "It's warm enough now, in all conscience." + +They sat upon an old stone bench below the turret. Peter leant back +with his black head resting against the wall, his felt hat tipped +over his eyes and his pipe in his mouth. He looked comfortable, even +good-humoured. + +"Go ahead," he murmured. + +"To understand the case from your mother's point of view, I am +afraid it is necessary," said John, "to take a rapid glance at the +circumstances of her life which have--which have made her what she +is. She came here, as a child, didn't she, when her father died; and +though he had just succeeded to the earldom, he died a very poor man? +Your father, as her guardian, spared no pains, nor expense for +that matter, in educating and maintaining her. When she was barely +seventeen years old, he married her." + +There was a slight dryness in John's voice as he made the statement, +which accounted for the gruffness of Peter's acquiescence. + +"Of course--she was quite willing," said John, understanding the +offence implied by Peter's growl. "But as we are looking at things +exclusively from her point of view just now, we must not forget that +she had seen nothing of the world, nothing of other men. She had +also"--he caught his breath--"a bright, gay, pleasure-loving +disposition; but she moulded herself to seriousness to please her +husband, to whom she owed everything. When other girls of her age were +playing at love--thinking of dances, and games and outings--she was +absorbed in motherhood and household cares. A perfect wife, a perfect +mother, as poor human nature counts perfection." + +Lady Mary would have cried out in vehement contradiction and +self-reproach, had she heard these words; but Peter again growled +reluctant acquiescence, when John paused. + +"In one day," said John, slowly, "she was robbed of husband and child. +Her husband by death; her boy, her only son, by his own will. He +deserted her without even bidding, or intending to bid her, farewell. +Hush--remember, this is from _her_ point of view." + +Peter had started to his feet with an angry exclamation; but he sat +down again, and bent his sullen gaze on the garden path as John +continued. His brown face was flushed; but John's low, deep tones, +now tender, now scornful, presently enchained and even fascinated his +attention. He listened intently, though angrily. + +"Her grief was passionate, but--her life was not over," said John. +"She, who had been guided from childhood by the wishes of others, now +found that, without neglecting any duty, she could consult her own +inclinations, indulge her own tastes, choose her own friends, enjoy +with all the fervour of an unspoilt nature the world which opened +freshly before her: a world of art, of music, of literature, of a +thousand interests which mean so much to some of us, so little to +others. To her returns this formerly undutiful son, and finds--a +passionately devoted mother, indeed, but also a woman in the full +pride of her beauty and maturity. And this boy would condemn +_her_--the most delightful, the most attractive, the most unselfish +companion ever desired by a man--to sit in the chimney-corner like an +old crone with a distaff, throughout all the years that fate may yet +hold in store for her--with no greater interest in life than to watch +the fading of her own sweet face in the glass, and to await the +intervals during which he would be graciously pleased to afford her +the consolation of his presence." + +"Have you done?" said Peter, furiously. + +"I could say a good deal more," said John, growing suddenly cool. +"But"--he showed his watch--"my time is up." + +"What--what do you mean by all this?" said the boy, stammering with +passion. "What is my mother to _you_?" + +The time had come. + +John's bright hazel eyes had grown stern; his middle-aged face, +flushed with the emotion his own words had aroused, yet controlled and +calm in every line of handsome feature and steady brow, confronted +Peter's angry, bewildered gaze. + +"She is the woman I love," said John. "The woman I mean to make my +wife." + +He remained seated, silently waiting for Peter to imbibe and +assimilate his words. + +After a quick gasp of incredulous indignation, Peter, too, sat silent +at his side. + +John gave him time to recover before he spoke again. + +"I hope," he said, very gently, "that when you have thought it over, +you won't mind it so much. As it's going to be--it would be pleasanter +if you and I could be friends. I think, later on, you may even +perceive advantages in the arrangement--under the circumstances; when +you have recovered from your natural regret in realizing that she must +leave Barracombe--" + +"It isn't that," said Peter, hoarsely. He felt he must speak; and he +also desired, it must be confessed, to speak offensively, and relieve +himself somewhat of the accumulated rage and resentment that was +burning in his breast. "It's--it's simply"--he said, flushing darkly, +and turning his face away from John's calm and friendly gaze--"that to +me--to _me_, the idea is--ridiculous." + +"Ah!" said John. He rose from the stone bench. A spark of anger came +to him, too, as he looked at Peter, but he controlled his voice and +his temper. "The time will come," he said, "when your imagination will +be able to grasp the possibility of love between a man in the forties +and a woman in the thirties. At least, for your sake, I hope it will." + +"Why for my sake?" said Peter. + +"Because I should be sorry," said John, "if you died young." + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Nearly a thousand feet above the fertile valley of the Youle, +stretched a waste of moorland. Here all the trees were gnarled and +dwarfed above the patches of rust-coloured bracken; save only the +delicate silver birch, which swayed and yielded to the wind. + +Great boulders were scattered among the thorn bushes, and over their +rough and glistening breasts were flung velvet coverings of green moss +and grey lichen. + +On this October day, the heather yet sturdily bore a few last rosy +blossoms, and the ripe blackberries shone like black diamonds on the +straggling brambles. Here and there a belated furze-bush erected its +golden crown. + +Over the dim purple of the distant hills, a brighter purple line +proclaimed the sea. Closer at hand, on a ridge exposed to every wind +of heaven, sighed a little wood of stunted larch and dull blue pine, +against a clear and brilliant sky. + +Sarah was enthroned on a mossy stone, beneath the yellowing foliage of +a sheltering beech. + +Her glorious ruddy hair was uncovered, and a Tyrolese hat was hung on +a neighbouring bramble, beside a little tweed coat. She wore a loose +white canvas shirt, and short tweed skirt; a brown leather belt, and +brown leather boots. + +Being less indifferent to creature-comforts than to the preservation +of her complexion, Miss Sarah was paying great attention to the +contents of a market-basket by her side. She had chosen a site for +the picnic near a bubbling brook, and had filled her glass with clear +sparkling water therefrom, before seating herself to enjoy her cold +chicken and bread and butter, and a slice of game-pie. + +Peter was very far from feeling any inclination towards displaying the +hilarity which an outdoor meal is supposed to provoke. He was obliged +to collect sticks, and put a senseless round-bottomed kettle on a +damp reluctant fire; to himself he used much stronger adjectives in +describing both; he relieved his feelings slightly by saying that he +never ate lunch, and by gloomily eying the game-pie instead of aiding +Sarah to demolish it. + +"It wouldn't be a picnic without a kettle and a fire; and we _must_ +have hot water to wash up with. I brought a dish-cloth on purpose," +said Sarah. "I can't think why you don't enjoy yourself. You used to +be fond of eating and drinking--_anywhere_--and most of all on the +moor--in the good old days that are gone." + +"I am not a philosopher like you," said Peter, angrily. + +"I am anything but that," said Sarah, with provoking cheerfulness. "A +philosopher is a thoughtful middle-aged person who puts off enjoying +life until it's too late to begin." + +"I hate middle-aged people," said Peter. + +"I am not very fond of them myself, as a rule," said Sarah, +indulgently. "They aren't nice and amusing to talk to, like you and +me; or rather" (with a glance at her companion's face), "like _me_; +and they aren't picturesque and fond of spoiling us, as _really_ old +people are. They are just busy trying to get all they can out of +the world, that's all. But there are exceptions; or, of course, it +wouldn't be a rule. Your mother is an exception. No one, young or old, +was ever more picturesque or--or more altogether delicious. It was I +who taught her that new way of doing her hair. By-the-by, how do you +like it?" + +"I don't like it at all," growled Peter. + +"Perhaps you preferred the old way," said Sarah, turning up her short +nose rather scornfully. "Parted, indeed, and brushed down flat over +her ears, exactly like that horrid old Mrs. Ash!" + +"Mrs. Ash has lived with us for thirty years," said Peter, in a tone +implying that he desired no liberties to be taken with the names of +his faithful retainers. + +"That doesn't make her any better looking, however," retorted Sarah. +"In fact, she might have had more chance of learning how to do her +hair properly anywhere else, now I come to think of it." + +"Of course everything at Barracombe is ugly and old-fashioned," said +Peter, gloomily. + +"Except your mother," said Sarah. + +"Sarah! I can't stand any more of this rot!" said Peter, starting from +his couch of heather. "Will you talk sense, or let me?" + +Sarah shot a keen glance of inquiry at his moody face. + +"Well," she said, in resigned tones, "I did hope to finish my lunch in +peace. I saw there was something the matter when you came striding up +the hill without a word, but I thought it was only that you found the +basket too heavy. Of course, if I had known it was only to be lunch +for one, I would not have put in so many things; and certainly not a +whole bottle of papa's best claret. In fact, if I had known I was to +picnic practically alone, I would not have crossed the river at all." + +Then she saw that Peter was in earnest, and with a sigh of regret, +Sarah returned the dish of jam-puffs to the basket. + +"I couldn't talk sense, or even listen to it, with those heavenly +puffs under my very nose," she said. "Now, what is it?" + +"I hate telling you--I hate talking of it," said Peter, and a dark +flush rose to his frowning eyebrows. He threw himself once more at +Sarah's feet, and turned his face away from her, and towards the blue +streak of distant sea. "John Crewys wants to marry--my mother," he +said in choking tones. + +"Is that all?" said Sarah. "I've seen that for ages. Aren't you glad?" + +"Glad!" said Peter. + +"I thought," Sarah said innocently, "that _you_ wanted to marry _me_?" + +"Sarah!" + +"Well!" said Sarah. She looked rather oddly at Peter's recumbent +figure. Then she pushed the loosened waves of her red hair from her +forehead with a determined gesture. "Well," she said defiantly, "isn't +that one obstacle to our marriage removed? Your aunts will go to the +Dower House, and your mother will leave Barracombe, and you'll have +the place all to yourself. And you dare to tell me you're sorry?" + +"Yes," said Peter, sitting up and facing her, "I dare." + +"I'm glad of that," said Sarah. Her deep voice softened. "I should +have thought less of you if you hadn't dared." + +Suddenly she rose from her mossy throne, shook the crumbs off her +skirt, and looked down upon Peter with blue eyes sparkling beneath her +long lashes, and the fresh red colour deepening and spreading in her +cheeks, until even the tips of her delicate ears and her creamy throat +turned pink. + +"_Well_," said Sarah, "go and stop it. Make your mother sorry and +ashamed. It would be very easy. Tell her she's too old to be happy. +But say good-bye to me first." + +"Sarah!" + +"Why is it to be all sunshine for you, and all shade for her?" said +Sarah. "Hasn't she wept enough to please you? Mayn't she have her St. +Martin's summer? God gives it to her. Will _you_ take it away?" + +"Sarah!" + +He looked up at her crimsoned tearful face in dismay. Was this Sarah +the infantile--the pink-and-white--the seductive, laughing, impudent +Sarah? And yet how passionately Peter admired her in this mood of +virago, which he had never seen since the days of her childish rages +of long ago. + +"Why do you suppose," said Sarah, disdainfully, "that I've been +letting you follow _me_ about all this summer, and desert _her_; +except to show her how little you are to be depended upon? To bring +home to her how foolish she'd be to fling away her happiness for your +sake. _You_, who at one word from me, were willing to turn her out of +her own home, to live in a wretched little villa at your very door. +Don't interrupt me," said Sarah, stamping, "and say you weren't +willing. You told her so. I meant you to tell her, and yet--I could +have killed you, Peter, when I heard her sweet voice faltering out to +me, that she would be ready and glad to give up her place to her boy's +wife, whenever the time should come." + +"_She_ told you?" cried Peter. + +"But she didn't say you'd asked her," cried Sarah, scornfully. "_I_ +knew it, but she never guessed I did. She was only gently smoothing +away, as she hoped, the difficulties that lay in the path to _your_ +happiness. Oh, that she could have believed it of me! But she thinks +only of your happiness. _You_, who would snatch away hers this minute +if you could. She never dreamt I knew you'd said a word." + +She paused in her impassioned speech, and the tears dropped from the +dark blue eyes. Sarah was crying, and Peter was speechless with awe +and dismay. + +"I think she would have died, Peter," said Sarah, solemnly, "before +she would have told me how brutal you'd been, and how stupid, and how +selfish. I meant you to show her all that. I thought it would open +her eyes. I was such a fool! As if anything could open the eyes of a +mother to the faults of her only son." + +Peter looked at her with such despair and grief in his dark face that +her heart almost softened towards him; but she hardened it again +immediately. + +"Do you mean that you--you've been playing with me all this time, +Sarah? They--everybody told me--that you were only playing--but I've +never believed it." + +"I _meant_ to play with you," said Sarah, turning, if possible, even +redder than before; "I meant to teach you a lesson, and throw you +over. And the more I saw of you, the more I didn't repent. You, who +dared to think yourself superior to your mother; and, indeed, to +any woman! Kings are enslaved by women, you know," said Miss Sarah, +tossing her head, "and statesmen are led by them, though they oughtn't +to be. And--and poets worship them, or how could they write poetry? +There would be nothing to write about. It is reserved for boys and +savages to look down upon them." + +She sat scornfully down again on her boulder, and put her hands to her +loosened hair. + +"I can't think why a scene always makes one's hair untidy," said +Sarah, suddenly bursting into a laugh; but the whiteness of Peter's +face frightened her, and she had some ado to laugh naturally. "And I +am lost without a looking-glass," she added, in a somewhat quavering +tone of bravado. + +She pulled out a great tortoise-shell dagger, and a heavy mass of +glorious red-gold hair fell about her piquant face, and her pretty +milk-white throat, down to her waist. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Sarah. She looked around. Near the bubbling +brook, dark peaty hollows held little pools, which offered Nature's +mirror for her toilet. + +She went to the side of the stream and knelt down. Her plump white +hands dexterously twisted and secured the long burnished coil. Then +she glanced slyly round at Peter. + +He lay face downwards on the grass. His shoulders heaved. The pretty +picture Miss Sarah's coquetry presented had been lost upon the foolish +youth. + +She returned in a leisurely manner to her place, and leaning her chin +on her hand, and her elbow on her knee, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"Where was I? Yes, I remember. It is a lesson for a girl, Peter, never +to marry a boy or a savage." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. He raised his face and looked at her. His eyes +were red, but he was too miserable to care; he was, as she had said, +only a boy. "Sarah, you're not in earnest! You can't be! I--I know I +ought to be angry." Miss Sarah laughed derisively. "Yes, you laugh, +for you know too well I can't be angry with you. I love you!" said +Peter, passionately, "though you are--as cruel as though I've not had +pretty well as much to bear to-day, as I know how to stand. First, +John Crewys, and now you--saying--" + +"Just the truth," said Sarah, calmly. + +"I don't deny," said Peter, in a quivering voice, "that--that some of +the beastly things he said came--came home to me. I've been a selfish +brute to _her_, I always have been. You've said so pretty plainly, and +I--I dare say it's true. I think it's true. But to _you_--and I was so +happy." He hid his face in his hand. + +"I'm glad you have the grace to see the error of your ways at last," +said Sarah, encouragingly. "It makes me quite hopeful about you. But +I'm sorry to see you're still only thinking of _our_ happiness--I mean +_yours_," she corrected herself in haste, for a sudden eager hope +flashed across Peter's miserable young face. "Yours, yours, _yours_. +It's your happiness and not hers you think of still, though you've all +your life before you, and she has only half hers. But no one has ever +thought of her--except me, and one other." + +"John Crewys?" said Peter, angrily. + +"Not John Crewys at all," snapped Sarah. "He is just thinking of his +own happiness like you are. All men are alike, except the one I'm +thinking of. But though I make no doubt that John Crewys is just as +selfish as you are, which is saying a good deal, yet, as it happens, +John Crewys is the only man who could make her happy." + +"What man are you thinking of?" said Peter. + +Jealousy was a potent factor in his love for Sarah. He forgot his +mother instantly, as he had forgotten her on the day of his return, +when Sarah had walked on to the terrace--and into his heart. + +"I name no names," said Sarah, "but I hope I know a hero when I see +him; and that man is a hero, though he is--nothing much to look at." + +It amused her to observe the varying expressions on her lover's face, +which her artless words called forth, one after another. + +"If you are really not going to eat any luncheon, Peter," she said, "I +must trouble you to help me to wash up and pack the basket. The fire +is out and the water is cold, but it can't be helped. The picnic has +been a failure." + +"We have the whole afternoon before us. I cannot see that there is any +hurry," said Peter, not stirring. + +"I didn't mean to break bad news to you," said Sarah, "until we'd had +a pleasant meal together in comfort, and rested ourselves. But +since you insist on spoiling everything with your horrid premature +disclosures, I don't see why I shouldn't do the same. I must be at +home by four o'clock, because Aunt Elizabeth is coming to Hewelscourt +this very afternoon." + +"Lady Tintern!" cried Peter, in dismay. "Then you won't be able to +come to Barracombe this evening?" + +"I am not in the habit of throwing over a dinner engagement," said +Sarah, with dignity. "But in case they won't let me come," she added, +with great inconsistency, "I'll put a lighted candle in the top window +of the tower, as usual. But you can guess how many more of these +enjoyable expeditions we shall be allowed to make. Not that we need +regret them if they are all to be as lively as this one. Still--" + +She helped herself to a jam-puff, and offered the dish to Peter, with +an engaging smile. He helped himself absently. + +"I don't deny I am fond of taking meals in the open air, and more +especially on the top of the moor," said Sarah, with a sigh of +content. + +"What has she come for?" said Peter. + +"I shall be better able to tell you when I have seen her." + +"Don't you know?" + +"I can pretty well guess. She's going to forgive me, for one thing. +Then she'll tell me that I don't deserve my good luck, but that Lord +Avonwick is so patient and so long-suffering, that he's accepted her +assurance that I don't know my own mind (and I'm not sure I do), and +he's going to give me one more chance to become Lady Avonwick, though +I was so foolish as to say 'No' to his last offer." + +"You didn't say 'No' to _my_ last offer!" cried Peter. + +"I don't believe an offer of marriage is even legal before you're +one-and-twenty," said Miss Sarah, derisively. "What did it matter what +I said? Haven't I told you I was only playing?" + +"You may tell me so a thousand times," said Peter, doggedly, "but I +shall never believe you until I see you actually married to somebody +else." + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Lady Tintern was pleased to leave Paddington by a much earlier +train than could have been expected. She hired a fly, and a pair of +broken-kneed horses, at Brawnton, and once more took her relations +at Hewelscourt by surprise. On this occasion, however, she was not +fortunate enough to find her invalid niece at play in the stable-yard, +though she detected her at luncheon, and warmly congratulated her upon +her robust appearance and her excellent appetite. + +Her journey had, no doubt, been undertaken with the very intentions +Sarah had described; but another motive also prompted her, which Sarah +had not divined. + +Much as she desired to marry her grand-niece to Lord Avonwick, she +was not blind to the young man's personal disadvantages, which were +undeniable; and which Peter had rudely summed up in a word by alluding +to his rival as an ass. He was distinguished among the admirers of +Miss Sarah's red and white beauty by his brainlessness no less than by +his eligibility. + +Nevertheless, Lady Tintern had favoured his suit. She knew him to be a +good fellow, although he was a simpleton, and she was very sure that +he loved Sarah sincerely. + +"Whoever the girl marries, she will rule him with a rod of iron. She +had better marry a fool and be done with it. So why not an eligible +and titled and good-natured fool?" the old lady had written to Mrs. +Hewel, who was very far from understanding such reasoning, and wept +resentfully over the letter. + +Why should Lady Tintern snatch her only daughter away from her in +order to marry her to a fool? Mrs. Hewel was of opinion that a +sensible young man like Peter would be a better match. She supposed +nobody would call Sir Peter Crewys of Barracombe a fool; and as for +his being young, he was only a few months younger than Lord Avonwick, +and Sarah would have just as pretty a title, even if her husband were +only a baronet instead of a baron. Thus she argued to herself, and +wrote the gist of her argument to her aunt. Why was Sarah to go +hunting the highways and byways for titled fools, when there was Peter +at her very door,--a young man she had known all her life, and one of +the oldest families in Devon, and seven thousand acres of land only +next week, when he would come of age, and could marry whomever he +liked? Though, of course, Sarah must not go against her aunt, who +had promised to do so much for her, and given her so many beautiful +things, whether young girls ought to wear jewellery or not. + +This was the distracted letter which was bringing Lady Tintern to +Hewelscourt. She had been annoyed with Sarah for refusing Lord +Avonwick, and thought it would do the rebellious young lady no harm to +return for a time to the bosom of her family, and thus miss Newmarket, +which Sarah particularly desired to attend, since no society function +interested her half so much as racing. + +The old lady had not in the least objected to Sarah's friendship for +young Sir Peter Crewys. Sarah, as John had truly said, was a star with +many satellites; and among those satellites Peter did not shine with +any remarkable brilliancy, being so obviously an awkward country-bred +lad, not at home in the surroundings to which her friendship had +introduced him, and rather inclined to be surly and quarrelsome than +pleasant or agreeable. + +Lady Tintern had not taken such a boy's attentions to her grand-niece +seriously; but if Sarah were taking them seriously, she thought she +had better inquire into the matter at once. Therefore the energetic +old woman not only arrived unexpectedly at Hewelscourt in the middle +of luncheon, but routed her niece off her sofa early in the afternoon, +and proposed that she should immediately cross the river and call upon +Peter's mother. + +"I have never seen the place except from these windows; perhaps I am +underrating it," said Lady Tintern. "I've never met Lady Mary Crewys, +though I know all the Setouns that ever were born. Never mind who +ought to call on me first! What do I care for such nonsense? The boy +is a cub and a bear--_that_ I know--since he stayed in my house for a +fortnight, and never spoke to me if he could possibly help it. He is a +nobody! Sir Peter Fiddlesticks! Who ever heard of him or his family, I +should like to know, outside this ridiculous place? His name is spelt +wrong! Of course I have heard of Crewys, K.C. Everybody has heard of +him. That has nothing to do with it. Yes, I know the young man did +well in South Africa. All our young men did well in South Africa. +Pray, is Sarah to marry them all? If _that_ is what she is after, the +sooner I take it in hand the better. Lunching by herself on the moors +indeed! No; I am not at all afraid of the ferry, Emily. If you are, I +will go alone, or take your good man." + +"The colonel is out shooting, as you know, and won't be back till +tea-time," said Mrs. Hewel, becoming more and more flurried under this +torrent of lively scolding. + +"The colonel! Why don't you say Tom? Colonel indeed!" said Lady +Tintern. "Very well, I shall go alone." + +But this Mrs. Hewel would by no means allow. She reluctantly abandoned +the effort to dissuade her aunt, put on her visiting things with as +much speed as was possible to her, and finally accompanied her across +the river to pay the proposed visit to Barracombe House. + +Lady Mary received her visitors in the banqueting hall, an apartment +which excited Lady Tintern's warmest approval. The old lady dated the +oak carving in the hall, and in the yet more ancient library; named +the artists of the various pictures; criticized the ceilings, and +praised the windows. + +Mrs. Hewel feared her outspokenness would offend Lady Mary, but she +could perceive only pleasure and amusement in the face of her hostess, +between whom and the worldly old woman there sprang up a friendliness +that was almost instantaneous. + +"And you are like a Cosway miniature yourself, my dear," said Lady +Tintern, peering out of her dark eyes at Lady Mary's delicate white +face. "Eh--the bright colouring must be a little faded--all the +Setouns have pretty complexions--and carmine is a perishable tint, as +we all know." + +"Sarah has a brilliant complexion," struck in Mrs. Hewel, zealously +endeavouring to distract her aunt from the personalities in which she +preferred to indulge. + +"Sarah looks like a milkmaid, my love," said the old lady, who did +not choose to be interrupted, "And when she can hunt as much as she +wishes, and live the outdoor life she prefers, she will get the +complexion of a boatwoman." She turned to Lady Mary with a gracious +nod. "But _you_ may live out of doors with impunity. Time seems to +leave something better than colouring to a few Heaven-blessed women, +who manage to escape wrinkles, and hardening, and crossness. I +am often cross, and so are younger folk than I; and your boy +Peter--though how he comes to be your boy I don't know--is very often +cross too." + +"You have been very kind to Peter," said Lady Mary, laughing. "I am +sorry you found him cross." + +"No; I was not kind to him. I am not particularly fond of cross +people," said the old lady. "It is Sarah who has been kind," and she +looked sharply again at Lady Mary. + +"I am getting on in years, and very infirm," said Lady Tintern, "and I +must ask you to excuse me if I lean upon a stick; but I should like to +take a turn about the garden with you. I hear you have a remarkable +view from your terrace." + +Lady Mary offered her arm with pretty solicitude, and guided her aged +but perfectly active visitor through the drawing-room--where she +stopped to comment favourably upon the water colours--to the terrace, +where John was sitting in the shade of the ilex-tree, absorbed in the +London papers. + +Lady Mary introduced him as Peter's guardian and cousin. + +"How do you do, Mr. Crewys? Your name is very familiar to me," said +the old lady. "Though to tell you the truth, Sir Peter looks so much +older than his age that I forgot he had a guardian at all." + +"He will only have one for a few days longer," said John, smiling. "My +authority will expire very shortly." + +"But you are, at any rate, the very man I wanted to see," said Lady +Tintern, who seldom wasted time in preliminaries. "I would always +rather talk business with a man than with a woman; so if Mr. Crewys +will lend me his arm to supplement my stick, I will take a turn with +him instead of with you, my dear, if you have no objection." + +"Did you ever hear anything like her?" said poor Mrs. Hewel, turning +to Lady Mary as soon as her aunt was out of hearing. "What Mr. Crewys +must think of her, I cannot guess. She always says she had to exercise +so much reticence as an ambassadress, that she has given her tongue a +holiday ever since. But there is only one possible subject _they_ can +have to talk about. And how can we be sure her interference won't +spoil everything? She is quite capable of asking what Peter's +intentions are. She is the most indiscreet person in the world," said +Sarah's mother, wringing her hands. + +"I think _Peter_ has made his intentions pretty obvious," said Lady +Mary. She smiled, but her eyes were anxious. + +"And you are sure you don't mind, dear Lady Mary? For who can depend +on Lady Tintern, after all? She is supposed to be going to do so much +for Sarah, but if she takes it into her head to oppose the marriage, I +can do nothing with her. I never could." + +"I am very far from minding," said Lady Mary. "But it is Sarah on whom +everything depends. What does she say, I wonder? What does she want?" + +"It's no use asking _me_ what Sarah wants," said Mrs. Hewel, +plaintively. "Time after time I have told her father what would come +of it all if he spoilt her so outrageously. He is ready enough to find +fault with the boys, poor fellows, who never do anything wrong; but he +always thinks Sarah perfection, and nothing else." + +"Sarah is very fortunate, for Peter has the same opinion of her." + +"Fortunate! Lady Mary, if I were to tell you the chances that girl has +had--not but what I had far rather she married Peter--though she might +have done that all the same if she had never left home in her life." + +"I am not so sure of that," said Peter's mother. + +Lady Tintern's turn took her no further than the fountain garden, +where she sank down upon a bench, and graciously requested her escort +to occupy the vacant space by her side. + +"I started at an unearthly hour this morning, and I am not so young as +I was," she said; "but I am particularly desirous of a good night's +rest, and I never can sleep with anything on my mind. So I came over +here to talk business. By-the-by, I should have come over here long +ago, if any one had had the sense to give me a hint that I had only to +cross a muddy stream, in a flat-bottomed boat, in order to see a face +like _that_--" She nodded towards the terrace. + +John's colour rose slightly. He put the nod and the smile, and the +sharp glance of the dark eyes together, and perceived that Lady +Tintern had drawn certain conclusions. + +"There is some expression in her face," said the old lady, musingly, +"which makes me think of Marie Stuart's farewell to France. I don't +know why. I have odd fancies. I believe the Queen of Scots had hazel +eyes, whereas this pretty Lady Mary has the bluest eyes I ever +saw--quite remarkable eyes." + +"Those blue eyes," said John, smiling, "have never looked beyond this +range of hills since Lady Mary's childhood." + +The old lady nodded again. "Eh--a State prisoner. Yes, yes. She has +that kind of look." Then she turned to John, with mingled slyness and +humour, "On va changer tout cela?" + +"As you have divined," he answered, laughing in spite of himself. +"Though how you have divined it passes my poor powers of +comprehension." + +Lady Tintern was pleased. She liked tributes to her intelligence as +other women enjoy recognition of their good looks. + +"It is very easy, to an observer," she said. "She is frightened at +her own happiness. Yes, yes. And that cub of a boy would not make it +easier. By-the-by, I came to talk of the boy. You are his guardian?" + +"For a week." + +"What does it signify for how long? Five minutes will settle my views. +Thank Heaven I did not come later, or I should have had to talk to +him, instead of to a man of sense. You must have seen what is going +on. What do you think of it?" + +"The arrangement suits me so admirably," said John, smiling, "that I +am hardly to be relied upon for an impartial opinion." + +"Will you tell me his circumstances?" + +John explained them in a few words, and with admirable terseness and +lucidity; and she nodded comprehensively all the while. + +"That's capital. He can't make ducks and drakes of it. All tied up +on the children. I hope they will have a dozen. It would serve Sarah +right. Now for my side. Whatever sum the trustees decide to settle +upon Sir Peter's wife, I will put down double that sum as Sarah's +dowry. Our solicitors can fight the rest out between them. The +property is much better than I had been given any reason to suspect. I +have no more to say. They can be married in a month. That is settled. +I never linger over business. We may shake hands on it." They did so +with great cordiality. "It is not that I am overjoyed at the match," +she explained, with great frankness. "I think Sarah is a fool to marry +a boy. But I have observed she is a fool who always knows her own +mind. The fancies of some girls of that age are not worth attending +to." + +"Miss Sarah is a young lady of character," said John, gravely. + +"Ay, she will settle him," said Lady Tintern. Her small, grim face +relaxed into a witchlike smile. + +"The lad is a good lad. No one has ever said a word against him, and +he is as steady as old Time. I believe Miss Sarah's choice, if he is +her choice, will be justified," said John. + +"I didn't think he was a murderer or a drunkard," said Lady Tintern, +cheerfully. Her phraseology was often startling to strangers. "But he +is absolutely devoid of--what shall I say? Chivalry? Yes, that is +it. Few young men have much nowadays, I am told. But Sir Peter has +none--absolutely none." + +"It will come." + +"No, it will not come. It is a quality you are born with or without. +He was born without. Sarah knows all about it. It won't hurt her; she +has the methods of an ox. She goes direct to her point, and tramples +over everything that stands in her way. If he were less thick-skinned +she would be the death of him; but fortunately he has the hide of a +rhinoceros." + +"I think you do them both a great deal less than justice," said John; +but he was unable to help laughing. + +"Oh, you do, do you? I like to be disagreed with." Her voice shook +a little. "You must make allowances--for an old woman--who +is--disappointed," said Lady Tintern. + +John said nothing, but his bright hazel eyes, looking down on the +small, bent figure, grew suddenly gentle and sympathetic. + +"It is a pleasure to be able to congratulate somebody," she said, +returning his look. "I congratulate _you_--and Lady Mary." + +"Thank you." + +"Most of all, because there is nothing modern about her. She has +walked straight out of the Middle Ages, with the face of a saint and a +dreamer and a beautiful woman, all in one. I am an old witch, and I am +never deceived in a woman. Men, I am sorry to say, no longer take the +trouble to deceive me. Now our business is over, will you take me +back?" + +She took the arm he offered, and tottered back to the terrace. + +"Bring her to see me in London, and bring her as soon as you can," +said. Lady Tintern. "She is the friend I have dreamed of, and never +met. When is it going to be?" + +"At once," said John, calmly. + +"You are the most sensible man I have seen for a long time," said Lady +Tintern. + + * * * * * + +Peter and Sarah hardly exchanged a word during their return journey +from the moors after the unlucky picnic; and at the door of Happy +Jack's cottage in Youlestone village she commanded her obedient swain +to deposit the luncheon basket, and bade him farewell. + +The aged road-mender, to his intense surprise and chagrin, had one +morning found himself unable to rise from his bed. He lay there for a +week, indignant with Providence for thus wasting his time. + +"There bain't nart the matter wi' I! Then why be I a-farced to lie +thic way?" he said faintly. "If zo be I wor bod, I cude understand, +but I bain't bod. There bain't no pain tu speak on no-wheres. It vair +beats my yunderstanding." + +"Tis old age be the matter wi' yu, vather," said his mate, a young +fellow of sixty or so, who lodged with him. + +"I bain't nigh so yold as zum," said Happy Jack, peevishly. "Tis a +nice way vor a man tu be tuke, wi'out a thing the matter wi' un, vor +the doctor tu lay yold on." + +Dr. Blundell soothed him by giving his illness a name. + +"It's Anno Domini, Jack." + +"What be that? I niver yeard till on't befar," he said suspiciously. + +"It's incurable, Jack," said the doctor, gravely. + +Happy Jack was consoled. He rolled out the word with relish to his +next visitor. + +"Him's vound it out at last. 'Tis the anny-dominy, and 'tis incurable. +You'm can't du nart vor I. I got tu go; and 'taint no wonder, wi' zuch +a complaint as I du lie here wi'. The doctor were vair beat at vust; +but him worried it out wi' hisself tu the last. Him's a turble gude +doctor, var arl he wuden't go tu the war." + +Sarah visited him every day. He was so frail and withered a little +object that it seemed as though he could waste no further, and yet he +dwindled daily. But he suffered no pain, and his wits were bright to +the end. + +This evening the faint whistle of his voice was fainter than ever, and +she had to bend very low to catch his gasping words. He lay propped up +on the pillows, with a red scarf tied round the withered scrag of his +throat, and his spotless bed freshly arrayed by his mate's mother, who +lived with them and "did for" both. + +"They du zay as Master Peter be _carting_ of 'ee, Miss Zairy," he +whispered. "Be it tru?" + +"Yes, Jack dear, it's true. Are you glad?" + +"I be glad if yu thinks yu'll git 'un," wheezed poor Jack. "'Twude be +a turble gude job var 'ee tu git a yusband. But doan't 'ee make tu +shar on 'un, Miss Zairy. 'Un du zay as him be turble vond on yu, and +as yu du be playing vast and loose wi' he. That's the ways a young +maid du go on, and zo the young man du slip thru' 'un's vingers." + +"Yes, Jack," said Sarah, with unwonted meekness. + +She looked round the little unceiled room, open on one side to the +wooden staircase which led to the kitchen below; at the earth-stained +corduroys hanging on a peg; at the brown mug which held Happy Jack's +last meal, and all he cared to take--a thin gruel. + +"'Twude be a grand marriage vor the likes o' yu, Miss Zairy, vor the +Crewys du be the yoldest vambly in all Devonsheer, as I've yeard tell; +and yure volk bain't never comed year at arl befar yure grandvather's +time. Eh, what a tale there were tu tell when old Sir Timothy married +Mary Ann! 'Twas a vine scandal vor the volk, zo 'twere; but I wuden't +niver give in tu leaving Youlestone. But doan't 'ee play the vule wi' +Master Peter, Miss Zairy. Take 'un while yu can git 'un, will 'ee? And +be glad tu git 'un. Yu listen tu I, vor I be a turble witty man, and I +be giving of yu gude advice, Miss Zairy." + +"I am listening, Jack, and you know I always take your advice." + +"Ah! if 'twerent' for the anny-dominy, I'd be tu yure wedding," sighed +Happy Jack, "zame as I were tu Mary Ann's. Zo I wude." + +She took his knotted hand, discoloured with the labour of eighty +years, and bade him farewell. + +"Thee be a lucky maid," said Happy Jack, closing his eyes. + + * * * * * + +The tears were yet glistening on Sarah's long lashes, when she met the +doctor on his way to the cottage she had just quitted. + +She was in no mood for talking, and would have passed him with a hasty +greeting, but the melancholy and fatigue of his bearing struck her +quick perceptions. + +She stopped short, and held out her hand impulsively. + +"Dr. Blunderbuss," said Sarah, "did you _very_ much want Peter to find +out that--that he could live without his mother?" + +"Has anything happened?" said the doctor; his thin face lighted up +instantly with eager interest and anxiety. + +"Only _that_" said Sarah. "You trusted me, so I'm trusting you. +Peter's found out everything. And--and he isn't going to let her +sacrifice her happiness to him, after all. I'll answer for that. So +perhaps, now, you won't say you're sorry you told me?" + +"For God's sake, don't jest with me, my child!" said the doctor, +putting a trembling hand on her arm. "Is anything--settled?" + +"Do I ever jest when people are in earnest? And how can I tell you if +it's settled?" said Sarah, in a tone between laughing and weeping. +"I--I'm going there to-night. I oughtn't to have said anything about +it, only I knew how much you wanted her to be happy. And--she's going +to be--that's all." + +The doctor was silent for a. moment, and Sarah looked away from him, +though she was conscious that he was gazing fixedly at her face. But +she did not know that he saw neither her blushing cheeks, nor the +groups of tall fern on the red earth-bank beyond her, nor the +whitewashed cob walls of Happy Jack's cottage. His dreaming eyes saw +only Lady Mary in her white gown, weeping and agitated, stumbling over +the threshold of a darkened room into the arms of John Crewys. + +"You said you wished it," said Sarah. + +She stole a hasty glance at him, half frightened by his silence and +his pallor, remembering suddenly how little the fulfilment of his +wishes could have to do with his personal happiness. + +The doctor recovered himself. "I wish it with all my heart," he said. +He tried to smile. "Some day, if you will, you shall tell me how you +managed it. But perhaps--not just now." + +"Can't you guess?" she said, opening her eyes in a wonder stronger +than discretion. + +How was it possible, she thought, that such a clever man should be so +dull? + +The doctor shook his head. "You were always too quick for me, little +Sarah," he said. "I am only glad, however it happened, that--she--is +to be happy at last." He had no thoughts to spare for Sarah, or any +other. As she lingered he said absently, "Is that all?" + +She looked at him, and was inspired to leave the remorseful and +sympathetic words that rushed to her lips unsaid. + +"That is all," said Sarah, gently, "for the present." + +Then she left him alone, and took her way down to the ferry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +She looked round the banqueting hall. The wax candles shed a radiance +upon their immediate surroundings, which accentuated the shadows of +each unlighted corner. Bowls of roses, red and white and golden, +bloomed delicately in every recess against the black oak of the +panels. + +The flames were leaping on the hearth about a fresh log thrown into +the red-hot wood-ash. The two old sisters sat almost in the chimney +corner, side by side, where they could exchange their confidences +unheard. + +Lady Belstone still mourned her admiral in black silk and _crêpe_, +whilst Miss Georgina's respect for her brother's memory was made +manifest in plum-coloured satin. + +Lady Mary, too, wore black to-night. Since the day of Peter's return +she had not ventured to don her favourite white. Her gown was of +velvet; her fair neck and arms shone through the yellowing folds of an +old lace scarf which veiled the bosom. A string of pearls was twisted +in her soft, brown hair, lending a dim crown to her exquisite and +gracious beauty in the tender light of the wax candles. + +Candlelight is kind to the victims of relentless time; disdaining to +notice the little lines and shadows care has painted on tired faces; +restoring delicacy to faded complexions, and brightness to sad eyes. + +The faint illumination was less kind to Sarah, in her white gown and +blue ribbons. The beautiful colour, which could face the morning +sunbeams triumphantly in its young transparency, was almost too high +in the warmth of the shadowy hall, where her golden-red hair made a +glory of its own. + +The October evening seemed chilly to the aged sisters, and even Lady +Mary felt the comfort of her velvet gown; but Sarah was impatient of +the heat of the log fire, and longed for the open air. She envied +Peter and John, who were reported to be smoking outside on the +terrace. + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +"There will be a sharp frost to-night; they won't stand that," said +Sarah, shaking her head. + +"The poor roses of autumn," said Lady Mary, rather dreamily, "they are +never so sweet as the roses of June." + +"But they are much rarer, and more precious," said Sarah. + +Lady Mary looked at her and smiled. How quickly Sarah always +understood! + +Sarah caught her hand and kissed it impulsively. Her back was turned +to the old sisters in the chimney corner. + +"Lady Mary," she said, "oh, never mind if I am indiscreet; you know I +am always that." A little sob escaped her. "But I _must_ ask you this +one thing--you--you didn't really think _that_ of me, did you?" + +"Think what, dear child?" said Lady Mary, bewildered. + +Sarah looked round at the two old ladies. + +The head of Miss Crewys was inclined towards the crochet she held in +her lap. She slumbered peacefully. + +Lady Belstone was absently gazing into the heart of the great fire. +The heat did not appear to cause her inconvenience. She was nodding. + +"They will hear nothing," said Lady Mary, softly. "Tell me, Sarah, +what you mean. I would ask you," she said, with a little smile and +flush, "to tell me something else, only, I--too--am afraid of being +indiscreet." + +"There is nothing I would not tell you," murmured Sarah, "though I +believe I would rather tell you--out in the dark--than here," she +laughed nervously. + +"The drawing-room is not lighted, except by the moon," said Lady Mary, +also a little excited by the thought of what Sarah might, perhaps, be +going to say; "but there is no fire there, I am afraid. The aunts do +not like sitting there in the evening. But if you would not be too +cold, in that thin, white gown--?" + +"I am never cold," said Sarah; "I take too much exercise, I suppose, +to feel the cold." + +"Then come," said Lady Mary. + +They stole past the sleeping sisters into the drawing-room, and closed +the communicating door as noiselessly as possible. + +Here only the moonlight reigned, pouring in through the uncurtained +windows and rendering the gay, rose-coloured room, with its pretty +contents, perfectly weird and unfamiliar. + +Sarah flung her warm, young arms about her earliest and most beloved +friend, and rested her bright head against the gentle bosom. + +"You never thought I meant all the horrid, cruel things I made Peter +say to you? You never believed it of me, did you? That I wouldn't +marry him unless _you_ went away. You whom I love best in the world, +and always have," she said defiantly, "or that I would ever alter a +single corner of this dear old house, which used to be so hideous, and +which you have made so beautiful?" + +"Sarah! My--my darling!" said Lady Mary, in frightened, trembling +tones. + +"You needn't blame Peter for saying any of it," said Sarah, "for it +was I who put the words into his mouth. It made him miserable to +say them; but he could not help himself. He wasn't really quite +responsible for his actions. He isn't now. When people are--are in +love, I've often noticed they're not responsible." + +"But why--" + +"I only wanted to show him what a goose he really was," murmured +Sarah, hanging her head. "He came back so pompous and superior; +talking about his father's place, and being the only man in the house, +and obliged to look after you all; and it was all so ridiculous, and +so out of date. I didn't mean to hurt _you_ except just for a moment, +because it could not be helped," said Sarah. She hid her face in Lady +Mary's neck, half laughing and half crying. "I was so afraid you--you +were taking him seriously; and--and he was so selfish, wanting to keep +you all to himself." + +"Oh, Sarah, hush!" Lady Mary cried. + +She divined it all in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. It was to +Sarah that she owed the pain and mortification, not to her boy. + +Sarah had said Peter was not responsible. + +Was he only a puppet in the hands of the girl he loved? Could John +ever have been thus blindly led and influenced? Her wounded heart said +quickly that John was of a different, nobler, stronger nature. But the +mother's instinct leapt to defend her son, and cried also that John +was a man, and Peter but a boy in love, ready to sacrifice the whole +world to her he worshipped. His father would never have done that. +Lady Mary was even capable of an unreasoning pride in Peter's power of +loving; though it was not her--alas! it never had been her--for whom +her boy was willing to make the smallest sacrifice. + +But he had honestly meant to devote himself to his mother, according +to his lights, had Sarah's influence not come in the way. Sarah, +who must have divined her secret all the while, and who, with the +dauntlessness of youth, had not hesitated to force open the door +into a world so bright that Lady Mary almost feared to enter it, but +trembled, as it were, upon the threshold of her own happiness--and +Peter's. + +They were silent, holding each other in a close embrace, both +conscious of the passing and repassing footsteps upon the gravel path +without. + +Sarah was the first to recover herself. She put Lady Mary into her +favourite chair, and came and knelt by her side. + +"That's over, and I'm forgiven," she said softly. + +"You will make my boy--happy?" whispered Lady Mary. + +"I can't tell whether he will be happy or not, if--if he marries me," +said Sarah. She appeared to smother a laugh. "But Aunt Elizabeth seems +reconciled to the idea. I think you bewitched her this afternoon. She +is in love with you, and with this house, and with Mr. John. But more +particularly with you. When I said I had refused Peter over and over +again, she said I was a fool. But she says that whatever I do. I--I +suppose I let her think," said Sarah, leaning her head against Lady +Mary's knee, "that _some day_--if he is still idiotic enough to wish +it--and if _you_ don't mind--" + +"My pretty Sarah--my darling!" + +"I'm sure it's only because he's your son," said Sarah, vehemently; +"I've always wanted to be your child. What's the use of pretending I +haven't? Think what a time poor mamma used to give me, and what an +angel of goodness you were to the poor little black sheep who loved +you so." + +Sarah's white dress, shining in the moonlight, caught the attention of +John Crewys, through the open window. He paused in his walk outside. +Peter's voice uttered something, and the two dark figures passed +slowly on. + +"They won't interrupt us," said Sarah, serenely. "I told Peter at +dinner that I wanted to talk to you, and that he was to go and smoke +with Mr. John, and behave as if nothing had happened. He said he +hadn't spoken to him since this morning. He is all agog to know what +Lady Tintern came for. But he won't dare to come and interrupt." + +"What have you done to my boy," said Lady Mary, half laughing and +half indignant, "that your lightest word is to be his law? And oh, +Sarah"--her tone grew wistful--"it is strange--even though he loves +you, that you should understand him better than I, who would lay down +my life for him." + +"It's very easy to see why," said Sarah, calmly. The deep contralto +music of her voice contrasted oddly with her matter-of-fact manner and +words. "It's just that Peter and I are made of common clay, and that +you are not. So, of course, we understand each other. I don't mean to +say that we don't quarrel pretty often. I dare say we always shall. +I am good-tempered, but I like my own way; and, besides"--she spoke +quite cheerfully--"anybody would quarrel with Peter. But you and he +are a little like Aunt Elizabeth and me. _She_ wants me to behave like +a _grande dame_, and to know exactly who everybody is, and treat them +accordingly, and be never too much interested in anything, but never +bored; and always look beautiful, and, above all, _appropriate_. And +_I_--would rather be taking the dogs for a run on the moors, in a +short skirt and big boots; or up at four in the morning otter-hunting; +or out with the hounds; or--or--digging in the garden, for that +matter;--than be the prettiest girl in London, and going to a State +ball or the opera. You see, I've tried both kinds of life now, and +I know which I like best. And--and flirting with people is pleasant +enough in its way, but it gives you a kind of sick feeling afterwards, +which hunting never does. I don't think I'm really much of a hand at +sentiment," said Sarah, with great truth. + +"And Peter?" asked Lady Mary, gently. + +"You wanted Peter to be a--a noble kind of person, a great statesman, +or something of that sort, didn't you?" Her soft lips caressed Lady +Mary's hand apologetically. "To be fond of reading and poetry, and all +sorts of things; and _he_ wanted to shoot rabbits and go fishing. But, +of course, he couldn't help _knowing_ you wanted him to be something +he wasn't, and never could be, and didn't want to be." + +"Oh, Sarah!" said poor Lady Mary. "But--yes, it is true what you are +saying." + +"It's true, though I say it so badly; and I know it, because, as I +tell you, Peter and I are just the same sort at heart. I've been +teasing him, pretending to be a worldling, but foreign travel and +entertaining in London are just about as unsuited to me as to Peter. +I--I'm glad"--she uttered a quick, little sob--"that I--I played my +part well while it all lasted; but you know it wasn't so much me as my +looks that did it. And because I didn't care, I was blunt and natural, +and they thought it _chic_. But it wasn't _chic_; it was that I +_really_ didn't care. And I don't think I've ever quite succeeded in +taking Peter in either; for he _couldn't_ believe I could really think +any sort of life worth living but the dear old life down here, which +he and I love best in the world, in our heart of hearts." + +The twinkling, frosty blue points of starlight glittered in the +cloudless vault of heaven, above the moonlit stillness of the valley. +The clear-cut shadows of the balcony and the stone urns fell across +the cold paths and whitened grass of the terrace. + +Ghostlike, Sarah's white form emerged from the darkness of the room, +and stood on the threshold of the window. + +John threw away the end of his cigar, and smiled. "I presume the +interview we were not to interrupt is over?" he said, good-humouredly. +"Surely it is not very prudent of Miss Sarah to venture out-of-doors +in that thin gown; or has she a cloak of some kind--" + +But Peter was not listening to him. + +Sarah, wrapped in her white cloak and hood, had already flitted across +the moonlit terrace, into the deep shadow of the ilex grove; and the +boy was by her side before John could reach the window she had just +quitted. + +"Oh, is it you, Peter?" said Miss Sarah, looking over her shoulder. "I +was looking for you. I have put on my things. It is getting late, and +I thought you would see me home." + +"Must you go already?" cried Peter. "Have they sent to fetch you?" + +"I dare say I could stay a few moments," said Sarah; "but, of course, +my maid came ages ago, as usual. But if there was anything you +particularly wanted to say--you know how tiresome she is, keeping as +close as she can, to listen to every word--why, it would be better to +say it now. I am not in such a hurry as all that." + +"You know very well I want to say a thousand things," said Peter, +vehemently. "I have been walking up and down till I thought I should +go mad, making conversation with John Crewys." Peter was honestly +unaware that it was John who had made the conversation. "Has Lady +Tintern come to take you away, Sarah? And why did she call on my +mother this afternoon, the very moment she arrived?" + +"Your mother would be the proper person to tell you that. How should I +know?" said Sarah, reprovingly. "Have you asked her?" + +"How can I ask her?" said Peter. His voice trembled. "I've not spoken +to her once--except before other people--since John Crewys told +me--what I told you this afternoon. I've scarcely seen any one since I +left you. I wandered off for a beastly walk in the woods by myself, +as miserable as any fellow would be, after all you said to me. Do you +think I--I've got no feelings?" + +His voice sounded very forlorn, and Sarah felt remorseful. After all, +Peter was her comrade and her oldest friend, as well as her lover. At +the very bottom of her heart there lurked a remnant of her childish +admiration for him, which would, perhaps, never quite be extinguished. +The boy who got into scrapes, and was thrashed by his father, and who +did not mind; the boy who vaulted over fences she had to climb or +creep through; who went fishing, and threw a fly with so light and +sure a hand, and filled his basket, whilst she wound her line about +her skirts, and caught her hook, and whipped the stream in vain. +He had climbed a tall fir-tree once, and brought down in safety a +weeping, shame-stricken little girl with a red pigtail, whose daring +had suddenly failed her; and he had gone up the tree himself like a +squirrel afterwards, and fetched her the nest she coveted. Nor did he +ever taunt her with her cowardice nor revert to his own exploit; but +this was because Peter forgot the whole adventure in an hour, though +Sarah remembered it to the end of her life. He climbed so many trees, +and went birds'-nesting every spring to his mother's despair. + +Sarah thought of him wandering all the afternoon in his own woods, +lonely and mortified, listening to the popping of the guns on the +opposite side of the hill, which echoed through the valley; she knew +what those sounds meant to Peter--the boy who had shot so straight and +true, and who would never shoulder a gun any more. + +"I don't see why you should be so miserable," she said, as lightly +as she could; but there were tears in her eyes, she was so sorry for +Peter. + +"I dare say you don't," said Peter, bitterly. "Nobody has ever made a +fool of you, no doubt. A wretched, self-confident fool, who gave you +his whole heart to trample in the dust. I suppose I ought to have +known you were only--playing with me--as you said--a wretched object +as I am now, but--" + +"An object!" cried Sarah, so anxious to stem the tide of his +reproaches that she scarce knew what she was saying, "which appeals +to the soft side of every woman's heart, high or low, rich or poor, +civilized or savage--a wounded soldier." + +"Do you think I want to be pitied?" said Peter, glowering. + +"Pitied!" said Sarah, softly. "Do you call this pity?" She leant +forward and kissed his empty sleeve. + +Peter trembled at her touch. + +"It is--because you are sorry for me," he said hoarsely. + +"Sorry!" said Sarah, scornfully; "I glory in it." Then she suddenly +began to cry. "I am a wicked girl," she sobbed, "and you _were a_ +fool, if you ever thought I could be happy anywhere but in this stupid +old valley, or with--with any one but you. And I am rightly punished +if my--my behaviour has made you change your mind. Because I _did_ +mean, just at first, to throw you over, and to--to go away from you, +Peter. But--but the arm that wasn't there--held me fast." + +"Sarah!" + +She hid her face against his shoulder. + + * * * * * + +John Crewys was playing softly on the little oak piano in the +banqueting hall, and Lady Mary stood before the open hearth, absently +watching the sparks fly upward from the burning logs, and listening. + +The old sisters had gone to bed. + +Sarah's bright face, framed in her white hood, fresh and rosy from the +cold breath of the October night, appeared in the doorway. + +"Peter is in there--waiting for you," she whispered, blushing. + +John Crewys rose from the piano, and came forward and held out his +hand to Sarah, with a smile. + +Lady Mary hurried past them into the unlighted drawing-room. Her eyes, +dazzled by the sudden change, could distinguish nothing for a moment. + +But Peter was there, waiting, and perhaps Lady Mary was thankful for +the darkness, which hid her face from her son. + +"Peter!" + +"Mother!" + +She clung to her boy, and a kiss passed between them which said all +that was in their hearts that night--of appeal--of understanding--of +forgiveness--of the love of mother and son. + +And no foolish words of explanation were ever uttered to mar the +gracious memory of that sacred reconciliation. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Peter's Mother, by Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER'S MOTHER *** + +***** This file should be named 10452-8.txt or 10452-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/5/10452/ + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10452-8.zip b/old/10452-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef49e62 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10452-8.zip diff --git a/old/10452.txt b/old/10452.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fe57d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10452.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10296 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peter's Mother, by Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Peter's Mother + +Author: Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +Release Date: December 14, 2003 [EBook #10452] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER'S MOTHER *** + + + + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +PETER'S MOTHER + +NEW EDITION + +WITH INTRODUCTION + +BY + +MRS. HENRY DE LA PASTURE + +1906 + + _And I left my youth behind + For somebody else to find_. + + +TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF MY ONLY BROTHER + +LT. COLONEL WALTER FLOYD BONHAM, D.S.O. + + + + +TO MY AMERICAN READERS + +The author of "Peter's Mother" has been bidden of the publishers, who +have incurred the responsibility of presenting her to the American +public, to write a preface to this edition of her novel. She does so +with the more diffidence because it has been impressed upon her, by +more than one wiseacre, that her novels treat of a life too narrow, +an atmosphere too circumscribed, to be understood or appreciated by +American readers. + +No one can please everybody; I suppose that no one, except the old man +in Aesop's Fable, ever tried to do so. But I venture to believe that +to some Americans, a sincere and truthful portrait of a typical +Englishwoman of a certain class may prove attractive, as to us are the +studies of a "David Harum," or others whose characteristics interest +because--and not in spite of--their strangeness and unfamiliarity. We +do not recognise the type; but as those who do have acknowledged the +accuracy of the representation, we read, learn, and enjoy making +acquaintance with an individuality and surroundings foreign to our own +experience. + +There are hundreds of Englishwomen living lives as isolated, as +guarded from all practical knowledge of the outer world, as entirely +circumscribed as the life of Lady Mary Crewys; though they are not all +unhappy. On the contrary, many diffuse content and kindness all around +them, and take it for granted that their own personal wishes are of no +account. + +Indeed it would seem that some cease to be aware what their own +personal wishes are. + +With anxious eyes fixed on others--the husband, father, sons, who +dominate them,--they live to please, to serve, to nurse, and to +console; revered certainly as queens of their tiny kingdoms, but also +helpless as prisoners. + +Calm, as fixed stars, they regard (perhaps sometimes a little +wistfully) the orbits of brighter planets, and the flashing of +occasional meteors, within their ken; knowing that their own place is +unchangeable--immutable. + +That the views of such women are often narrow, their prejudices many, +their conventions tiresome, who shall deny? That their souls are +pure and tender, their hearts open to kindness as are their hands +to charity, nobody who knows the type will dispute. They lack many +advantages which their more independent sisters (no less gifted with +noble and womanly qualities) enjoy, but they possess a peculiar +gentleness, which is all their own, whether it be adored or despised. + +When one of their number happens to be cleverer, larger minded, more +restless, and impatient, it may be, by nature than her sisters, +tragedy may ensue. But not often. Habit and public opinion are +strong restrainers, stronger sometimes than even the most carefully +inculcated abstract principles. + +To turn to another phase of the story--there was a time during the +Boer War when there was literally scarcely a woman in England who was +not mourning the death of some man--be he son, brother, or husband, +lover or friend,--and that time seems still very, very recent to some +of us. + +The rights and wrongs of a war have nothing to do with the sympathy +all civilised men and women extend to the soldiers on both sides who +take part in it. + + "_Theirs not to reason why, + Theirs but to do or die_," + +and whether they "do or die," the mingled suspense, pride, and anguish +suffered by their women-kind rouses the pity of the world; but most of +all, for the secret of sympathy is understanding, the pity of those +who have suffered likewise. So that such escapades as Peter's in the +story, being not very uncommon at that dark period (and having its +foundation in fact), may have touched hearts over here, which will be +unmoved on the other side of the Atlantic. I cannot tell. I have known +very few Americans, and though I have counted those few among my +friends, they have been rarely met. + +My only knowledge of America has been gleaned from my observation of +these, and from reading. As it happens, the favourite books of my +childhood were, with few exceptions, American. + +Partly from association and partly because I count it the most truly +delightful story of its kind that ever was written, "Little Women" has +always retained its early place in my affections. "Meg," "Jo," "Beth," +and "Amy" are my oldest and dearest friends; and when I think of them, +it is hard to believe that America could be a land of strangers to me +after all. I confess to a weakness for the "Wide, Wide World" and a +secret passion for "Queechy." I loved "Mr. Rutherford's Children," and +was always interested to hear "What Katy Did," Whilst the very thought +of "Melbourne House" thrills me with recollections of the joy I +experienced therein. + +But this is all by the way; and for the egotism which is, I fear me, +displayed in this foreword, I can but plead, not only the difficulty +of writing a preface at all, when one has no personal inclination that +way, but the nervousness which must beset a writer who is directly +addressing not a tried and friendly public, but an unknown, and, it +may be, less easily pleased and more critical audience. It appears to +me that it would be a simpler thing to write another book; and I would +rather do so. I can only hope that some of the readers of "Peter's +Mother," if she is so happy as to find favour in American eyes, would +rather I did so too; in I which case I shall very joyfully try to +gratify their wishes, and my own. + +BETTY DE LA PASTURE. + + + + +PETER'S MOTHER + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Above Youlestone village, overlooking the valley and the river, +and the square-towered church, stood Barracombe House, backed by +Barracombe Woods, and owned by Sir Timothy Crewys, of Barracombe. + +From the terrace before his windows Sir Timothy could take a +bird's-eye view of his own property, up the river and down the river; +while he also had the felicity of beholding the estate of his most +important neighbour, Colonel Hewel, of Hewelscourt, mapped out before +his eyes, as plainly visible in detail as land on the opposite side of +a narrow valley must always be. + +He cast no envious glances at his neighbour's property. The Youle +was a boundary which none could dispute, and which could only be +conveniently crossed by the ferry, for the nearest bridge was seven +miles distant, at Brawnton, the old post-town. + +From Brawnton the coach still ran once a week for the benefit of the +outlying villages, and the single line of rail which threaded the +valley of the Youle in the year 1900 was still a novelty to the +inhabitants of this unfrequented part of Devon. + +Sir Timothy sometimes expressed a majestic pity for Colonel Hewel, +because the railway ran through some of his neighbour's best fields; +and also because Hewelscourt was on the wrong side of the river--faced +due north--and was almost buried in timber. But Colonel Hewel was +perfectly satisfied with his own situation, though sorry for Sir +Timothy, who lived within full view of the railway, but was obliged +to drive many miles round by Brawnton Bridge in order to reach the +station. + +The two gentlemen seldom met. They lived in different parishes, and +administered justice in different directions. Sir Timothy's dignity +did not permit him to make use of the ferry, and he rarely drove +further than Brawnton, or rode much beyond the boundaries of his own +estate. He cared only for farming, whilst Colonel Hewel was devoted to +sport. + +The Crewys family had been Squires of Barracombe, cultivating their +own lands and living upon them contentedly, for centuries before the +Hewels had ever been heard of in Devon, as all the village knew +very well; wherefore they regarded the Hewels with a mixture of +good-natured contempt and kindly tolerance. The contempt was because +Hewelscourt had been built within the memory of living man, and only +two generations of Hewels born therein; the tolerance because the +present owner, though not a wealthy man, was as liberal in his +dealings as their squire was the reverse. + + * * * * * + +In the reign of Charles I., one Peter Crewys, an adventurous younger +son of this obscure but ancient Devonshire family, had gained local +notoriety by raising a troop of enthusiastic yeomen for his Majesty's +service; subsequently his own reckless personal gallantry won wider +recognition in many an affray with the parliamentary troops; and on +the death of his royal master, Peter Crewys was forced to fly the +country. He joined King Charles II. in his exile, whilst his prudent +elder brother severed all connection with him, denounced him as a +swashbuckler, and made his own peace with the Commonwealth. + +The Restoration, however, caused Farmer Timothy to welcome his +relative home in the warmest manner, and the brothers were not only +reconciled in their old age, but the elder made haste to transfer +the ownership of Barracombe to the younger, in terror lest his own +disloyalty should be rewarded by confiscation of the family acres. + +A careless but not ungrateful monarch, rejoicing doubtless to see his +faithful soldier and servant so well provided for, bestowed on him a +baronetcy, a portrait by Vandyck of the late king, his father, and the +promise of a handsome sum of money, for the payment of which the +new baronet forebore to press his royal patron. His services thus +recognized and rewarded, old Sir Peter Crewys settled down amicably +with his brother at Barracombe. + +Presumably there had always been an excellent understanding between +them. In any case no question of divided interests ever arose. + +Sir Peter enlarged the old Elizabethan homestead to suit his new +dignity; built a picture-gallery, which he stocked handsomely with +family portraits; designed terrace gardens on the hillside after a +fashion he had learnt in Italy, and adopted his eldest nephew as his +heir. + +Old Timothy meanwhile continued to cultivate the land undisturbed, +disdaining newfangled ideas of gentility, and adhering in all ways to +the customs of his father. Presently, soldier and farmer also passed +away, and were laid to rest side by side on the banks of the Youle, in +the shadow of the square-towered church. + +Before the house rolled rich meadows, open spaces of cornland, and +low-lying orchards. The building itself stood out boldly on a shelf of +the hill; successive generations of the Crewys family had improved or +enlarged it with more attention to convenience than to architecture. +The older portion was overshadowed by an imposing south front of white +stone, shaded in summer by a prolific vine, which gave it a foreign +appearance, further enhanced by rows of green shutters. It was +screened from the north by the hill, and from the east by a dense +wood. Myrtles, hydrangeas, magnolias, and orange-trees nourished +out-of-doors upon the sheltered terraces cut in the red sandstone. + +The woods of Barracombe stretched upwards to the skyline of the ridge +behind the house, and were intersected by winding paths, bordered +by hardy fuchsias and delicate ferns. A rushing stream dropped from +height to height on its rocky course, and ended picturesquely and +usefully in a waterfall close to the village, where it turned an old +mill-wheel before disappearing into the Youle. + +If the Squire of Barracombe overlooked from his terrace garden +the inhabitants of the village and the tell-tale doorway of the +much-frequented inn on the high-road below--his tenants in the valley +and on the hillside were privileged in turn to observe the goings-in +and comings-out of their beloved landlord almost as intimately; nor +did they often tire of discussing his movements, his doings, and even +his intentions. + +His monotonous life provided small cause for gossip or speculation; +but when the opportunity arose, it was eagerly seized. + +In the failing light of a February afternoon a group of labourers +assembled before the hospitably open door of the Crewys Arms. + +"Him baint been London ways vor uppard of vivdeen year, tu my zurtain +knowledge," said the old road-mender, jerking his empty pewter upwards +in the direction of the terrace, where Sir Timothy's solid dark form +could be discerned pacing up and down before his white house. + +"Tis vur a ligacy. You may depend on't. 'Twas vur a ligacy last time," +said a brawny ploughman. + +"Volk doan't git ligacies every day," said the road-mender, +contemptuously. "I zays 'tis Master Peter. Him du be just the age when +byes du git drubblezum, gentle are zimple. I were drubblezum myself as +a bye." + +"'Twas tu fetch down this 'ere London jintle-man as comed on here wi' +him to-day, I tell 'ee. His cousin, are zuch like. Zame name, anyways, +var James Coachman zaid zo." + +"Well, I telled 'ee zo," said the road-mender. "He's brart down the +nextest heir, var tu keep a hold over Master Peter, and I doan't blame +'un." + +"James Coachman telled me vive minutes zince as zummat were up. 'Ee +zad such arders var tu-morrer morning, 'ee says, as niver 'ee had +befar," said the landlord. + +"Thart James Coachman weren't niver lit tu come here," said the +road-mender, slyly. His toothless mouth extended into the perpetual +smile which had earned him the nickname of "Happy Jack," over sixty +years since, when he had been the prettiest lad in the parish. + +"He only snicked down vor a drop o' brandy, vur he were clean rampin' +mazed wi' tuth-ache. He waited till pretty nigh dusk var the ole +ladies tu be zafe. 'Ee says they du take it by turns zo long as +daylight du last, tu spy out wi' their microscopes, are zum zuch, as +none of Sir Timothy's volk git tarking down this ways. A drop o' my +zider might git tu their 'yeds," said the landlord, sarcastically, +"though they drinks Sir Timothy's by the bucket-vull up tu +Barracombe." + +"'Tis stronger than yars du be," said Happy Jack. "There baint no +warter put tu't, Joe Gudewyn. The warter-varl be tu handy vur yure +brewin'." + +"Zum of my customers has weak 'yeds, 'tis arl the better for they," +said Goodwyn, calmly. + +"Then charge 'em accardin', Mr. Landlord, charge 'em accardin', +zays I. Warter doan't cost 'ee nart, du 'un?" said Happy Jack, +triumphantly. + +"'Ere be the doctor goin' on in's trap, while yu du be tarking zo," +said the ploughman. "Lard, he du be a vast goer, be Joe Blundell." + +"I drove zo vast as that, and vaster, when I kip a harse," said the +road-mender, jealously. "'Ee be a young man, not turned vifty. I mind +his vather and mother down tu Cullacott befar they was wed. Why doan't +he go tu the war, that's what I zay?" + +"Sir Timothy doan't hold wi' the war," said the landlord. + +"Mar shame vor 'un," said Happy Jack. "But me and Zur Timothy, us +made up our minds tu differ long ago. I'm arl vor vighting +vurriners--Turks, Rooshans, Vrinchmen; 'tis arl one tu I." + +"Why doan't 'ee volunteer thyself, Vather Jack? Thee baint turned +nointy yit, be 'ee?" said a labourer, winking heavily, to convey to +the audience that the suggestion was a humorous one. + +"Ah, zo I wude, and shute Boers wi' the best on 'un. But the +Governmint baint got the zince tu ax me," said Happy Jack, chuckling. +"The young volk baint nigh zo knowing as I du be. Old Kruger wuden't +ha' tuke in I, try as 'un wude. I be zo witty as iver I can be." + +Dr. Blundell saluted the group before the inn as he turned his horse +to climb the steep road to Barracombe. + +No breath of wind stirred, and the smoke from the cottage chimneys was +lying low in the valley, hovering over the river in the still air. + +A few primroses peeped out of sheltered corners under the hedge, and +held out a timid promise of spring. The doctor followed the red road +which wound between Sir Timothy's carefully enclosed plantations of +young larch, passed the lodge gates, which were badly in need of +repair, and entered the drive. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The justice-room was a small apartment in the older portion of +Barracombe House; the low windows were heavily latticed, and faced +west. + +Sir Timothy sat before his writing-table, which was heaped with +papers, directories, and maps; but he could no longer see to read or +write. He made a stiff pretence of rising to greet the doctor as he +entered, and then resumed his elbow-chair. + +The rapidly failing daylight showed a large elderly, rather pompous +gentleman, with a bald head, grizzled whiskers, and heavy plebeian +features. + +His face was smooth and unwrinkled, as the faces of prosperous and +self-satisfied persons sometimes are, even after sixty, which was the +age Sir Timothy had attained. + +Dr. Blundell, who sat opposite his patient, was neither prosperous nor +self-satisfied. + +His dark clean-shaven face was deeply lined; care or over-work had +furrowed his brow; and the rather unkempt locks of black hair which +fell over it were streaked with white. From the deep-set brown eyes +looked sadness and fatigue, as well as a great kindness for his +fellow-men. + +"I came the moment I received your letter," he said. "I had no idea +you were back from London already." + +"Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, pompously, "when I took the very +unusual step of leaving home the day before yesterday, I had resolved +to follow the advice you gave me. I went to fulfil an appointment I +had made with a specialist." + +"With Sir James Power?" + +"No, with a man named Herslett. You may have heard of him." + +"Heard of him!" ejaculated Blundell. "Why, he's world-famous! A new +man. Very clever, of course. If anything, a greater authority. Only I +fancied you would perhaps prefer an older, graver man." + +"No doubt I committed a breach of medical etiquette," said Sir +Timothy, in self-satisfied tones. "But I fancied you might have +written _your_ version of the case to Power. Ah, you did? Exactly. But +I was determined to have an absolutely unbiassed opinion." + +"Well," said Blundell, gently. + +"Well--I got it, that's all," said Sir Timothy. The triumph seemed to +die out of his voice. + +"Was it--unsatisfactory?" + +"Not from your point of view," said the squire, with a heavy +jocularity which did not move the doctor to mirth. "I'm bound to say +he confirmed your opinion exactly. But he took a far more serious view +of my case than you do." + +"Did he?" said Blundell, turning away his head. + +"The operation you suggested as a possible necessity must be +immediate. He spoke of it quite frankly as the only possible chance of +saving my life, which is further endangered by every hour of delay." + +"Fortunately," said Blundell, cheerfully, "you have a fine +constitution, and you have lived a healthy abstemious life. That is +all in your favour." + +"I am over sixty years of age," said Sir Timothy, coldly, "and the +ordeal before me is a very severe one, as you must be well aware. I +must take the risk of course, but the less said about the matter the +better." + +Dr. Blundell had always regarded Sir Timothy Crewys as a commonplace +contradictory gentleman, beset by prejudices which belonged properly +to an earlier generation, and of singularly narrow sympathies and +interests. He believed him to be an upright man according to his +lights, which were not perhaps very brilliant lights after all; but he +knew him to be one whom few people found it possible to like, partly +on account of his arrogance, which was excessive; and partly on +account of his want of consideration for the feelings of others, which +arose from lack of perception. + +People are disliked more often for a bad manner than for a bad heart. +The one is their private possession--the other they obtrude on their +acquaintance. + +Sir Timothy's heart was not bad, and he cared less for being liked +than for being respected. He was the offspring of a _mesalliance_; and +greatly over-estimating the importance in which his family was held, +he imagined he would be looked down upon for this mischance, unless he +kept people at a distance and in awe of him. The idea was a foolish +one, no doubt, but then Sir Timothy was not a wise man; on the +contrary, his lifelong determination to keep himself loftily apart +from his fellow-men had resulted in an almost extraordinary ignorance +of the world he lived in--a world which Sir Timothy regarded as a wild +and misty place, peopled largely and unnecessarily with savages and +foreigners, and chiefly remarkable for containing England; as England +justified its existence by holding Devonshire, and more especially +Barracombe. + +Sir Timothy had never been sent to school, and owed such education as +he possessed almost entirely to his half-sisters. These ladies +were considerably his seniors, and had in turn been brought up at +Barracombe by their grandmother; whose maxims they still quoted, and +whose ideas they had scarcely outgrown. Under the circumstances, the +narrowness of his outlook was perhaps hardly to be wondered at. + +But the dull immovability and sense of importance which characterized +him now seemed to the doctor to be almost tragically charged with the +typical matter-of-fact courage of the Englishman; who displays neither +fear nor emotion; and who would regard with horror the suspicion that +such repression might be heroic. + +"When is it to be?" said Blundell. + +"To-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" + +"And here," said Sir Timothy; "Dr. Herslett objected, but I insisted. +I won't be ill in a strange house. I shall recover far more +rapidly--if I am to recover--among my people, in my native air. London +stifles me. I dislike crowds and noise. I hate novelty. If I am to +die, I will die at home." + +"Herslett himself performs the operation, of course?" + +"Yes. He is to arrive at Brawnton to-night, and sleep there. I shall +send the carriage over for him and his assistants early to-morrow +morning. You, of course, will meet him here, and the operation is to +take place at eleven o'clock." + +In his alarm lest the doctor might be moved to express sympathy, Sir +Timothy spoke with unusual severity. + +Dr. Blundell understood, and was silent. + +"I sent for you, of course, to let you know all this," said Sir +Timothy, "but I wished, also, to introduce you to my cousin, John +Crewys, who came down with me." + +"The Q.C.?" + +"Exactly. I have made him my executor and trustee, and guardian of my +son." + +"Jointly with Lady Mary, I presume?" said the doctor, unguardedly. + +"Certainly not," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. "Lady Mary has never been +troubled with business matters. That is why I urged John to come down +with me. In case--anything--happens to-morrow, his support will be +invaluable to her. I have a high opinion of him. He has succeeded in +life through his own energy, and he is the only member of my family +who has never applied to me for assistance. I inquired the reason on +the journey down, for I know that at one time he was in very poor +circumstances; and he replied that he would rather have starved than +have asked me for sixpence. I call that a very proper spirit." + +The doctor made no comment on the anecdote. "May I ask how Lady Mary +is bearing this suspense?" he asked. + +"Lady Mary knows nothing of the matter," said the squire, rather +peevishly. + +"You have not prepared her?" + +"No; and I particularly desire she and my sisters should hear nothing +of it. If this is to be my last evening on earth, I should not wish it +to be clouded by tears and lamentations, which might make it difficult +for me to maintain my own self-command. Herslett said I was not to +be agitated. I shall bid them all good night just as usual. In +the morning I beg you will be good enough to make the necessary +explanations. Lady Mary need hear nothing of it till it is over, for +you know she never leaves her room before twelve--a habit I have often +deplored, but which is highly convenient on this occasion." + +Dr. Blundell reflected for a moment. "May I venture to remonstrate +with you, Sir Timothy?" he said. "I fear Lady Mary may be deeply +shocked and hurt at being thus excluded from your confidence in so +serious a case. Should anything go wrong," he added bluntly, "it would +be difficult to account to her even for my own reticence." + +Sir Timothy rose majestic from his chair. "You will say that _I_ +forbade you to make the communication," he said, with rather a +displeased air. + +"I beg your pardon," said Dr. Blundell, "but--" + +"I am not offended," interrupted Sir Timothy, mistaking remonstrance +for apology. He was quite honestly incapable of supposing that his +physician would presume to argue with him. + +"You do not, very naturally, understand Lady Mary's disposition as +well as I do," he said, almost graciously. "She has been sheltered +from anxiety, from trouble of every kind, since her childhood. To me, +more than a quarter of a century her senior, she seems, indeed, still +almost a child." + +Dr. Blundell coloured. "Yet she is the mother of a grown-up son," he +said. + +"Peter grown-up! Nonsense! A schoolboy." + +"Eighteen," said the doctor, shortly. "You don't wish him sent for?" + +"Most certainly not. The Christmas holidays are only just over. Rest +assured, Dr. Blundell," said Sir Timothy, with grim emphasis, "that I +shall give Peter no excuse for leaving his work, if I can help it." + +There was a tap at the door. The squire lowered his voice and spoke +hurriedly. + +"If it is the canon, tell him, in confidence, what I have told you, +and say that I should wish him to be present to-morrow, in his +official capacity, in case of--" + +It was the canon, whose rosy good-humoured countenance appeared in the +doorway whilst Sir Timothy was yet speaking. + +"I hope I am not interrupting," he said, "but the ladies desired +me--that is, Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys desired me--to let you know +that tea was ready." + +The canon had an innocent surprised face like a baby; he was +constitutionally timid and amiable, and his dislike of argument, or of +a loud voice, almost amounted to fear. + +Sir Timothy mistook his nervousness for proper respect, and maintained +a distant but condescending graciousness towards him. + +"I hear you came back by the afternoon train, Sir Timothy. A London +outing is a rare thing for you. I hope you enjoyed yourself," said the +canon, with a meaningless laugh. + +"I transacted my business successfully, thank you," said Sir Timothy, +gravely. + +"Brought back any fresh news of the war?" + +"None at all." + +"I hear the call for more men has been responded to all over the +country. It's a fine thing, so many young fellows ready and willing to +lay down their lives for their country." + +"Very few young men, I believe," said Sir Timothy, frigidly, "can +resist any opportunity to be concerned in brawling and bloodshed, +especially when it is legalized under the name of war. My respect is +reserved for the steady workers at home." + +"And how much peace would the steady workers at home enjoy without the +brawlers abroad to defend them, I wonder!" cried the canon, flushing +all over his rosy face, and then suddenly faltering as he met the cold +surprise of the squire's grey eyes. + +"I have some letters to finish before post time," said Sir Timothy, +after an impressive short pause of displeasure. "I will join you +presently, Dr. Blundell, at the tea-table, if you will return to the +ladies with Canon Birch." + +Sir Timothy rang for lights, and his visitors closed the door of the +study behind them. Dr. Blundell's backward glance showed him the tall +and portly form silhouetted against the window; the last gleam of +daylight illuminating the iron-grey hair; the face turned towards +the hilltop, where the spires of the skeleton larches were sharply +outlined against a clear western sky. + +"What made you harp upon the war, man, knowing what his opinions +are?" the doctor asked vexedly, as he stumbled along the uneven stone +passage towards the hall. + +"I did not exactly intend to do so; but I declare, the moment I see +Sir Timothy, every subject I wish to avoid seems to fly to the tip +of my tongue," said the poor canon, apologetically; "though I had a +reason for alluding to the war to-night--a good reason, as I think you +will acknowledge presently. I want your advice, doctor." + +"Not for yourself, I hope," said the doctor, absently. + +"Come into the gun-room for one moment," said Birch. "It is very +important. Do you know I've a letter from Peter?" + +"From Peter! Why should _you_ have a letter from Peter?" said the +doctor, and his uninterested tone became alert. + +"I'm sure I don't know why not. I was always fond of Peter," said the +canon, humbly. "Will you cast your eye over it? You see, it's written +from Eton, and posted two days later in London." + +Dr. Blundell read the letter, which was written in a schoolboy hand, +and not guiltless of mistakes in spelling. + + +"_DEAR CANON BIRCH_, + +"_As my father wouldn't hear of my going out to South Africa, I've +taken the law into my own hands. I wrote to my mother's cousin, Lord +Ferries, to ask him to include me in his yeomanry corps. Of course +I let him suppose papa was willing and anxious, which perhaps was a +low-down game, but I remembered that all's fair in love and war; and +besides, I consider papa very nearly a pro-Boer. We've orders to sail +on Friday, which is sharp work; but I should be eternally disgraced +now if they stopped me. As my father never listens to reason, far less +to me, you had better explain to him that if he's any regard for the +honour of our name, he's no choice left. I expect my mother had better +not be told till I'm gone, or she will only fret over what can't be +helped. I'll write to her on board, once we're safely started. I know +you're all right about the war, so you can tell papa I was ashamed to +be playing football while fellows younger than me, and fellows who +can't shoot or ride as I can, are going off to South Africa every +day._ + +"_Yours affectionately_, + +"_PETER CREWYS_. + +"_P.S._--_Hope you won't mind this job. I did try to get papa's leave +fair and square first_." + +"I always said Peter was a fine fellow at bottom," said Canon Birch, +anxiously scanning the doctor's frowning face. + +"He's an infernal self-willed, obstinate, heartless young cub on top, +then," said Blundell. + +"He's a chip of the old block, no doubt," said the canon; "but +still"--his admiration of Peter's boldness was perceptible in his +voice--"he doesn't share his father's reprehensible opinions on the +subject of the war." + +"Sons generally begin life by differing from their fathers, and end by +imitating them," said Blundell, sharply. "Birch, we must stop him." + +"I don't see how," said the canon; and he indulged in a gentle +chuckle. "The young rascal has laid his plans too well. He sails +to-morrow. I telegraphed inquiries. Ferries' Horse are going by the +_Rosmore Castle_ to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock." + +Dr. Blundell made an involuntary movement, which the canon did not +perceive. + +"I don't relish the notion of breaking this news to Sir Timothy. But I +thought we could consult together, you and me, how to do it," said the +innocent gentleman. "There's no doubt, you know, that it must be done +at once, or he can't get to Southampton in time to see the boy off and +forgive him. I suppose even Sir Timothy will forgive him at such a +moment. God bless the lad!" + +Dr. Blundell uttered an exclamation that did not sound like a +blessing. + +"Look here, Birch," he said, "this is no time to mince matters. If +the boy can't be stopped--and under the circumstances he's got us on +toast--he can't cry off active service--_as_ the boy can't be stopped, +you must just keep this news to yourself." + +"But I must tell Sir Timothy!" + +"You must _not_ tell Sir Timothy." + +"Though all my sympathies are with the boy--for I'm a patriot first, +and a parson afterwards--God forgive me for saying so," said Birch, +in a trembling voice, "yet I can't take the responsibility of keeping +Peter's father in ignorance of his action. I see exactly what you +mean, of course. Sir Timothy will make unpleasantness, and very likely +telegraph to his commanding officer, and disgrace the poor boy before +his comrades; and shout at me, a thing I can't bear; and you kindly +think to spare me--and Peter. But I can't take the responsibility +of keeping it dark, for all that," said the canon, shaking his head +regretfully. + +"_I_ take the responsibility," said the doctor, shortly. "As Sir +Timothy's physician, I forbid you to tell him." + +"Is Sir Timothy ill?" The canon's light eyes grew rounder with alarm. + +"He is to undergo a dangerous operation to-morrow morning." + +"God bless my soul!" + +"He desires this evening--possibly his last on earth--to be a calm and +unclouded one," said the doctor. "Respect his wishes, Birch, as you +would respect the wishes of a dying man." + +"Do you mean he won't get over it?" said the canon, in a horrified +whisper. + +"You always want the _t's_ crossed and the _i's_ dotted," said +Blundell, impatiently. "Of course there is a chance--his only chance. +He's a d----d plucky old fellow. I never thought to like Sir Timothy +half so well as I do at this moment." + +"I hope I don't _dislike_ any man," faltered the canon. "But--" + +"Exactly," said the doctor, dryly. + +"But what shall I do with Peter's letter?" said the unhappy recipient. + +"Not one word to Sir Timothy. Agitation or distress of mind at such a +moment would be the worst thing in the world for him." + +"But I can't let Peter sail without a word to his people. And his +mother. Good God, Blundell! Is Lady Mary to lose husband and son in +one day?" + +"Lady Mary," said the doctor, bitterly, "is to be treated, as usual, +like a child, and told nothing of her husband's danger till it's over. +As for Peter--well, devoted mother as she is, she must be pretty well +accustomed by this time to the captious indifference of her spoilt +boy. She won't be surprised, though she may be hurt, that he should +coolly propose to set off without bidding her good-bye." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Peter?" said the canon, +struck with a brilliant idea. + +"Certainly not; she would fly to him at once, and leave Sir Timothy +alone in his extremity." + +"Couldn't we tell her in confidence about Sir Timothy?" + +"I have allowed Sir Timothy to understand that neither you nor I will +betray his secret." + +"I'm no hand at keeping a secret," said the canon, unhappily. + +"Nonsense, canon, nonsense," said Dr. Blundell, laying a friendly hand +on his shoulder. "No man in your profession, or in mine, ought to be +able to say that. Pull yourself together, hope for the best, and play +your part." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +John Crewys looked round the hall at Barracombe House with curious, +interested eyes. + +It was divided from the outer vestibule on the western side of the +building by a massive partition of dark oak, and it retained the solid +beams and panelled walls of Elizabethan days; but the oak had been +barbarously painted, grained and varnished. Only the staircase was so +heavily and richly carved, that it had defied the ingenuity of the +comb engraver. It occupied the further end of the hall, opposite +the entrance door, and was lighted dimly by a small heavily leaded, +stained-glass window. The floor was likewise black, polished with age +and the labour of generations. A deeply sunken nail-studded door led +into a low-ceiled library, containing a finely carved frieze and +cornice, and an oak mantelpiece, which John Crewys earnestly desired +to examine more closely; the shield-of-arms above it bore the figures +of 1603, but the hall itself was of an earlier date. + +Parallel to it was the suite of lofty, modern, green-shuttered +reception-rooms, which occupied the south front of the house, and +into which an opening had been cut through the massive wall next the +chimney. + +The character of the hall was, however, completely destroyed by the +decoration which had been bestowed upon it, and by the furniture and +pictures which filled it. + +John Crewys looked round with more indignation than admiration at the +home of his ancestors. + +In the great oriel window stood a round mahogany table, bearing a +bouquet of wax flowers under a glass shade. Cases of stuffed birds +ornamented every available recess; mahogany and horsehair chairs +were set stiffly round the walls at even distances. A heap of folded +moth-eaten rugs and wraps disfigured a side-table, and beneath it +stood a row of clogs and goloshes. + +Round the walls hung full-length portraits of an early Victorian date. +The artist had spent a couple of months at Barracombe fifty years +since, and had painted three generations of the Crewys family, who +were then gathered together beneath its hospitable roof. His diligence +had been more remarkable than his ability. At any other time John +Crewys would have laughed outright at this collection of works of art. + +But the air was charged with tragedy, and he could not laugh. His +seriousness commended him favourably, had he known it, to the two +old ladies, his cousins, Sir Timothy's half-sisters, who were seated +beside the great log fire, and who regarded him with approving eyes. +For their stranger cousin had that extreme gentleness and courtesy +of manner and regard, which sometimes accompanies unusual strength, +whether of character or of person. + +It was a pity, old Lady Belstone whispered to her spinster sister, +that John was not a Crewys, for he had a remarkably fine head, and had +he been but a little taller and slimmer, would have been a credit to +the family. + +Certainly John was not a Crewys. He possessed neither grey eyes, nor a +large nose, nor the height which should be attained by every man and +woman bearing that name, according to the family record. + +But though only of middle size, and rather square-shouldered, he was, +nevertheless, a distinguished-looking man, with a finely shaped head +and well-cut features. Clean shaven, as a great lawyer ought to be, +with a firm and rather satirical mouth, a broad brow, and bright +hazel eyes set well apart and twinkling with humour. No doubt John's +appearance had been a factor in his successful career. + +The sisters, themselves well advanced in the seventies, spoke of him +and thought of him as a young man; a boy who had succeeded in life in +spite of small means, and an extravagant mother, to whom he had +been obliged to sacrifice his patrimony. But though he carried his +forty-five years lightly, John Crewys had left his boyhood very far +behind him. His crisp dark hair was frosted on the temples; he stooped +a little after the fashion of the desk-worker; he wore pince-nez; his +manner, though alert, was composed and dignified. The restlessness, +the nervous energy of youth, had been replaced by the calm confidence +of middle age--of tested strength, of ripe experience. + +On his side, John Crewys felt very kindly towards the venerable +ladies, who represented to him all the womankind of his own race. + +Both sisters possessed the family characteristics which he lacked. +They were tall and surprisingly upright, considering the weight of +years which pressed upon their thin shoulders. They retained the +manners--almost the speech--of the eighteenth century, to which the +grandmother who was responsible for their upbringing had belonged; +and, with the exception of a very short experience of matrimony +in Lady Belstone's case, they had always resided exclusively at +Barracombe. + +Lady Belstone, besides her widowed dignity, had the advantage of +her sister in appearance, mainly because she permitted art, in some +degree, to repair the ravages of time. A stiff _toupet_ of white curls +crowned the withered brow, below a widow's cap; and, when she smiled, +which was not very often, a double row of pearls was not unpleasantly +displayed. Miss Crewys had never succumbed to the temptations of +worldly vanity. She scrupulously parted her scanty grey locks above +her polished forehead, and cared not how wide the parting grew. If +she wore a velvet bow upon her scalp, it was, as she truly said, for +decency, and not for ornament; and further, she allowed her wholesome, +ruddy cheeks to fall in, as her ever-lengthening teeth fell out. The +frequent explanations which ensued, regarding the seniority of the +widow, were a source of constant satisfaction to Miss Crewys, and +vexation to her sister. + +"You might be a hundred years old, Georgina," she would angrily +lament. + +"I very soon _shall_ be a hundred years old, Isabella, if I live as +long as my grandmother did," Miss Crewys would triumphantly reply. "It +is surprising to me that a woman who was never good-looking at the +best of times, should cling to her youth as you do." + +"It is more surprising to me that you should let yourself go to rack +and ruin, and never stretch out a hand to help yourself." + +"I am what God made me," said the pious Georgina, "whereas you do +everything but paint your face, Isabella; and I have little doubt but +what you will come to that by the time you are eighty." + +But though they disputed hotly on occasion the sisters generally +preserved a united front before the world, and only argued, since +argue they must, in the most polite and affectionate terms. + +The firelight shed its cheerful glow over the laden tea-table, and was +reflected in the silver urn, and the crimson and gold and blue of the +Crown Derby tea-set. But the old ladies, though casting longing eyes +in the direction of the teapot, religiously abstained from offering to +touch it. + +"No, John," said Miss Crewys, in a tone of exemplary patience; "I +have made it a rule never to take upon myself any of the duties of +hospitality in my dear brother's house, ever since he married,--odd +as it may seem, when we remember how he used once to sit at this very +table in his little bib and tucker, whilst Isabella poured out his +milk, and I cut his bread and butter." + +"We _both_ make the rule, John," said Lady Belstone, mournfully, "or, +of course, as the elder sister, _I_ should naturally pour out the tea +in our dear Lady Mary's absence." + +"Of course, of course," said John Crewys. + +"Forgive me, Isabella, but we have discussed this point before," said +Miss Crewys. "Though I cannot deny, our cousin being, as he is, a +lawyer, his opinion would carry weight. But I think he will agree with +_me_"--John smiled--"that when the elder daughter of a house marries, +she forfeits her rights of seniority in that house, and the next +sister succeeds to her place." + +"I should suppose that might be the case," John, bowing politely in +the direction of the widow. + +"I never disputed the fact, Georgina. It is, as our cousin says, +self-evident," said Lady Belstone, returning the bow. "But I have +always maintained, and always shall, that when the married sister +comes back widowed to the home of her fathers, the privileges of birth +are restored to her." + +Both sisters turned shrewd, expectant grey eyes upon their cousin. + +"It is--it is rather a nice point," said John Crewys, as gravely as he +could. + +He welcomed thankfully the timely interruption of an opening door and +the entrance of Canon Birch and the doctor. + +At the same moment, from the archway which supported the great oak +staircase, the butler entered, carrying lights. + +"Is her ladyship not yet returned from her walk, Ash?" asked Lady +Belstone, with affected surprise. + +"Her ladyship came in some time ago, my lady, and went to see Sir +Timothy. She left word she was gone upstairs to change her walking +things, and would be down directly." + +The sisters greeted the canon with effusion, and Dr. Blundell with +frigid civility. + +John Crewys shook hands with both gentlemen. + +"I am sorry I cannot offer you tea, Canon Birch, until my +sister-in-law comes down," said Miss Crewys. + +"Our dear Lady Mary is so very unpunctual," said Lady Belstone. + +"I dare say something has detained her," said the canon, +good-humouredly. + +"It often happens that my sister and myself are kept waiting a quarter +of an hour or more for our tea. We do not complain," said Lady +Belstone. + +John Crewys began to feel a little sorry for Lady Mary. + +As the sisters appeared inclined to devote themselves to their +clerical visitor rather exclusively, he drew near the recess to which +Dr. Blundell had retired, and joined him in the oriel window. + +"Have you never been here before?" asked the doctor, rather abruptly. + +"Never," said John Crewys, smiling. "I understand my cousins are not +much given to entertaining visitors. I have never, in fact, seen any +of them but once before. That was at Sir Timothy's wedding, twenty +years ago." + +"Barely nineteen," said the doctor. + +"I believe it was nineteen, since you remind me," said John, slightly +astonished. "I remember thinking Sir Timothy a lucky man." + +"I dare say _he_ looked much about the same as he does now," said the +doctor. + +"Well," John said, "perhaps a little slimmer, you know. Not much. An +iron-grey, middle-aged-looking man. No; he has changed very little." + +"He was born elderly, and he will die elderly," said the doctor, +shortly. "Neither the follies of youth nor the softening of age +will ever be known to Sir Timothy." He paused, noting the surprised +expression of John's face, and added apologetically, "I am a native of +these parts. I have known him all my life." + +"And I am--only a stranger," said John. He hesitated, and lowered his +voice. "You know why I came?" + +"Yes, I know. I am very glad you did come," said the doctor. His tone +changed. "Here is Lady Mary," he said. + +John Crewys was struck by the sudden illumination of Dr. Blundell's +plain, dark face. The deeply sunken eyes glowed, and the sadness and +weariness of their expression were dispelled. + +His eyes followed the direction of the doctor's gaze, and his own face +immediately reflected the doctor's interest. + +Lady Mary was coming down the wide staircase, in the light of a group +of wax candles held by a tall bronze angel. + +She was dressed with almost rigid simplicity, and her abundant +light-brown hair was plainly parted. She was pale and even +sad-looking, but beautiful still; with a delicate and regular profile, +soft blue eyes, and a sweet, rather tremulous mouth. + +John's heart seemed to contract within him, and then beat fast with a +sensation that was not entirely pity, because those eyes--the bluest, +he remembered, that he had ever seen--brought back to him, suddenly +and vividly, the memory of the exquisitely fresh and lovely girl who +had married her elderly guardian nineteen years since. + +He recollected that some members of the Crewys family had agreed that +Lady Mary Setoun had done well for herself, "a penniless lass wi' a +lang pedigree;" for Sir Timothy was rich. Others had laughed, and said +that Sir Timothy was determined that his heirs should be able to boast +some of the bluest blood in Scotland on their mother's side,--but that +he might have waited a little longer for his bride. + +She was so young, barely seventeen years old, and so very lovely, that +John Crewys had felt indignant with Sir Timothy, whose appearance and +manner did not attract him. He was reminded that the bride owed almost +everything she possessed in the world to her husband, but he was not +pacified. + +The glance of the gay blue eyes,--the laugh on the curved young +mouth,--the glint of gold on the sunny brown hair,--had played havoc +with John's honest heart. He had not a penny in the world at that +time, and could not have married her if he would; but from Lady Mary's +wedding he carried away in his breast an image--an ideal--which had +perhaps helped to keep him unwed during these later years of his +successful career. + +Why did she look so sad? + +John's kind heart had melted somewhat towards Sir Timothy, when the +poor gentleman had sought him in his chambers on the previous day, +and appealed to him for help in his extremity. He was sorry for his +cousin, in spite of the pompousness and arrogance with which Sir +Timothy unconsciously did his best to alienate even those whom he most +desired to attract. + +He had come to Devonshire, at great inconvenience to himself, in +response to that appeal; and in his hurry, and his sympathy for his +cousin's trouble, he had scarcely given a thought to the momentary +romance connected with his first and only meeting with Lady Mary. Yet +now, behold, after nineteen years, the look on her sweet face thrilled +his middle-aged bosom as it had thrilled his young manhood. John +smiled or thought he smiled, as he came forward to be presented once +more to Sir Timothy's wife; but he was, nevertheless, rather pleased +to find that he had not outgrown the power of being thus romantically +attracted. + +"I hope I'm not late," said the soft voice. "You see, no one expected +Sir Timothy to come home so soon, and I was out. Is that Cousin John? +We met once before, at my wedding. You have not changed a bit; I +remember you quite well," said Lady Mary. She came forward and held +out two welcoming hands to her visitor. + +John Crewys bowed over those little white hands, and became suddenly +conscious that his vague, romantic sentiment had given place to a very +real emotion--an almost passionate anxiety to shield one so fair and +gentle from the trouble which was threatening her, and of which, as he +knew, she was perfectly unconscious. + +The warmth of her impulsive welcome did not, of course, escape the +keen eyes of the sisters-in-law, which, in such matters as these, were +quite undimmed by age. + +"Why didn't somebody pour out tea?" said Lady Mary. + +"We know your rights, Mary," said Miss Crewys. "Never shall it be said +that dear Timothy's sisters ousted his wife from her proper place, +because she did not happen to be present to occupy it." + +"Besides," said Lady Belstone, "you have, no doubt, some excellent +reason, my love, for the delay." + +Lady Mary's blue eyes, glancing at John, said quite plainly and +beseechingly to his understanding, "They are old, and rather cranky, +but they don't mean to be unkind. Do forgive them;" and John smiled +reassuringly. + +"I'm afraid I haven't much excuse to offer," she said ingenuously. "I +was out late, and I tired myself; and then I heard Sir Timothy had +come back, so I went to see him. And then I made haste to change my +dress, and it took a long time--and that's all." + +The three gentlemen laughed forgivingly at this explanation, and the +two ladies exchanged shocked glances. + +"Our cousin John did his best to entertain us, and we him," said Lady +Belstone, stiffly. + +"His best--and how good that must be!" said Lady Mary, with pretty +spirit. "The great counsel whose eloquence is listened to with +breathless attention in crowded courts, and read at every +breakfast-table in England." + +"That is a very delightful picture of the life of a briefless +barrister," said John Crewys, smiling. + +"Mary," said Miss Crewys, in lowered tones of reproof, "I understood +that _divorce_ cases, unhappily, occupied the greater part of our +cousin John's attention." + +"We've heard of you, nevertheless--we've heard of you, Mr. Crewys," +said the canon, nervously interposing, "even in this out-of-the-way +corner of the west." + +"But there is one breakfast-table, at least, in England, where +divorce cases are _not_ perused, and that is my brother Timothy's +breakfast-table," said Lady Belstone, very distinctly. + +John hastened to fill up the awkward pause which ensued, by a +reference to the beauty of the hall. + +"I'm afraid we don't live up to our beautiful old house," said Lady +Mary, shaking her head. "There are some lovely things stored away +in the gallery upstairs, and some beautiful pictures hanging there, +including the Vandyck, you know, which Charles II. gave to old +Sir Peter, your cavalier ancestor. But the gallery is almost a +lumber-room, for the floor is too unsafe to walk upon. And down here, +as you see, we are terribly Philistine." + +"This hall was furnished by my grandmother for her son's marriage," +said Miss Crewys. + +"And she sent all your great-grandmother's treasures to the attics," +said Lady Mary, with rather a wilful intonation. "I always long to +bring them to light again, and to make this place livable; but my +husband does not like change." + +"Dear Timothy is faithful to the past," said Miss Crewys, +majestically. + +"I wish old Lady Crewys had been as faithful," said Lady Mary, +shrugging her shoulders. + +"Young people always like changes," said Lady Belstone, more +leniently. + +"Young people!" said Lady Mary, with a rather pathetic smile. +"John will think you are laughing at me. Am I to be young still at +five-and-thirty?" + +"To be sure," said John, "unless you are going to be so unkind as to +make a man only ten years your senior feel elderly." + +Miss Crewys interposed with a simple statement. "In my day, the age of +a lady was never referred to in polite conversation. Least of all by +herself. I never allude to mine." + +"You are unmarried, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, unexpectedly +turning upon her ally. "Unmarried ladies are always sensitive on the +subject of age. I am sure I do not care who knows that my poor admiral +was twenty years my senior. And _his_ age can be looked up in any book +of reference. It would have been useless to try and conceal it,--a man +so well known." + +"A woman is as old as she looks," said the canon, soothingly, for the +annoyance of Miss Crewys was visible. "I am bound to say that Miss +Crewys looks exactly the same as when I first knew her." + +"Of course, a spinster escapes the wear and tear of matrimony," said +Miss Crewys, glaring at her widowed relative. + +"H'm, h'm!" said Dr. Blundell. "By-the-by, have you inspected the old +picture gallery, Mr. Crewys?" + +"Not yet," said John. + +Lady Belstone shot a glance of speechless indignation at her sister. +Sympathy between them was immediately restored. Prompt action was +necessary on the part of the family, or this presumptuous physician +would be walking round the house to show John Crewys the portraits of +his own ancestors. + +"_I_ shall be delighted to show our cousin the pictures in the gallery +and in the dining-room," said Miss Crewys, "if my sister Isabella will +accompany me, and if Lady Mary has no objections." + +"You are very kind," said John. He rose and walked to a small rosewood +cabinet of curios. "I see there are some beautiful miniatures here." + +"Oh, those do not belong to the family." + +"They are Setoun things--some of the few that came to me," said Lady +Mary, rather timidly. "I am afraid they would not interest you." + +"Not interest me! But indeed I care only too much for such things," +said John. "Here is a Cosway, and, unless I very much mistake, a +Plimer,--and an Engleheart." + +Lady Mary unlocked the cabinet with pretty eagerness, and put a small +morocco case into his hands. + +"Then here is something you will like to see." + +For a moment John did not understand. He glanced quickly from the row +of tiny, pearl-framed, old-world portraits, of handsome nobles and +rose-tinted court dames, to the very indifferent modern miniature he +held. + +The portrait of a schoolboy,--an Eton boy with a long nose and small, +grey eyes, and an expression distinctly rather sulky and lowering than +open or pleasing. Not a stupid face, however, by any means. + +"It is my boy--Peter," said Lady Mary, softly. + +To her the face was something more than beautiful. She looked up at +John with a happy certainty of his interest in her son. + +"Here he is again, when he was younger. He was a pretty little fellow +then, as you see." + +"Very pretty. But not very like you," said John, scarcely knowing what +he said. + +He was strangely moved and touched by her evident confidence in +his sympathy, though his artistic tastes were outraged by the two +portraits she asked him to admire. He reflected that women were very +extraordinary creatures; ready to be pleased with anything Providence +might care to bestow upon them in the shape of a child, even +cross-looking boys with long noses and small eyes. The heir of +Barracombe resembled his aunts rather than his parents. + +"He is a thorough Crewys; not a bit like me. All the Setouns are fair, +I believe. Peter is very dark. He is such a big fellow now; taller +than I am. I sometimes wish," said Lady Mary, laying the miniature on +the table as though she could not bear to shut it away immediately, +"that one's children never grew up. They are such darlings when they +are little, and they are bound, of course, to disappoint one sometimes +as they grow older." + +John Crewys felt almost murderously inclined towards Peter. So the +young cub had presumed to disappoint his mother as he grew older! How +dared he? + +Poor Lady Mary was quite unconscious of the feelings with which he +gazed at the little case in his hand. + +"Not that my boy has ever _really_ disappointed me--yet," she said, +with her pretty apologetic laugh. "I only mean that, in the course of +human nature, it's bound to come, now and then." + +"No doubt," said John, gently. + +Then she allowed him to examine the rest of the cabinet, whilst she +talked on, always of Peter--his horsemanship and his shooting and his +prowess in every kind of sport and game. + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Lady Belstone was holding a hurried consultation with her +sister. + +"How thoughtless you are, Georgina, asking our cousin into the +dining-room just when Ash must be laying the cloth for dinner. He will +be sadly put about." + +"Dear, dear, it quite slipped my memory, Isabella." + +"You have no head at all, Georgina." + +"Can I frame an excuse?" said Miss Crewys, piteously, "or will he +think it discourteous?" + +"Leave it to me, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, with the air of a +diplomat. "Mary, my love!" + +Lady Mary started. "Yes, Isabella." + +"Georgina has very properly recalled to me that candles and lamps make +a very poor light for viewing the family portraits. You know, my love, +the Vandyck is so very dark and black. She proposes, therefore, with +your permission, to act as our cousin's cicerone to-morrow morning, in +the daytime. Shall we say--at eleven o'clock, John?" + +Canon Birch started nervously, and the doctor frowned at him. + +"At eleven o'clock," said John, in steady tones; and, as he spoke, Sir +Timothy entered the hall. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +"Some tea, Timothy?" said Lady Mary. + +"If you please, my dear," said Sir Timothy, dropping his letters into +the box. + +"I am afraid the tea will be little better than poison, brother," said +Lady Belstone, in warning tones; "it has stood so long." + +"Perhaps dear Mary intends to order fresh tea, Isabella," said Miss +Crewys. + +"It hasn't stood so _very_ long," said Lady Mary, looking appealingly +at Sir Timothy; "and you know Ash is always cross if we order fresh +tea." + +"Excuse me, my love," said Miss Crewys. "I am the last to wish to +trouble poor Ash unnecessarily, but the tea waited for ten minutes +before you came down." + +"My dear Mary," said Sir Timothy, "will you never learn to be +punctual? No; I will take it as it is. Poor Ash has enough to do, as +Georgina truly says." + +Lady Mary sighed rather impatiently, and it occurred to John Crewys +that Sir Timothy spoke to his wife exactly as he might have addressed +a troublesome child. His tone was gentler than usual, but this John +did not know. + +"I should have liked to take a turn about the grounds with you," said +Sir Timothy to his cousin, "if it had been possible; but I am afraid +it is getting too dark now." + +"Surely there will be time enough to-morrow morning for that, +brother," said Lady Belstone. + +Sir Timothy had walked to the oriel window, but he turned away as he +answered her. + +"I may be otherwise occupied to-morrow." + +"But I hope the opportunity may arise before very long," said John, +cheerfully. "I should like to explore these woods." + +"You will have to come with _me_, then," said Lady Mary, smiling. +"Timothy hates walking uphill, and I should love to show our beautiful +views to a stranger." + +"I do not like you to tire yourself, my dear," said Sir Timothy. + +"A walk through Barracombe woods means simply a climb, Mary," said +Lady Belstone; "and you are not strong." + +"I am perfectly robust, Isabella. Do allow me at least the use of my +limbs," said Lady Mary, impatiently. + +"No woman, certainly no _lady_, can be called _robust_," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +The sudden clanging of a bell changed the conversation. + +"Visitors. How tiresome!" said Lady Mary. + +"My dear Mary!" said Sir Timothy. + +"But I know it can't be anybody pleasant, Timothy," said his wife, +with rather a mischievous twinkle, "for I owe calls to all the nice +people, and it's only the dull ones who come over and over again." + +"You _owe_ calls, Mary!" said Lady Belstone, in horrified tones. + +"I am afraid," said Miss Crewys, considerately lowering her voice as +the butler and footman crossed the hall to the outer vestibule, "that +dear Mary is more than a little remiss in civility to her neighbours." + +"My dear admiral never permitted me to postpone returning a call for +more than a week. Royalty, he always said, the same day; ordinary +people within a week," said Lady Belstone. + +"When royalty calls I certainly will return the visit the same day," +said Lady Mary, petulantly. "But I cannot spend my whole life driving +along the high-roads from one house to another. I hate driving, as you +know, Isabella." + +"What did Providence create carriages for but to be driven in?" said +Lady Belstone. + +"You will give John a wrong impression of our worthy neighbours, +Mary," said Sir Timothy, pompously. "Personally, I am always glad to +see them." + +"But you don't have to return their calls, Timothy," said Lady Mary. + +The canon inadvertently laughed. Sir Timothy looked annoyed. Miss +Crewys whispered to Lady Belstone, unheard save by the doctor-- + +"How very odd and flippant poor Mary is to-night--worse than usual! +What can it be?" + +"It is just the presence of a strange gentleman that is upsetting her, +poor thing," said her sister, in the same whisper. "Her head is easily +turned. We had better take no notice." + +The doctor muttered something emphatic beneath his breath. + +"Mrs. and Miss Hewel," said Ash, advancing into the hall. + +"Is it only you and Sarah, after all? What a relief! I thought it was +visitors," cried Lady Mary, coming forward to greet them very kindly +and warmly. "Did you come across in the ferry?" + +"No, indeed. You know how I dislike the ferry. I have the long drive +home still before me. But we were so close to Barracombe, at the +Gilberts' tea-party. I thought we should be certain to meet you +there," said Mrs. Hewel, in rather reproachful tones. "Sarah, of +course, wanted to go back in the ferry, but I am always doubly +frightened at night--and in one's best clothes. It was quite a large +party." + +"I'm afraid I forgot all about it," said Lady Mary, with a +conscience-stricken glance at her husband. + +"I hope you sent the carriage round to the stables?" said Sir Timothy. + +"No, no; we mustn't stop a minute. But I couldn't help just popping +in--so very long since I've seen you--and all this happening at once," +said Mrs. Hewel. She was a large, stout woman, with breathless manner +and plaintive voice. "And I wanted to show you Sarah in her first +grown-up clothes, and tell you about _her_ too," she added. + +"Bless me!" said Sir Timothy. "You don't mean to say little Sarah is +grown up." + +"Oh yes, dear Sir Timothy; she grew up the day before yesterday," said +Mrs. Hewel. + +"Sharp work," said the doctor, grimly. + +"I mean, of course, she turned up her hair, and let her dresses down. +It's full early, I know, but it's such a chance for Sarah--that's +partly what I came about. After the trouble she's been all her life to +me, and all--just going to that excellent school in Germany--here's my +aunt wanting to adopt her, or as good as adopt her--Lady Tintern, you +know." + +Everybody who knew Mrs. Hewel knew also that Lady Tintern was her +aunt; and Lady Tintern was a very great lady indeed. + +"She is to come out this very season; that is why I took her to the +Gilberts', to prepare her for the great plunge," said Mrs. Hewel, not +intending to be funny. "It will be a change for Sarah, such a hoyden +as she has always been. But my aunt won't wait once she has got a +fancy into her head; though the child is only seventeen." + +"At seventeen _I_ was still in the nursery, playing with my dolls," +said Lady Belstone. + +"Oh, Lady Belstone!" said an odd, deep, protesting voice. + +John looked with amused interest at the speaker. The unlucky Sarah had +taken a low chair beside her hostess, and was holding one of the soft +white hands in her plump gloved fingers. + +Sarah Hewel's adoration for Lady Mary dated from the days when she had +been ferried over the Youle with her nurse, to play with Peter, in his +chubby childhood. Peter had often been cross and always tyrannical, +but it was so wonderful to find a playmate who was naughtier than +herself, that Sarah had secretly admired Peter. She was the black +sheep of her own family, and in continual disgrace for lesser crimes +than he daily committed with impunity. But her admiration of Peter was +tame and pale beside her admiration of Lady Mary. A mother who never +scolded, who told no tales, who petted black sheep when they were +bruised and torn or stained entirely through their own wickedness, who +could always be depended on for kisses and bonbons and fairy-tales, +seemed more angelic than human to poor little Sarah; whose own mother +was wrapt up in her two irreproachable sons, and had small affection +to spare for an ugly, tiresome little girl. + +Sarah, however, had slowly but surely struggled out of the ugliness +of her childhood; and John Crewys, regarding her critically in the +lamplight, decided she would develop, one of these days, into a very +handsome young woman; in spite of an ungainly stoop, a wide mouth that +pouted rather too much, and a nose that inclined saucily upwards. + +Her colouring was fresh, even brilliant--the bright rose, and creamy +tint that sometimes accompanies vivid red hair--and of a vivid, +uncompromising red were the locks that crowned Miss Sarah's little +head, and shaded her blue-veined temples. + +Miss Crewys had, in consequence, long ago pronounced her to be a +positive fright; and Lady Belstone had declared that such hair would +prove an insuperable obstacle to her chances of getting a husband. + +"I know she's very young," said Mrs. Hewel, glancing apologetically +at her offspring. "But what can I do? There's no going against Lady +Tintern; and at seventeen she ought to be something more than a +tomboy, after all." + +"_You_ were married at seventeen, weren't you?" said Sarah to Lady +Mary, in her deep, almost tragic voice--a voice that commanded +attention, though it came oddly from her girlish chest. + +"Sarah!" said Mrs. Hewel. + +Lady Mary started and smiled. "Me? Yes, Sarah; I was married at +seventeen." + +"Mamma says nobody can be married properly--before they're one and +twenty. I _knew_ it was rot," said Sarah, triumphantly. + +"Miss Sarah retains the outspokenness of her recently discarded +childhood, I perceive," said Sir Timothy, stiffly. + +"Sarah!" said her mother, indignantly, "I said not unless they had +their parents' consent. I was not thinking of Lady Mary, as you know +very well." + +"_Your_ people didn't say you were too young to marry at seventeen, +did they?" said Sarah, caressing Lady Mary's hand. + +Lady Mary smiled at her, but shook her head. "You want to know too +much, Sarah." + +"Oh, I forgot," said Sarah the artless. "Sir Timothy was your +guardian, so, of course, there was nobody to stop his marrying you if +he liked. I suppose you _had_ to do what he told you." + +"Oh, Sarah, will you cease chattering?" cried her mother. + +"I hope you have good news of your sons in South Africa, Mrs. Hewel," +said the canon, briskly advancing to the rescue. + +Mrs. Hewel's voice changed. "Thank you, canon; they were all right +when we heard last. Tom is in Natal, so I feel happier about him; +but Willie, of course, is in the thick of it all--and the news +to-day--isn't reassuring." + +"But you are proud of them both," said Lady Mary, softly. "Every +mother must be proud to have sons able and willing to fight for their +country." + +"We may feel differently concerning the justice of this war," said Sir +Timothy, clearing his throat; and Lady Mary shrugged her shoulders, +whilst the canon jumped from his chair, and sat meekly down again on +catching the doctor's eye. + +"But in our sympathy with our brave soldiers we are all one, Mrs. +Hewel." + +Sarah sprang forward. "You don't mean to say you're _still_ a +pro-Boer, Sir Timothy?" she exclaimed. "Well, mamma--talking of the +justice of the war--when Tom and Willie are risking their lives"--she +broke into a sudden sob--"and now _Peter_--" + +"Peter!" said Lady Mary. + +"Oh, I'm sorry," said Sarah, running to her friend. "I didn't mean to +hurt _you_--talking of the war--and--and the boys--when you must be +thinking only of Peter." She wrung her hands together piteously. + +"Of Peter!" Lady Mary repeated. + +"We only heard to-day," said Mrs. Hewel, "and came in hoping for more +details. My cousin George, who is also going out with Lord Ferries, +happened to mention in his letter that Peter had joined the corps." + +"I think I can explain how the mistake arose," said Sir Timothy, +stiffly. "Peter wrote for permission to join, and I refused. My son +is fortunately too young to be of any use in a contest I regard with +horror." + +"But Cousin George was helping Peter to get his kit, because they were +to sail at such short notice," cried Sarah. + +"Sarah," said her mother, in breathless indignation, "_will_ you be +silent?" + +"What does this mean, Timothy?" said Lady Mary, trembling. + +She stood by the centre table; and the hanging lamp above shed its +light on her brown hair, and flashed in her blue eyes, and from the +diamond ring she wore. + +The doctor rose from his chair. + +"I am at a loss to understand," said Sir Timothy. + +"It means," said Sarah, half-hysterically,--"oh, can't you see what it +means? It just means that Peter is going to South Africa, whether you +like it or not." + +"There must be some mistake, of course," said Mrs. Hewel, in +distressed tones. "And yet--George's letter was so very clear." + +Dr. Blundell touched the canon's arm. + +"Shall I--must I--" whispered the canon, nervously. + +"There is no help for it," said the doctor. He was looking at Lady +Mary as he spoke. Her face was deathly; her little frail hand grasped +the table. + +"Sir Timothy," said the canon, "I--I have a communication to make to +you." + +"On this subject?" said Sir Timothy. + +"A letter from Peter." + +"Why did you not say so earlier?" said Sir Timothy, harshly. + +"I will explain, if you will kindly give me five minutes in the +study." + +"A letter from Peter," said Lady Mary, "and not--to me." + +She looked round at them all with a little vacant smile. + +John Crewys, who knew nothing of Peter's letter, had already grasped +the situation. He divined also that Lady Mary was fighting piteously +against the conviction that Sarah's news was true. + +"How could we guess you did not know?" said Mrs. Hewel, almost +weeping. + +"I am still in the dark," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +"Birch will explain at once," said the doctor, impatiently. + +"Peter writes--asking me,--I am sure I don't know why he pitched upon +me,--to--break the news to you, that he has joined Lord Ferries' +Horse; feeling it his--his duty to his country to do so," said the +unhappy canon, folding and unfolding the letter he held, with agitated +fingers. + +"I knew there would be a satisfactory explanation," said Mrs. Hewel, +tearfully. "Dear Lady Mary, having so inadvertently anticipated +Peter's letter, there is only one thing left for me to do. I must at +least leave you and Sir Timothy in peace to read it. Come, Sarah." + +"Allow me to put you into your carriage," said Sir Timothy, in a voice +of iron. + +Sarah followed them to the door, paused irresolutely, and stole back +to Lady Mary's side. + +"Say you're not angry with me, dear, beautiful Lady Mary," she +whispered passionately. "Do say you're not angry. I didn't know it +would make you so unhappy. It was partly my fault for telling Peter +in the holidays that only old men, invalids, and--and cowards--were +shirking South Africa. I thought you'd be glad, like me, that Peter +should go and fight like all the other boys." + +"Sarah," said Dr. Blundell, gently, "don't you see that Lady Mary +can't attend to you now? Come away, like a good girl." + +He took her arm, and led her out of the hall; and Sarah forgot she had +grown up the day before yesterday, and sobbed loudly as she went away. + +Lady Mary lifted the miniature from the table, and looked at it +without a word; but from the sofa, the two old sisters babbled audibly +to each other. + +"I always said, Isabella, that if poor Mary spoilt Peter so terribly, +_something_ would happen to him." + +"What sad nonsense you talk, Georgina. Nothing has happened to +him--_yet_." + +"He has defied his father, Isabella." + +"He has obeyed his country's call, Georgina. Had the admiral been +alive, he would certainly have volunteered." + +John Crewys made an involuntary step forward and placed himself +between the sofa and the table, as though to shield Lady Mary from +their observation, but he could not prevent their words from reaching +her ears. + +She whispered to him very softly. "Will you get the letter for me? I +want to see--for myself--what--what Peter says." + +"Go quietly into the library," said John, bending over her for a +moment. "I will bring it you there immediately." + +She obeyed him without a word. + +John turned to the sofa. "I beg your pardon, canon," he said +courteously, "but Lady Mary cannot bear this suspense. Allow me to +take her son's letter to her at once." + +"I--I am only waiting for Sir Timothy. It is to him I have to break +the news; though, of course, there is nothing that Lady Mary may not +know," said the canon, in a polite but flurried tone. "I really should +not like--" + +"My brother must see it first," said Miss Crewys, decidedly. + +"Exactly. I am sure Sir Timothy would not be pleased if--Bless my +soul!" + +For John, with a slight bow of apology, and his grave air of +authority, had quietly taken the letter from the canon's undecided +fingers, and walked away with it into the library. + +"How very oddly our cousin John behaves!" said Lady Belstone, +indignantly. "Almost snatching the letter from your hand." + +"Depend upon it, Mary inspired his action," said Miss Crewys, angrily. +"I saw her whispering away to him. A man she never set eyes on +before." + +"Pray are _we_ not to hear the contents?" said Lady Belstone, +quivering with indignation. + +"I suppose he thinks Lady Mary should make the communication herself +to Sir Timothy," gasped the canon. "I am sure I have no desire to +fulfil so unpleasing a task. Still, the matter _was_ entrusted to me. +However, the main substance has been told; there can be no further +secret about it. My only care was that Sir Timothy should not be +unduly agitated." + +"It is a comfort to find that _some one_ can consider the feelings of +our poor brother," said Miss Crewys. + +"Do give me your arm to the drawing-room, canon," said Lady Belstone, +rightly judging that the canon would reveal the whole contents of +Peter's letter to her more easily in private. "The shock has made me +feel quite faint. You, too, Georgina, are looking pale." + +"It is not the shock, but the draught, which is affecting me, +Isabella,--Sir Timothy thoughtlessly keeping the door open so long. I +will accompany you to the drawing-room." + +"But Sir Timothy may want me," said the canon, uneasily. + +"Bless the man! they've got the letter itself, what can they want with +_you?_" said her ladyship, vigorously propelling her supporter out of +reach of possible interruption. "Close the door behind us, Georgina, I +beg, or that odious doctor will be racing after us." + +"He takes far too much upon himself. I have no idea of permitting +country apothecaries to be so familiar," said Miss Crewys. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Lady Mary, coming from the library with the letter in her hand, met +her husband in the hall. + +"Timothy!" + +She looked at him wistfully. Her face was very pale as she gave him +the letter. Sir Timothy took out his glasses, wiped them deliberately, +and put them on. + +"Never mind reading it. I can tell you in one word," she said, +trembling with impatience. "My boy is sailing for South Africa +to-morrow morning." + +"I prefer," said Sir Timothy, "to read the letter for myself." + +"Oh, do be quick!" she said, half under her breath. + +But he read it slowly twice, and folded it. He was really +thunderstruck. Peter was accustomed to write polite platitudes to his +parent, and had presumably not intended that his letter to the canon +should be actually read by Sir Timothy, when he had asked that the +contents of it should be broken to him. + +"Selfish, disobedient, headstrong, deceitful boy!" said Sir Timothy. + +Lady Mary started. "How can you talk so!" Her gentle voice sounded +almost fierce. "At least he has proved himself a man.' And he is +right. It was a shame and a disgrace for him to stay at home, whilst +his comrades did their duty. I say it a thousand times, though I am +his mother." + +Then she broke down. "Oh, Peter, my boy, my boy, how could you leave +me without a word!" + +"Perhaps this step was taken with your connivance after all?" said Sir +Timothy, suspiciously. He could not follow her rapid changes of mood, +and had listened resentfully to her defence of her son. + +"Timothy!" said Lady Mary, trembling, "when have I ever been disloyal +to you in word or deed?" + +"Never, I hope," said Sir Timothy. His voice shook a little. "I do +not doubt you for a moment, Mary. But you spoke with such strange +vehemence, so unlike your usual propriety of manner." + +She broke into a wild laugh which pained and astonished him. + +"Did I? I must have forgotten myself for a moment." + +"You must, indeed. Pray be calm. I understand that this must be a +terrible shock to you." + +"It is not a shock," said Lady Mary, defiantly. "I glory in it. I--I +_wish_ him to go. Oh, Peter, my darling!" + +She hid her face in her hands. + +"It would be more to the purpose," said Sir Timothy, "to consider what +is to be done." + +"Could we stop him?" she cried eagerly, and then changed once more. +"No, no; I wouldn't if I could. He would never forgive me." + +"Of course, we cannot stop him," said Sir Timothy. He raised his voice +as he was wont when he was angry. Canon Birch, in the drawing-room, +heard the loud threatening tones, and was thankful for the door which +shut him from Sir Timothy's presence. "He has laid his plans for +thwarting my known wishes too well. I do not know what might be said +if we stopped him. I--I won't have my name made a laughing-stock. I am +a Crewys, and the honour of the family lies in my hands. I can't give +the world a right to suspect a Crewys of cowardice, by preventing +his departure on active service. We have fought before--in a better +cause." + +"We won't discuss the cause," said Lady Mary, gently. When Sir Timothy +began to shout, she always grew calm. "Then you will not telegraph to +my cousin Ferries?" + +"Ferries ought to have written to _me_, and not taken the word of a +mere boy, like Peter," stormed Sir Timothy. "But the fact is, I never +flattered Ferries as he expected; it is not my way to natter any one; +and consequently he took a dislike to me. He must have known what my +views are. I am sure he did it on purpose." + +"It was natural he should believe Peter, and I don't think he knows +you well enough to dislike you," said Lady Mary, simply. "He has only +seen you twice, Timothy." + +"That was evidently sufficient," said Sir Timothy, meaning to be +ironical, and unaware that he was stating a plain fact. "I shall +certainly not telegraph to tell him that my son has lied to him, well +as Peter deserves that I should do so." + +"Oh, don't, don't; you are so hard!" she said piteously. "If you'd +only listened to him when he implored you to let him go, we could have +made his last days at home all they should be. He's been hiding in +London, poor Peter; getting his outfit by stealth, ashamed, whilst +other boys are being _feted_ and praised by their people, proud of +earning so early their right to be considered men. And--and he's +only a boy. And he said himself, all's fair in love and war. Indeed, +Timothy, it is an exceptional case." + +"Mary, your weakness is painful, and your idolatry of Peter will bring +its own punishment. The part of his deception that should pain you +most is the want of heart he has displayed," said Sir Timothy, +bitterly. + +"And doesn't it?" she said, with a pathetic smile. "But one oughtn't +to expect too much heart from a boy, ought one? It's--it's not a +healthy sign. You said once you were glad he wasn't sentimental, like +me." + +"I should have wished him to exhibit proper feeling on proper +occasions. His present triumph over my authority involves his +departure to certain danger and possible death, without even affording +us the opportunity of bidding him farewell. He is ready and willing to +leave us thus." + +Lady Mary uttered a stifled scream. "But I won't let him. How can you +think his mother will let him go like that?" + +"How can you help it?" + +She pressed her trembling hands to her forehead. "I will think. There +is a way. There are plenty of ways. I can drive to the junction--it's +not much further than Brawnton--and catch the midnight express, and +get to Southampton by daybreak. I know it can be done. Ash will look +out the trains. Why do you look at me like that? You're not going to +stop my going, are you? You're not going to _try_ and stop me, are +you? For you won't succeed. Oh yes, I know I've been an obedient wife, +Timothy. But I--I defied you once before for Peter's sake; when he was +such a little boy, and you wanted to punish him--don't you remember?" + +"Don't talk so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, almost soothingly. Her +vehemence really alarmed and distressed him. "It is not like you to +talk like this. You will be sorry--afterwards," he said; and his voice +softened. + +She responded instantly. She came closer to him, and took his big +shaking hand into her gentle clasp. + +"I should be sorry afterwards," she said, "and so would you. Even +_you_ would be sorry, Timothy, if anything happened to Peter. I'll try +and not make any more excuses for him, if you like. I know he's not +a child now. He's almost a man; and men seem to me to grow harsh and +unloving as they grow older. I try, now and then, to shut my eyes and +see him as he once was; but all the time I know that the little boy +who used to be Peter has gone away for ever and ever and ever. If he +had died when he was little he would always have been my little boy, +wouldn't he? But, thank God, he didn't die. He's going to be a great +strong man, and a brave soldier, and--and all I've ever wanted him to +be--when he's got over these wilful days of boyhood. But he mustn't go +without his father's blessing and his mother's kiss." + +"He has chosen to do so, Mary," said Sir Timothy, coldly. + +She clung to him caressingly. "But you're going to forgive him before +he goes, Timothy. There's no time to be angry before he goes. It may +be too late to-morrow." + +"It may be too late to-morrow," repeated Sir Timothy, heavily. + +He resented, in a dull, self-pitying fashion, the fact that his wife's +thoughts were so exclusively fixed on Peter, in her ignorance of his +own more immediate danger. + +"Don't think I'm blind to his faults," urged Lady Mary, "only I can +laugh at them better than you can, because I _know_ all the while that +at the very bottom of his heart he's only my baby Peter after all. +He's not--God bless him--he's _not_ the dreary, cold-blooded, priggish +boy he sometimes pretends to be. Don't remember him like that now, +Timothy. Think of that morning in June--that glorious, sunny morning +in June, when you knelt by the open window in my room and thanked God +because you had a son. Think of that other summer day when we couldn't +bear even to look at the roses because little Peter was so ill, and we +were afraid he was going back to heaven." + +Her soft, rapid words touched Sir Timothy to a vague feeling of pity +for her, and for Peter, and for himself. But the voice of the charmer, +charm she never so wisely, had no power, after all, to dispel the dark +cloud that was hanging over him. + +The sorrow gave way to a keener anxiety. The calmness of mind which +the great surgeon had prescribed--the placid courage, largely aided by +dulness of imagination, which had enabled poor Sir Timothy to keep +in the very background of his thoughts all apprehensions for the +morrow--where were they? + +He repressed with an effort the emotion which threatened to master +him, and forced himself to be calm. When he spoke again his voice +sounded not much less measured and pompous than usual. + +"My dear, you are agitating yourself and me. Let us confine ourselves +to the subject in hand." + +Lady Mary dropped the unresponsive hand she held so warmly pressed +between her own, and stepped back. + +"Ah, forgive me!" she said in clear tones. "It's so difficult to--" + +"To--?" + +"To be exactly what you wish. To be always on guard. My feelings broke +bounds for once." + +"Calm yourself," said Sir Timothy. "And besides, so far as I am +concerned, your pleading for Peter is unnecessary." + +"You have forgiven him?" she cried joyfully, yet almost incredulously. + +He paused, and then said with solemnity: "I have forgiven him, Mary. +It is not the moment for me to cherish resentment, least of all +against my only son." + +"Ah, thank God! Then you will come to Southampton?" + +"That is impossible. But I will telegraph my forgiveness and the +blessing which he has not sought that he may receive it before the +ship sails." + +"I am grateful to you for doing even so much as that, Timothy, and for +not being angry. Then I must go alone?" + +"No, no." + +"Understand me," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "for I am in earnest. +I have never deceived you. I will not defy you in secret, like Peter; +but I _will_ go and bid my only son God-speed, though the whole world +conspired to prevent me. _I will go!_" + +There was a pause. + +"You speak," said Sir Timothy, resentfully, "as though I had +habitually thwarted your wishes." + +"Oh, no," said his wife, softly, "you never even found out what they +were." + +He did not notice the words; it is doubtful whether he heard them. + +"It has been my best endeavour to promote your happiness throughout +our married life, Mary, so far as I considered it compatible with your +highest welfare. I do not pretend I can enter into the high-flown +and romantic feelings engendered by your reprehensible habit of +novel-reading." + +"You've scolded me so often for that," said Lady Mary, half mockingly, +half sadly. "Can't we--keep to the subject in hand, as you said just +now?" + +"I have a reason, a strong reason," said Sir Timothy, "for wishing you +to remain at home to-morrow. I had hoped, by concealing it from you, +to spare you some of the painful suspense and anxiety which I am +myself experiencing." + +Lady Mary laughed. + +"How like a man to suppose a woman is spared anything by being kept in +the dark! I knew something was wrong. Dr. Blundell and Canon Birch are +in your confidence, I presume? They kept exchanging glances like two +mysterious owls. Your sisters are not, or they would be sighing and +shaking their heads. And John--John Crewys? Oh, he is a lawyer. When +does a visitor ever come here except on business? He has something to +do with it. Ah, to advise you for nothing over your purchase of the +Crown lands! You have got into some difficulty over that, or something +of the kind? You brought him down here for some special purpose, I am +sure; but I did not know him well enough, and I knew you too well, to +ask why." + +"Mary, what has come to you? I never knew you quite like this before. +I dislike this extraordinary flippancy of tone very much." + +"I beg your pardon," said Lady Mary; make allowance for me this once. +I learnt ten minutes ago that my boy was going to the war. I must +either laugh or--or cry, and you wouldn't like me to do that; but it's +a way women have when their hearts are half broken." + +"I don't understand you," he said helplessly. + +Lady Mary looked at him as though she had awakened, frightened, to the +consciousness of her own temerity. + +"I don't quite understand myself, I think," she said, in a subdued +voice. "I won't torment you any more, Timothy; I will be as calm and +collected--as you wish. Only let me go." + +"Will you not listen to my reason for wishing you to remain at home?" +he said sternly. "It is an important one." + +"I had forgotten," she said indifferently. "How can there be any +business in the world half so important to _me_ as seeing my boy once +more before he sails?" + +The colour of Sir Timothy's ruddy face deepened almost to purple, his +grey eyes glowered sullen resentment at his wife. + +"Since you desire to have your way in opposition to my wishes, _go!_" +he thundered. "I will not hinder you further." + +But his sonorous wrath was too familiar to be impressive. + +Lady Mary's expression scarcely changed when Sir Timothy raised his +voice. She turned, however, at the foot of the staircase, and spoke to +him again. + +"Let me just go and give the order for my things to be packed, +Timothy, and tell Ash to go and find out about the trains, and I will +return and listen to whatever you wish--I will, indeed. I could not +pay proper attention to anything until I knew that was being done." + +Sir Timothy did not trust himself to speak. He bowed his head, and the +slender figure passed swiftly up the stairs. + +Sir Timothy walked twice deliberately up and down the empty hall, and +felt his pulse. The slow, steady throb reassured him. He opened the +door of the study. + +"John," said Sir Timothy, "would you kindly come out here and speak to +me for a moment? Dr. Blundell, would you have the goodness to await me +a little longer? You will find the London papers there." + +"I have them," said Dr. Blundell, from the armchair by the study fire. + +John Crewys closed the door behind him, and looked rather anxiously at +his cousin. It struck him that Sir Timothy had lost some of his ruddy +colour, and that his face looked drawn and old. + +But the squire placed himself with his back to the log fire, and made +an effort to speak in his voice of everyday. His slightly pompous, +patronizing manner returned upon him. + +"You are doubtless accustomed, John, in the course of your +professional work," he said, "to advise in difficult matters. You +come among us a stranger--and unprejudiced. Will you--er--give me the +benefit of your opinion?" + +"To the best of my ability," said John. He paused, and added gently, +"I am sorry for this fresh trouble that has come upon you." + +"That is the subject on which I mean to consult you. Do you consider +that--that her husband or her child should stand first in a woman's +eyes?" + +"Her husband, undoubtedly," said John, readily, "but--" + +"But what?" said Sir Timothy, impatiently. A gleam of satisfaction had +broken over his heavy face at his cousin's reply. + +"I speak from a man's point of view," said John. "Woman--and possibly +Nature--may speak differently." + +"Your judgment, however, coincides with mine, which is all that +matters," said Sir Timothy. He did not perceive the twinkle in John's +eyes at this reply. "In my opinion there are only two ways of looking +at every question--the right way and the wrong way." + +"My profession teaches me," said John, "that there are as many +different points of view as there are parties to a case." + +"Then--from _my_ point of view," said Sir Timothy, with an air of +waving all other points of view away as irrelevant, "since my wife, +very naturally, desires to see her son again before he sails, am I +justified in allowing her to set off in ignorance of the ordeal that +awaits me?" + +"Good heavens, no!" cried John. "Should the operation prove +unsuccessful, you would be entailing upon her a lifelong remorse." + +"I did not look upon it in that light," said Sir Timothy, rather +stiffly. "The propriety or the impropriety of her going remains in +any, case the same, whether the operation succeeds or fails. I feared +that it would be the wrong thing to allow her to go at all; that it +might cause comment were she absent from my side at such a critical +juncture." + +"I see," said John. His mobile, expressive face and bright hazel eyes +seemed to light up for one instant with scorn and wonder; then he +recollected himself. "It is natural you should wish for her sustaining +presence, no doubt," he said. + +"I trust you do not suppose that I should be selfishly considering my +own personal feelings at such a time," said Sir Timothy, in a lofty +tone of reproof. "I am only desirous of doing what is right in the +matter. I am asking your advice because I feel that my self-command +has been shaken considerably by this unexpected blow. I am less sure +of my judgment than usual in consequence. However, if you think my +wife ought to be told"--John nodded very decidedly--"let her be told. +I am bound to say Dr. Blundell thought so too, though his opinion is +neither here nor there in such a matter, but so long as you understand +that my only desire is that both she and I should do what is most +correct and proper." He came closer to John. "It is of vital +importance for me to preserve my composure," said Sir Timothy. "I am +not fitted for--for any kind of scene just now. Will you undertake for +me the task of explaining to--to my dear wife the situation in which I +am placed?" + +"I will do my best," said John. He was touched by the note of piteous +anxiety which had crept into the squire's harsh voice. + +"Thank you," said Sir Timothy. "Will you await her here? She is +returning immediately. Break it to her as gently as you can. I shall +rest and compose myself by a talk with Dr. Blundell." + +He went slowly to the study, leaving John Crewys alone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +"Is that you, Cousin John?" said Lady Mary. "Is Sir Timothy gone? I +have not been away more than a few minutes, have I?" + +She spoke quite brightly. Her cheeks were flushed, and her blue eyes +were sparkling with excitement. + +John looked at her, and found himself wishing that her soft, brown +hair were not strained so tightly from her forehead, nor brushed so +closely to her head; the fashion would have been trying to a younger +face, and fatal to features less regularly delicate and correct. He +also wished she were not dressed like a Quaker's wife. The stiff, grey +poplin fitted like a glove the pretty curves of Lady Mary's slender +figure, but it lacked distinction, and appropriateness, to John's +fastidious eye. Then he reproached himself vehemently for allowing his +thoughts to dwell on such trifles at such a moment. + +"Will you forgive me for going away the very day you come?" said Lady +Mary. + +How quickly, how surprisingly, she recovered her spirits! She had +looked so weary and sad as she came down the stairs an hour ago. Now +she was almost gay. A feverish and unnatural gaiety, no doubt; but +those flushed cheeks, and glittering blue eyes--how they restored the +youthful loveliness of the face he had once thought the most beautiful +he ever saw! + +"I am going to see the last of my boy. You'll understand, won't you? +You were an only son too. And your mother would have gone to the ends +of the earth to look upon your face once more, wouldn't she? Mothers +are made like that." + +"Some mothers," said John; and he turned away his head. + +"Not yours? I'm sorry," said Lady Mary, simply. + +"Oh, well--you know, she was a good deal--in the world," he said, +repenting himself. + +"I use to wish so much to live in the world too," said Lady +Mary, dreamily; "but ever since I was fifteen I've lived in this +out-of-the-way place." + +"Don't be too sorry for that," said John; "you don't know what a +revelation this out-of-the-way place may be to a tired worker like me, +who lives always amid the unlovely sights and sounds of a city." + +"Ah! but that's just it," she said quickly. "You see I'm not +tired--yet; and I've done no work." + +"That is why it's such a rest to look at you," said John, smiling. +"Flowers have their place in creation as vegetables have theirs. But +we only ask the flowers to bloom peacefully in sheltered gardens; +we don't insist on popping them into the soup with the onions and +carrots." + +Lady Mary laughed as though she had not a care in the world. + +"It is quite refreshing to find that a big-wig like you can talk just +as much nonsense as a little-wig like me," she said; "but you don't +know, for all that, what the silence and monotony of life here _can_ +be. The very voice of a stranger falls like music on one's ears. I was +so glad to see you, and you were so kind and sympathetic about--my +boy. And then, all in a moment, my joy was turned into mourning, +wasn't it? And Peter is going to the war, and it's all like a dreadful +dream; except that I know I shall wake up every morning only to +realize more strongly that it's true." + +John remembered that he was dallying with his mission, instead of +fulfilling it. + +"Sir Timothy cannot go to see his son off? That must be a grief to +him," he said. + +"No; he isn't coming. He has business, I believe," said Lady Mary, a +little coldly. "There has been a dispute over some Crown lands, which +march with ours. Officials are often very dilatory and difficult to +deal with. Probably, however, you know more about it than I do. I am +going alone. I have just been giving the necessary orders. I shall +take a servant with me, as well as my maid, for I am such an +inexperienced traveller--though it seems absurd, at my age--that I am +quite frightened of getting into the wrong trains. I dread a journey +by myself. Even such a little journey as that. But, of course, nothing +would keep me at home." + +"Only one thing," said John, in a low voice, "if I have judged your +character rightly in so short a time." + +"What is that?" + +"Duty." + +She looked at him with sweet, puzzled eyes, like a child. + +"Are you pleading Sir Timothy's cause, Cousin John?" she said, with a +little touch of offence in her tone that was only charming. + +"I am pleading Sir Timothy's cause," said John, seriously. + +"Love is stronger than duty, isn't it?" said Lady Mary. + +"I hope not," said John, very simply. + +"You mean my husband doesn't wish me to go?" + +"Don't think me too presuming," he said pleadingly. + +"I couldn't," said Lady Mary, naively. "You are older than I am, you +know," she laughed, "and a Q.C. And you know you would be my trustee +and my boy's guardian if anything ever happened to Sir Timothy. He +told me so long ago. And he reminded me of it to-day most solemnly. I +suppose he was afraid I shouldn't treat you with proper respect." + +"He has honoured me very highly," said John. "In that case, it would +be almost my--my duty to advise you in any difficulty that might +arise, wouldn't it?" + +"That means you want to advise me now?" + +"Frankly, it does." + +"And are _you_ going to tell me that I ought to stay at home, and let +my only boy leave England without bidding him God-speed?" said Lady +Mary incredulously. "If so, I warn you that you will never convince me +of that, argue as you may." + +"No one is ever convinced by argument," said John. "But stern facts +sometimes command even a woman's attention." + +"When backed by such powers of persuasion as yours, perhaps." + +She faced him with sparkling eyes. Lady Mary was timid and gentle by +nature, but Peter's mother knew no fear. Yet she realized that if +John Crewys were moved to put forth his full powers, he might be a +difficult man to oppose. She met his glance, and observed that he +perfectly understood the spirit which animated her, and that it was +not opposition that shone from his bright hazel eyes, as he regarded +her steadily through his pince-nez. + +"I am going to deal with a hard fact, which your husband is afraid to +tell you," said John, "because, in his tenderness for your womanly +weakness, he underrates, as I venture to think, your womanly courage. +Sir Timothy wants you to be with him here to-morrow because he has +to--to fight an unequal battle--" + +"With the Crown?" + +"With Death." + +"What do you mean?" said Lady Mary. + +"He has been silently combating a mortal disease for many months +past," said John, "and to-morrow morning the issue is to be decided. +Every day, every hour of delay, increases the danger. The great +surgeon, Dr. Herslett, will be here at eleven o'clock, and on the +success of the operation he will perform, hangs the thread of your +husband's life." + +Lady Mary put up a little trembling hand entreatingly, and John's +great heart throbbed with pity. He had chosen his words deliberately +to startle her from her absorption in her son; but she looked so +fragile, so white, so imploring, that his courage almost failed him. +He came to her side, and took the little hand reassuringly in his +strong, warm clasp. + +"Be brave, my dear," he said, with faltering voice, "and put aside, +if you can, the thought of your bitter, terrible disappointment. Only +_you_ can cheer, and inspire, and aid your husband to maintain the +calmness of spirit which is of such vital importance to his chance of +recovery. You can't leave him against his wish at such a moment; +not if you are the--the angel I believe you to be," said John, with +emotion. + +There was a pause, and though he looked away from her, he knew that +she was crying. + +John released the little hand gently, and walked to the fireplace to +give her time to recover herself. Perhaps his eye-glasses were dimmed; +he polished them very carefully. + +Lady Mary dashed away her tears, and spoke in a hard voice he scarcely +recognized as hers. + +"I might be all--you think me, John," she said, "if--" + +"Ah! don't let there be an _if_," said John. + +"But--" + +"Or a _but_." + +"It is that you don't understand the situation," she said; "you +talk as though Sir Timothy and I were an ordinary husband and wife, +entirely dependent on one another's love and sympathy. Don't you know +_he_ stands alone--above all the human follies and weaknesses of a +mere woman? Can't you guess," said Lady Mary, passionately, "that it's +my boy, my poor faulty, undutiful boy--oh, that I should call him +so!--who needs me? that it's his voice that would be calling in my +heart whilst I awaited Sir Timothy's pleasure to-morrow?" + +"His _pleasure_?" said John, sternly. + +"I am shocking you, and I didn't want to shock you," she cried, almost +wildly. "But you don't suppose he needs _me_--me myself? He only wants +to be sure I'm doing the right thing. He wants to give people no +chance of saying that Lady Mary Crewys rushed off to see her spoilt +boy whilst her husband hovered between life and death. A lay figure +would do just as well; if it would only sit in an armchair and hold +its handkerchief to its eyes; and if the neighbours, and his sisters, +and the servants could be persuaded to think it was I." + +"Hush, hush!" said John. + +"Do let me speak out; pray let me speak out," she said, breathless and +imploring, "and you can think what you like of me afterwards, when I +am gone, if only you won't scold now. I am so sick of being scolded," +said Lady Mary. "Am I to be a child for ever--I, that am so old, and +have lost my boy?" + +He thought there was something in her of the child that never grows +up; the guilelessness, the charm, the ready tears and smiles, the +quick changes of mood. + +He rolled an elbow-chair forward, and put her into it tenderly. + +"Say what you will," said John. + +"This is comfortable," she said, leaning her head wearily on her hand; +"to talk to a--a friend who understands, and who will not scold. +But you can't understand unless I tell you everything; and Timothy +himself, after all, would be the first to explain to you that it isn't +my tears nor my kisses, nor my consolation he wants. You didn't think +so _really_, did you?" + +John hesitated, remembering Sir Timothy's words, but she did not wait +for an answer. + +"Yes," she said calmly, "he wishes me to be in my proper place. It +would be a scandal if I did such a remarkable thing as to leave +home on any pretext at such a moment. Only by being extraordinarily +respectable and dignified can we live down the memory of his father's +unconventional behaviour. I must remember my position. I must smell +my salts, and put my feet up on the sofa, and be moderately overcome +during the crisis, and moderately thankful to the Almighty when it's +over, so that every one may hear how admirably dear Lady Mary behaved. +And when I am reading the _Times_ to him during his convalescence," +she cried, wringing her hands, "Peter--Peter will be thousands of +miles away, marching over the veldt to his death." + +"You make very sure of Peter's death," said John, quietly. + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary, listlessly. "He's an only son. It's always +the only sons who die. I've remarked that." + +"You make very sure of Sir Timothy's recovery." + +"Oh yes," Lady Mary said again. "He's a very strong man." + +Something ominous in John's face and voice attracted her attention. + +"Why do you look like that?" + +"Because," said John, slowly--"you understand I'm treating you as a +woman of courage--Dr. Blundell told me just now that--the odds are +against him." + +She uttered a little cry. + +The doctor's voice at the end of the hall made them both start. + +"Lady Mary," he said, "you will forgive my interruption. Sir Timothy +desired me to join you. He feared this double blow might prove too +much for your strength." + +"I am quite strong," said Lady Mary. + +"He wished me to deliver a message," said the doctor. + +"Yes." + +"On reflection, Sir Timothy believes that he may be partly influenced +by a selfish desire for the consolation of your presence in wishing +you to remain with him to-morrow. He was struck, I believe, with +something Mr. Crewys said--on this point." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary. + +"Hush!" said John, shaking his head. + +Dr. Blundell's voice sounded, John thought, as though he were putting +force upon himself to speak calmly and steadily. His eyes were bent on +the floor, and he never once looked at Lady Mary. + +"Sir Timothy desires, consequently," he said, "that you will consider +yourself free to follow your own wishes in the matter; being guided, +as far as possible, by the advice of Mr. Crewys. He is afraid of +further agitation, and therefore asks you to convey to him, as quickly +as possible, your final decision. As his physician, may I beg you not +to keep him waiting?" + +He left them, and returned to the study. + +Though it was only a short silence that followed his departure, John +had time to learn by heart the aspect of the half-lighted, shadowy +hall. + +There are some pauses which are illustrated to the day of a man's +death, by a vivid impression on his memory of the surroundings. + +The heavy, painted beams crossing and re-crossing the lofty roof; the +black staircase lighted with wax candles, that made a brilliancy which +threw into deeper relief the darkness of every recess and corner; the +full-length, Early Victorian portraits of men and women of his own +race--inartistic daubs, that were yet horribly lifelike in the +semi-illumination; the uncurtained mullioned windows,--all formed a +background for the central figure in his thoughts; the slender womanly +form in the armchair; the little brown head supported on the white +hand; the delicate face, robbed of its youthful freshness, and yet so +lovely still. + +"John," said Lady Mary, in a voice from which all passion and strength +had died away, "tell me what I ought to do." + +"Remain with your husband." + +"And let my boy go?" said Lady Mary, weeping. "I had thought, when +he was leaving me, perhaps for ever, that--that his heart would be +touched--that I should get a glimpse once more of the Peter he used to +be. Oh, can't you understand? He--he's a little--hard and cold to me +sometimes--God forgive me for saying so!--but you--you've been a young +man too." + +"Yes," John said, rather sadly, "I've been young too." + +"It's only his age, you know," she said. "He couldn't always be as +gentle and loving as when he was a child. A young man would think that +so babyish. He wants, as he says, to be independent, and not tied to a +woman's apron-string. But in his heart of hearts he loves me best in +the whole world, and he wouldn't have been ashamed to let me see it +at such a moment. And I should have had a precious memory of him for +ever. You shake your head. Don't you understand me? I thought you +seemed to understand," she said wistfully. + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "and life is just opening for him. It is +a hard saying to _you_, but his thoughts are full of the world he +is entering. There is no room in them just now for the home he is +leaving. That is human nature. If he be sick or sorry later on--as I +know your loving fancy pictures him--his heart would turn even then, +not to the mother he saw waving and weeping on the quay, amid all the +confusion of departure, but to the mother of his childhood, of his +happy days of long ago. It may be "--John hesitated, and spoke very +tenderly--"it may be that his heart will be all the softer then, +because he was denied the parting interview he never sought. The young +are strangely wayward and impatient. They regret what might have been. +They do not, like the old, dwell fondly upon what the gods actually +granted them. It is _you_ who will suffer from this sacrifice, not +Peter; that will be some consolation to you, I suppose, even if it be +also a disappointment." + +"Ah, how you understand!" said Peter's mother, sadly. + +"Perhaps because, as you said just now, I have been a young man too," +he said, forcing a smile. "Oh, forgive me, but let me save you; for I +believe that if you deserted your husband to-day, you would sorrow for +it to the end of your life." + +"And Peter--" she murmured. + +He came to her side, and straightened himself, and spoke hopefully. + +"Give me your last words and your last gifts--and a letter--for Peter, +and send me in your stead to-night. I will deliver them faithfully. I +will tell him--for he should be told--of the sore straits in which you +find yourself. Set him this noble example of duty, and believe me, it +will touch his heart more nearly than even that sacred parting which +you desire." + +Lady Mary held out her hand to him. + +"Tell Sir Timothy that I will stay," she whispered. + +John bent down and kissed the little hand in silence, and with +profound respect. + +Then he went to the study without looking back. + +When he was gone, Lady Mary laid her face upon the badly painted +miniature of Peter, and cried as one who had lost all hope in life. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +"Her didn't make much account on him while him were alive; but now 'ce +be dead, 'tis butivul tu zee how her du take on," said Happy Jack. + +There was a soft mist of heat; the long-delayed spring coming +suddenly, after storms of cold rain and gales of wind had swept the +Youle valley. Two days' powerful sunshine had excited the buds to +breaking, and drawn up the tender blades of young grass from the +soaked earth. + +The flowering laurels hung over the shady banks, whereon large +families of primroses spent their brief and lovely existence +undisturbed. The hawthorn put forth delicate green leaves, and the +white buds of the cherry-trees in the orchard were swelling on their +leafless boughs. + +In such summer warmth, and with the concert of building birds above +and around, it was strange to see the dead and wintry aspect of the +forest trees; still bare and brown, though thickening with the red +promise of foliage against the April sky. + +John Crewys, climbing the lane next the waterfall, had been hailed by +the roadside by the toothless, smiling old rustic. + +"I be downright glad to zee 'ee come back, zur; ay, that 'a be. What +vur du 'ee go gadding London ways, zays I, when there be zuch a turble +lot to zee arter? and the ladyship oop Barracombe ways, her bain't vit +var tu du 't, as arl on us du know. Tis butivul tu zee how her takes +on," he repeated admiringly. + +John glanced uneasily at his companion, who stood with downcast eyes. + +"Lard, I doan't take no account on Miss Zairy," said the road-mender, +leaning on his hoe and looking sharply from the youthful lady to the +middle-aged gentleman. "I've knowed her zince her wur a little maid. I +used tu give her lolly-pops. Yu speak up, Miss Zairy, and tell 'un if +I didn't." + +"To be sure you did, Father Jack," said Sarah, promptly. + +"Ah, zo 'a did," said the old man, chuckling. "Zo 'a did, and her +ladyship avore yu. I mind _her_ when her was a little maid, and pretty +ways her had wi' her, zame as now. None zo ramshacklin' as yu du be, +Miss Zairy." + +"There's nobody about that he doesn't remember as a child," said +Sarah, apologetically. "He's so old, you see. He doesn't remember how +old he is, and nobody can tell him. But he knows he was born in the +reign of George the Third, because his mother told him so; and he +remembers his father coming in with news of the Battle of Waterloo, So +I think he must be about ninety." + +"Lard, mar like a hunderd year old, I be," said Happy Jack, offended. +"And luke how I du wark yit. Yif I'd 'a give up my wark, I shude 'a +bin in the churchyard along o' the idlers, that 'a shude." He chuckled +and winked. "I du be a turble vunny man," quavered the thin falsetto +voice. "They be niver a dune a laughin' along o' my jokes. An' I du +remember Zur Timothy's vather zo well as Zur Timothy hisself, though +'ee bin dead nigh sixty year. Lard, 'ee was a bad 'un, was y' ould +squire. An old devil. That's what 'ee was." + +"He only means Sir Timothy's father had a bad temper," explained +Sarah. "It's quite true." + +"Ah, was it timper?" said Jack, sarcastically. "I cude tell 'ee zum +tales on 'un. There were a right o' way, zur, acrust the mead thereby, +as the volk did claim. And 'a zays, 'A'll putt a stop tu 'un,' 'a +zays. And him zat on a style, long zide the tharn bush, and 'a took +'ee's gun, and 'a zays, 'A'll shute vust man are maid as cumes acrust +thiccy vield,' 'a zays. And us knowed 'un wude du 't tu. And 'un +barred the gate, and there t'was." + +He laughed till the tears ran down his face, brown as gingerbread, and +wrinkled as a monkey's. + +"Mr. Crewys is in a hurry, Jack," said Sarah. "He's only just arrived +from London, and he's walked all the way from Brawnton." + +"'Tain't but a stip vur a vine vellar like 'ee, and wi' a vine maiden +like yu du be grown, var tu kip 'ee company," said Happy Jack. "But +'ee'll be in a yurry tu git tu Barracombe, and refresh hisself, in arl +this turble yeat. When the zun du search, the rain du voller." + +"I dare say you want a glass of beer yourself," said John, producing a +coin from his pocket. + +"No, zur, I doan't," said the road-mender, unexpectedly. "Beer doan't +agree wi' my inzide, an' it gits into my yead, and makes me proper +jolly, zo the young volk make game on me. But I cude du wi' a drop +o' zider zur; and drink your health and the young lady's, zur, zo 'a +cude." + +He winked and nodded as he pocketed the coin; and John, half laughing +and half vexed, pursued his road with Sarah. + +"It seems to me that the old gentleman has become a trifle free and +easy with advancing years," he observed. + +"He thinks he has a right to be interested in the family," said Sarah, +"because of the connection, you see." + +"The connection?" + +"Didn't you know?" she asked, with wide-open eyes. "Though you were +Sir Timothy's own cousin." + +"A very distant cousin," said John. + +"But every one in the valley knows," said Sarah, "that Sir Timothy's +father married his own cook, who was Happy Jack's first cousin. When I +was a little girl, and wanted to tease Peter," she added ingenuously, +"I always used to allude to it. It is the skeleton in their cupboard. +We haven't got a skeleton in our family," she added regretfully; +"least of all the skeleton of a cook." + +John remembered vaguely that there was a story about the second +marriage of Sir Timothy the elder. + +"So she was a cook!" he said. "Well, what harm?" and he laughed in +spite of himself. "I wonder why there is something so essentially +unromantic in the profession of a cook?" + +"Her family went to Australia, and they are quite rich people now: +no more cooks than you and me," said Sarah, gravely. "But Happy Jack +won't leave Youlestone, though he says they tempted him with untold +gold. And he wouldn't touch his hat to Sir Timothy, because he was his +cousin. That was another skeleton." + +"But a very small one," said John, laughing. + +"It might seem small to _us_, but I'm sure it was one reason why Sir +Timothy never went outside his own gates if he could help it," said +Sarah, shrewdly. "Luckily the cook died when he was born." + +"Why luckily, poor thing?" said John, indignantly. + +"She wouldn't have had much of a time, would she, do you think, with +Sir Timothy's sisters?" asked Sarah, with simplicity. "They were in +the schoolroom when their papa married her, or I am sure they would +never have allowed it. Their own mother was a most select person; and +little thought when she gave the orders for dinner, and all that, who +the old gentleman's _next_ wife would be," said Sarah, giggling. "They +always talk of her as the _Honourable Rachel_, since _Lady Crewys_, +you know, might just as well mean the cook. I suppose the old squire +got tired of her being so select, and thought he would like a change. +He was a character, you know. I often think Peter will be a character +when he grows old. He is so disagreeable at times." + +"I thought you were so fond of Peter?" said John, looking amusedly +down on the little chatterbox beside him. + +"Not exactly fond of him. It's just that I'm _used_ to him," said +Sarah, colouring all over her clear, fresh face, even to the little +tendrils of red hair on her white neck. + +She wore a blue cotton frock, and a brown mushroom hat, with a wreath +of wild roses which had somewhat too obviously been sewn on in a hurry +and crookedly; and she looked far more like a village schoolgirl than +a young lady who was shortly to make her _debut_ in London society. +But he was struck with the extraordinary brilliancy of her complexion, +transparent and pure as it was, in the searching sunlight. + +"If she were not so round-shouldered--if the features were better--her +expression softer," said John to himself--"if divine colouring were +all--she would be beautiful." + +But her wide, smiling mouth, short-tipped nose, and cleft chin, +conveyed rather the impression of childish audacity than of feminine +charm. The glance of those bright, inquisitive eyes was like a wild +robin's, half innocent, half bold. Though her round throat were white +as milk, and though no careless exposure to sun and wind had yet +succeeded in dimming the exquisite fairness of her skin, yet the +defects and omissions incidental to extreme youth, country breeding, +and lack of discipline, rendered Miss Sarah not wholly pleasing in +John's fastidious eyes. Her carriage was slovenly, her ungloved hands +were red, her hair touzled, and her deep-toned voice over-loud and +confident. Yet her frankness and her trustfulness could not fail to +evoke sympathy. + +"It is--Lady Mary that I am fond of," said the girl, with a yet more +vivid blush. + +He was touched. "She will miss you, I am sure, when you go to town," +he said kindly. + +"If I thought so really, I wouldn't go," said Sarah, vehemently. She +winked a tear from her long eyelashes. "But I know it's only your good +nature. She thinks of nothing and nobody but Peter. And--and, after +all, when I get better manners, and all that, I shall be more of a +companion to her. I'm very glad to go, if it wasn't for leaving _her_. +I like Aunt Elizabeth, whereas mamma and I never _did_ get on. She +cares most for the boys, which is very natural, no doubt, as I was +only an afterthought, and nobody wanted me. And Aunt Elizabeth has +always liked me. She says I amuse her with my sharp tongue." + +"But you will have to be a little careful of the sharp tongue when you +get to London," said John, smiling. He was struck by the half-sly, +half-acquiescent look that Sarah stole at him from beneath those long +eyelashes. Perhaps her outspokenness was not so involuntary as he had +imagined. + +"If I had known you were coming to-day, I would have gone up to say +good-bye to Lady Mary last night," said Sarah, mournfully. "She won't +want me now you are here." + +"I have a thousand and one things to look after. I sha'n't be in your +way," said John, good-naturedly, "if she is not busy otherwise." + +"Busy!" echoed Sarah. "She sits _so_, with her hands in her lap, +looking over the valley. And she has grown, oh, so much thinner and +sadder-looking. I thought you would never come." + +"I have my own work," said John, hurriedly, "and I thought, besides, +she would rather be alone these first few weeks." + +Sarah looked up with a flash in her blue eyes, which were so dark, and +large-pupilled, and heavily lashed, that they looked almost black. She +ground her strong white teeth together. + +"If I were Lady Mary," she said, "I would have slammed the old front +door behind me the very day after Sir Timothy was buried--and gone +away; I would. There she is, like a prisoner, with the old ladies +counting every tear she sheds, and adding them up to see if it is +enough; and measuring every inch of crape on her gowns; and finding +fault with all she does, just as they used when Sir Timothy was alive +to back them up. And she is afraid to do anything he didn't like; and +she never listens to the doctor, the only person in the world who's +ever had the courage to fight her battles." + +"The doctor," said John, sharply. "Has she been ill?" + +"No, no." + +"What has _he_ to do with Lady Mary?" said John. + +His displeasure was so great that the colour rose in his clean-shaven +face, and did not escape little Sarah's observation, for all her +downcast lashes. + +"Somebody must go and see her," said Sarah; "and you were away. And +the canon is just nobody, always bothering her for subscriptions; +though he is very fond of her, like everybody else," she added, with +compunction. "Dear me, Mr. Crewys, how fast you are walking!" + +John had unconsciously quickened his pace so much that she had some +ado to keep up with him without actually running. + +"I beg your pardon," he said. + +"It is so hot, and the hill is steep, and I am rather fat. I dare say +I shall fine down as I get older," said Sarah, apologetically. "It +would be dreadful if I grew up like mamma. But I am more like my +father, thank goodness, and _he_ is simply a mass of hard muscle. I +dare say even I could beat you on the flat. But not up this drive. +Doesn't it look pretty in the spring?" + +"It was very different when I left Barracombe," said John. + +He looked round with all a Londoner's appreciation. + +In the sunny corner next the ivy-clad lodge an early rhododendron +had burst into scarlet bloom. The steep drive was warmly walled and +sheltered on the side next the hill by horse-chestnuts, witch-elms, +tall, flowering shrubs and evergreens, and a variety of tree-azaleas +and rhododendrons which promised a blaze of beauty later in the +season. + +But the other side of the drive lay in full view of the open +landscape; rolling grass slopes stretching down to the orchards +and the valley. Violets, white and blue, scented the air, and the +primroses clustered at the roots of the forest trees. + +The gnarled and twisted stems of giant creepers testified to the age +of Barracombe House. Before the entrance was a level space, which made +a little spring garden, more formal and less varied in its arrangement +than the terrace gardens on the south front; but no less gay and +bright, with beds of hyacinths, red and white and purple, and +daffodils springing amidst their bodyguards of pale, pointed spears. + +A wild cherry-tree at the corner of the house had showered snowy +petals before the latticed window of the study; the window whence Sir +Timothy had taken his last look at the western sky, and from which +his watchful gaze had once commanded the approach to his house, and +observed almost every human being who ventured up the drive. + +On the ridge of the hill above, and in clumps upon the fertile slopes +of the side of the little valley, the young larches rose, newly +clothed in that light and brilliant foliage which darkens almost +before spring gives place to summer. + +They found Lady Mary in the drawing-room; the sunshine streamed +towards her through the golden rain of a _planta-genista_, which stood +on a table in the western corner of the bow window. She was looking +out over the south terrace, and the valley and the river, just as +Sarah had said. + +He was shocked at her pallor, which was accentuated by her black +dress; her sapphire blue eyes looked unnaturally large and clear; the +little white hands clasped in her lap were too slender; a few silver +threads glistened in the soft, brown hair. Above all, the hopeless +expression of the sad and gentle face went to John's heart. + +_Was_ the doctor the only man in the world who had the courage to +fight her battles for this fading, grieving woman who had been the +lovely Mary Setoun; whom John remembered so careless, so laughing, so +innocently gay? + +He was relieved that she could smile as he approached to greet her. + +"I did not guess you would come by the early train," she said, in glad +tones. "But, oh--you must have walked all the way from Brawnton! What +will James Coachman say?" + +"I wanted a walk," said John, "and I knew you would send to meet me if +I let you know. My luggage is at the station. James Coachman, as you +call him, can fetch that whenever he will." + +"And I have come to say good-bye," said Sarah, forlornly. + +She watched with jealous eyes their greeting, and Lady Mary's obvious +pleasure in John's arrival, and half-oblivion of her own familiar +little presence. + +When Peter had first gone to school, his mother in her loneliness had +almost made a _confidante_ of little Sarah, the odd, intelligent child +who followed her about so faithfully, and listened so eagerly to those +dreamy, half-uttered confidences. She knew that Lady Mary wept because +her boy had left her; but she understood also that when Peter +came home for the holidays he brought little joy to his mother. A +self-possessed stripling now walked about the old house, and laid down +the law to his mamma--instead of that chubby creature in petticoats +who had once been Peter. + +Lady Mary had dwelt on the far-off days of Peter's babyhood very +tenderly when she was alone with little Sarah, who sat and nursed her +doll, and liked very much to listen; she often felt awed, as though +some one had died; but she did not connect the story much with the +Peter of every day, who went fishing and said girls were rather a +nuisance. + +Sarah, too, had had her troubles. She was periodically banished to +distant schools by a mother who disliked romping and hoydenish little +girls, as much as she doted on fat and wheezing lap-dogs. But as her +father, on the other hand, resented her banishment from home almost as +sincerely as Sarah herself, she was also periodically sent for to take +up her residence once more beneath the parental roof. Thus her life +was full of change and uncertainty; but, through it all, her devotion +to Lady Mary never wavered. + +She looked at her now with a melancholy air which sat oddly upon her +bright, comical face, and which was intended to draw attention to the +pathetic fact of her own impending departure. + +"I only came to say good-bye," said Sarah, in slightly injured tones. + +"Ah! by-the-by, and I have promised not to intrude on the parting," +said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"It is not an eternal farewell," said Lady Mary, drawing Sarah kindly +towards her. + +"It may be for _years_," said Sarah, rather offended. "My aunt +Elizabeth is as good as adopting me. Mamma said I was very lucky, and +I believe she is glad to be rid of me. But papa says he shall come and +see me in London. Aunt Elizabeth is going to take me to Paris and to +Scotland, and abroad every winter." + +"Oh, Sarah, how you will be changed when you come back!" said Lady +Mary; and she laughed a little, with a hand on Sarah's shoulder; but +Sarah knew that Lady Mary was not thinking very much about her, all +the same. + +"There is no fresh news, John?" she asked. + +"Nothing since my last telegram," he answered. "But I have arranged +with the Exchange Telegraph Company to wire me anything of importance +during my stay here." + +"You are always so good," she said. + +Then he took pity on Sarah's impatience, and left the little +worshipper to the interview with her idol which she so earnestly +desired. + +"I will go and pay my respects to my cousins," said John. + +But the banqueting-hall was deserted, and gaps in the row of clogs and +goloshes suggested that the old ladies were taking a morning stroll. +They had not thought it proper to drive, save in a close carriage, +since their brother's death; and on such a warm day of spring weather +a close carriage was not inviting to country-bred people. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +John took his hat and stepped out once more upon the drive, and there +met Dr. Blundell, who had left his dog-cart at the stables, and was +walking up to the house. + +He did not pause to analyze the sentiment of slight annoyance which +clouded his usual good humour; but Dr. Blundell divined it, with the +quickness of an ultra-sensitive nature. He showed no signs that he had +done so. + +"It was you I came to see," he said, shaking hands with John. "I +heard--you know how quickly news spreads here--that you had arrived. I +hoped you might spare me a few moments for a little conversation." + +"Certainly," said John. "Will you come in, or shall we take a turn?" + +"You will be glad of a breath of fresh air after your journey," +said the doctor, and he led the way across the south terrace, to a +sheltered corner of the level plateau upon which the house was built, +which was known as the fountain garden. + +It was rather a deserted garden, thickly surrounded and overgrown +by shrubs. Through the immense spreading Portuguese laurels which +sheltered it from the east, little or no sunshine found its way to the +grey, moss-grown basin and the stone figures supporting it; over which +a thin stream of water continually flowed with a melancholy rhythm, in +perpetual twilight. + +A giant ivy grew rankly and thickly about the stone buttresses of this +eastern corner of the house, and around a great mullioned window which +overlooked the fountain garden, and which was the window of Lady +Mary's bedroom. + +"These shrubberies want thinning," said John, looking round him rather +disgustedly. "This place is reeking with damp. I should like to cut +down some of these poisonous laurels, and let in the air and the +sunshine, and open out the view of the Brawnton hills." + +"And why don't you?" said the doctor, with such energy in his tone +that John stopped short in his pacing of the gravel walk, and looked +at him. + +The two men were almost as unlike in appearance as in character. + +The doctor was nervous, irritable, and intense in manner; with +deep-set, piercing eyes that glowed like hot coal when he was moved +or excited. A tall, gaunt man, lined and wrinkled beyond his years; +careless of appearance, so far as his shabby clothes were concerned, +yet careful of detail, as was proven by spotless linen and +well-preserved, delicate hands. + +He was indifferent utterly to the opinion of others, to his own +worldly advancement, or to any outer consideration, when in pursuit of +the profession he loved; and he knew no other interest in life, save +one. He had the face of a fanatic or an enthusiast; but also of a man +whose understanding had been so cultivated as to temper enthusiasm +with judgment. + +He had missed success, and was neither resigned to his disappointment, +nor embittered by it. + +The gaze of those dark eyes was seldom introspective; rather, as it +seemed, did they look out eagerly, sadly, pitifully at the pain and +sorrow of the world; a pain he toiled manfully to lessen, so far as +his own infinitesimal corner of the universe was concerned. + +John Crewys, on the other hand, was, to the most casual observer, a +successful man; a man whose personality would never be overlooked. + +There was a more telling force in his composure than in the doctor's +nervous energy. His clear eyes, his bright, yet steady glance, +inspired confidence. + +The doctor might have been taken for a poet, but John looked like a +philosopher. + +He was also, as obviously, in appearance, a man of the world, and a +Londoner, as the doctor was evidently a countryman, and a hermit. His +advantages over the doctor included his voice, which was as deep and +musical as the tones of his companion were harsh. + +The manner, no less than the matter of John's speech, had early +brought him distinction. + +Nature, rather than cultivation, had bestowed on him the faculty of +conveying the impression he wished to convey, in tones that charm; and +held his auditors, and penetrated ears dulled and fatigued by monotony +and indistinctness. + +The more impassioned his pleading, the more utterly he held his own +emotion in check; the more biting his subtly chosen words, the more +courteous his manner; now deadly earnest, now humorously scornful, +now graciously argumentative, but always skilfully and designedly +convincing. + +The doctor, save in the presence of a patient, had no such control +over himself as John Crewys carried from the law-courts, into his life +of every day. + +"Why don't you," he said, in fiery tones, "let in air and life, and a +view of the outside world, and as much sunshine as possible into this +musty old house? You have the power, if you had only the will." + +"You speak figuratively, I notice," said John. "I should be much +obliged if you would tell me exactly what you mean." + +He would have answered in warmer and more kindly tones had Sarah's +words not rung upon his ear. + +Was the doctor going to fight Lady Mary's battles now, and with him, +of all people in the world? As though there were any one in the world +to whom her interests could be dearer than-- + +John stopped short in his thoughts, and looked attentively at the +doctor. His heart smote him. How pallid was that tired face; and the +hollow eyes, how sad and tired too! The doctor had been up all night, +in a wretched isolated cottage, watching a man die--but John did not +know that. + +He perceived that this was no meddler, but a man speaking of something +very near his heart; no presuming and interfering outsider who +deserved a snub, but a man suffering from some deep and hidden cause. + +The doctor's secret was known to John long before he had finished what +he had to say; but he listened attentively, and gave no sign that this +was so. + +"She will die," said Blundell, "if this goes on;" and he neither +mentioned any name, nor did John Crewys require him to do so. + +The doctor's words came hurrying out incoherently from the depths of +his anxiety and earnestness. + +"She will die if this goes on. There were few hopes and little enough +pleasure in her life before; but what is left to her now? _De mortuis +nil nisi bonum._ But just picture to yourself for a moment, man, what +her life has been." + +He stopped and drew breath, and strove to speak calmly and +dispassionately. + +"I was born in the valley of the Youle," he said. "My people live in +a cottage--they call it a house, but it's just a farm--on the +river,--Cullacott. I was a raw medical student when _she_ came here as +a child. Her father was killed in the Afghan War. He had quarrelled +with his uncle, they said, who afterwards succeeded to the earldom; +so she was left to the guardianship of Sir Timothy, a distant cousin. +Every one was sorry for her, because Sir Timothy was her guardian, and +because she was a little young thing to be left to the tender mercies +of the two old ladies, who were old even then. If you will excuse my +speaking frankly about the family"--John nodded--"they bullied their +brother always; what with their superiority of birth, and his being so +much younger, and so on. Their bringing-up made him what he was, I am +sure. He went nowhere; he always fancied people were laughing at him. +His feeling about his--his mother's lowly origin seemed to pervade +his whole life. He exaggerated the importance of birth till it became +almost a mania. If you hadn't known the man, you couldn't have +believed a human being--one of the million crawling units on the +earth--could be so absurdly inflated with self-importance. It was +pitiful. He went nowhere, and saw no one. I believe he thought that +Providence had sent a wife of high rank to his very door to enable him +partially to wipe out his reproach. She looked like a child when she +came, but she shot up very suddenly into womanhood. If you ask me if +she was unhappy, I declare I don't think so. She had never realized, +I should think, what it was to be snubbed or found fault with in +her life. She was a motherless child, and had lived with her old +grandfather and her young father, and had been very much spoilt. And +they were both snatched away from her, as it were, in a breath; and +she alone in the world, with an uncle who was only glad to get rid of +her to her stranger guardian. Well,--she was too young and too bright +and too gay to be much downcast for all the old women could do. She +laughed at their scolding, and when they tried severity she appealed +to Sir Timothy. The old doctor who was my predecessor here told me at +the time that he thought she had bewitched Sir Timothy; but afterwards +he said that he believed it was only that Sir Timothy had made up his +mind even then to quarter the Setoun arms with his own. Anyway, he +went against his sisters for the first and only time in his life, and +they learnt that Lady Mary was not to be interfered with. Whether it +was gratitude or just the childish satisfaction of triumphing over her +two enemies, I can't tell, but she married him in less than two years +after she came to live at Barracombe. The old ladies didn't know +whether to be angry or pleased. They wanted him to marry, and they +wanted his wife to be well-born, no doubt; but to have a mere child +set over them! Well, the marriage took place in London." + +"I was present," said John. + +"The people here said things about it that may have got round to Sir +Timothy; but I don't know. He never came down to the village, except +to church, where he sat away from everybody, in the gallery curtained +off. Anyway, he wouldn't have the wedding down here. He invited all +her relatives, and none of them had a word to say. It wasn't as if she +were an heiress. I believe she had next to nothing. She was just like +a child, laughing, and pleased at getting married, and with all her +finery, perhaps,--or at getting rid of her lessons with the old women +may be,--and the thought of babies of her own. Who knows what a girl +thinks of?" said the doctor, harshly. "I didn't see her again for a +long time after. But then I came down; the Brawnton doctor was getting +old, and it was a question whether I should succeed him or go on in +London, where I was doing well enough. And--and I came here," said the +doctor, abruptly. + +John nodded again. He filled in the gaps of the doctor's narrative for +himself, and understood. + +"She had changed very much. All the gaiety and laughter gone. But she +was wrapt up in the child as I never saw any woman wrapt up in a brat +before or since; and I've known some that were pretty ridiculous in +that way," said the doctor, and his voice shook more than ever. "It +was--touching, for she was but a child herself; and Peter, between you +and me, was an unpromising doll for a child to play with. He was ugly +and ill-tempered, and he wouldn't be caressed, or dressed up, or made +much of, from the first minute he had a will of his own. As he grew +bigger he was for ever having rows with his father, and his mother +was for ever interceding for him. He was idle at school; but he was a +manly boy enough over games and sport, and a capital shot. Anyway, she +managed to be proud of him, God knows how. I shouldn't wonder if this +war was the making of him, though, poor chap, if he's spared to see +the end of it all." + +"I have no doubt the discipline will do him a great deal of good," +said John, dryly. + +It cannot be said that his brief interview at Southampton had +impressed John with a favourable opinion of the sulky and irresponsive +youth, who had there listened to his mother's messages with lowering +brow and downcast eye. Peter had betrayed no sign of emotion, and +almost none of gratitude for John's hurried and uncomfortable journey +to convey that message. + +"A few hard knocks will do you no harm, my young friend; and I almost +wish you may get them," John had said to himself on his homeward +journey; dreading, yet expecting, the news that awaited him at Peter's +home, and for which he had done his best to prepare the boy. + +"Too much consideration hitherto has ruined him," said the doctor, +shortly. "But it's not of Peter I'm thinking, one way or the other. +From the time he went first to school, she's had to depend entirely on +her own resources--and what are they?" + +He paused, as though to gather strength and energy for his indictment. + +"From the time she was brought here--except for that one outing and a +change to Torquay, I believe, after Peter's birth--she has scarce set +foot outside Barracombe. Sir Timothy would not, so he was resolved she +should not. His sisters, who have as much cultivation as that stone +figure, disapproved of novel-reading--or of any other reading, I +should fancy--and he followed suit. Books are almost unknown in this +house. The library bookcases were locked. Sir Timothy opened them once +in a while, and his sisters dusted the books with their own hands; +it was against tradition to handle such valuable bindings. He hated +music, and the piano was not to be played in his presence. Have you +ever tried it? I'm told you're musical. It belonged to Lady Belstone's +mother, the Honourable Rachel. That is her harp which stands in the +corner of the hall. Her daughter once tinkled a little, I believe; but +the prejudices of the ruling monarch were religiously obeyed. Music +was _taboo_ at Barracombe. Dancing was against their principles, and +theatres they regard with horror, and have never been inside one in +their lives. Nothing took Sir Timothy to London but business; and +if it were possible to have the business brought to Barracombe, his +solicitor, Mr. Crawley, visited him here." + +The doctor spoke in lower tones, as he recurred to his first theme. + +"I don't think she found out for years, or realized what a prisoner +she was. They caught and pinned her down so young. There are no very +near neighbours--I mean, not the sort of people they would recognize +as neighbours--except the Hewels. Youlestone is such an out-of-the-way +place, and Sir Timothy was never on intimate terms with any one. Mrs. +Hewel is a fool--there was only little Sarah whom Lady Mary made a pet +of--but she had no friends. Sir Timothy and his sisters made visiting +such a stiff and formal business, that it was no wonder she hated +paying calls; the more especially as it could lead to nothing. He +would not entertain; he grudged the expense. I was present at a scene +he once made because a large party drove over from a distant house and +stayed to tea. He said he could not entertain the county. She dared +ask no one to her house--she, who was so formed and fitted by nature +to charm and attract, and enjoy social intercourse." His voice +faltered. "They stole her youth," he said. + +"What do you want me to do?" said John, though he was vaguely +conscious that he understood for what the doctor was pleading. + +He sat down by the fountain; and the doctor, resting a mended boot +on the end of the bench, leant on his bony knee, and looked down +wistfully at John's thoughtful face, broad brow, and bright, intent +eyes. + +"You are a very clever man, Mr. Crewys," he said humbly. "A man of the +world, successful, accomplished, and, I believe, honest"--he spoke +with a simplicity that disarmed offence--"or I should not have +ventured as I have ventured. Somehow you inspire me with confidence. I +believe you can save her. I believe you could find a way to bring back +her peace of mind; the interest in life--the gaiety of heart--that is +natural to her. If I were in your place, not the two old women--not +Sir Timothy's ghost--not that poor conceited slip of a lad who may be +shot to-morrow--would stand in my way. I would bring back the colour +to her cheek, and the light to her eye, and the music to her voice--" + +"Whilst her boy is in danger?" John asked, almost scornfully. He +thought he knew Lady Mary better than the doctor did, after all. + +"I tell you _nothing_ would stop me," said Blundell, vehemently. +"Before I would let her fret herself to death--afraid to break the +spells that have been woven round her, bound as she is, hand and foot, +with the prejudices of the dead--I would--I would--take her to South +Africa myself," he said brilliantly. "The voyage would bring her back +to life." + +John got up. "That is an idea," he said. He paused and looked at the +doctor. "You have known her longer than I. Have you said nothing to +her of all this?" + +The doctor smiled grimly. "Mr. Crewys," he said, "some time since I +spoke my mind--a thing I am over-apt to do--_of_ Peter, and _to_ him. +The lad has forgiven me; he is a man, you see, with all his faults. +But Lady Mary, though she has all the virtues of a woman, is also a +mother. A woman often forgives; a mother, never. Don't forget." + +"I will not," said John. + +"And you'll do it--" + +"Use the unlimited authority that has been placed in my hands, by +improving this tumble-down, overgrown place?" said John, slowly. "Let +in light, air, and sunshine to Barracombe, and do my best to brighten +Lady Mary's life, without reference to any one's prejudices, past or +present?" + +"You've got the idea," said the doctor, joyfully. "Will you carry it +out?" + +"Yes," said John. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +The new moon brightened above the rim of the opposite hill, and +touched the river below with silver reflections. On the grass banks +sloping away beneath the terrace gardens, sheets of bluebells shone +almost whitely on the grass. The silent house rose against the +dark woods, whitened also here and there by the blossom of wild +cherry-trees. + +Lady Mary stepped from the open French windows of the drawing-room +into the still, scented air of the April night. She stood leaning +against the stone balcony, and gazing at the wonderful panorama of +the valley and overlapping hills; where the little river threaded its +untroubled course between daisied meadows and old orchards and red +crumbling banks. + +A broad-shouldered figure appeared in the window, and a man's step +crunched the gravel of the path which Lady Mary had crossed. + +"For once I have escaped, you see," she said, without turning round. +"They will not venture into the night air. Sometimes I think they will +drive me mad--Isabella and Georgina." + +"Mary!" cried a shrill voice from the drawing-room, "how can you be so +imprudent! John, how can you allow her!" + +John stepped back to the window. "It is very mild," he said. "Lady +Mary likes the air." + +There was a note of authority in his tone which somehow impressed Lady +Belstone, who withdrew, muttering to herself, into the warm lamplight +of the drawing-room. + +Perhaps the two old ladies were to be pitied, too, as they sat +together, but forlorn, sincerely shocked and uneasy at their +sister-in-law's behaviour. + +"Dear Timothy not dead three months, and she sitting out there in the +night air, as he would never have permitted, talking and laughing; +yes, I actually hear her laughing--with John." + +"There is no telling what she may do _now_," said Miss Crewys, +gloomily. + +"I declare it is a judgment, Georgina. Why did Timothy choose to trust +a perfect stranger--even though John is a cousin--with the care of his +wife and son, and his estate, rather than his own sisters?" + +"It was a gentleman's work," said Miss Crewys. + +"Gentleman's fiddlesticks! Couldn't old Crawley have done it? I +should hope he is as good a lawyer as young John any day," said Lady +Belstone, tossing her head. "But I have often noticed that people will +trust any chance stranger with the property they leave behind, rather +than those they know best." + +"Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "blame not the dead, and especially on a +moonlight night. It makes my blood run cold." + +"I am blaming nobody, Georgina; but I will say that if poor Timothy +thought proper to leave everything else in the hands of young John, he +might have considered that you and I had a better right to the Dower +House than poor dear Mary, who, of course, must live with her son." + +"I am far from wishing or intending to leave my home here, Isabella," +said Miss Crewys. "It is very different in your case. You forfeited +the position of daughter of the house when you married. But I have +always occupied my old place, and my old room." + +This was a sore subject. On Lady Belstone's return as a widow, to the +home of her fathers, she had been torn with anxiety and indecision +regarding her choice of a sleeping apartment. Sentiment dictated her +return to her former bedroom; but she was convinced that the married +state required a domicile on the first floor. Etiquette prevailed, +and she descended; but the eighty-year-old legs of Miss Crewys still +climbed the nursery staircase, and she revenged herself for her +inferior status by insisting, in defiance of old associations, that +her maid should occupy the room next to her own, which her sister had +abandoned. + +"For my part, I can sleep in one room as well as another, provided it +be comfortable and _appropriate_," said Lady Belstone, with dignity. +"There are very pleasant rooms in the Dower House, and our great-aunts +managed to live there in comfort, and yet keep an eye on their nephew +here, as I have always been told. I don't know why we should object to +doing the same. You have never tried being mistress of your own house, +Georgina, but I can assure you it has its advantages; and I found them +out as a married woman." + +"A married woman has her husband to look after her," said Miss Crewys. +"It is very different for a widow." + +"You are for ever throwing my widowhood in my teeth, Georgina," said +Lady Belstone, plaintively. "It is not my fault that I am a widow. I +did not murder the admiral." + +"I don't say you did, Isabella," said Georgina, grimly; "but he only +survived his marriage six months." + +"It is nice to be silent sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"Does that mean that I am to go away?" said John, "or merely that I am +not to speak to you?" + +She laughed a little. "Neither. It means that I am tired of being +scolded." + +"I have wondered now and then," said John, deliberately, "why you put +up with it?" + +"I suppose--because I can't help it," she said, startled. + +"You are a free agent." + +"You mean that I could go away?" she said, in a low voice. "But there +is only one place I should care to go to now." + +"To South Africa?" + +"You always understand," she said gratefully. + +"Supposing this--this ghastly war should not be over as soon as we all +hope," he said, rather huskily, "I could escort you myself, in a few +weeks' time, to the Cape. Or--or arrange for your going earlier if +you desired, and if I could not get away. Probably you would get +no further than Cape Town; but it might be easier for you waiting +there--than here." + +"I shall thank you, and bless you always, for thinking of it," she +interrupted, softly; "but there is something--that I never told +anybody." + +He waited. + +"After Peter had the news of his father's death," said Lady Mary, with +a sob in her throat, "you did not know that he--he telegraphed to me, +from Madeira. He foresaw immediately, I suppose, whither my foolish +impulses would lead me; and he asked me--I should rather say he +ordered me--under no circumstances whatever to follow him out to South +Africa." + +John remembered the doctor's warning, and said nothing. + +"So, you see--I can't go," said Lady Mary. + +There was a pause. + +"I am bound to say," said John, presently, "that, in Peter's place, I +should not have liked my mother, or any woman I loved, to come out to +the seat of war. He showed only a proper care for you in forbidding +it. Perhaps I am less courageous than he, in thinking more of the +present benefit you would derive from the voyage and the change of +scene, than of the perils and discomforts which might await you, for +aught we can foretell now, at the end of it. Peter certainly showed +judgment in telegraphing to you." + +"Do you really think so? That it was care for me that made him do it?" +she asked. A distant doubtful joy sounded in her voice. "Somehow I +never thought of that. I remembered his old dislike of being followed +about, or taken care of, or--or spied upon, as he used to call it." + +"Boys just turning into men are often sensitive on those points," said +John, heedful always of the doctor's warning. + +"It is odd I did not see the telegram in that light," said poor Lady +Mary. "I must read it again." + +She spoke as hopefully as though she had not read it already a hundred +times over, trying to read loving meanings, that were not there, +between the curt and peremptory lines. + +"It is not odd," thought John to himself; "it is because you knew him +too well;" and he wondered whether his explanation of Peter's action +were charitable, or merely unscrupulous. + +But Lady Mary was not really deceived; only very grateful to the man +who was so tender of heart, so tactful of speech, as to make it seem +even faintly possible that she had misjudged her boy. + +She said to herself that parents were often unreasonable, expecting +impossibilities, in their wild desire for perfection in their +offspring. An outsider, being unprejudiced by anxiety, could judge +more fairly. John found that the telegram, which had almost broken her +heart, was reasonable and justified; nay, even that it displayed a +dutiful regard for her safety and comfort, of which no one but a +stranger could possibly have suspected Peter. She was grateful to +John. It was a relief and joy to feel that it was she who was to +blame, and not Peter, whose heart was in the right place, after all. +And yet, though John was so clever and had such an experience of human +nature, it was the doctor who had put the key into his hands, which +presently unlocked Lady Mary's confidence. + +"You mustn't think, John, that I don't understand what it will be like +later, when Peter comes of age. Of course this house will be his, +and he is not the kind of young man to be tied to his mother's +apron-string. He always wanted to be independent." + +"It is human nature," said John. + +"I am not blind to his faults," said Lady Mary, humbly, "though they +all think so. It is of little use to try and hide them from you, who +will see them for yourself directly my darling comes back. I pray God +it may be soon. Of course he is spoilt; but I am to blame, because I +made him my idol." + +"An only son is always more or less spoilt," said John. He remembered +his own boyhood, and smiled sardonically in the darkness. "He will +grow out of it. He will come back a man after this experience." + +"Yes, yes, and he will want to live his life, and I--I shall have to +learn to do without him, I know," she said. "I must learn while he is +away to--to depend on myself. It is not likely that--that a woman +of my age should have much in common with a manly boy like Peter. +Sometimes I wonder whether I really understand my boy at all." + +"It is my belief," said John, "that no generation is in perfect touch +with another. Each stands on a different rung of the ladder of Time. +You may stoop to lend a helping hand to the younger, or reach upwards +to take a farewell of the older. But there must be a looking down or +a looking up. No face-to-face talk is possible except upon the same +level. No real and true comradeship. The very word implies a marching +together, under the same circumstances, to a common goal; and how can +we, who have to be the commanding officers of the young, be their true +companions?" he said, lightly and cheerfully. + +"I dare say I have expected impossibilities," said Lady Mary, as +though reproaching herself. "It comforts me to think so. But I have +had time to reflect on many things since--February." She paused. "I +don't deny I have tried to make plans for the future. But there are +these days to be lived through first--until he comes home." + +"I was going to propose," said John, "that, if agreeable to you, I +should spend my summer and autumn holiday here, instead of going, as +usual, to Switzerland." + +"I should be only too glad," she said, in tones of awakened interest. +"But surely--it would be very dull for you?" + +"Not at all. There is a great deal to be done, and in accordance with +my trust I am bound to set about it," said John. "I propose to spend +the next few days in examining the reports of the surveys that have +already been made, and in judging of their accuracy for myself. When I +return here later, I could have the work begun, and then for some time +I could superintend matters personally, which is always a good thing." + +"Do you mean--the woods?" she asked. "I know they have been neglected. +Sir Timothy would never have a tree cut down; but they are so wild and +beautiful." + +"There are hundreds of pounds' worth of timber perishing for want of +attention. I am responsible for it all until Peter comes of age," said +John, "as I am for the rest of his inheritance. It is part of my trust +to hand over to him his house and property in the best order I can, +according to my own judgment. I know something of forestry," he added, +simply; "you know I was not bred a Cockney. I was to have been +a Hertfordshire squire, on a small scale, had not circumstances +necessitated the letting of my father's house when he died." + +"But it will be yours again some day?" + +"No," said John, quietly; "it had to be sold--afterwards." + +He gave no further explanation, but Lady Mary recollected instantly +the abuse that had been showered on his mother, by her sisters-in-law, +when John was reported to have sacrificed his patrimony to pay her +debts. + +"I rather agree with you about the woods," she said. "It vexes me +always to see a beautiful young tree, that should be straight and +strong, turned into a twisted dwarf, in the shade of the overgrowth +and the overcrowding. The woodman will be delighted; he is always +grumbling." + +"It is not only the woods. There is the house." + +"I suppose it wants repairing?" said Lady Mary. "Hadn't that better be +put off till Peter comes home?" + +"I cannot neglect my trust," said John, gravely; "besides," he added, +"the state of the roof is simply appalling. Many of the beams are +actually rotten. Then there are the drains; they are on a system that +should not be tolerated in these days. Nothing has been done for over +sixty years, and I can hardly say how long before." + +"Won't it all cost a great deal of money?" said Lady Mary. + +"A good deal; but there is a very large sum of money lying idle, +which, as the will directs, may be applied to the general improvement +of the house and estate during Peter's minority; but over which he is +to have no control, should it remain unspent, until he comes of age. +That is to say, it will then--or what is left of it--be invested with +the rest of his capital, which is all strictly tied up. So, as old +Crawley says, it will relieve Peter's income in the future, if we +spend what is necessary now, according to our powers, in putting his +house and estate in order. It would have to be done sooner or later, +most assuredly. Sir Timothy, as you must know," said John, gently, +"did not spend above a third of his actual income; and, so far as Mr. +Crawley knows, spent nothing at all on repairs, beyond jobs to the +village carpenter and mason." + +"I did not know," said Lady Mary. "He always told me we were very +badly off--for our position. I know nothing of business. I did not +attend much to Mr. Crawley's explanations at the time." + +"You were unable to attend to him then," said John; "but now, I think, +you should understand the exact position of affairs. Surely my cousins +must have talked it over?" + +"Isabella and Georgina never talk business before me. You forget I am +still a child in their eyes," she said, smiling. "I gathered that they +were disappointed poor Timothy had left them nothing, and that they +thought I had too much; that is all." + +"Their way of looking at it is scarcely in accordance with justice," +said John, shrugging his shoulders. "They each have ten thousand +pounds left to them by their father in settlement. This was to return +to the estate if they died unmarried or childless. You have two +thousand a year and the Dower House for your life; but you forfeit +both if you re-marry." + +"Of course," said Lady Mary, indifferently. "I suppose that is the +usual thing?" + +"Not quite, especially when your personal property is so small." + +"I didn't know I had any personal property." + +"About five hundred pounds a year; perhaps a little more." + +"From the Setouns!" she cried. + +"From your father. Surely you must have known?" + +Lady Mary was silent a moment. "No; I didn't know," she said +presently. "It doesn't matter now, but Timothy never told me. I +thought I hadn't a farthing in the world. He never mentioned money +matters to me at all." Then she laughed faintly. "I could have lived +all by myself in a cottage in Scotland, without being beholden to +anybody--on five hundred pounds a year, couldn't I?" + +"There is no reason you should not have a cottage in Scotland now, if +you fancy one," said John, cheerfully. + +"The only memories I have in the world, outside my life in this place, +are of my childhood at home," she said. + +John suddenly realized how very, very limited her experiences had +been, and wondered less at the almost childish simplicity which +characterized her, and which in no way marred her natural graciousness +and dignity. Lady Mary did not observe his silence, because her own +thoughts were busy with a scene which memory had painted for her, and +far away from the moonlit valley of the Youle. She saw a tall, narrow, +turreted building against a ruddy sunset sky; a bare ridge of hills +crowned sparsely with ragged Scotch firs; a sea of heather which had +seemed boundless to a childish imagination. + +"I could not go back to Scotland now," she said, with that little +wistful-sounding, patient sob which moved John to such pity that he +could scarce contain himself; "but some day, when I am free--when +nobody wants me." + +"London is the only place worth living in just now, whilst we are in +such terrible anxiety," he said boldly. "At least there are the papers +and telegrams all day long, and none of this dreary, long waiting +between the posts; and there are other things--to distract one's +attention, and keep up one's courage." + +"I do not know what Isabella and Georgina would say," said Lady Mary. + +"But you--would you not care to come?" + +"Oh!" she said, half sobbing, "it is because I am afraid of caring too +much. Life seems to call so loudly to me now and then; as though I +were tired of sitting alone, and looking up the valley and down the +valley. I know it all by heart. It would be fresh life; the stir, the +movement; other people, fresh ideas, beautiful new things to see. But, +indeed, you must not tempt me." There was an accent of yearning in her +tone, a hint of eager anticipation, as of a good time coming; a dream +postponed, which she would nevertheless be willing one day to enjoy. +"I mustn't go anywhere; I couldn't--until my boy comes home, if he +ever comes home," she added, under her breath. + +"But when he comes home safe and sound, as please God he may," said +John, cheerfully, "why, then you have a great deal of lost time to +make up." + +"Ah, yes!" said Lady Mary, and again that wistful note of longing +sounded. "I have thought sometimes I would not like to die before I +have seen my birthplace once more. And there is--_Italy_," she said, +as though the one word conveyed every vision of earthly beauty which +mortal could desire to behold--as, indeed, it does. And again she +added, "But I don't know what my sisters-in-law would say. It would be +against all the traditions." + +"Surely Lady Belstone, at least, must be less absurdly narrow-minded," +said John, almost impatiently. + +"Shall I tell you the history of her marriage?" said Lady Mary. + +Her pretty laugh rang out softly in the darkness, and thrilled +John's heart, and shocked yet further the old ladies who sat within, +straining their ears for the sound of returning footsteps. + +"It took place about forty years ago or less. A cousin of her +mother's, Sir William Belstone, came to spend a few days here. I +believe the poor man invited himself, because he happened to be +staying in the neighbourhood. He was a gallant old sailor, and very +polite to both his cousins; and one day Isabella interpreted his +compliments into a proposal of marriage. Georgina has given me to +understand that no one was ever more astounded and terrified than the +admiral when he found himself engaged to Isabella. But apparently he +was a chivalrous old gentleman, and would not disappoint her. It is +really rather a sad little story, because he died of heart disease +very soon after the marriage. Old Mrs. Ash, the housekeeper, always +declares her mistress came home even more old-maidish in her ways than +she went away, and that she quarrelled with the poor admiral from +morning till night. Perhaps that is why she has never lightened her +garb of woe. And she makes my life a burden to me because I won't wear +a cap. Ah! how heartless it all sounds, and yet how ridiculous! Dear +Cousin John, haven't I bored you? Let us go in." + +With characteristic energy John Crewys set in hand the repairs which +he had declared to be so necessary. + +The late squire had apparently been as well aware of the neglected +state of his ancestral halls as of his tangled and overgrown woods; +but he had also, it seemed, been unable to make up his mind to take +any steps towards amending the condition of either--or to part with +his ever-increasing balance at his bankers'. + +Sir Timothy had carried both his obstinacy and his dullness into his +business affairs. + +The family solicitor, Mr. Crawley, backed up the new administrator +with all his might. + +"Over sixty thousand pounds uninvested, and lying idle at the bank," +he said, lifting his hands and eyes, "and one long, miserable +grumbling over the expense of keeping up Barracombe. One good tenant +after another lost because the landlord would keep nothing in repair; +gardener after gardener leaving for want of a shilling increase in +weekly wages. In case Sir Peter should turn out to resemble his +father, we had best not let the grass grow under our feet, Mr. +Crewys," said the shrewd gentleman, chuckling, "but take full +advantage of the powers entrusted to you for the next two years and +a quarter. Sir Peter, luckily, does not come of age until October, +1902." + +"That is just what I intend to do," said John. + +"Odd, isn't it," said the lawyer, confidentially, "how often a man +will put unlimited power into the hands of a comparative stranger, and +leave his own son tied hand and foot? Not a penny of all this capital +will Sir Peter ever have the handling of. Perhaps a good job too. +Oh, dear! when I look at the state of his affairs in general, I feel +positively guilty, and ashamed to have had even the nominal management +of them. But what could a man do under the circumstances? He paid for +my advice, and then acted directly contrary to it, and thought he had +done a clever thing, and outwitted his own lawyer. But now we shall +get things a bit straight, I hope. What about buying Speccot Farm, Mr. +Crewys? It's been our Naboth's vineyard for many a day; but we haggled +over the price, and couldn't make up our minds to give what the farmer +wants. He'll have to sell in the end, you know; but I suppose he could +hold out a few years longer if we don't give way." + +"He's been to me already," said John. "The price he asked is no doubt +a bit above its proper value; but it's accommodation land, and it +would be disappointing if it slipped through our fingers. I propose to +offer him pretty nearly what he asks." + +"He'll take it," said Mr. Crawley, with satisfaction. "I could never +make Sir Timothy see that it wouldn't pay the fellow to turn out +unless he got something over and above the value of his mortgages." + +"The next thing I want you to arrange is the purchase of those +twenty acres of rough pasture and gorse, right in the centre of the +property," said John, "rented by the man who lives outside Youlestone, +at what they call Pott's farm, for his wretched, half-starved beasts +to graze upon. He's saved us the trouble of exterminating the rabbits +there, I notice." + +"He's an inveterate poacher. A good thing to give him no further +excuse to hang about the place. What do you propose to do?" + +"Compensate him, burn the gorse, cut the bracken, and plant larch. +There are enough picturesque commons on the top of the hill, where the +soil is poor, and land is cheap. We don't want them in the valley. +Now I propose to give our minds to the restoration of the house, the +drains, the stables, and the home farm. Here are my estimates." + +Though Mr. Crawley was so loyal a supporter of the regent of +Barracombe, yet John's projected improvements were far too +thorough-going to gain the approval of the pottering old retainers of +the Crewys family, though they were unable to question his knowledge +or his judgment. + +"I telled 'im tu du things by the littles," said the woodman, who was +kept at work marking trees and saplings as he had never worked before; +though John was generous of help, and liberal of pay. "But lard, he +bain't one tu covet nobody's gude advice. I was vair terrified tu zee +arl he knowed about the drees. The squoire 'ee wur like a babe unbarn +beside 'un. He lukes me straight in the eyes, and 'Luke,' sezzee, 'us +'a' got tu git the place in vamous arder vur young Zur Peter,' sezzee, +'An' I be responsible, and danged but what 'a'll du't,' 'ee zays. An' +I touched my yead, zo, and I zays, 'Very gude, zur,' 'a zays. 'An' zo +'twill be, yu may depend on't.'" + +Perhaps the unwonted stir and bustle, the coming and going of John +Crewys, the confusion of workmen, the novel interest of renovating and +restoring the old house, helped to brace and fortify Lady Mary during +the months which followed; months, nevertheless, of suspense and +anxiety, which reduced her almost to a shadow of her former self. + +For Peter's career in South Africa proved an adventurous one. + +He had the good luck to distinguish himself in a skirmish almost +immediately after his arrival, and to win not only the approval of his +noble relative and commander, but his commission. His next exploit, +however, ended rather disastrously, and Peter found himself a prisoner +in the now historic bird-cage at Pretoria, where he spent a dreary, +restless, and perhaps not wholly unprofitable time, in the society of +men greatly his superior in soldierly and other qualities. + +John feared that his mother's resolution not to follow her boy must +inevitably be broken when the news of his capture reached Barracombe; +but perhaps Peter's letters had repeated the peremptory injunctions +of his telegram, for she never proposed to take the journey to South +Africa. + +The wave of relief and thankfulness that swept over the country, when +the release of the imprisoned officers became known, restored not a +little of Lady Mary's natural courage and spirits. She became more +hopeful about her son, and more interested daily in the beautifying +and restoration of his house. + +She said little in her letters to Peter of the work at Barracombe, for +John advised her that the boy would probably hardly understand the +necessity for it, and she herself was doubtful of Peter's approval +even if he had understood. She had too much intelligence to be +doubtful of John's wisdom, or of Mr. Crawley's zeal for his interest. + +The letters she received were few and scanty, for Peter was but a poor +correspondent, and he made little comment on the explanatory letter +regarding his father's will which John and Mr. Crawley thought proper +to send him. The solicitor was justly indignant at Sir Peter's neglect +to reply to this carefully thought-out and faultlessly indited +epistle. + +"He is just a chip of the old block," said Mr. Crawley. + +But his mother divined that Peter was partly offended at his own +utter exclusion from any share of responsibility, and partly too much +occupied to give much attention to any matter outside his soldiering. +She said to herself that he was really too young to be troubled +with business; and she began to believe, as the work at Barracombe +advanced, that the results of so much planning and forethought must +please him, after all. The consolation of working in his interests was +delightful to her. Her days were filling almost miraculously, as it +seemed to her, with new occupations, fresh hopes, and happier ideas, +than the idle dreaming which was all that had hitherto been permitted +to her. John desired her help, or her suggestions, at every turn, and +constantly consulted her taste. Her artistic instinct for decoration +was hardly less strong than his own, though infinitely less +cultivated. He sent her the most engrossing and delightful books to +repair the omission, and he brought her plans and drawings, which he +begged her to copy for him. The days which had hung so heavily on her +hands were scarcely long enough. + +The careful restoration of the banqueting-hall necessitated new +curtains and chair-covers. Lady Mary looked doubtfully at John when +this matter had been decided, and then at the upholstery of the +drawing-rooms facing the south terrace. + +The faded magenta silk, tarnished gilded mirrors, and gold-starred +wall-paper which decorated these apartments had offended her eye for +years. John laughed at her hesitation, and advised her to consult her +sisters-in-law on the subject; and this settled the question. + +"They would choose bottle-green" she said, in horror; and she salved +her conscience by paying for the redecoration of the drawing-rooms out +of her own pocket. + +John discovered that Lady Mary had never drawn a cheque in her life, +and that Mr. Crawley's lessons in the management of her own affairs +filled her with as much awe as amusement. + + * * * * * + +So the old order changed and gave place to the new at Barracombe; and +the summer grew to winter, and winter to summer again; and Peter did +not return, as he might, with the corps in which he had the honour to +serve. + +Want of energy was not one of his defects; he was a strong, hardy +young man, a fine horseman and a good shot, and eager to gain +distinction for himself. He passed into a fresh corps of newly raised +Yeomanry, and went through the Winter Campaign of 1901, from April to +September, without a scratch. His mother implored him to come home; +but Peter's letters were contemptuous of danger. If he were to be +shot, plenty of better fellows than he had been done for, he wrote; +and coming home to go to Oxford, or whatever his guardian might be +pleased to order him to do, was not at all in his line, when he was +really wanted elsewhere. + +To do him justice, he had no idea how boastfully his letters read; he +had not the art of expressing himself on paper, and he was always in +a hurry. The moments when he was moved by a vague affection for his +home, or his mother, were seldom the actual moments which he devoted +to correspondence; and the passing ideas of the moment were all Peter +knew how to convey. + +Lady Mary could not but be aware of her son's complete independence of +her, but the realization of it no longer filled her with such dismay +as formerly. Her outlook upon life was widening insensibly. The young +soldier's luck deserted him at last. Barely six weeks before the +declaration of peace, Peter was wounded at Rooiwal. The War Office, +and the account of the action in the newspapers, reported his injuries +as severe; but a telegram from Peter himself brought relief, and even +rejoicing, to Barracombe-- + +"_Shot in the arm. Doing splendidly. Invalided home. Sailing as soon +as doctor allows_." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +"I never complain, Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, resignedly; "but +it is a great relief, as I cannot deny, to open my mind to you, who +know so well what this place used to be like in my dear brother's +time." + +The canon had been absent from Youlestone on a long holiday, and on +his return found that the workmen, who had reigned over Barracombe for +nearly two years, had at length departed. + +The inhabitants had been hunted from one part of the house to another +as the work proceeded; but now the usual living-rooms had been +restored to their occupants, and peace and order prevailed, where all +had been noise and confusion. + +"I should not have known the place," said the canon, gazing round him. + +"Nor I. We make a point of _saying_ nothing," said Miss Crewys, +pathetically, "but it's almost impossible not to _look_ now and then." + +"Speak for yourself, Georgina," said her sister, with asperity. "One +can't _look_ furniture out of one room and into another." + +The old ladies sat forlornly in their corner by the great open hearth, +whereon the logs were piled in readiness for a fire, because they +often found the early June evenings chilly. But the sofa with +broken springs, which they specially affected, had been mended, and +recovered; and was no longer, they sadly agreed, near so comfortable +as in its crippled past. + +The banqueting-hall, which was the very heart of Barracombe House, had +been carefully and skilfully restored to its ancient dignity. + +The paint and graining, which had disfigured its mighty beams and +solid panelling, had been removed; and the freshly polished oak shone +forth in its noble age, shorn of all tawdry disguise. + +The spaces of wall and roof between the beams, and above the panels, +were now of a creamy tint not far removed, as the two indignant +critics pointed out, from common whitewash. A great screen of Spanish +leather sheltered the door from the vestibule, and secured somewhat +more privacy for the hall as a sitting-room. + +The Vandyck commanded the staircase, attracting immediate attention, +as it faced the principal entry. In the wide space between the two +great windows were two portraits of equal size; the famous Sir Peter +Crewys, by Lely, painted to resemble, as nearly as possible, his royal +master, in dress and attitude; and his brother Timothy, by Kneller. + +Farmer Timothy's small, shrewd, grey eyes appeared to follow the gazer +all over the hall; and his sober wearing apparel, a plain green coat +without collar or cape, contrasted effectively with the cavalier's +laced doublet and feathered hat. + +Gone were the Early Victorian portraits; gone the big glass cases of +stuffed birds and weasels; gone the round mahogany table, the waxen +bouquets, and the horsehair chairs. The ancient tapestry beside the +carven balustrade of the staircase remained, but it had been cleaned, +and even mended. + +An oak dresser, black with age, and laden with blue and white +china, lurked in a shadowy corner. Comfortable easy-chairs and odd, +old-fashioned settees furnished the hall. In the oriel window stood a +spinning-wheel and a grandfather's chair. A great bowl of roses stood +on the broad window-seat. There were roses, indeed, everywhere, and +books on every table. But the crowning grievance of all was the +cottage piano which John had sent to Lady Mary. The case had been +specially made of hand-carven oak to match the room as nearly as might +be. It was open, and beside it was a heap of music, and on it another +bowl of roses. + +"Ay, you may well look horrified," said Miss Crewys to the canon, +whose admiration and delight were very plainly depicted on his +rubicund countenance. "Where are our cloaks and umbrellas? That's what +I say to Isabella. Where are our goloshes? Where is anything, indeed, +that one would expect to find in a gentleman's hall? Not so much as a +walking-stick. Everything to be kept in the outer hall, where tramps +could as easily step in and help themselves; but our poor foolish +Mary fancies that Peter will be delighted to find his old home turned +upside down." + +"My belief is," said Lady Belstone, "that Peter will just insist on +all this wooden rubbish trotting back to the attics, where my dear +granny, not being accustomed to wooden furniture, very properly hid it +away. If you will believe me, canon, that dresser was brought up from +the _kitchen_, and every single pot and pan that decorates it used to +be kept in the housekeeper's room. That lumbering old chest was in +the harness-room. Pretty ornaments for a gentleman's sitting-room! If +Peter has grown up anything like my poor brother, he won't put up with +it at all." + +"I suppose, in one sense, it's Peter's house, or will be very +shortly?" said the canon. + +"In _every_ sense it's Peter's house," cried Lady Belstone; "and he +comes of age, thank Heaven, in October." + +"I had hoped to hear he had sailed," said the canon. "No news is good +news, I hope." + +"The last telegram said his wound was doing well, but did not give any +date for his return. Young John says we may expect him any time. I do +not know what he knows about it more than any one else, however," said +Miss Crewys. + +"His letters give no details about himself," said Lady Belstone; "he +makes no fuss about his wounded arm. He is a thorough Crewys, not +given to making a to-do about trifles." + +"He could only write a few words with his left hand," said Miss +Crewys; "more could not have been expected of him. Yet poor Mary was +quite put out, as I plainly saw, though she said nothing, because the +boy had not written at greater length." + +"I find they've made a good many preparations for his welcome down in +the village," said the canon, "in case he should take us by surprise. +So many of the officers have got passages at the last moment, +unexpectedly. And we shall turn out to receive him _en masse_. Mr. +Crewys has given us _carte blanche_ for fireworks and flags; and they +are to have a fine bean-feast." + +"Our cousin John takes a great deal upon himself, and has made +uncommonly free with Peter's money," said Lady Belstone, shaking her +head. "I wish he may not find himself pretty nigh ruined when he comes +to look into his own affairs. In my opinion, Fred Crawley is little +better than a fool." + +"He is most devoted to Peter's interests, my dear lady," said the +canon, warmly, "and he informed me that Mr. John Crewys had done +wonders in the past two years." + +"He has turned the whole place topsy-turvy in two years, in my +opinion," said Miss Crewys. "I don't deny that he is a rising young +man, and that his manners are very taking. But what can a Cockney +lawyer know, about timber, pray?" + +"No man on earth, lawyer or no lawyer," said Lady Belstone, +emphatically, "will ever convince me that one can be better than +_well_." + +"My sister alludes to the drains. It is a sore point, canon," said +Miss Crewys. "In my opinion, it is all this modern drainage that sets +up typhoid fever, and nothing else." + +"Bless me!" said the canon. + +"Our poor Mary has grown so dependent on John, however, that she will +hear nothing against him. One has to mind one's p's and q's," said +Lady Belstone. + +"He planned the alterations in this very hall," said Miss Crewys, "and +the only excuse he offered, so far as I could understand, was that it +would amuse poor Mary to carry them out." + +"Does a widow wish to be amused?" said Lady Belstone, indignantly. + +"And was she amused, dear lady?" asked the canon, anxiously. + +"When she saw our horror and dismay she smiled." + +"Did you call that a smile, Georgina? I called it a laugh. It takes +almost nothing to make her laugh nowadays." + +"You would not wish her to be too melancholy," said the canon, almost +pleadingly; "one so--so charming, so--" + +"Canon Birch," said Lady Belstone, in awful tones, "she is a widow." + +The canon was silent, displaying an embarrassment which did not escape +the vigilant observation of the sisters, who exchanged a meaning +glance. + +"Well may you remind us of the fact, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, "for +she has discarded the last semblance of mourning." + +"Time flies so fast," said the canon, as though impelled to defend +the absent. "It is--getting on for three years since poor Sir Timothy +died." + +"It is but two years and four months," said Miss Crewys. + +"It is thirty-three years since the admiral went aloft," said Lady +Belstone, who often became slightly nautical in phrase when alluding +to her departed husband; "and look at me." + +The pocket-handkerchief she held up was deeply bordered with ink. +Orthodox streamers floated on either side her severe countenance. + +The canon looked and shook his head. He felt that the mysteries of a +widow's garments had best not be discussed by one who dwelt, so to +speak, outside them. + +"Poor Mary can do nothing gradually," said Miss Crewys. "She leapt in +a single hour out of a black dress into a white one." + +"Her anguish when our poor Timothy succumbed to that fatal operation +surpassed even the bounds of decorum," said Lady Belstone, "and +yet--she would not wear a cap!" + +She appealed to the canon with such a pathetic expression in her +small, red-rimmed, grey eyes that he could not answer lightly. + +They faced him with anxious looks and drooping, tremulous mouths. +They had grown curiously alike during the close association of nearly +eighty years, though in their far-off days of girlhood no one had +thought them to resemble each other. + +Miss Crewys crocheted a shawl with hands so delicately cared for and +preserved, that they scarce showed any sign of her great age; her +sister wore gloves, as was the habit of both when unoccupied, and she +grasped her handkerchief in black kid fingers that trembled slightly +with emotion. + +The canon realized that the old ladies were seriously troubled +concerning their sister-in-law's delinquencies. + +"We speak to you, of course, as our _clergyman_," said Miss Crewys; +and the poor gentleman could only bow sympathetically. + +"I am an old friend," he said feelingly, "and your confidences are +sacred. But I think in your very natural--er--affection for Lady +Mary"--the word stuck in his throat--"you are, perhaps, over-anxious. +In judging those younger than ourselves," said the canon, gallantly +coupling himself with his auditors,' though acutely conscious that he +was some twenty years the junior of both, "we must not forget that +they recover their spirits, by a merciful dispensation of Providence, +more quickly than we should ourselves in the like circumstances," said +the canon, who was as light-hearted a cleric as any in England. + +"They do, indeed," said Lady Belstone, emphatically; "when they can +sing and play all the day and half the night, like our dear Mary and +young John." + +"You see the piano blocking up the hall, though Sir Timothy hated +music?" said Miss Crewys. + +Her own mourning was thoughtfully graduated to indicate the time which +had elapsed since Sir Timothy's decease. She wore a violet silk of +sombre hue, ornamented by a black silk apron and a black lace scarf. +The velvet bow which served so very imperfectly as a skull-cap was +also violet, intimating a semi-assuaged, but respectfully lengthened, +grief for the departed. + +"And now this maddest scheme of all," said Miss Crewys. + +"Bless me! What mad scheme?" + +"A house in London is to be hired as soon as Peter comes home." + +"Is that all? But surely that is very natural. For my part, I have +often wondered why none of you ever cared to go to London, if only for +your shopping. I am very fond of a trip to town myself, now and then, +for a few days." + +"A few days, it seems, would not suffice our cousin John's notions. He +is pleased to think Peter may require skilled medical attendance; and, +since he wrote he was in rags, a new outfit. These, it seems, can only +be obtained in the Metropolis nowadays. My brother's tailor still +lives in Exeter; and with all his faults--and nobody can dislike him +more than I do--I have never heard it denied that Dr. Blundell is a +skilful apothecary." + +"_Very_ skilful," added Miss Crewys. "You remember, Isabella, how +quickly he put your poor little Fido out of his agony." + +"That is nothing; all doctors understand animals' illnesses. They kill +numbers of guinea-pigs before they are allowed to try their hands on +human beings," said Lady Belstone. "The point is, that if my poor +brother Timothy had not been mad enough to go to London, he would have +been alive at this moment. I have never heard of Dr. Blundell finding +it necessary--much as I detest the man--to perform an operation on +anybody." + +"Apart from this painful subject, my dear lady," murmured the canon, +"I presume it is only a furnished house that Lady Mary contemplates?" + +"During all the years of his married life Sir Timothy never hired a +furnished house," said Miss Crewys. "The home of his fathers sufficed +him." + +"She may want a change?" suggested the canon. + +Miss Crewys interpreted him literally. "No; she is in the best of +health." + +"Better than I have ever seen her, and--and _gayer_" said Lady +Belstone, with emphasis. + +"People who are gay and bright in disposition are the very ones +who--who pine for a little excitement at times," said the courageous +canon. "There is so much to be seen and done and heard in London. For +instance, as you say--she is passionately fond of music." + +"She gets plenty. _We_ get more than enough," said Miss Crewys, +grimly. + +"I mean _good_ music;" then he recollected himself in alarm. "No, +no; I don't mean hers is not charming, and Mr. John's playing is +delightful, but--" + +"There is an organ in the parish church," said Miss Crewys, crocheting +more busily than ever. "I have heard no complaints of the choir. Have +you?" + +"No, no; but--besides music, there are so many other things," he said +dismally. "She likes pictures, too." + +"It does not look like it, canon," said Lady Belstone, sorrowfully. +She waved her handkerchief towards the panelled walls. "She has +removed the family portraits to the lumber-room." + +"At least the Vandyck has never been seen to greater advantage," +said the canon, hopefully; "and I hear the gallery upstairs has been +restored and supported, to render it safe to walk upon, which will +enable you to take pleasure in the fine pictures there." + +"I am sadly afraid that it is not pictures that poor Mary hankers +after, but _theatres_," said Miss Crewys. "John has persuaded her, +if persuasion was needed, which I take leave to doubt, that there is +nothing improper in visiting such places. My dear brother thought +otherwise." + +"You know I do not share your opinions on that point," said the canon. +"Though not much of a theatre-goer myself, still--" + +"A widow at the theatre!" said Lady Belstone. "Even in the admiral's +lifetime I did not go. Being a sailor, and _not_ a clergyman," she +added sternly, "he frequented such places of amusement. But he said +he could not have enjoyed a ballet properly with me looking on. His +feelings were singularly delicate." "I am afraid people must be +talking about dear Mary a good deal, canon," said Miss Crewys, +whisking a ball of wool from the floor to her knee with much +dexterity. + +Her keen eyes gleamed at her visitor through her spectacles, though +her fingers never stopped for a moment. + +"I hope not. I've heard nothing." + +"My experience of men," said Lady Belstone, "is that they never _do_ +hear anything. But a widow cannot be too cautious in her behaviour. +All eyes are fixed, I know not why, upon a widow," she added modestly. + +"We do our best to guard dear Mary's reputation," said Miss Crewys. + +The impetuous canon sprang to his feet with a half-uttered +exclamation; then recollecting the age and temperament of the speaker, +he checked himself and tried to laugh. + +"I do not know," he said, "who has said, or ever could say, one single +word against that--against our dear and sweet Lady Mary. But if there +_is_ any one, I can only say that such word had better not be uttered +in my presence, that's all." + +"Dear me, Canon Birch, you excite yourself very unnecessarily," said +Lady Belstone, with assumed surprise. "You are just confirming our +suspicions." + +"What suspicions?" almost shouted the canon, + +"That our dear Lady Mary's extraordinary partiality for our cousin +John has _not_ escaped the observation of a censorious world." + +"Though we have done our best never to leave him alone with her for a +single moment," interpolated Miss Crewys. + +The canon turned rather pale. "There can be no question of censure," +he said. "Lady Mary is a very charming and beautiful woman. Who could +dare to blame her if she contemplated such a step as--as a second +marriage?" + +"A second marriage! We said nothing of a second marriage," said Lady +Belstone, sharply. "You go a great deal too fast, canon. Luckily, our +poor Mary is debarred from any such act of folly. I have no patience +with widows who re-marry." + +"Debarred from a second marriage!" + +"Is it possible you don't know?" + +The sisters exchanged meaning glances. + +He looked from one to the other in bewilderment. + +"If our sister-in-law remarries," said Miss Crewys, "she forfeits the +whole of her jointure." + +"Is that all?" he cried. + +"Is that all!" echoed Miss Crewys, much offended. "It is no less than +two thousand a year. In my opinion, far too heavy a charge on poor +Peter's estate." + +"No man with any self-respect," said Lady Belstone, "would desire to +marry a widow without a jointure. I should have formed a low opinion, +indeed, of any gentleman who asked _me_ to marry him without first +making sure that the admiral had provided for me as he ought, and as +he _has_." + +The canon, though mentally echoing the sentiment with much warmth, +thought it wiser to change the topic of conversation. Experience +had taught him to discredit most of the assumptions of Lady Mary's +sisters-in-law, where she was concerned, and he rose in hope of +effecting his escape without further ado. + +"I believe I am to meet Mr. Crewys at luncheon," he said, "and with +your permission I will stroll out into the grounds, and look him up. +He told me where he was to be found." + +"He is to be found all over the place. He seizes every opportunity +of coming down here. I cannot believe in his making so much money in +London, when he manages to get away so often. As for Mary, you know +her way of inviting people to lunch, and then going out for a walk, +or up to her room, as likely as not. But I suppose she will be down +directly, if you like to wait here," said Lady Belstone, who had +plenty more to say. + +"I should be glad of a turn before luncheon," said the canon, who had +no mind to hear it. "And there is an hour and a half yet. You lunch at +two? I came straight from the school-house, as Lady Mary suggested. I +wanted to have a look at the improvements." + +"Sarah Hewel is coming to lunch," said Miss Crewys. "I cannot say we +approve of her, since she has been out so much in London, and become +such a notorious young person." + +"It's very odd to me," said the canon, benevolently, "little Sarah +growing up into a fashionable beauty. I often see her name in the +papers." + +"She is exactly the kind of person to attract our cousin John, who is +quite foolish about her red hair. In my young days, red hair was just +a misfortune like any other," said Miss Crewys. "Dr. Blundell is +lunching here also, I need hardly say. Since my dear brother's death +we keep open house." + +"It used not to be the fashion to encourage country doctors to be tame +cats," said Lady Belstone, viciously; "but he pretends to like the +innovations, and gets round young John; and inquires after Peter, and +pleases Mary." + +"Ay, ay; it will be a great moment for her when the boy comes back. A +great moment for you all," said the canon, absently. + +He stood with his back to the tall leather screen which guarded the +entrance to the hall, and did not hear the gentle opening of the great +door. + +"I trust," said Miss Crewys, "that we are not a family prone to +display weak emotion even on the most trying occasions." + +"To be sure not," said the canon, disconcerted; "still, I cannot think +of it myself without a little--a great deal--of thankfulness for his +preservation through this terrible war, now so happily ended. And to +think the boy should have earned so much distinction for himself, and +behaved so gallantly. God bless the lad! You are well aware," said the +canon, blowing his nose, "that I have always been fond of Peter." + +"Thank you, canon," said Peter. + +For a moment no one was sure that it was Peter, who had come so +quietly round the great screen and into the hall, though he stood +somewhat in the shadow still. + +A young man, looking older than his age, and several inches taller +than Peter had been when he went away; a young man deeply tanned, and +very wiry and thin in figure; with a brown, narrow face, a dark streak +of moustache, a long nose, and a pair of grey eyes rendered unfamiliar +by an eyeglass, which was an ornament Peter had not worn before his +departure. + +The old ladies sat motionless, trembling with the shock; but the canon +seized the hand which Peter held out, and, scarcely noticing that it +was his left hand, shook it almost madly in both his own. + +"Peter! good heavens, Peter!" he cried, and the tears ran unheeded +down his plump, rosy cheeks. "Peter, my boy, God bless you! Welcome +home a thousand thousand times!" + +"Peter!" gasped Lady Belstone. "Is it possible?" + +"Why, he's grown into a man," said Miss Crewys, showing symptoms of an +inclination to become hysterical. + +Peter was aghast at the commotion, and came hurriedly forward to +soothe his agitated relatives. + +"Is this your boasted self-command, Georgina?" said Lady Belstone, +weeping. + +"We cannot always be consistent, Isabella. It was the unexpected joy," +sobbed Miss Crewys. + +"Peter! your _arm_!" screamed Lady Belstone and she fell back almost +fainting upon the sofa. + +Peter stood full in the light now, and they saw that he had lost his +right arm. The empty sleeve was pinned to his breast. + +His aunt tottered towards him. "My poor boy!" she sobbed. + +"Oh, that's all right," said Peter, in rather annoyed tones. "I can +use my left hand perfectly well. I hardly notice it now." + +Something in the tone of this speech caused his aunts to exclaim +simultaneously-- + +"Dear boy, he has not changed one bit!" + +"You never told us, Peter," said the canon, huskily. + +"I didn't want a fuss," Peter said, very simply, "so I just got the +newspaper chap to cork it down about my being shot in the arm, without +any details. It had to be amputated first thing, as a matter of fact." + +"It has given your aunt Georgina and me a terrible shock," said Lady +Belstone, faintly. + +"You can't expect a fellow who has been invalided home to turn up +without a single scratch," said Peter, in rather surly tones. + +"How like his father!" said Miss Crewys. + +"Besides, you know very well my mother would have tormented herself to +death if I had told her," said Peter. "I want her to see with her own +eyes how perfectly all right I am before she knows anything about it." + +"It was a noble thought," said the canon. + +"Where is she?" demanded Peter. + +He seemed about to cross the hall to the staircase but the canon +detained him. + +"Oughtn't some one to prepare her?" + +"Oh, joy never kills," said Peter. "She's quite well, isn't she?" + +"Quite well." + +"Very well _indeed_" said Miss Crewys, with emphasis that seemed to +imply Lady Mary was better than she had any need to be. + +"I have never," said the canon, with a nervous side-glance at Peter, +"seen her look so well, nor so--so lovely, nor so--so brilliant. Only +your return was needed to complete--her happiness." + +Peter looked at the canon through his newly acquired eyeglass with +some slight surprise. + +"Well," he said, "I wouldn't telegraph. I wanted to slip home quietly, +that's the fact; or I knew the place would be turned upside down to +receive me." + +"The people are preparing a royal welcome for you," said the canon, +warmly. "Banners, music, processions, addresses, and I don't know +what." + +"That's awful rot!" said Peter. "Tell them I hate banners and music +and addresses, and everything of the kind." + +"No, no, my dear boy," said the canon, in rather distressed tones. +"Don't say that, Peter, pray. You must think of _their_ feelings, you +know. There's hardly one of them who hasn't sent somebody to the war; +son or brother or sweetheart. And all that's left for--for those who +stay behind--not always the least hard thing to do for a patriot, +Peter--is to honour, as far as they can, each one who returns. They +work off some of their accumulated feelings that way, you know; and in +their rejoicings they do not forget those who, alas! will never return +any more." + +There was a pause; and Peter remained silent, embarrassed by the +canon's emotion, and not knowing very well how to reply. + +"There, there," said the canon, saving him the trouble; "we can +discuss it later. You are thinking of your mother now." + +As he spoke, they all heard Lady Mary's voice in the corridor above. +She was humming a song, and as she neared the open staircase the words +of her song came very distinctly to their ears-- + + _Entends tu ma pensee qui le respond tout bas_? + _Ton doux chant me rappelle les plus beaux de mes jours_. + +"My mother's voice," said Peter, in bewildered accents; and he dropped +his eyeglass. + +The canon showed a presence of mind that seldom distinguished him. + +He hurried away the old ladies, protesting, into the drawing-room, and +closed the door behind him. + +Peter scarcely noticed their absence. + + _Ah! le rire fidele prouve un coeur sans detours, + Ah! riez, riez--ma belle--riez, riez toujours_, + +sang Lady Mary. + +"I never heard my mother sing before," said Peter. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Lady Mary came down the oak staircase singing. The white draperies of +her summer gown trailed softly on the wide steps, and in her hands she +carried a quantity of roses. A black ribbon was bound about her waist, +and seemed only to emphasize the slenderness of her form. Her brown +hair was waved loosely above her brow; it was not much less abundant, +though much less bright, than in her girlhood. The freshness of youth +had gone for ever; but her loveliness had depended less upon that +radiant colouring which had once been hers than upon her clear-cut +features, and exquisitely shaped head and throat. Her blue eyes looked +forth from a face white and delicate as a shell cameo, beneath finely +pencilled brows; but they shone now with a new hopefulness--a timid +expectancy of happiness; they were no longer pensive and downcast as +Peter had known them best. + +The future had been shrouded by a heavy mist of hopelessness +always--for Lady Mary. But the fog had lifted, and a fair landscape +lay before her. Not bright, alas! with the brightness and the promise +of the morning-time; but yet--there are sunny afternoons; and the +landscape was bright still, though long shadows from the past fell +across it. + +Peter saw only that his mother, for some extraordinary reason, looked +many years younger than when he had left her, and that she had +exchanged her customary dull, old-fashioned garb for a beautiful and +becoming dress. He gave an involuntary start, and immediately she +perceived him. + +She stretched out her arms to him with a cry that rang through the +rafters of the hall. The roses were scattered. + +"My boy! O God, my darling boy!" + +In the space of a flash--a second--Lady Mary had seen and understood. +Her arms were round him, and her face hidden upon his empty sleeve. +She was as still as death. Peter stooped his head and laid his cheek +against her hair; he felt for one fleeting moment that he had never +known before how much he loved his mother. + +"Forgive me for keeping it dark, mother," he whispered presently; "but +I knew you'd think I was dying, or something, if I told you. It had to +be done, and I don't care--much--now; one gets used to anything. My +aunts nearly had a fit when I came in; but I knew _you'd_ be too +thankful to get me home safe and sound, to make a fuss over what can't +be helped. It's--it's just the fortune of war." + +"Oh, if I could meet the man who did it!" she cried, with fire in her +blue eyes. + +"It wasn't a man; it was a gun," said Peter. "Let's forget it. I +say--doesn't it feel rummy to be at home again?" + +"But you have come back a man, Peter. Not a boy at all," said Lady +Mary, laughing through her tears. "Do let me look at you. You must be +six feet three, surely." + +"Barely six feet one in my boots," said Peter, reprovingly. + +"And you have a moustache--more or less." + +"Of course I have a moustache," said Peter, gravely stroking it. He +mechanically replaced his eyeglass. + +Lady Mary laughed till she cried. + +"Do forgive me, darling. But oh, Peter, it seems so strange. My boy +grown into a tall gentleman with an eyeglass. Nothing has happened to +your eye?" she cried, in sudden anxiety. + +"No, no; I am just a little short-sighted, that is all," he mumbled, +rather awkwardly. + +He found it difficult to explain that he had travelled home with a +distinguished man who had captivated his youthful fancy, and caused +him to fall into a fit of hero-worship, and to imitate his idol as +closely as possible. Hence the eyeglass, and a few harmless mannerisms +which temporarily distinguished Peter, and astonished his previous +acquaintance. + +But there was something else in Peter's manner, too, for the moment. +A new tenderness, which peeped through his old armour of sulky +indifference; the chill armour of his boyhood, which had grown +something too strait and narrow for him even now, and from which he +would doubtless presently emerge altogether--but not yet. + +Though Lady Mary laughed, she was trembling and shaken with emotion. +Peter came to the sofa and knelt beside her there, and she took his +hand in both hers, and laid her face upon it, and they were very still +for a few moments. + +"Mother dear," said Peter presently, without looking at her, "coming +home like this, and not finding my father here, makes me _realize_ for +the first time--though it's all so long ago--what's happened." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Poor mother! You must have been terribly lonely all this time I've +been away." + +"I've longed for your return, my darling," said Lady Mary. + +Her tone was embarrassed, but Peter did not notice that. + +"You see--I went away a boy, but I've come back a man, as you said +just now," said Peter. + +"You're still very young, my darling--not one-and-twenty," she said +fondly. + +"I'm older than my age; and I've been through a lot; more than you'd +think, all this time I've been away. I dare say it hasn't seemed so +long to you, who've had no experiences to go through," he said simply. + +She kissed him silently. + +"Now just listen, mother dear," said Peter, firmly. "I made up my mind +to say something to you the very first minute I saw you, and it's got +to be said. I'm sorry I used to be such a beast to you--there." + +"Oh, Peter!" + +"I dare say," said Peter, "that it's all this rough time in South +Africa that's made me feel what a fool I used to make of myself, when +I was a discontented ass of a boy; that, or being ill, or something, +used to--make one think a bit. And that's why I made up my mind to +tell you. I know I used to disappoint you horribly, and be bored by +your devotion, and all that. But you'll see," said Peter, decidedly, +"that I mean to be different now; and you'll forgive me, won't you?" + +"My darling, I forgave you long ago--if there was anything to +forgive," she cried, + +"You know there was," said Peter; and he sounded like the boy Peter +again, now that she could not see his face. "Well, my soldiering's +done for." A faint note of regret sounded in his voice. "I had a good +bout, so I suppose I oughtn't to complain; but I had hoped--however, +it's all for the best. And there's no doubt," said Peter, "that my +duty lies here now. In a very few months I shall be my own master, and +I mean to keep everything going here exactly as it was in my father's +time. You shall devote yourself to me, and I'll devote myself to +Barracombe; and we'll just settle down into all the old ways. Only it +will be me instead of my father--that's all." + +"You instead of your father--that's all," echoed Lady Mary. She felt +as though her mind had suddenly become a blank. + +"I used to rebel against poor papa," said Peter, remorsefully. "But +now I look back, I know he was just the kind of man I should like to +be." + +She kissed his hand in silence. Her face was hidden. + +"I want you--and my aunts, to feel that, though I am young and +inexperienced, and all that," said Peter, tenderly, "there are to be +no changes." + +"But, Peter," said his mother, rather tremulously, "there are--sure +to be--changes. You will want to marry, sooner or later. In your +position, you are almost bound to marry." + +"Oh, of course," said Peter. He released his hand gently, in order to +stroke the cherished moustache. "But I shall put off the evil day as +long as possible, like my father did." + +"I see," said Lady Mary. She smiled faintly. + +"And when it _does_ arrive," said Peter, "my wife will just have to +understand that she comes second. I've no notion of being led by the +nose by any woman, particularly a young woman. I'm sure my father +never dreamt of putting his sisters on one side, or turning them out +of their place, when he married _you_, did he?" + +"Never," said Lady Mary. + +"Of course they were snappish at times. I suppose all old people +get like that. But, on the whole, you managed to jog along pretty +comfortably, didn't you?" + +"Oh yes," said Lady Mary. "We jogged along pretty comfortably." + +"Then don't you see how snug we shall be?" said Peter, triumphantly. +"I can tell you a fellow learns to appreciate home when he has been +without one, so to speak, for over two years. And home wouldn't be +home without you, mother dear." + +Lady Mary sank suddenly back among the cushions. Her feelings were +divided between dismay and self-reproach. Yet she was faintly amused +too--amused at Peter and herself. Her boy had returned to her with +sentiments that were surely all that a mother could desire; and +yet--yet she felt instinctively that Peter was Peter still; that +his thoughts were not her thoughts, nor his ways her ways. Then the +self-reproach began to predominate in Lady Mary's mind. How could she +criticize her boy, her darling, who had proved himself a son to be +proud of, and who had come back to her with a heart so full of love +and loyalty? + +"And _you_ couldn't live without _me_, could you?" said Peter, +affectionately; and he laughed. "I suppose you meant to go into that +little, damp, tumble-down Dower House, and watch over me from there; +now didn't you, mummy?" + +"I--I thought, when you came of age," faltered Lady Mary, "that I +should give up Barracombe House to you, naturally. I could come and +stay with you sometimes--whether you were married or not, you know. +And--and, of course, the Dower House _does_ belong to me." + +"I won't hear of your going there," said Peter, stoutly, "whether I'm +married or not. It's a beastly place." + +"It's very picturesque," said Lady Mary, guiltily; "and I--I wasn't +thinking of living there all the year round." + +"Why, where on earth else could you have gone?" he demanded, regarding +her with astonishment through the eyeglass. + +"There are several places--London," she faltered. + +"London!" said Peter; "but my father had a perfect horror of London. +He wouldn't have liked it at all." + +"He belonged--to the old school," said Lady Mary, meekly; "to +younger people, perhaps--an occasional change might be pleasant and +profitable." + +"Oh! to _younger_ people," said Peter, in mollified tones. "I don't +say I shall _never_ run up to London. I dare say I shall be obliged, +now and then, on business. Not often though. I hate absentee +landlords, as my father did." + +"Travelling is said to open the mind," murmured Lady Mary, weakly +pursuing her argument, as she supposed it to be. + +"I've seen enough of the world now to last me a lifetime," said Peter, +in sublime unconsciousness that any fate but his own could be in +question. + +"I didn't think you would have changed so much as this, Peter," she +said, rather dismally. "You used to find this place so dull." + +"I know I used," Peter agreed; "but oh, mother, if you knew how sick +I've been now and then with longing to get back to it! I made up my +mind a thousand times how it should all be when I came home again; and +that you and me would be everything in the world to each other, as you +used to wish when I was a selfish boy, thinking only of getting +away and being independent. I'm afraid I used to be rather selfish, +mother?" + +"Perhaps you were--a little," said Lady Mary. + +"You will never have to complain of _that_ again," said Peter. + +She looked at him with a faint, pathetic smile. + +"I shall take care of you, and look after you, just as my father used +to do," said Peter. "Now you rest quietly here"--and he gently laid +her down among the cushions on the sofa--"whilst I take a look round +the old place." + +"Let me come with you, darling." + +"Good heavens, no! I should tire you to death. My father never liked +you to go climbing about." + +"I am much more active than I used to be," said Lady Mary. + +"No, no; you must lie down, you look quite pale." Peter's voice took +an authoritative note, which came very naturally to him. "The sudden +joy of my return has been too much for you, poor old mum." + +He leant over her fondly, and kissed the sweet, pale face, and then +regarded her in a curious, doubtful manner. + +"You're changed, mother. I can't think what it is. Isn't your hair +done differently--or something?" + +Poor Lady Mary lifted both hands to her head, and looked at him with +something like alarm in her blue eyes. + +"Is it? Perhaps it is," she faltered. "Don't you like it, Peter?" + +"I like the old way best," said Peter. + +"But this is so much more becoming, Peter." + +"A fellow doesn't care," said Peter, loftily, "whether his mother's +hair is becoming or not. He likes to see her always the same as when +he was a little chap." + +"It is--sweet of you, to have such a thought," murmured Lady Mary. She +took her courage in both hands. "But the other way is out of fashion, +Peter." + +"Why, mother, you never used to follow the fashions before I went +away; you won't begin now, at your age, will you?" + +"_At my age_" repeated Lady Mary, blankly. Then she looked at him with +that wondering, pathetic smile, which seemed to have replaced already, +since Peter came home, the joyousness which had timidly stolen back +from her vanished youth. "At my age!" said Lady Mary; "you are not +very complimentary, Peter." + +"You don't expect a fellow to pay compliments to his mother," said +Peter, staring at her. "Why, mother, what has come to you? And +besides--" + +"Besides?" + +"I'm sure papa hated compliments, and all that sort of rot," Peter +blurted out, in boyish fashion. "Don't you remember how fond he was of +quoting, 'Praise to the face is open disgrace'?" + +The late Sir Timothy, like many middle-class people, had taken a +compliment almost as a personal offence; and regarded the utterer, +however gracious or sincere, with suspicion. Neither had the squire +himself erred on the side of flattering his fellow-creatures. + +"Oh yes, I remember," said Lady Mary; and she rose from the sofa. + +"Why, what's the matter?" asked Peter. "I haven't vexed you, have I?" + +She turned impetuously and threw her arms round him as he stood by the +hearth, gazing down upon her in bewilderment. + +"Vexed with my boy, my darling, my only son, on the very day when God +has given him back to me?" she cried passionately. "My poor wounded +boy, my hero! Oh no, no! But I want only love from you to-day, and no +reproaches, Peter." + +"Why, I wasn't dreaming of reproaching you, mother." He hesitated. +"Only you're a bit different from what I expected--that's all." + +"Have I disappointed you?" + +"No, no! Only I--well, I thought I might find you changed, but in a +different way," he said, half apologetically. "Perhaps older, you +know, or--or sadder." + +Lady Mary's white face flushed scarlet from brow to chin; but Peter, +occupied with his monocle, observed nothing. + +"I'd prepared myself for that," he said, "and to find you all in +black. And--" + +"I threw off my mourning," she murmured, "the very day I heard you +were coming home." She paused, and added hurriedly, "It was very +thoughtless. I'm sorry; I ought to have thought of your feelings, my +darling." + +"Aunt Isabella has never changed hers, has she?" said Peter. + +"Aunt Isabella is a good deal more conventional than I am; and a great +many years older," said Lady Mary, tremulously. + +"I don't see what that has to do with it," said Peter. + +She turned away, and began to gather up her scattered roses. A few +moments since the roses had been less than nothing to her. What were +roses, what was anything, compared to Peter? Now they crept back into +their own little place in creation; their beauty and fragrance dumbly +conveyed a subtle comfort to her soul, as she lovingly laid one +against another, until a glowing bouquet of coppery golden hue was +formed. She lifted an ewer from the old dresser, and poured water into +a great silver goblet, wherein she plunged the stalks of her roses. +Why should they be left to fade because Peter had come home? + +"You remember these?" she said, "from the great climber round my +bedroom window? I leant out and cut them--little thinking--" + +Peter signified a gloomy assent. He stood before the chimneypiece +watching his mother, but not offering to help her; rather as though +undecided as to what his next words ought to be. + +"Peter, darling, it's so funny to see you standing there, so tall, and +so changed--" But though it was so funny the tears were dropping from +her blue eyes, which filled and overflowed like a child's, without +painful effort or grimaces. "You--you remind me so of your father," +she said, almost involuntarily. + +"I'm glad I'm like him," said Peter. + +She sighed. "How I used to wish you were a little tiny bit like me +too!" + +"But I'm not, am I?" + +"No, you're not. Not one tiny bit," she answered wistfully. "But you +do love me, Peter?" + +"Haven't I proved I love you?" said Peter; and she perceived that +his feelings were hurt. "Coming back, and--and thinking only of you, +and--and of never leaving you any more. Why, mother"--for in an agony +of love and remorse she was clinging to him and sobbing, with her face +pressed against his empty sleeve--"why, mother," Peter repeated, in +softened tones, "of course I love you." + +The drawing-room door was cautiously opened, and Peter's aunts came +into the hall on tiptoe, followed by the canon. + +"Ah, I thought so," said Lady Belstone, in the self-congratulatory +tones of the successful prophet, "it has been too much for poor Mary. +She has been overcome by the joy of dear Peter's return." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +"Try my salts, dear Mary," said Miss Crewys, hastening to apply the +remedies which were always to be found in her black velvet reticule. + +"I blame myself," said the canon, distressfully--"I blame myself. I +should have insisted on breaking the news to her gently." + +Lady Mary smiled upon them all. "On the contrary," she said, "I was +offering, not a moment ago, to take Peter round and show him the +improvements. We have been so much occupied with each other that he +has not had time to look round him." + +"I wish he may think them improvements, my love," said Lady Belstone. + +Miss Crewys, joyously scenting battle, hastened to join forces with +her sister. + +"We are far from criticizing any changes your dear mother may have +been induced to make," she said; "but as your Aunt Isabella has +frequently observed to me, what _can_ a Londoner know of landscape +gardening?" + +"A Londoner?" said Peter. + +"Your guardian, my boy," said the canon, nervously. "He has slightly +opened out the views; that is all your good aunt is intending to say." + +Peter's good aunt opened her mouth to contradict this assertion +indignantly, but Lady Mary broke in with some impatience. + +"I do not mean the trees. Of course the house was shut in far too +closely by the trees at the back and sides. We wanted more air, more +light, more freedom." She drew a long breath and flung out her hands +in unconscious illustration. "But there are many very necessary +changes that--that Peter will like to see," said Lady Mary, glancing +almost defiantly at the pursed-up mouths and lowered eyelids of the +sisters. + +Peter walked suddenly into the middle of the banqueting-hall and +looked round him. + +"Why, what's come to the old place? It's--it's changed somehow. What +have you been doing to it?" he demanded. + +"Don't you--don't you like it, Peter?" faltered Lady Mary. "The roof +was not safe, you know, and had to be mended, and--and when it was +all done up, the furniture and curtains looked so dirty and ugly and +inappropriate. I sent them away and brought down some of the beautiful +old things that belonged to your great-grandmother, and made the hall +brighter and more livable." + +Peter examined the new aspect of his domain with lowering brow. + +"I don't like it at all," he announced, finally. "I hate changes." + +The sisters breathed again. "So like his father!" + +Their allegiance to Sir Timothy had been transferred to his heir. + +"Your guardian approved," said Lady Mary. + +She turned proudly away, but she could not keep the pain altogether +out of her voice. Neither would she stoop to solicit Peter's approval +before her rejoicing opponents. + +"Mr. John Crewys is a very great connoisseur," said the canon. He +taxed his memory for corroborative evidence, and brought out the +result with honest pride. "I believe, curiously enough, that he spends +most of his spare time at the British Museum." + +Lady Mary's lip quivered with laughter in the midst of her very real +distress and mortification. + +But the argument appeared to the canon a most suitable one, and he was +further encouraged by Peter's reception of it. + +"If my guardian approves, I suppose it's all right," said the young +man, with an effort. "My father left all that sort of thing in his +hands, I understand, and he knew what he was doing. I say, where's +that great vase of wax flowers that used to stand on the centre table +under a glass shade?" + +"Darling," said Lady Mary, "it jarred so with the whole scheme of +decoration." + +"I am taking care of that in my room, Peter," said Miss Crewys. + +"And the stuffed birds, and the weasels, and the ferrets that I was so +fond of when I was a little chap. You don't mean to say you've done +away with those too?" cried Peter, wrathfully. + +"They--they are in the gun-room," said Lady Mary. "It seemed such +a--such--an appropriate place for them." + +"I believe," said the canon, nervously, "that stuffing is no longer +considered decorative. After all, _why_ should we place dead animals +in our sitting-rooms?" + +He looked round with the anxious smile of the would-be peacemaker. + +"They were very much worm-eaten, Peter," said Lady Mary. "But if you +would like them brought back--" + +Perhaps the pain in her voice penetrated even Peter's perception, for +he glanced hastily towards her. + +"It doesn't matter," he said magnanimously. "If you and my guardian +decided they were rotten, there's an end of it. Of course I'd rather +have things as they used to be; but after all this time, I expect +there's bound to be a few changes." He turned from the contemplation +of the hall to face his relatives squarely, with the air of an +autocrat who had decreed that the subject was at an end. + +"By-the-by," said Peter, "where _is_ John Crewys? They told me he was +stopping here." + +"He will be in directly," said Lady Mary, "and Sarah Hewel ought to be +here presently too. She is coming to luncheon." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. "I should like to see her again. Is she still +such a rum little toad? Always getting into scrapes, and coming to you +for comfort?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, and her blue eyes twinkled--"I think you +may be surprised to see little Sarah. She is grown up now." + +"Of course," said Peter. "She's only a year younger than I am." + +Lady Mary wondered why Peter's way of saying _of course_ jarred upon +her so much. He had always been brusque and abrupt; it was the family +fashion. Was it because she had grown accustomed to the tactful and +gentle methods of John Crewys that it seemed to have become suddenly +such an intolerable fashion? Sir Timothy had quite honestly believed +tactfulness to be a form of insincerity. He did not recognize it as +the highest outward expression of self-control. But Lady Mary, since +she had known John Crewys, knew also that it is consideration for +the feelings of others which causes the wise man to order his speech +carefully. + +The canon shook his head when Peter stated that Miss Hewel was his +junior by a twelvemonth. + +"She might be ten years older," he said, in awe-struck tones. "I have +always heard that women were extraordinarily adaptable, but I never +realized it before. However, to be sure, she has seen a good deal more +of the world than you have. More than most of us, though in such a +comparatively short space of time. But she is one in a thousand for +quickness." + +"Seen more of the world than I have?" said Peter, astonished. "Why, +I've been soldiering in South Africa for over two years." + +"I don't think soldiering brings much worldly wisdom in its train. I +should be rather sorry to think it did," said Lady Mary, gently. "But +Sarah has been with Lady Tintern all this while." + +"A very worldly woman, indeed, from all I have heard," said Miss +Crewys, severely. + +"But a very great lady," said Lady Mary, "who knows all the famous +people, not only in England, but in Europe. The daughter of a viceroy, +and the wife of a man who was not only a peer, and a great landowner, +but also a distinguished ambassador. And she has taken Sarah +everywhere, and the child is an acknowledged beauty in London and +Paris. Lady Tintern is delighted with her, and declares she has taken +the world by storm." + +"We never thought her a beauty down here," said Peter, rather +contemptuously. + +"Perhaps we did not appreciate her sufficiently down here," said Lady +Mary, smiling. + +"Why, who is she, after all?" cried Peter. + +"A very beautiful and self-possessed young woman, and Lady Tintern's +niece, 'whom not to know argues yourself unknown,'" said Lady Mary, +laughing outright. "John says people were actually mobbing her picture +in the Academy; he could not get near it." + +"I mean," said Peter, almost sulkily, "that she's only old Colonel +Hewel's daughter, whom we've known all our lives." + +"Perhaps one is in danger of undervaluing people one has known all +one's life," said Lady Mary, lightly. + +Peter muttered something to the effect that he was sorry to hear Sarah +had grown up like that; but his words were lost in the tumultuous +entry of Dr. Blundell, who pealed the front door bell, and rushed into +the hall, almost simultaneously. + +His dark face was flushed and enthusiastic. He came straight to Peter, +and held out his hand. + +"A thousand welcomes, Sir Peter. Lady Mary, I congratulate you. I came +up in my dog-cart as fast as possible, to let you know the people +are turning out _en masse_ to welcome you. They're assembling at +the Crewys Arms, and going to hurry up to the house in a regular +procession, band and all." + +"We're proud of our young hero, you see," said the canon; and he laid +his hand affectionately on Peter's shoulder. + +"You will have to say a few words to them," said Lady Mary. + +"Must I?" said the hero. "Let's go out on the terrace and see what's +going on. We can watch them the whole way up." + +He opened the door into the south drawing-rooms; and through the open +windows there floated the distant strains of the village band. + +"Canon, your arm," said Lady Belstone. + +Lady Mary and her son had hastened out on to the terrace. + +The old ladies paused in the doorway; they were particular in such +matters. + +"I believe I take precedence, Georgina," said Lady Belstone, +apologetically. + +"I am far from disputing it, Isabella," said Miss Crewys, drawing back +with great dignity. "You are the elder." + +"Age does not count in these matters. I take precedence, as a married +woman. Will you bring up the rear, Georgina, as my poor admiral would +have said?" + +Miss Crewys bestowed a parting toss of the head upon the doctor, and +followed her victorious sister. + +The doctor laughed silently to himself, standing in the pretty shady +drawing-room; now gay with flowers, and chintz, and Dresden china. + +"I wonder if she would not have been even more annoyed with my +presumption if I _had_ offered her my arm," he said to himself, +amusedly, "than she is offended by my neglect to do so?" + +He did not follow the others into the blinding sunshine of the +terrace. He had had a long morning's work, and was hot and tired. He +looked at his watch. + +"Past one o'clock; h'm! we are lucky if we get anything to eat before +half-past two. All the servants have run out, of course. No use +ringing for whisky and seltzer. All the better. But, at least, one can +rest." + +The pleasantness of the room refreshed his spirit. The interior of his +own house in Brawnton was not much more enticing than the exterior. +The doctor had no time to devote to such matters. He sat down very +willingly in a big armchair, and enjoyed a moment's quiet in the +shade; glancing through the half-closed green shutters at the +brilliant picture without. + +The top level of the terrace garden was carpeted with pattern beds of +heliotrope, and lobelia, and variegated foliage. Against the faint +blue-green of the opposite hill rose the grey stone urns on the +pillars of the balcony; and from the urns hung trailing ivy geraniums +with pink or scarlet blossom, making splashes of colour on the +background of grey distance. Round the pillars wound large blue +clematis, and white passion-flowers. + +Lady Mary stood full in the sunshine, which lent once more the golden +glory of her vanished youth to her brown hair, and the dazzle of +new-fallen snow to her summer gown. + +Close to her side, touching her, stood the young soldier; straight and +tall, with uncovered head, towering above the little group. + +The old sisters had parasols, and the canon wore his shovel hat; but +the doctor wasted no time in observing their manifestations of delight +and excitement. + +"So my beautiful lady has got her precious boy back safe and sound, +save for his right arm, and doubly precious because that is missing. +God bless her a thousand times!" he thought to himself. "But her sweet +face looked more sorrowful than joyful when I came in. What had he +been saying, I wonder, to make her look like that, _already_?" + +John Crewys entered from the hall. "What's this I hear," he said, in +glad tones--"the hero returned?" + +"Ay," said the doctor. "Sir Timothy is forgotten, and Sir Peter reigns +in his stead." + +"Where is Lady Mary?" + +The doctor drew him to the window. "There," he said grimly. "Why don't +you go out and join her?" + +"She has her son," said John, smiling. + +He looked with interest at the group on the terrace; then he started +back with an exclamation of horror. + +"Why, good heavens--" + +"Yes," said the doctor quietly, "the poor fellow has lost his right +arm." + +There was a sound of distant cheering, and the band could be heard +faintly playing the _Conquering Hero_. + +"He said nothing of it," said John. + +"No; he's a plucky chap, with all his faults." + +"Has he so many faults?" said John. + +The doctor shook his head. "I'm mistaken if he won't turn out a chip +of the old block. Though he's better-looking than his father, he's got +Sir Timothy's very expression." + +"He's turned out a gallant soldier, anyway," said John, cheerily. +"Don't croak, Blundell; we'll make a man of him yet." + +"Please God you may, for his mother's sake," said the doctor; and he +returned to his armchair. + +John Crewys stood by the open French window, and drank in the +refreshing breeze which fluttered the muslin curtains. His calm and +thoughtful face was turned away from the doctor, who knew very well +why John's gaze was so intent upon the group without. + +"Shall I warn him, or shall I let it alone?" thought Blundell. "I +suppose they have been waiting only for this. If that selfish cub +objects, as he will--I feel very sure of that--will she be weak enough +to sacrifice her happiness, or can I trust John Crewys? He looks +strong enough to take care of himself, and of her." + +He looked at John's decided profile, silhouetted against the curtain, +and thought of Peter's narrow face. "Weak but obstinate," he muttered +to himself. "Shrewd, suspicious eyes, but a receding chin. What chance +would the boy have against a man? A man with strength to oppose him, +and brains to outwit him. None, save for the one undoubted fact--the +boy holds his mother's heart in the hollow of his careless hands." + +There was a tremendous burst of cheering, no longer distant, and the +band played louder. + +Lady Mary came hurrying across the terrace. Weeping and agitated, and +half blinded by her tears, she stumbled over the threshold of the +window, and almost fell into John's arms. He drew her into the shadow +of the curtain. + +"John," she cried; she saw no one else. "Oh, I can't bear it! Oh, +Peter, Peter, my boy, my poor boy!" + +The doctor, with a swift and noiseless movement, turned the handle of +the window next him, and let himself out on to the terrace. + +When John looked up he was already gone. Lady Mary did not hear the +slight sound. + +"Oh, John," she said, "my boy's come home--but--but--" + +"I know," John said, very tenderly. + +"I was afraid of breaking down before them all," she whispered. "Peter +was afraid I should break down, and I felt my weakness, and came +away." + +"To me," said John. + +His heart beat strongly. He drew her more closely into his arms, +deeply conscious that he held thus, for the first time, all he loved +best in the world. + +"To you," said poor Lady Mary, very simply; as though aware only +of the rest and support that refuge offered, and not of all of its +strangeness. "Alas! it has grown so natural to come to _you_ now." + +"It will grow more natural every day," said John. + +She shook her head. "There is Peter now," she said faintly. Then, +looking into his face, she realized that John was not thinking of +Peter. + +For a moment's space Lady Mary, too, forgot Peter. She leant against +the broad shoulder of the man who loved her; and felt as though all +trouble, and disappointment, and doubt had slidden off her soul, and +left her only the blissful certainty of happy rest. + +Then she laid her hand very gently and entreatingly on his arm. + +"I will not let you go," said John. "You came to me--at last--of your +own accord, Mary." + +She coloured deeply and leant away from his arm, looking up at him in +distress. + +"I could not help it, John," she said, very simply and naturally. "But +oh, I don't know if I can--if I ought--to come to you any more." + +"What do you mean?" said John. + +"I--we--have been thinking of Peter as a boy--as the boy he was when +he went away," she said, in low, hurrying tones; "but he has come home +a man, and, in some ways, altogether different. He never used to +want me; he used to think this place dull, and long to get away from +it--and from me, for that matter. But now he's--he's wounded, as you +know; maimed, my poor boy, for life; and--and he's counting on me to +make his home for him. We never thought of that. He says it wouldn't +be home without me; and he asked my pardon for being selfish in the +past; my poor Peter! I used to fear he had such a little, cold heart; +but I was all wrong, for when he was so far away he thought of me, +and was sorry he hadn't loved me more. He's come home wanting to be +everything to me, as I am to be everything to him. And I should have +been so glad, so thankful, only two years ago. Oh, have I changed so +much in two little years?" + +John put her out of his arms very gently, and walked towards the +window. His face was pale, but he still smiled, and his hazel eyes +were bright. + +"You're angry, John," said Lady Mary, very sweetly and humbly. "You've +a right to be angry." + +"I am not angry," he said gently. "I may be--a little--disappointed." +He did not look round. + +"You know I was too happy," said poor Lady Mary. She sank into a +chair, and covered her face with her hands. "It was wicked of me to be +so happy, and now I'm going to be punished for it." + +John's great heart melted within him. He came swiftly back to her and +knelt by her side, and kissed the little hand she gave him. + +"Too happy, were you?" he said, with a tenderness that rendered his +deep voice unsteady. "Because you promised to marry me when Peter came +home?" + +"That, and--and everything else," she whispered. "Life seemed to have +widened out, and grown so beautiful. All the dull, empty hours were +filled. Our music, our reading, our companionship, our long walks and +talks, our letters to each other--all those pleasures which you showed +me were at once so harmless and so delightful. And as if that were +not enough--came love. Such love as I had only dreamed of--such +understanding of each other's every thought and word, as I did not +know was possible between man and woman--or at least"--she corrected +herself sadly--"between any man and a woman--of my age." + +"You talk of your age," said John, smiling tenderly, "as though it +were a crime." + +"It is not a crime, but it is a tragedy," said Lady Mary. "Age is a +tragedy to every woman who wants to be happy." + +"No more, surely, than to every man who loves his work, and sees it +slipping from his grasp," said John, slowly. "It's a tragedy we all +have to face, for that matter." + +"But so much later," said Lady Mary, quickly. + +"I don't see why women should leave off wanting to be happy any sooner +than men," he said stoutly. + +"But Nature does," she answered. + +John's eyes twinkled. "For my part, I am thankful to fate, which +caused me to fall in love with a woman only ten years my junior, +instead of with a girl young enough to be my daughter. I have gained a +companion as well as a wife; and marvellously adaptive as young women +are, I am conceited enough to think my ideas have travelled beyond +the ideas of most girls of eighteen; and I am not conceited enough to +suppose the girl of eighteen would not find me an old fogey very much +in the way. Let boys mate with girls, say I, and men with women." + +Lady Mary smiled in spite of herself. "You know, John, you would +argue entirely the other way round if you happened to be in love +with--Sarah," she said. + +"To be sure," said John; "it's my trade to argue for the side which +retains my services. I am your servant, thank Heaven, and not Sarah's. +And I have no intention of quitting your service," he added, more +gravely. "We have settled the question of the future." + +"The empty future that suddenly grew so bright," said Lady Mary, +dreamily. "Do you remember how you talked of--Italy?" + +"Where we shall yet spend our honeymoon," said John. "But I believe +you liked better to hear of my shabby rooms in London which you meant +to share." + +"Of course," she said simply. "I knew I should bring you so little +money." + +"And you thought barristers always lived from hand to mouth, and made +no allowance for my having got on in my profession." + +"Ah! what did it matter?" + +"I think you will find it makes just a little difference," John said, +smiling. + +"Outside circumstances make less difference to women than men +suppose," said Lady Mary. "They are, oh, so willing to be pampered +in luxury; and, oh, so willing to fly to the other extreme, and do +without things." + +"Are they really?" said John, rather dryly. + +He glanced at the little, soft, white hand he held, and smiled. It +looked so unfitted to help itself. + +Lady Mary was resting in her armchair, her delicate face still flushed +with emotion. A transparent purple shade beneath the blue eyes +betrayed that she had been weeping; but she was calmed by John's +strong and tranquil presence. The shady room was cool and fragrant +with the scent of heliotrope and mignonette. + +The band had reached a level plateau below the terrace garden, and was +playing martial airs to encourage stragglers in the procession, and to +give the principal inhabitants of Youlestone time to arrive, and to +regain their wind after the steep ascent. + +Every time a batch of new arrivals recognized Peter's tall form on the +terrace, a fresh burst of cheering rose. + +From all sides of the valley, hurrying figures could be seen +approaching Barracombe House. + +The noise and confusion without seemed to increase the sense of quiet +within, and the sounds of the gathering crowd made them feel apart and +alone together as they had never felt before. + +"So all our dreams are to be shattered," said John, quietly, "because +your prayer has been granted, and Peter has come home?" + +"If you could have heard all he said," she whispered sadly. "He has +come home loving me, trusting me, dependent on me, as he has never +been before, since his babyhood. Don't you see--that even if it breaks +my heart, I couldn't fail my boy--just now?" + +There was a pause, and she regarded him anxiously; her hands were +clasped tightly together in the effort to still their trembling, her +blue eyes looked imploring. + +John knew very well that it lay within his powers to make good his +claim upon that gentle heart, and enforce his will and her submission +to it. But the strongest natures are those which least incline to +tyranny; and he had already seen the results of coercion upon that +bright and joyous, but timid nature. He knew that her love for him was +of the fanciful, romantic, high-flown order; and as such, it appealed +to every chivalrous instinct within him. Though his love for her was, +perhaps, of a different kind, he desired her happiness and her peace +of mind, as strongly as he desired her companionship and the sympathy +which was to brighten his lonely life. He was silent for a moment, +considering how he should act. If love counselled haste, common sense +suggested patience. + +"I couldn't disappoint him now. You see that, John?" said the anxious, +gentle voice. + +"I am afraid I do see it, Mary," he said. "Our secret must remain our +secret for the present." + +"God bless you, John!" said Lady Mary, softly. "You always +understand." + +"I am old enough, at least, to know that happiness cannot be attained +by setting duty aside," he said, as cheerfully as he could. + +There was a pause in the music outside, and a voice was heard +speaking. + +John rose and straightened himself. + +"Have you decided what is to be done--what we had best do?" she said +timidly. + +"I am going to prove that a lover can be devoted, and yet perfectly +reasonable; in defiance of all tradition to the contrary," he +said gaily. "I shall return to town as soon as I can decently get +away--probably to-morrow." + +She uttered a cry. "You are going to leave me?" + +"I must give place to Peter." + +She came to his side, and clung to his arm as though terrified by the +success of her own appeal. + +"But you'll come back?" + +"I have to account for my stewardship when Peter comes of age in the +autumn," he said, smiling down upon her. + +She was too quick of perception not to know that strength, and +courage, too, were needed for the smile wherewith John strove to hide +a disappointment too deep for words. He answered the look she +gave him; a look which implored forgiveness, understanding, even +encouragement. + +"I'm not yielding a single inch of my claim upon you when the time +comes, my darling; only I think, with you, that the time has not come +yet. I think Peter may reasonably expect to be considered first +for the present; and that you should be free to devote your whole +attention to him, especially as he has such praiseworthy intentions. +We will postpone the whole question until the autumn, when he comes of +age; and when I shall, consequently, be able to tackle him frankly, +man to man, and not as one having authority and abusing that same," he +laughed. "Meantime, we must be patient. Write often, but not so often +as to excite remark; and I shall return in the autumn." + +"To stay?" + +"Ah!" said John, "that depends on you." + +He had not meant to be satirical, but the slight inflection of his +tone cut Lady Mary to the heart. + +Her vivid imagination saw her conduct in its worst light: vacillating, +feeble, deserting the man she loved at the moment she had led him to +expect triumph; dismissing her faithful servant without his reward. +Then, in a flash, came the other side of the picture--the mother of +a grown-up son--a wounded soldier dependent on her love--seeking +her personal happiness as though there existed no past memories, no +present duties, to hinder the fulfilling of her own belated romance. + +"Oh, John," said Lady Mary, "tell me what to do? No, no; don't tell +me--or I shall do it--and I mustn't." + +"My darling," he said, "I only tell you to wait." He rallied himself +to speak cheerfully, and to bring the life and colour back to her sad, +white face. + +"Just at this moment I quite realize I should be a disturbing element, +and I am going to get myself out of the way as quickly as politeness +permits. And you are to devote yourself to Peter, and not to be torn +with self-reproach. If we act sensibly, and don't precipitate matters, +nobody need have a grievance, and Peter and I will be the best of +friends in the future, I hope. There is little use in having grown-up +wits if we snatch our happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings, as young folk so often do." + +The twinkle in his bright eyes, and the kindly humour of his smile, +restored her shaken self-confidence. + +"Oh, John, no one else could ever understand--as you understand. If +only Peter--" + +"Peter is a boy," said John, "dreaming as a boy dreams, resolving as +a boy resolves; and his dreams and his resolutions are as light as +thistledown: the first breath of a new fancy, or a fresh interest, +will blow them away. I put my faith in the future, in the near future. +Time works wonders." + +He stooped and kissed her hands, one after the other, with a +possessive tenderness that told her better than words, that he had not +resigned his claims. + +"Now I'll go and offer my congratulations to the hero of the day," +said John. "I must not put off any longer; and it is quite settled +that our secret is to remain our secret--for the present." + +Then he stepped out on to the terrace, and Lady Mary looked after him +with a little sigh and smile. + +She lifted a hand-mirror from the silver table that stood at her +elbow, and shook her head over it. + +"It's all very well for him, and it's all very well for Peter," she +said; "but Time--Time is _my_ worst enemy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Sarah Hewel ran into the drawing-room before Lady Mary found courage +to put her newly gained composure to the test, by joining the crowd on +the terrace. + +"Oh, Lady Mary, are you there?" she cried, pausing in her eager +passage to the window. "I thought you would be out-of-doors with the +others!" + +"Sarah, my dear!" said Lady Mary, kissing her. + +"I--I saw all the people," said Sarah, in a breathless, agitated +way, "I heard the news, and I wasn't sure whether I ought to come to +luncheon all the same or not; so I slipped in by the side door to +see whether I could find some one to ask quietly. Oh!" cried Sarah, +throwing her arms impetuously round Lady Mary's neck, "tell me it +isn't true?" + +"My boy has come home," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah turned from red to white, and from white to red again. + +"But they said," she faltered--"they said he--" + +"Yes, my dear," said Lady Mary, understanding; and the tears started +to her own eyes. "Peter has lost an arm, but otherwise--otherwise," +she said, in trembling tones, "my boy is safe and sound." + +Sarah turned away her face and cried. + +Lady Mary was touched. "Why, Sarah!" she said; and she drew the girl +down beside her on the sofa and kissed her softly. + +"I am sorry to be so silly," said Sarah, recovering herself. "It isn't +a bit like me, is it?" + +"It is like you, I think, to have a warm heart," said Lady Mary, +"though you don't show it to every one; and, after all, you and Peter +are old friends--playmates all your lives." + +"It's been like a lump of lead on my heart all these months and +years," said Sarah, "to think how I scoffed at Peter in the Christmas +holidays before he went to the war, because my brothers had gone, +whilst he stayed at home. Perhaps that was the reason he went. I used +to lie awake at night sometimes, thinking that if Peter were killed it +would be all my fault. And now his arm has gone--and Tom and Willie +came back safely long ago." She cried afresh. + +"It may not have been that at all," said Lady Mary, consolingly. "I +don't think Peter was a boy to take much notice of what a goose of +a little girl said. He felt he was a man, and ought to go--and his +grandfather was a soldier--it is in the blood of the Setouns to want +to fight for their country," said Lady Mary, with a smile and a little +thrill of pride; for, after all, if her boy were a Crewys, he was also +a Setoun. "Besides, poor child, you were so young; you didn't think; +you didn't know--" + +"You always make excuses for me," said Sarah, with subdued enthusiasm; +"but I understand better now what it means--to send an only son away +from his mother." + +"The young take responsibility so lightly," said Lady Mary. "But now +he has come home, my darling, why, you needn't reproach yourself any +longer. It is good of you to care so much for my boy." + +"It--it isn't only that. Of course, I was always fond of Peter," said +Sarah; "but even if I had nothing to do with his going"--her voice +sounded incredulous--"you know how one feels over our soldiers coming +home--and a boy who has given his right arm for England. It makes one +so choky and yet so proud--I can't say all I mean--but you know--" + +"Yes, I know," said Lady Mary; and she smiled, but the tears were +rolling down her cheeks. + +"And what it must be to _you_," sobbed Sarah, "the day you were to +have been so happy, to see him come back like _that_! No wonder you +are sad. One feels one could never do enough to--to make it up to +him." + +"But I'm far more happy than sad," said Lady Mary; and to prove her +words she leant back upon the cushions and cried. + +"You're not," said Sarah, kneeling by her; "how can you be, my +darling, sweet Lady Mary? But you _must_ be happy," she said; and her +odd, deep tones took a note of coaxing that was hard to resist. "Think +how proud every one will be of him, and how--how all the other mothers +will envy you! You--you mustn't care so terribly. It--it isn't as if +he had to work for his living. It won't make any real difference to +his life. And he'll let you do everything for him--even write his +letters--" + +"Oh, Sarah, Sarah, stop!" said Lady Mary, faintly. "It--it isn't +that." + +"Not that!" said Sarah, changing her tone. She pounced on the +admission like a cat on a mouse. "Then why do you cry?" + +Lady Mary looked up confused into the severely inquiring young face. + +Sarah's apple-blossom beauty, as was to have been expected, had +increased a thousand-fold since her school girl days. She had grown +tall to match the plumpness of her figure, which had not decreased. +Her magnificent hair showed its copper redness in every variety of +curl and twist upon her white forehead, and against her whiter throat. + +She was no longer dressed in blue cotton. Lady Tintern knew how to +give such glorious colouring its true value. A gauzy, transparent +black flowed over a close-fitting white gown beneath, and veiled her +fair arms and neck. Black bebe ribbon gathered in coquettishly the +folds which shrouded Sarah's abundant charms, and a broad black sash +confined her round young waist. A black chip hat shaded the glowing +hair and the face, "ruddier than the cherry, and whiter than milk;" +and the merry, dark blue eyes had a penthouse of their own, of +drooping lashes, which redeemed the boldness of their frank and open +gaze. + +"If it is not that--why do you cry?" she demanded imperiously. + +"It's--just happiness," said Lady Mary. + +Sarah looked wise, and shook her head. "Oh no," she quoth. "Those +aren't happy tears." + +"You're too old, dear Sarah, to be an _enfant terrible_ still," said +Lady Mary; but Sarah was not so easily disarmed. + +"I will know! Come, I'm your godchild, and you always spoil me. He's +not come back in one of his moods, has he?" + +"Who?" cried Lady Mary, colouring. + +"Who! Why, who are we talking of but Peter?" said Sarah, opening her +big-pupilled eyes. + +"Oh no, no! He's changed entirely--" + +"Changed!" + +"I don't mean exactly changed, but he's--he's grown so loving and so +sweet--not that he wasn't always loving in his heart, but-- + +"Oh," cried Sarah, impatiently, "as if I didn't know Peter! But if +it wasn't _that_ which made you so unhappy, what was it?" She bent +puzzled brows upon her embarrassed hostess. + +"Let me go, Sarah; you ask too much!" said Lady Mary. "Oh no, my +darling, I'm not angry! How could I be angry with my little loyal +Sarah, who's always loved me so? It's only that I can't bear to +be questioned just now." She caressed the girl eagerly, almost +apologetically. "I must have a few moments to recover myself. I'll go +quietly away into the study--anywhere. Wait for me here, darling, and +make some excuse for me if any one comes. I want to be alone for a few +moments. Peter mustn't find me crying again." + +"Yes--that's all very well," said Sarah to herself, as the slight form +hurried from the drawing-room into the dark oak hall beyond. "But +_why_ is she unhappy? There is something else." + +It was Dr. Blundell who found the answer to Sarah's riddle. + +He had seen the signs of weeping on Lady Mary's face as she stumbled +over the threshold of the window into the very arms of John Crewys, +and his feelings were divided between passionate sympathy with his +divinity, and anger with the returned hero, who had no doubt reduced +his mother to this distressful state. The doctor was blinded by love +and misery, and ready to suspect the whole world of doing injustice to +this lady; though he believed himself to be destitute of jealousy, and +capable of judging Peter with perfect impartiality. + +His fancy leapt far ahead of fact; and he supposed, not only that Lady +Mary must be engaged to John Crewys, but that she must have confided +her engagement to her son, and that Peter had already forbidden the +banns. + +He wandered miserably about the grounds, within hearing of the +rejoicings; and had just made up his mind that he ought to go and join +the speechmakers, when he perceived John Crewys himself standing next +to Peter, apparently on the best possible terms with the hero of the +day. + +The doctor hastened round to the hall, intending to enter the +drawing-room unobserved, and find out for himself whether Lady Mary +had recovered, or whether John Crewys had heartlessly abandoned her to +her grief. + +The brilliant vision Miss Sarah presented, as she stood, drawn up to +her full height, in the shaded drawing-room, met his anxious gaze as +he entered. + +"Why, Miss Sarah! Not gone back to London yet? I thought you only came +down for Whitsuntide." + +"Mamma wasn't well, so I am staying on for a few days. I am supposed +to be nursing her," said Sarah, demurely. + +She was a favourite with the doctor, as she was very well aware, and, +in consequence, was always exceedingly gracious to him. + +"Where is Lady Mary?" he asked. + +She stole to his side, and put her finger on her lips, and lowered her +voice. + +"She went through the hall--into the study. And she's alone--crying." + +"Crying!" said the doctor; and he made a step towards the open door, +but Sarah's strong, white hand held him fast. + +"Play fair," she said reproachfully; "I told you in confidence. You +can't suppose she wants _you_ to see her crying." + +"No, no," said the poor doctor, "of course not--of course not." + +She closed the doors between the rooms. "Look here, Dr. Blundell, +we've always been friends, haven't we, you and me?" + +"Ever since I had the honour of ushering you into the world you now +adorn," said the doctor, with an ironical bow. + +"Then tell me the truth," said Sarah. "Why is she unhappy, to-day of +all days?" + +The doctor looked uneasily away from her. "Perhaps--the joy of Peter's +return has been too much for her," he suggested. + +"Yes," said Sarah. "That's what we'll tell the other people. But you +and I--why, Dr. Blunderbuss," she said reproachfully, using the +name she had given him in her saucy childhood, "you know how I've +worshipped Lady Mary ever since I was a little girl?" + +"Yes, yes, my dear, I know," said the doctor. + +"You love her too, don't you?" said Sarah. + +He started. "I--I love Lady Mary! What do you mean?" he said, almost +violently. + +"Oh, I didn't mean _that_ sort of love," said Sarah, watching him +keenly. Then she laid her plump hand gently on his shabby sleeve. "I +wouldn't have said it, if I'd thought--" + +"Thought what?" said the doctor, agitated. + +"What I think now," said Sarah. + +He walked up and down in a silence she was too wise to break. When +he looked at her again, Sarah was leaning against the piano. She had +taken off the picture-hat, and was swinging it absently to and fro by +the black ribbons which had but now been tied beneath her round, white +chin. She presented a charming picture--and it is possible she knew +it--as she stood in that restful pose, with her long lashes pointed +downwards towards her buckled shoes. + +The doctor stopped in front of her. "You are too quick for me, Sarah. +You always were, even as a little girl," he said. "You've surprised +my--my poor secret. You can laugh at the old doctor now, if you like." + +"I don't feel like laughing," said Sarah, simply. "And your secret is +safe with me. I'm honest; you know that." + +"Yes, my dear; I know that. God bless you!" said the doctor. + +"I'm sorry, Dr. Blundell," said Sarah, softly. + +The deep voice which came from the full, white chest, and which had +once been so unmanageable, was one of Sarah's surest weapons now. + +When she sang, she counted her victims by the dozen; when she lowered +it, as she lowered it now, to speak only to one man, every note went +straight to his heart--if he had an ear for music and a heart for +love. + +When Sarah said, in these dulcet tones, therefore, that she was sorry +for her old friend, the tears gathered to the doctor's kind, tired +eyes. + +"For me!" he said gratefully. "Oh, you mustn't be sorry for me. +She--she could hardly be further out of _my_ reach, you know, if she +were--an angel in heaven, instead of being what she is--an angel on +earth. It is--of _her_ that I was thinking." + +"I know," said Sarah; "but she has been looking so bright and hopeful, +ever since we heard Peter was coming home--until to-day--when he has +actually come; and that is what puzzles me." + +"To-day--to-day!" said the doctor, as though to himself. "Yes; it was +to-day I saw her touch happiness timidly, and come face to face with +disappointment." + +"You saw her?" + +"Oh, when one loves," he said bitterly, "one has intuitions which +serve as well as eyes and ears. You will know all about it one day, +little Sarah." + +"Shall I?" said Sarah. She turned her face away from the doctor. + +"You've not been here very much lately," he said, "but you've been +here long enough to guess her secret, as you--you've guessed mine. Eh? +You needn't pretend, for my sake, to misunderstand me." + +"I wasn't going to," said Sarah, gently. + +"John Crewys is the very man I would have chosen--I did choose him," +said the doctor, looking at her almost fiercely. It was an odd +consolation to him to believe he had first led John Crewys to +interest himself in Lady Mary. He recognized his rival's superior +qualifications very fully and humbly. "You know all about it, Miss +Sarah, don't tell me; so quick as you are to find out what doesn't +concern you." + +"I saw that--Mr. John Crewys--liked _her_," said Sarah, in a low +voice; "but, then, so does everybody. I wasn't sure--I couldn't +believe that _she_--" + +"You haven't watched as I have," he groaned; "you haven't seen the +sparkle come back to her eye, and the colour to her cheek. You haven't +watched her learning to laugh and sing and enjoy her innocent days +as Nature bade; since she has dared to be herself. It was love that +taught her an that." + +"Love!" said Sarah. + +Her soft, red lips parted; and her breath quickened with a sudden +sensation of mingled interest, sympathy, and amusement. + +"Ay, love," said the doctor, half angrily. He detected the deepening +of Sarah's dimples. "And I am an old fool to talk to you like this. +You children think that love is reserved for boys and girls, like you +and--and Peter." + +"I don't know what Peter has to do with it," said Sarah, pouting. + +"I heard Peter explaining to his tenants just now," said the doctor, +with a harsh laugh, "that he was going to settle down here for good +and all--with his mother; that nothing was to be changed from his +father's time. Something in his words would have made me +understand the look on his mother's face, even if I hadn't read it +right--already. She will sacrifice her love for John Crewys to her +love for her son; and by the time Peter finds out--as in the course of +nature he will find out--that he can do without his mother, her chance +of happiness will be gone for ever." + +Sarah looked a little queerly at the doctor. + +"Then the sooner Peter finds out," she said slowly, "that he can live +without his mother, the better. Doesn't that seem strange?" + +"Perhaps," said the doctor, heavily. "But life gives us so few +opportunities of a great happiness as we grow older, little Sarah. The +possibilities that once seemed so boundless, lie in a circle which +narrows round us, day by day. Some day you'll find that out too." + +There was a sudden outburst of cheering. + +Sarah started forward. "Dr. Blundell," she said energetically, "you've +told me all I wanted to know. She sha'n't be unhappy if _I_ can help +it." + +"You!" said the doctor, shrugging his shoulders rather rudely. "I +don't see what _you_ can do." + +Sarah reddened with lofty indignation. "It would be very odd if you +did," she said spitefully; "you're only a man, when all is said and +done. But if you'll only promise not to interfere, I'll manage it +beautifully all by myself." + +"What will you do?" said the doctor, inattentively; and his blindness +to Sarah's charms and her powers made her almost pity such obtuseness. + +"I will go and fetch Lady Mary, for one thing, and cheer her up." + +"Not a word to her!" he cried, starting up; "remember, I told you in +confidence--though why I was such a fool--" + +"Am I likely to forget?" said Sarah; "and you will see one day whether +you were a fool to tell _me_." She said to herself, despairingly, that +the stupidity of mankind was almost past praying for. As the doctor +opened the door for Sarah, Lady Mary herself walked into the room. + +She had removed all traces of tears from her face, and, though she was +still very pale, she was quite composed, and ready to smile at them +both. + +"Were you coming to fetch me?" she said, taking Sarah's arm +affectionately. "Dr. Blundell, I am afraid luncheon will be terribly +late. The servants have all gone off their heads in the confusion, as +was to be expected. The noise and the welcome upset me so that I dared +not go out on the terrace again. Ash has just been to tell me it's +all over, and that Peter made a capital speech; quite as good as Mr. +John's, he said; but that is hardly a compliment to our K.C.," she +laughed. "I'm afraid Ash is prejudiced." + +"Ash was doing the honours with all his might," said the doctor, +gruffly; "handing round cider by the hogshead. Hallo! the speeches +must be really all over," he said, for, above vociferous cheering, the +strains of the National Anthem could just be discerned. + +Peter came striding across the terrace, and looked in at the open +window. + +"Are you better again, mother?" he called. "Could you come out now? +They've done at last, but they're calling for you." + +"Yes, yes; I'm quite ready. I won't be so silly again," said Lady +Mary. + +But Peter did not listen. "Why--" he said, and stopped short. + +"Surely you haven't forgotten Sarah," said Lady Mary, laughing--"your +little playmate Sarah? But perhaps I ought to say Miss Hewel now." + +"How do you do, Sir Peter?" said Sarah, in a very stately manner. "I +am very glad to be here to welcome you home." + +Peter, foolishly embarrassed, took the hand she offered with such +gracious composure, and blushed all over his thin, tanned face. + +"I--I should hardly have known you," he stammered. + +"Really?" said Sarah. + +"Won't you," said Peter, still looking at her, "join us on the +terrace?" + +"The people aren't calling for _me_" said Sarah. + +"But it might amuse you," said Peter, deferentially. + +He put up his eyeglass--but though Sarah's red lip quivered, she did +not laugh. + +"It's rather jolly, really," he said. "They've got banners, and flags, +and processions, and things. Won't you come?" + +"Well--I will," said Sarah. She accepted his help in descending the +step with the air of a princess. "But they'll be so disappointed to +see me instead of your mother." + +"Disappointed to see _you_!" said Peter, stupefied. + +She stepped forth, laughing, and Peter followed her closely. John +Crewys stood aside to let them pass. Lady Mary, half amazed and half +amused, realized suddenly that her son had forgotten he came back to +fetch her. She hesitated on the threshold. More cheers and confused +shouting greeted Peter's reappearance on the balcony. He turned and +waved to his mother, and the canon came hurrying over the grass. + +"The people are shouting for Lady Mary; they want Lady Mary," he +cried. + +John Crewys looked at her with a smile, and held out his hand, and she +stepped over the sill, and went away across the terrace garden with +him. + +The doctor turned his face from the crowd, and went back alone into +the empty room. + +"Who _doesn't_ want Lady Mary?" he said to himself, forlornly. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Peter stood on his own front door steps, on the shady side of the +house, in the fresh air of the early morning. The unnecessary eyeglass +twinkled on his breast as he looked forth upon the goodliness and +beauty of his inheritance. The ever-encroaching green of summer had +not yet overpowered the white wealth of flowering spring; for the +season was a late one, and the month of June still young. + +The apple-trees were yet in blossom, and the snowy orchards were +scattered over the hillsides between patches of golden gorse. The +lilacs, white and purple, were in flower, amid scarlet rhododendrons +and branching pink and yellow tree-azaleas. The weeping barberry +showered gold dust upon the road. + +On the lower side of the drive, the rolling grass slopes were +thriftily left for hay; a flowering mass of daisies, and buttercups, +and red clover, and blue speedwell. + +A long way off, but still clearly visible in the valley below, +glistened the stone-tiled roof of the old square-towered church, +guarded by its sentinel yews. + +A great horse-chestnut stood like a giant bouquet of waxen bloom +beside a granite monument which threw a long shadow over the green +turf mounds towards the west, and marked the grave of Sir Timothy +Crewys. + +Peter saw that monument more plainly just now than all the rest of his +surroundings, although he was short-sighted, and although his eyes +were further dimmed by sudden tears. + +His memories of his father were not particularly tender ones, and his +grief was only natural filial sentiment in its vaguest and lightest +form. But such as it was--the sight of the empty study, which was to +be his own room in future; the strange granite monument shining in +the sun; the rush of home associations which the familiar landscape +aroused--augmented it for the time being, and made the young man glad +of a moment's solitude. + +There was the drooping ash--which had made such a cool, refreshing +tent in summer--where he had learnt his first lessons at his mother's +knee, and where he had kept his rabbit-hutch for a season, until his +father had found it out, and despatched it to the stable-yard. + +His punishments and the troubles of his childhood had always been +associated with his father, and its pleasures and indulgences with his +mother; but neither had made any very strong impression on Peter's +mind, and it was of his father that he thought with most sympathy, and +even most affection. Partly, doubtless, because Sir Timothy was dead, +and because Peter's memories were not vivid ones, any more than his +imagination was vivid; but also because his mind was preoccupied with +a vague resentment against his mother. + +He could not understand the change which was, nevertheless, so +evident. Her new-born brightness and ease of manner, and her strangely +increased loveliness, which had been yet more apparent on the previous +evening, when she was dressed for dinner, than on his first arrival. + +It was absurd, Peter thought, in all the arrogance of disdainful +youth, that a woman of her age should have learnt to care for her +appearance thus; or to wear becoming gowns, and arrange her hair like +a fashion plate. + +If it had been Sarah he could have understood. + +At the thought of Sarah the colour suddenly flushed across his thin, +tanned face, and he moved uneasily. + +Sarah, too, was changed; but not even Peter could regret the change in +Sarah. + +The loveliness of his mother, refined and white and delicate as she +was, did not appeal to him; but Sarah, in her radiant youth, with her +brilliant colouring--fresh as a May morning, buxom as a dairymaid, +scornful as a princess--had struck Sir Peter dumb with admiration, +though he had hitherto despised young women. It almost enraged him to +remember that this stately beauty had ever been an impudent little +schoolgirl, with a turned-up nose and a red pigtail. In days gone by, +Miss Sarah had actually fought and scratched the spoilt boy, who tried +to tyrannize over his playmate as he tyrannized over his mother and +his aunts. On the other hand, the recollection of those early days +also became precious to Peter for the first time. + +Sarah! + +It was difficult to be sentimental on the subject, but difficulties +are easily surmounted by a lover; and though Sarah's childhood +afforded few facilities for ecstatic reverie, still--there had been +moments, and especially towards the end of the holidays, when he and +Sarah had walked on the banks of the river, with arms round each +other's necks, sharing each other's toffee and confidences. + +Poor Sarah had been first despatched to a boarding school as +unmanageable, at the age of seven, and thereafter her life had been a +changeful one, since her father could not live without her, and her +mother would not keep her at home. She had always presented a lively +contrast to her elder brothers, who were all that a parent's heart +could desire, and too old to be much interested in their little +rebellious sister. + +Her high spirits survived disgrace and punishment and periodical +banishment. Though not destitute of womanly qualities, she was more +remarkable for hoydenish ones; and her tastes were peculiar and +varied. If there were a pony to break in, a sick child to be nursed, a +groom to scold, a pig to be killed--there was Sarah; but if a frock to +try on, a visit to be paid, a note to be written--where was she? + +Peter, recalling these things, tried to laugh at himself for his +extraordinary infatuation of the previous day; but he knew very well +in his heart that he could not really laugh, and that he had lain +awake half the night thinking of her. + +Sarah had spent the rest of the day at Barracombe after Peter's +return, and had been escorted home late in the evening. Could he ever +forget those moments on the terrace, when she had paced up and down +beside him, in the pleasant summer darkness; her white neck and arms +gleaming through transparent black tulle; sometimes listening to the +sounds of music and revelry in the village below, and looking at the +rockets that were being let off on the river-banks; and sometimes +asking him of the war, in that low voice which thrilled Peter as it +had already thrilled not a few interested hearers before him? + +Those moments had been all too few, because John Crewys also had +monopolized a share of Miss Sarah's attention. Peter did not dislike +his guardian, whose composed courtesy and absolute freedom from +self-consciousness, or any form of affectation, made it difficult +indeed not to like him. His remarks made Peter smile in spite of +himself, though he could not keep the ball of conversation rolling +like Miss Sarah, who was not at all afraid of the great counsel, but +matched his pleasant wit, with a most engaging impudence all her own. + +Lady Mary had stood clasping her son's arm, full of thankfulness for +his safe return; but she, too, had been unable to help laughing at +John, who purposely exerted himself to amuse her and to keep her from +dwelling upon their parting on the morrow. + +Her thoughtful son insisted that she must avoid exposure to the night +air, and poor Lady Mary had somewhat ruefully returned to the society +of the old ladies within; but John Crewys did not, as he might, and as +Peter had supposed he would, join the other old folk. Peter classed +his mother and aunts together, quite calmly, in his thoughts. He +listened to Sarah's light talk with John, watching her like a man in a +dream, hardly able to speak himself; and it is needless to say that he +found her chatter far more interesting and amusing than anything John +could say. + +Who could have dreamt that little Sarah would grow up into this +bewitching maiden? There was a girl coming home on board ship, the +young wife of an officer, whom every one had raved about and called so +beautiful. Peter almost laughed aloud as he contrasted Sarah with his +recollections of this lady. + +How easy it was to talk to Sarah! How much easier than to his mother; +whom, nevertheless, he loved so dearly, though always with that faint +dash of disapproval which somehow embittered his love. + +He could not shake off the impression of her first appearance, coming +singing down the oak staircase, in her white gown. _His mother!_ +Dressed almost like a girl, and, worst of all, looking almost like a +girl, so slight and white and delicate. Peter recollected that Sir +Timothy had been very particular about his wife's apparel. He liked it +to be costly and dignified, and she had worn stiff silks and poplins +inappropriate to the country, but considered eminently suited to her +position by the Brawnton dressmaker. And her hair had been parted on +her forehead, and smoothed over her little ears. Sir Timothy did not +approve of curling-irons and frippery. + +Peter did not know that his mother had cried over her own appearance +often, before she became indifferent; and if he had known, he would +have thought it only typical of the weakness and frivolity which he +had heard attributed to Lady Mary from his earliest childhood. + +His aunts were not intentionally disloyal to their sister-in-law; +but their disapproval of her was too strong to be hidden, and they +regarded a little boy as blind and deaf to all that did not directly +concern his lessons or his play. Thus Peter had grown up loving his +mother, but disapproving of her, and the disapproval was sometimes +more apparent than the love. + +After breakfast the new squire took an early walk with his guardian, +and inspected a few of the changes which had taken place in the +administration of his tiny kingdom. Though Peter was young and +inexperienced, he could not be blind to the immense improvements made. + +He had left a house and stables shabby and tumble-down and out of +repair; rotting woodwork, worn-off paint, and missing tiles had been +painfully evident. Broken fences and hingeless gates were the rule, +and not the exception, in the grounds. + +Now all deficiencies had been made good by a cunning hand that had +allowed no glaring newness to be visible; a hand that had matched old +tiles, and patched old walls, and planted creepers, and restored an +almost magical order and comfort to Peter's beautiful old house. + +Where Sir Timothy's grumbling tenants had walked to the nearest brook +for water, they now found pipes brought to their own cottage doors. +The home-farm, stables, yards, and cowsheds were drained and paved; +fallen outbuildings replaced, uneven roads gravelled and rolled; dead +trees removed, and young ones planted, shrubberies trimmed, and views +long obscured once more opened out. + +Peter did not need the assurances of Mr. Crawley to be aware that his +inheritance would be handed back to him improved a thousand-fold. + +He was astounded to find how easily John had arranged matters over +which his father had grumbled and hesitated for years. Even the +dispute with the Crown had been settled by Mr. Crawley without +difficulty, now that Sir Timothy's obstinacy no longer stood in the +way of a reasonable compromise. + +John Crewys had faithfully carried out the instructions of the will; +and there were many thousands yet left of the sum placed at his +disposal for the improvements of the estate; a surplus which would +presently be invested for Peter's benefit, and added to that carefully +tied-up capital over which Sir Timothy had given his heir no +discretionary powers. + +Peter spent a couple of hours walking about with John, and took an +intelligent interest in all that had been done, from the roof and +chimney-pots of the house, to the new cider-mill and stable fittings; +but though he was civil and amiable, he expressed no particular +gratitude nor admiration on his return to the hall, where his mother +eagerly awaited him. + +It consoled her to perceive that he was on excellent terms with his +guardian, offering to accompany him in the dog-cart to Brawnton, +whither John was bound, to catch the noon express to town. + +"You will have him all to yourself after this," said John Crewys, +smiling down upon Lady Mary during his brief farewell interview, which +took place in the oriel window of the banqueting-hall, within sight, +though not within hearing, of the two old sisters. "I am sorry to take +him off to Brawnton, but I could hardly refuse his company." + +"No, no; I am only glad you should take every opportunity of knowing +him better," she said. + +"And you will be happier without any divided feelings at stake," he +said. "Give yourself up entirely to Peter for the next three or four +months, without any remorse concerning me. For the present, at +least, I shall be hard at work, with little enough time to spare +for sentiment." There was a tender raillery in his tone, which she +understood. "When I come back we will face the situation, according to +circumstances. By-the-by, I suppose it is not to be thought of that +Miss Sarah should prolong her Whitsuntide holidays much further?" + +"She ought to have returned to town earlier, but Mrs. Hewel was ill," +said Lady Mary. "She is a tiresome woman. She moved heaven and earth +to get rid of poor Sarah, and, now the child has had a _succes_, she +is always clamouring for her to come back." + +"Ah!" said John, thoughtfully, "and you will moot to Peter the scheme +for taking a house in town? But I should advise you to be guided by +his wishes over that. Still, it would be very delightful to meet +during our time of waiting; and that would be the only way. I won't +come down here again until I can declare myself. It is a--false +position, under the circumstances." + +"I know; I understand," said Lady Mary; "but I am afraid Peter won't +want to stir from home. He is so glad to be back, poor boy, one can +hardly blame him; and he shares his father's prejudices against +London." + +"Does he, indeed?" said John, rather dryly. "Well, make the most of +your summer with him. _You_ will get only too much London--in the near +future." + +"Perhaps," Lady Mary said, smiling. + +But, in spite of herself, John's confidence communicated itself to +her. + +When Peter and John had departed, Lady Mary went and sat alone in the +quiet of the fountain garden, at the eastern end of the terrace. The +thick hedges and laurels which sheltered it had been duly thinned and +trimmed, to allow the entrance of the morning sunshine. Roses and +lilies bloomed brightly round the fountain now, but it was still +rather a lonely and deserted spot, and silent, save for the sighing of +the wind, and the tinkle of the dropping water in the stone basin. + +A young copper beech, freed from its rankly increasing enemies of +branching laurel and encroaching bramble, now spread its glory of +transparent ruddy leaf in the sunshine above trim hedges, here and +there diversified by the pale gold of a laburnum, or the violet +clusters of a rhododendron in full flower. Rare ferns fringed the +edges of the little fountain, where diminutive reptiles whisked in +and out of watery homes, or sat motionless on the brink, with fixed, +glassy eyes. + +Lady Mary had come often to this quiet corner for rest and peace and +solitude in days gone by. She came often still, because she had a +fancy that the change in her favourite garden was typical of the +change in her life,--the letting-in of the sunshine, where before +there had been only deepest shade; the pinks and forget-me-nots which +were gaily blowing, where only moss and fungi had flourished; the +blooming of the roses, where the undergrowth had crossed and recrossed +withered branches above bare, black soil. + +She brought her happiness here, where she had brought her sorrow and +her repinings long ago. + +A happiness subdued by many memories, chastened by long anxiety, +obscured by many doubts, but still happiness. + +There was to be no more of that heart-breaking anxiety. Her boy +had been spared to come home to her; and John--John, who always +understood, had declared that, for the present, at least, Peter must +come first. + +The whole beautiful summer lay before her, in which she was to be free +to devote herself to her wounded hero. She must set herself to charm +away that shadow of discontent--of disapproval--that darkened Peter's +grey eyes when they rested upon her; a shadow of which she had been +only too conscious even before he went to South Africa. + +She made a thousand excuses for him, after telling herself that he +needed none. + +Poor boy! he had been brought up in such narrow ways, such an +atmosphere of petty distrust and fault-finding and small aims. Even +his bold venture into the world of men had not enabled him to shake +off altogether the influence of his early training, though it had +changed him so much for the better; it had not altogether cured +Peter of his old ungraciousness, partly inherited, and partly due to +example. + +But he had returned full of love and tenderness and penitence, though +his softening had been but momentary; and when she had brought him +under the changed influences which now dominated her own life, she +could not doubt that Peter's nature would expand. + +He should see that home life need not necessarily be gloomy; that +all innocent pleasures and interests were to be encouraged, and not +repressed. If he wanted to spend the summer at home--and after his +long absence what could be more natural?--she would exert herself +to make that home as attractive as possible. Why should they not +entertain? John had said there was plenty of money. Peter should have +other young people about him. She remembered a scene, long ago, when +he had brought a boy of his own age in to lunch without permission. +She would have to let Peter understand how welcome she should make +his friends; he must have many more friends now. While she was yet +_chatelaine_ of Barracombe, it would be delightful to imbue him with +some idea of the duties and pleasures of hospitality. Lady Mary's eyes +sparkled at the thought of providing entertainment for many young +soldiers, wounded or otherwise. They should have the best of +everything. She was rich, and Peter was rich, and there was no harm in +making visitors welcome in that great house, and filling the rooms, +that had been silent and empty so long, with the noise and laughter of +young people. + +She would ask Peter about the horses to-morrow. John had purposely +refrained from filling the stables which had been so carefully +restored and fitted. There were very few horses. Only the cob for +the dog-cart, and a pair for the carriage, so old that the coachman +declared it was tempting Providence to sit behind them. They were +calculated to have attained their twentieth year, and were driven at a +slow jog-trot for a couple of hours every day, except Sundays, in the +barouche. James Coachman informed Lady Belstone and Miss Crewys that +either steed was liable to drop down dead at any moment, and that they +could not expect the best of horses to last for ever; but the old +ladies would neither shorten nor abandon their afternoon drive, nor +consent to the purchase of a new pair. They continued to behave as +though horses were immortal. + +Sir Timothy's old black mare was turned out to graze, partly from +sentiment, and partly because she, too, was unfitted for any practical +purposes; and Peter had outgrown his pony before he went away, though +he had ridden it to hounds many times, unknown to his father. Lady +Mary thought it would be a pleasure to see her boy well mounted and +the stables filled. John had said that the loss of his arm would +certainly not prevent Peter from riding. She found herself constantly +referring to John, even in her plans for Peter's amusement. + +Strong, calm, patient John--who was prepared to wait; and who would +not, as he said, snatch happiness at the expense of other people's +feelings. How wise he had been to agree that, for the present, she +must devote herself only to Peter! She and Peter would be all in all +to each other as Peter himself had suggested, and as she had once +dreamed her son would be to his mother; though, of course, it was not +to be expected that a boy could understand everything, like John. + +She must make great allowances; she must be patient of his inherited +prejudices; above all, she must make him happy. + +Afterwards, perhaps, when Peter had learned to do without her--as he +would learn too surely in the course of nature--she would be free +to turn to John, and put her hand in his, and let him lead her +whithersoever he would. + +Peter saw his guardian off at Brawnton, dutifully standing at +attention on the platform until the train had departed, instead of +starting home as John suggested. + +When he came out of the station he stood still for a moment, +contemplating the stout, brown cob and the slim groom, who was waiting +anxiously to know whether Sir Peter would take the reins, or whether +he was to have the honour of driving his master home. + +"I think I'll walk back, George," said Peter, with a nonchalant air. +"Take the cob along quietly, and let her ladyship know directly you +get in that I'm returning by Hewelscourt woods, and the ferry." + +"Very good, Sir Peter," said the youth, zealously. + +"It would be only civil to look in on the Hewels as Sarah is going +back to town so soon," said Peter to himself. "And it's rot driving +all those miles on the sunny side of the river, when it's barely three +miles from here to Hewelscourt and the ferry, and in the shade all the +way. I shall be back almost as soon as the cart." + +A little old lady, dressed in shabby black silk, looked up from +the corner of the sofa next the window, when Peter entered the +drawing-room at Hewelscourt, after the usual delay, apologies, and +barking of dogs which attends the morning caller at the front door of +the average country house. + +Peter, who had expected to see Mrs. Hewel and Sarah, repented himself +for a moment that he had come at all when he beheld this stranger, who +regarded him with a pair of dark eyes that seemed several times too +large for her small, wrinkled face, and who merely nodded her head in +response to his awkward salutation. + +"Ah!" said the old lady, rather as though she were talking to herself, +"so this is the returned hero, no doubt. How do you do? The rejoicing +over your home-coming kept me awake half the night." + +Peter was rather offended at this free-and-easy method of address. It +seemed to him that, since the old lady evidently knew who he was, she +might be a little more respectful in her manner. + +"The festivities were all over soon after eleven," he said stiffly. +"But perhaps you are accustomed to early hours?" + +"Perhaps I am," said the old lady; she seemed more amused than abashed +by Peter's dignity of demeanour. "At any rate, I like my beauty sleep +to be undisturbed; more especially in the country, where there are so +many noises to wake one up from four o'clock in the morning onwards." + +"I have always understood," said Peter, who inherited his father's +respect for platitudes, "that the country was much quieter than the +town. I suppose you live in a town?" + +"I suppose I do," said the old lady. + +Peter put up his eyeglass indignantly, to quell this disrespectful +old woman with a frigid look, modelled upon the expression of his +board-ship hero. + +The door opened suddenly. + +He dropped his eyeglass with a start. But it was only Mrs. Hewel who +entered, and not Sarah, after all. + +Her _embonpoint_, and consequently her breathlessness, had much +increased since Peter saw her last. + +"Oh, Peter," she cried, "this is nice of you to come over and see us +so soon. We were wondering if you would. Dear, dear, how thankful your +mother must be! I know what I was with the boys--and decorated and +all--though poor Tom and Willie got nothing; but, as the papers said, +it wasn't always those who deserved it most--still, I'm glad _you_ got +something, anyway; it's little enough, I'm sure, to make up for--" +Then she turned nervously to the old lady. "Aunt Elizabeth, this is +Sir Peter Crewys, who came home last night." + +"I have already made acquaintance with Sir Peter, since you left me to +entertain him," said the old lady, nodding affably. + +"Lady Tintern arrived unexpectedly by the afternoon train yesterday," +explained Mrs. Hewel, in her flustered manner, turning once more to +Peter. "She has only been here twice before. It was such a surprise to +Sarah to find her here when she came back." + +Peter grew very red. Who could have supposed that this shabby old +person, whom he had endeavoured to snub, was the great Lady Tintern? + +"She _didn't_ find me," said the old lady. "I was in bed long before +Sarah came back. I presume this young gentleman escorted her home?" + +"I always send a servant across for Sarah whenever she stays at all +late at Barracombe, and always have," said Mrs. Hewel, in hurried +self-defence. "You must remember we are old friends; there never was +any formality about her visits to Barracombe." + +"My guardian and I walked down to the ferry, and saw her across the +river, of course," said Peter, rather sulkily. + +"But her maid was with her," cried Mrs. Hewel. + +"Of course," Peter said again, in tones that were none too civil. + +After all, who was Lady Tintern that she should call him to task? And +as if there could be any reason why her oldest playmate should not see +Sarah home if he chose. + +At the very bottom of Peter's heart lurked an inborn conviction that +his father's son was a very much more important personage than any +Hewel, or relative of Hewel, could possibly be. + +"That was very kind of you and your guardian," said the old lady, +suddenly becoming gracious. "Emily, I will leave you to talk to your +_old friend_. I dare say I shall see him again at luncheon?" + +"I cannot stay to luncheon. My mother is expecting me," said Peter. + +He would not express any thanks. What business had the presuming old +woman to invite him to luncheon? It was not her house, after all. + +"Oh, your mother is expecting you," said Lady Tintern, whose slightly +derisive manner of repeating Peter's words embarrassed and annoyed the +young gentleman exceedingly. "I am glad you are such a dutiful son, +Sir Peter." + +She gathered together her letters and her black draperies, and +tottered off to the door, which Peter, who was sadly negligent of _les +petits soins_ forgot to open for her; nor did he observe the indignant +look she favoured him with in consequence. + +Sarah came into the drawing-room at last; fresh as the morning dew, in +her summer muslin and fluttering, embroidered ribbons; with a bunch of +forget-me-nots, blue as her eyes, nestling beneath her round, white +chin. Her bright hair was curled round her pretty ears and about her +fair throat, but Peter did not compare this _coiffure_ to a fashion +plate, though, indeed, it exactly resembled one. Neither did he cast +the severely critical glance upon Sarah's _toilette_ that he +had bestowed upon the soft, grey gown, and the cluster of white +moss-rosebuds which poor Lady Mary had ventured to wear that morning. + +"How have you managed to offend Aunt Elizabeth, Peter?" cried Sarah, +with her usual frankness. "She is in the worst of humours." + +"Sarah!" said her mother, reprovingly. + +"Well, but she _is_," said Sarah. "She called him a cub and a bear, +and all sorts of things." + +She looked at Peter and laughed, and he laughed back. The cloud of +sullenness had lifted from his brow as she appeared. + +Mrs. Hewel overwhelmed him with unnecessary apologies. She could not +grasp the fact that her polite conversation was as dull and unmeaning +to the young man as Sarah's indiscreet nothings were interesting and +delightful. + +"I'm sure I don't mind," said Peter; and his tone was quite alert and +cheerful. "She told me the country kept her awake. If she doesn't like +it, why does she come?" + +"She has come to fetch me away," said Sarah. "And she came +unexpectedly, because she wanted to see for herself whether mamma was +really ill, or whether she was only shamming." + +"Sarah!" + +"And she has decided she is only shamming," said Sarah. "Unluckily, +mamma happened to be down in the stables, doctoring Venus. You +remember Venus, her pet spaniel?" + +"Of course." + +"Nothing else would have taken me off my sofa, where I ought to be +lying at this moment, as you know very well, Sarah," cried Mrs. Hewel, +showing an inclination to shed tears. + +"To be sure you ought," said Sarah; "but what is the use of telling +Aunt Elizabeth that, when she saw you with her own eyes racing up and +down the stable-yard, with a piece of raw meat in your hand, and Venus +galloping after you." + +"The vet said that if she took no exercise she would die," said Mrs. +Hewel, tearfully, "and neither he nor Jones could get her to move. Not +even Ash, though he has known her all her life. I know it was very bad +for me; but what could I do?" + +"I wish I had been there," said Sarah, giggling; "but, however, Aunt +Elizabeth described it all to me so graphically this morning that it +is almost as good as though I had been." + +"She should not have come down like that, without giving us a notion," +said Mrs. Hewel, resentfully. + +"If she had only warned us, you could have been lying on a sofa, with +the blinds down, and I could have been holding your hand and shaking +a medicine-bottle," said Sarah. "That is how she expected to find us, +she said, from your letters." + +"I am sure I scarcely refer to my weak health in my letters," said +Mrs. Hewel, plaintively, "and it is natural I should like my only +daughter to be with me now and then. Aunt Elizabeth has never had a +child herself, and cannot understand the feelings of a mother." + +Sarah and Peter exchanged a fleeting glance. She shrugged her +shoulders slightly, and Peter looked at his boots. They understood +each other perfectly. + +Freshly to the recollection of both rose the lamentations of a little +red-haired girl, banished from the Eden of her beloved home, and +condemned to a cheap German school. Mrs. Hewel, in her palmiest days, +had never found it necessary to race up and down the stable-yard to +amuse Sarah; and when her only daughter developed scarlatina, she +had removed herself and her spaniels from home for months to escape +infection. + +"Here is papa," said Sarah, breaking the silence. "He was so vexed to +be out when you arrived yesterday. He heard nothing of it till he came +back." + +Colonel Hewel walked in through the open window, with his dog at his +heels. He was delighted to welcome his young neighbour home. A short, +sturdy man, with red whiskers, plentiful stiff hair, and bright, dark +blue eyes. From her father Sarah had inherited her colouring, her +short nose, and her unfailing good spirits. + +"I would have come over to welcome you," he said, shaking Peter's hand +cordially, "only when I came home there was all the upset of Lady +Tintern's arrival, and half a hundred things to be done to make her +sufficiently comfortable. And then I would have come to fetch Sarah +after dinner, only I couldn't be sure she mightn't have started; and +if I'd gone down by the road, ten to one she'd have come up by the +path through the woods. So I just sat down and smoked my pipe, and +waited for her to come back. You'll stay to lunch, eh, Peter?" + +"I must get back to my mother, sir," said Peter. His respect for +Sarah's father, who had once commanded a cavalry regiment, had +increased a thousand-fold since he last saw Colonel Hewel. "But won't +you--I mean she'd be very glad--I wish you'd come over and dine +to-night, all of you--as you could not come yesterday evening?" + +Thus Peter delivered his first invitation, blushing with eagerness. + +"I'm afraid we couldn't leave Lady Tintern--or persuade her to come +with us," said the colonel, shaking his head. Then he brightened up. +"But as soon as she and Sally have toddled back to town I see no +reason why we shouldn't come, eh, Emily?" he said, turning to his +wife. + +Peter looked rather blank, and a laugh trembled on Sarah's pretty +lips. + +"You know I'm not strong enough to dine out, Tom," said his wife, +peevishly. "I can't drive so far, and I'm terrified of the ferry at +night, with those slippery banks." + +"Well, well, there's plenty of time before us. Later on you may get +better; and I don't suppose you'll be running away again in a hurry, +eh, Peter?" said the colonel. "I'm told you made a capital speech +yesterday about sticking to your home, and living on your land, as +your father, poor fellow, did before you." + +"I wish Sarah felt as you do, Peter," said Mrs. Hewel; "but, of +course, she has grown too grand for us, who live contentedly in the +country all the year round. Her home is nothing to her now, it seems; +and the only thing she thinks of is rushing back to London again as +fast as she can." + +Sarah, contrary to her wont, received this attack in silence; but she +bestowed a fond squeeze on her father's arm, and cast an appealing +glance at Peter, which caused the hero's heart to leap in his bosom. + +"Of course I mean to live at Barracombe," said Peter, polishing his +eyeglass with reckless energy. "But I said nothing to the people about +living there all the year round. On the contrary, I think it more +probable that I shall--run up to town myself, occasionally--just for +the season." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +On a perfect summer afternoon in mid-July, Lady Mary sat in the +terrace garden at Barracombe, before the open windows of the silent +house, in the shade of the great ilex; sometimes glancing at the book +she held, and sometimes watching the haymakers in the valley, whose +voices and laughter reached her faintly across the distance. + +Some boys were playing cricket in a field below. She noted idly that +the sound of the ball on the bat travelled but slowly upward, and +reached her after the striker had begun to run. The effect was +curious, but it was not new to her, though she listened and counted +with idle interest. + +The old sisters had departed for their daily drive, which she daily +declined to share, having no love for the high-road, and much for the +peace which their absence brought her. + +It was an afternoon which made mere existence a delight amid such +surroundings. + +Long shadows were falling across the bend of the river, below the +wooded hill which faced the south-west; whilst the cob-built, +whitewashed cottages, and the brown, square-towered church lay full in +sunshine still. The red cattle stood knee-deep in the shallows, and an +old boat was moored high and dry upon the sloping red banks. + +The air was sweet with a thousand mingled scents of summer flowers: +carnations, stocks, roses, and jasmine. The creamy clusters of +Perpetual Felicity rioted over the corner turret of the terrace, where +a crumbling stair led to the top of a small, half-ruined observatory, +which tradition called the look-out tower. + +Flights of steps led downwards from the garden, where the bedded-out +plants blazed in all their glory of ordered colour, to the walks on +the lower levels. Here were long herbaceous borders, backed by the +mighty sloping walls of old red sandstone, which, like an ancient +fortification, supported the terrace above. + +The blue larkspur flourished beside scarlet gladioli, feather-headed +spirea, and hardy fuchsia. There were no straight lines, nor any order +of planting. The Madonna lilies stood in groups, lifting up on thin, +ragged stems their pure and spotless clusters, and overpowering with +their heavy scent the fainter fragrance of the mignonette. Tall, green +hollyhocks towered higher yet, holding the secret of their loveliness, +until these should wither; when they too would burst into blossom, and +forestall the round-budded dahlia. + +In the silence, many usually unheeded sounds made themselves very +plainly heard. + +The tapping of the great magnolia-leaves upon the windows of the south +front; the rustling of the ilex; the ceaseless murmur of the river; +the near twittering or distant song of innumerable birds; the steady +hum of the saw-mill below; the call of the poultry-woman at the +home-farm, and the shrieking response of a feathered horde flying and +fighting for their food--sounds all so familiar as to pass unnoticed, +save in the absence of companionship. + +As Lady Mary mused alone, she could not but recall other summer +afternoons, when she had not felt less lonely because her husband's +voice might at any moment break the silence, and summon her to his +side. Days when Peter had been absent at school, instead of, as now, +at play; and when the old ladies had also been absent, taking their +regular and daily drive in the big barouche. + +Then she had prized and coveted the solitude of a summer afternoon on +the lawn, and had stolen away to read and dream undisturbed in the +shadow of the ilex. + +It was now, when no vexatious restraint was exercised over her--when +there was no one to reprove her for dreaming, or to criticize or +forbid her chosen book--that solitude had become distasteful to her. +She was restless and dissatisfied, and the misty sunlit landscape had +lost its charm, and her book its power of enchaining her attention. + +She had tasted the joy of real companionship; the charm of real +sympathy; of the fearless exchange of ideas with one whose outlook +upon life was as broad and charitable as Sir Timothy's had been narrow +and prejudiced. + +She had scarcely dared to acknowledge to herself how dear John Crewys +had become to her, even though she knew that she rested thankfully +upon the certainty of his love; that she trusted him in all things; +that she was in utter sympathy with all his thoughts and words and +ways. + +Yet she had wished him to go, that she might be free to devote herself +to her boy--to be very sure that she was not a light and careless +mother, ready to abandon her son at the first call of a stranger. + +And John Crewys had understood as another might not have understood. +His clear head and great heart had divined her feelings, though +perhaps he would never quite know how passionately grateful she was +because he had divined them; because he had in no way fallen short of +the man he had seemed to be. + +She had sacrificed John to Peter; and John, who had shown so much +wisdom and delicacy in leaving her alone with her son, was avenged; +for only his absence could have made clear to her how he had grown +into the heart she had guarded so jealously for Peter's sake. + +She knew now that Peter's companionship made her more lonely than +utter solitude. + +The _joie de vivre_, which had distinguished her early days, and was +inherent in her nature, had been quenched, to all appearance, many +years since; but the spark had never died, and John had fanned it into +brightness once more. + +His strong hand had swept away the cobwebs that had been spun across +her life; and the drooping soul had revived in the sunshine of his +love, his comradeship, his warm approval. + +Timidly, she had learnt to live, to laugh, to look about her, and dare +utter her own thoughts and opinions, instead of falsely echoing those +she did not share. Lady Mary had recovered her individuality; the +serene consciousness of a power within herself to live up to the ideal +her lover had conceived of her. + +But now, in his absence, that confidence had been rudely shaken. She +had come to perceive that she, who charmed others so easily, could +not charm her sullen son. It was part of the penalty she paid for her +quick-wittedness, that she could realize herself as Peter saw her, +though she was unable to present herself before him in a more +favourable light. + +"I must be myself--or nobody," she thought despairingly. But Peter +wanted her to be once more the meek, plainly dressed, low-spirited, +silent being whom Sir Timothy had created; and who was not in the +least like the original laughing, loving, joyous Mary Setoun. + +It did not occur to her, in her sorrowful humility, that possibly her +qualities stood on a higher level than Peter's powers of appreciation. +Yet it is certain that people can only admire intelligently what +is good within their comprehension; and their highest flights of +imagination may sometimes scarcely touch mediocrity. + +The noblest ideals, the fairest dreams, the subtlest reasoning, the +finest ethics, contained in the writings of the mighty dead, meant +nothing at all to Sir Timothy. His widow knew that she had never heard +him utter one high or noble or selfless thought. But with, perhaps, +pardonable egotism, she had taken it for granted that Peter must be +different. Whatever his outward humours, he was _her_ son; rather a +part of herself, in her loving fancy, than a separate individual. + +The moment of awakening had been long in coming to Lady Mary; the +moment when a mother has to find out that her personality is not +necessarily reproduced in her child; that the being who was once the +unconscious consoler of her griefs and troubles may develop a nature +perfectly antagonistic to her own. + +She had kept her eyes shut with all her might for a long time, but +necessity was forcing them open. + +Perhaps her association with John Crewys made it easier to see Peter +as he was, and not as she had wished him to be. + +And yet, she thought miserably to herself, he had certainly tried hard +to be affectionate and kind to her--and probably it did not occur to +him, as it did to his mother, how pathetic it was that he should have +to try. + +Peter did not think much about it. + +Sometimes, during his short stay at Barracombe, he had walked through +a game of croquet with his mother--it was good practice for his left +hand--or he listened disapprovingly to something she inadvertently +(forgetting he was not John) read aloud for his sympathy or +admiration; or he took a short stroll with her; or bestowed his +company upon her in some other dutiful fashion. But these filial +attentions over, if he yawned with relief--why, he never did so in her +presence, and would have been unable to understand that Lady Mary saw +him yawning, in her mind's eye, as plainly as though he had indulged +this bad habit under her very nose. He bestowed a portion of his +time on his aunts in much the same spirit, taking less trouble to be +affectionate, because they were less exacting, as he would have put it +to himself, than she was. + +The scheme of renting a house in London had duly been laid before him, +and rejected most decisively by the young gentleman. His father had +never taken a house in town, and he could see no necessity for it. His +aunts were lost in admiration for their nephew's firmness. Peter had +inherited somewhat of his father's dictatorial manner, and their +flattery did not tend to soften it. When his aged relatives +mispronounced the magic word _kopje_, or betrayed their belief that a +_donga_ was an inaccessible mountain--he brought the big guns of his +heavy satire to bear on the little target of their ignorance without +remorse. He mistook a loud voice, and a habit of laying down the law, +for manly decision, and the gift of leadership; and imagined that in +talking down his mother's gentle protests he had convinced her of his +superior wisdom. + +When he had made it sufficiently clear, however, that he did not wish +Lady Mary to accompany him to town, young Sir Peter made haste to +depart thither himself, on the very reasonable plea that he required a +new outfit of clothes. + +Was it possible that his departure brought a dreadful relief to the +mother who had prayed day and night, for eight-and-twenty months, that +her son might return to her? + +She tried and tried, on her knees in her own room, to realize what her +feelings would have been if Peter had been killed in South Africa. +She tried to recall the first ecstasy of joy at his home-coming. She +remembered, as she might have remembered a dream, the hours of agony +she had passed, looking out over these very blue hills, and dumbly +beseeching God to spare her boy--her only son--out of all the mothers' +sons who were laying down their lives for England. + +A terrible thought assailed her now and then, like an ugly spectre +that would not be laid--that if Peter had died of his wound--if he had +fallen as so many of his comrades had fallen, in the war--he would +have been a hero for all time; a glorious memory, safely enshrined and +enthroned above all these miserable petty doubts and disappointments. +She cast the thought from her in horror and piteous grief, and +reiterated always her passionate gratitude for his preservation. But, +nevertheless, the living, breathing Peter was a daily and hourly +disappointment to the mother who loved him. His ways were not her +ways, nor his thoughts her thoughts; and often she felt that she could +have found more to say to a complete stranger, and that a stranger +would have understood her better. + +The old ladies, returning from their drive, generally took a little +turn upon the terrace. This constituted half their daily exercise, +since their morning walk consisted of a stroll round the kitchen +garden. + +"It prevents cramp after sitting so long," one would say to the other. + +"And it is only right to show the gardener that we take an interest," +the other would reply. + +The gardener translated the interest they took into a habit of +fault-finding, which nearly drove him mad. + +"It du spile the vine weather vor I," he would frequently grumble +to his greatest crony, James Coachman, who, for his part, bitterly +resented the abnormal length of the daily drives. "Zure as vate, when +I zits down tu my tea, cumes a message from one are t'other on 'em, +an' oop I goes. 'Yu bain't been lukin' round zo careful as 'ee shude; +there be a bit o' magnolia as want nailding oop, my gude man.' 'Oh, +be there, mum?' zays I. 'Yiss, there be; an' thart I'd carl yure +attention tu it,' zess she, are zum zuch. 'Thanky, mum, I'm zure,' +zezz I." + +"I knows how her goes on," groaned James Coachman. + +"Mother toime 'tis zummat else," said the aggrieved gardener. "'Thic +'ere geranum's broke, Willum; but ef yu tuke it vor cuttings, zo +vast's iver yu cude, 'twon't take no yarm, Willum. Yu zee as how us du +take a turble interest.' Ah! 'tis arl I can du tu putt oop wi' 'un; +carling a man from's tea, tu tark zuch vamous vule's tark." + +Lady Mary was not much less weary than the gardener and coachman of +the old sisters' habits of criticism. But only the shadow of their +former power of vexing her remained, now that they could no longer +appeal to Sir Timothy to join them in reproving his wife. She was +no more to be teased or exasperated into alternate submission and +rebellion. + +Their cousin John, the administrator of Barracombe, had chosen from +the first to place her opinions and wishes above all their protests or +advice. They said to each other that John, before he grew tired of her +and went away, had spoilt poor dear Mary completely; but their hopes +were centred on Peter, who was a true Crewys, and who would soon +be his own master, and the master of Barracombe; when he would, +doubtless, revert to his father's old ways. + +They chose to blame his mother for his sudden departure to London, and +remarked that the changes in his home had so wrought upon the poor +fellow, that he could not bear to look at them until he had the power +of putting them right again. + +A deeply resented innovation was the appearance of the tea-table on +the lawn before the windows, in the shade of the ilex-grove, which +sheltered the western end of the terrace from the low rays of the sun. + +During the previous summer, on their return from a drive, they had +found their cousin John in his white flannels, and Lady Mary in her +black gown, serenely enjoying this refreshment out-of-doors; and the +poor old ladies had hardly known how to express their surprise and +annoyance. + +In vain did their sister-in-law explain that she had desired a second +tea to be served in the hall, in their usual corner by the log +fireplace. + +It had never been the custom in the family. What would Ash say? What +would he think? How could so much extra trouble be given to the +servants? + +"The servants have next to nothing to do," Lady Mary had said; and +young John had actually laughed, and explained that he had had a +conversation with Ash which had almost petrified that tyrant of the +household. + +Either Ash would behave himself properly, and carry out orders without +grumbling, or he would be superseded. _Ash_ superseded! + +This John had said with quite unruffled good humour, and with a smile +on his face, as though such an upheaval of domestic politics were the +simplest thing in the world. Though for years the insolence and the +idleness of Ash had been favourite grievances with Lady Belstone and +Miss Crewys, they were speechlessly indignant with young John. + +Habit had partially inured, though it could never reconcile them, to +the appearance of that little rustic table and white cloth in Lady +Mary's favourite corner of the terrace; and though they would rather +have gone without their tea altogether than partake of it there, +they could behold her pouring it out for herself with comparative +equanimity. + +"I trust you are rested, dear Mary, after your terrible long climb in +the woods this morning?" + +"It has been very restful sitting here. I hope you had a pleasant +drive, Isabella?" "No; it was too hot to be pleasant. We passed +the rectory, and there was that idle doctor lolling in the canon's +verandah--keeping the poor man from his haymaking. Has the second post +come in? Any news of dear Peter?" + +"None at all. You know he is not much of a correspondent, and his last +letter said he would be back in a few days." + +"For my part," said Lady Belstone, "I think Peter will come home the +day he attains his majority, and not a moment before." + +"He is hardly likely to stay in London through August and September," +said Lady Mary, in rather displeased tones. + +"Perhaps not in London; but there are other places besides London," +said Miss Crewys, significantly. "We met Mrs. Hewel driving. _She_, +poor thing, does not expect to see Sarah before Christmas, if then, +from what she told us." + +"She should not have let Lady Tintern adopt Sarah if she is to be for +ever regretting it. It was her own doing," said Lady Mary. + +"That is just what I told her," said Lady Belstone, triumphantly. +"Though how she can be regretting such a daughter I cannot +conjecture." + +"Sarah is a saucy creature," said Miss Crewys. "The last time I saw +her she made one of her senseless jokes at me." + +"She has no tact," said Lady Belstone, shaking her head; "for when +Peter saw you were annoyed, and tried to pass it off by telling her +the Crewys family had no sense of humour, instead of saying, 'What +nonsense!' she said, 'What a pity!'" + +"Her mother was full of a letter from Lady Tintern about some grand +lord or other, who wanted to marry Sarah. I did my best to make her +understand how very unlikely it was that any man, noble or otherwise, +would care to marry a girl with carroty hair." + +"I doubt if you succeeded in convincing her, Georgina, though you +spoke pretty plain, and I am very far from blaming you for it. But she +is ate up with pride, poor thing, because Sarah gets noticed by +Lady Tintern's friends, who would naturally wish to gratify her by +flattering her niece." + +"I am afraid the girl is setting her cap at Peter," said Miss Crewys; +"but I took care to let her mother know, casually, what our family +would think of such a marriage for him." + +"Peter is a boy," said Lady Mary, quickly; "and Sarah, for all +practical purposes, is ten years older than he. She is only amusing +herself. Lady Tintern is much more ambitious for her than I am for +Peter." + +"How you talk, Mary!" said Miss Crewys, indignantly. "She is hardly +twenty years of age, and the most designing monkey that ever lived. +And Peter is a fine young man. A boy, indeed! I hope if she succeeds +in catching him that you will remember I warned you." + +"I will remember, if anything so fortunate should occur," said Lady +Mary, with a faint smile. "I cannot think of any girl in the world +whom I would prefer to Sarah as a daughter." + +"I, for one, should walk out of this house the day that girl entered +it as mistress, let Peter say what he would to prevent me," said Lady +Belstone, reddening with indignation. + +"I wonder where you would go to?" said Lady Mary, with some curiosity. +"Of course," she added, hastily, "there is the Dower House." + +"I am sure it is very generous of you to suggest the Dower House, dear +Mary," said Miss Crewys, softening, "since our poor brother, in his +unaccountable will, left it entirely to you, and made no mention of +his elder sisters; though we do not complain." + +"It is in accordance with custom that the widow should have the Dower +House. A widow's rights should be respected; but I thought our names +would be mentioned," said Lady Belstone, dejectedly. + +"Of course he knew," said Lady Mary, in a low voice, "that Peter's +house would be always open to us all, as my boy said himself." + +"Dear boy! he has said it to us too," said the sisters, in a breath. + +"I don't say that, in my opinion," said Lady Mary, "it would not be +wiser to leave a young married couple to themselves; I have always +thought so. But Peter would not hear of your turning out of your old +home; you know that very well." + +"Peter would not; but nothing would induce _me_ to live under the +same roof as that red-haired minx," said Lady Belstone, firmly. "And +besides, as you say, my dear Mary, you could not very well live by +yourself at the Dower House." + +"Since Mary has been so kind as to mention it, there would be many +advantages in our accompanying her there, in case Sarah should succeed +in her artful aims," said Miss Crewys. "It would be near Peter, and +yet not _too_ near, and we could keep an eye on _her_." + +"If she does not succeed, somebody else will," said Lady Belstone, +sensibly; "and, at least, we know her faults, and can put Peter on his +guard against them." + +A host of petty and wretched recollections poured into Lady Mary's +mind as she listened to these words. + +Poor Timothy; poor little hunted, scolded, despairing bride; poor +married life--of futile reproaches and foolish quarrelling. + +How many small miseries she owed to those ferret searching eyes, and +those subtly poisonous tongues! But such miseries lurked in the dull +shadows of the past. Standing now in the bright sunshine of the +present, she forgave the sisters with all her heart, and thought +compassionately of their great age, their increasing infirmities, +their feeble hold on life. + +Not to them did she owe real sorrow, after all; for nothing that does +not touch the heart can reach the fountain of grief. + +Peter's hand--the hand she loved best in the world--had set the waters +of sorrow flowing not once, but many times; but she had become aware +lately of a stronger power than Peter's guarding the spring. + +She looked from one sister to the other. + +Despite the narrowness of brow, and sharpness of eye and feature, +they were both venerable of aspect, as they tottered up and down the +terrace where they had played in their childhood and sauntered through +youth and middle age to these latter days, when they leant upon +silver-headed sticks, and wore dignified silk attire and respectable +poke-bonnets. + +"Don't you think it would be better," said Lady Mary, slowly, "if you +left Peter to find out his wife's faults for himself; whether she be +Sarah--or another?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Torrents of falling rain obscured the valley of the Youle. The grey +clouds floated below the ridges of the hills, and wreathed the +tree-tops. Against the dim purple of the distance, the October roses +held up melancholy, rain-washed heads; and sudden gusts of wind sent +little armies of dead, brown leaves racing over the stone pavement of +the terrace. + +Lady Mary leant her forehead against the window, and gazed out upon +the autumn landscape; and John Crewys watched her with feelings not +altogether devoid of self-reproach. + +Perhaps he had carried his prudent consideration too far. + +His reverence for his beautiful lady--who reigned in John's inmost +thoughts as both saint and queen--had caused him to determine that she +must come to him, when she did come, without a shadow of self-reproach +to sully the joy of her surrender, the fulness, of her bliss, in the +perfect sympathy and devotion which awaited her. + +But John Crewys--though passionately desiring her companionship, and +impatient of all barriers, real or imaginary, which divided her from +him--yet lived a life very full of work and interest and pleasure on +his own account. He was only conscious of his loneliness at times; +and when he was as busy as he had been during the early half of this +summer, he was hardly conscious of it at all. + +He had not fully realized the effect that this time of waiting and +uncertainty might have upon her, in the solitude to which he had left +her, and which he had at first supposed would be altogether occupied +by Peter. Her letters--infrequent as he, in his self-denial, had +suggested--were characterized by a delicate reserve and a tacit +refusal to take anything for granted in their relations to each other, +which half charmed and half tantalized John; but scarcely enlightened +him regarding the suspense and sadness which at this time she was +called upon to bear. + +When he came to Barracombe, he knew that she had suffered greatly +during these months of his absence, and reproached himself angrily for +blindness and selfishness. + +He had spent the first weeks of his long vacation in Switzerland, in +order to bring the date of his visit to the Youle Valley as near as +possible to the date of Peter's coming of age; but, also, he had been +very much overworked, and felt an absolute want of rest and change +before entering upon the struggle which he supposed might await him, +and for which he would probably need all the good humour and good +sense he possessed. So far as he was personally concerned, there +was no doubt that his proceedings had been dictated by wisdom and +judgment. + +The fatigue and irritability, consequent upon too much mental labour, +and too little fresh air and exercise, had vanished. John was in good +health and good spirits, clear of brain and eye, and vigorous of +person, when he arrived at Barracombe; in the mild, wet, misty weather +which heralded the approach of a typical Devonshire autumn. + +But when he looked at Lady Mary, he knew that he would have been +better able to dispense with that holiday interval than she was to +have endured it. + +She had always been considered marvellously young-looking for her age. +The quiet country life she had led had bestowed that advantage upon +her; and her beauty, fair as she was, had always been less dependent +on colouring than upon the exquisite delicacy of her features and +general contour. But now a heaviness beneath the blue eyes,--a little +fading of her brightness--a little droop of the beautifully shaped +mouth,--almost betrayed her seven and thirty years; and the soft, +abundant, brown hair was threaded quite perceptibly with silver. Her +sweet face smiled upon him; but the smile was no longer, he thought, +joyous--but pathetic, as of one who reproaches herself wonderingly for +light-heartedness. + +John looked at her in silence, but the words he uttered in his heart +were, "I will never leave you any more." + +Perhaps his face said everything that he did not say, for Lady Mary +had turned from him with a little sob, and leant her forehead on her +hands, looking out at the rain which swept the valley. She felt, as +she had always felt in John's presence, that here was her champion and +her protector and her slave, in one; returned to restore her failing +courage and her lost self-confidence. + +"So you saw something of Peter in London?" she said tremulously, +breaking the silence which had fallen between them after their first +greeting. "Please tell me. You know I have seen almost nothing of him +since he came home." + +"So I gather," said John. "Yes, I saw something--not very much--of +Master Peter in London. You see I am not much of a society man;" and +he laughed. + +"Was Peter a society man?" said his mother, laughing also, but rather +sadly. + +"He went out a good deal, and was to be met with in most places," John +answered. + +"I read his name in lists of dances given by people I did not know he +had ever heard of. But I did not like to ask him how he managed to +get invited. He rather dislikes being questioned," said Lady Mary, +describing Peter's prejudices as mildly as possible. + +"I fancy Miss Sarah could tell you," said John, with twinkling eyes. + +"I did not know--just a girl--could get a stranger, a boy like Peter, +invited everywhere," said Lady Mary, innocently. + +John laughed. "Peter is a very eligible boy," he said, "and Sarah is +not 'just a girl,' but a very clever young woman indeed; and Lady +Tintern is a ball-giver. But if he had been the most ordinary of +youths, a bachelor's foothold on the dance-lists is the easiest thing +in the world to obtain. It means nothing in itself." + +"I think it meant a good deal to Peter," said his mother, with a sigh. +"If only I could think Sarah were in earnest." + +"I don't see why not," said John. + +Then he came and took Lady Mary's hand, and led her to a seat next the +fire. + +"Come and sit down comfortably," he said, "and let us talk everything +over. It looks very miserable out-of-doors, and nothing could be more +delightful than this room, and nobody to disturb us. I want the real +history of the last few months. Do you know your letters told me +almost nothing?" + +The room was certainly delightful, and not the less so for the Chill +rain without, which beat against the windows, and enhanced the bright +aspect of the scene within. + +A little fire burned cheerfully in the polished grate, and cast its +glow upon the burnished fender, and the silver ornaments and +trifles on a rosewood table beyond. The furniture was bright with +old-fashioned glossy chintz; the rose-tinted walls were hung with fine +water-colour drawings; the windows with rose-silk curtains. + +The hardy outdoor flowers were banished to the oaken hall. Lady Mary's +sense of the fitness of things permitted the silver cups and Venetian +glasses of this dainty apartment to be filled only with waxen hothouse +blooms and maidenhair fern. + +She could not but be conscious of the restfulness of her surroundings, +and of John's calm, protecting presence, as he placed her tenderly in +the corner of the fireside couch, and took his place beside her. + +"I don't think the last months have had any history at all," she said +dreamily. "I have missed you, John. But that--you know already. I--I +have been very lonely--since--since Peter came home. I think it was +Sarah who persuaded him to go away again so soon. I believe she +laughed at his clothes." + +"I suppose they _were_ a little out of date, and he must surely have +outgrown them, besides," said John, smiling. + +"I suppose so; anyway, I think it must have been that which put it +into his head to go to London and buy more. It was a little awkward +for the poor boy, because he had just been scolding _me_ for wishing +to go to London. But he said he would only be a few days." + +"And he stayed to the end of the season?" + +"Yes. Of course the aunts put it down to Sarah. I dare say it _was_ +her doing. I don't know why she should wish to rob me of my boy just +for--amusement," said Lady Mary, rather resentfully. "But I have not +understood Sarah lately; she has seemed so hard and flippant. You are +laughing, John? I dare say I am jealous and inconsistent. You are +quite right. One moment I want to think Sarah in earnest--and willing +to marry my boy; and the next I remember that I began to hate his wife +the very day he was born." + +"It appears to be the nature of mothers," said John, indulgently. +"But you will allow _me_ to hope for Peter's happiness, and quite +incidentally, of course, for our own?" + +She smiled. "Seriously, John, I wish you would tell me how he got on +in London." + +"He dined with me once or twice, as you know," said John, "and was +very friendly. I think he was relieved that I made no suggestion of +tutors or universities, and that I took his eyeglass for granted. In +short, that I treated him as I should treat any other young man of my +acquaintance; whereas he had greatly feared I might presume upon my +guardianship to give him good advice. But I did not, because he is too +young to want advice just now, and prefers, like most of us, to buy +his own experience." + +"I hope he was really nice to you. You won't hide anything? You'll +tell me exactly?" + +"I am hiding nothing. The lad is a good lad at bottom, and a manly one +into the bargain," said John. "His defects are of the kind which get +up, so to speak, and hit you in the eye; and are, consequently, not +of a kind to escape observation. What is obviously wrong is easiest +cured. He has yet to learn that 'manners maketh man,' but he was +learning it as fast as possible. The mistakes of youth are rather +pathetic than annoying." + +"Sometimes," said Lady Mary. + +"He fell, very naturally, into most of the conventional errors which +beset the inexperienced Londoner," said John, smiling slightly at the +recollection. "He talked in a familiar manner of persons whose names +were unknown to him the day before yesterday; and told well-known +anecdotes about well-known people whom he hadn't had time to meet, as +though they had only just happened. The kind of stories outsiders +tell to new-comers. And he professed to be bored at every party he +attended. I won't say that the _habitue_ is always too well bred, or +too grateful to his entertainers, to do anything of the kind; but he +is certainly too wise or too cautious." + +"Perhaps he was bored?" said Lady Mary, wistfully. "Knowing nobody, +poor boy." + +"The first time I met him on neutral ground was at a dance," said +John. "He looked very tall and nervous and lonely, and, of course, he +was not dancing; but, nevertheless, he was the hero of the evening, +or so Miss Sarah gave me to understand. But you can imagine it for +yourself. The war just over, and a young fellow who has lost so much +in it; the gallant nephew of the gallant Ferries; besides his own +romantic name, and his eligibility. I took him off to the National +Gallery, to make acquaintance with the portrait of our cavalier +ancestor there; and I declare there is a likeness. Miss Sarah had +visited it long ago, it appears. For my part, I am glad to think that +these fashionable young women can still be so enthusiastic about a +wounded soldier. Sarah said they were all wild to dance with him, and +ready to shed tears for his lost arm." + +"And was he much with Sarah?" + +John laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Miss Sarah is a star with +many satellites. She raised my hopes, however, by appearing to have a +few smiles to spare for Peter." + +"And she must have got him the invitation to Tintern Castle," said +Lady Mary. "That is why he went up to Scotland." + +"I see." + +"Then she got him another invitation, I suppose, for he went to the +next house she stayed at; and to a third place for some yachting." + +"What did Lady Tintern say?" + +"That's just it. Sarah is in Lady Tintern's black books just now. She +is furious with her, Mrs. Hewel tells me, because she has refused Lord +Avonwick." + +"Hum!" said John. "He has forty thousand a year." + +"I don't think money would tempt Sarah to marry a man she did not +love," said Lady Mary, reproachfully. "There was Mr. Van Graaf, the +African millionaire. She wouldn't look at him, and he offered to +settle untold sums upon her." + +"Did he? What a brute!" + +"Why?" + +"Never mind. You've not seen him. I'm glad he found Sarah wasn't for +sale. But doesn't all this look as if it were Peter, after all?" + +"If only I could think she were in earnest," Lady Mary said again. +"But he is such a boy. She has three times his cleverness in some +ways, and three times his experience, though she is younger than he. I +suppose women mature much earlier than men. It galls my pride when she +orders him about, and laughs at him. But he--he doesn't understand." + +"Perhaps," said John, slowly, "he understands better than you think. +Each generation has a freemasonry of its own. I must confess I have +heard scraps of chatter and chaff in ballrooms and theatres which have +filled me with amazement, wondering how it could be possible that +such poor stuff should pass muster as conversation, or coquetry, or +gallantry, with the youths and maidens of to-day. But when I have +observed further, instead of an offended fair, or a disillusioned +swain, behold! two young heads close together, two young faces +sparkling with smiles and satisfaction. And the older person, who +would fatuously join in with a sensible remark, spoils all the +enjoyment. The fact is, the secret of real companionship is not +quality, but equality. There's a punning platitude for you." + +"It may be a platitude, but I am beginning to discover that what are +called platitudes by the young are biting truths to the old," said +Lady Mary. "I've felt it a thousand times. Words come so easily to my +lips when I'm speaking to you, I am so certain you will understand and +respond. But with Peter, I sometimes feel as though I were dumb or +stupid. Perhaps you've been too--too kind; you've understood too +quickly. I've been too ready to believe that you've found me--" + +"Everything I wanted to find you," interrupted John, tenderly; "and +that was something quite out of the common." + +She smiled and shook her head. "I am ready to believe all the nice +things you can say, as fast as you can say them, when I am with _you_" +she said, with a raillery rather mournful than gay. "But when I am +with Peter, I seem to realize dreadfully that I'm only a middle-aged +woman of average capacity, and with very little knowledge of the +world. He does his best to teach me. That's funny, isn't it?" + +"It's very like--a very young man," said John, gently. + +"You mustn't think I'm mocking at my boy--like Sarah," she said +vehemently. "Perhaps I am wrong to tell you. Perhaps only a mother +would really understand. But it makes me a little sad and bewildered. +My boy--my little baby, who lay in my arms and learnt everything from +me. And now he looks down and lectures me from such an immense height +of superiority, never dreaming that I'm laughing in my heart, because +it's only little Peter, after all." + +"And he doesn't lecture Sarah?" + +"Oh no; he doesn't lecture Sarah. She is too young to be lectured with +impunity, and too wise. Besides, I think since he went away, and saw +Sarah flattered and spoilt, and queening it among the great people +who didn't know him even by sight, that he has realized that their +relative positions have changed a good deal. You see, little Sarah +Hewel, as she used to be, would have been making quite a great +match in marrying Peter. But Lady Tintern's adopted daughter and +heiress--old Tintern left an immense fortune to his wife, didn't +he?--is another matter altogether. And how could she settle down to +this humdrum life after all the excitement and gaiety she's been +accustomed to?" + +"Women do such things every day. Besides--" + +"Yes?" + +"Is Peter still so much enamoured of a humdrum life?" said John, +dryly. + +"I have had no opportunity of finding out; but I am sure he will want +to settle down quietly when all this is over--" + +"You mean when he's no longer in love with Sarah?" + +"He's barely one-and-twenty; it can't last," said Lady Mary. + +"I don't know. If she's so much cleverer than he, I'm inclined to +think it may," said John. + +"Oh, of course, if he married her--it would last," said Lady Mary. + +"And then?" said John, smiling. + +"Perhaps _then_," said Lady Mary; and she laid her hand softly in the +strong hand outstretched to receive it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +There was a tap at the door of Lady Mary's bedroom, and Peter's voice +sounded without. + +"Mother, could I speak to you for a moment?" + +"Come in," said Lady Mary's soft voice; and Peter entered and closed +the door, and crossed to the oriel window, where she was sitting at +her writing-table, before a pile of notes and account books. + +Long ago, in Peter's childhood, she had learned to make this bedroom +her refuge, where she could read or write or dream, in silence; away +from the two old ladies, who seemed to pervade all the living-rooms at +Barracombe. Peter had been accustomed all his life to seek his mother +here. + +She had chosen the room at her marriage, and had had an old-fashioned +paper of bunched rosebuds put up there. It was very long and low, and +looked eastward into the fountain garden, and over the tree-tops far +away to the open country. + +The sisters had thought one of the handsome modern rooms of the south +front would be more suitable for the bride, but Lady Mary had her way. +She preferred the older part of the house, and liked the steps +down into her room, the uneven floor, the low ceiling, the quaint +window-seats, and the powdering closet where she hung her dresses. + +The great oriel window formed almost a sitting-room apart. Here was +her writing-table, whereon stood now a green jar of scented arums and +trailing white fuchsias. + +A bunch of sweet peas in a corner of the window-seat perfumed the +whole room, already fragrant with potpourri and lavender. + +A low bookcase was filled with her favourite volumes; one shelf with +the story-books of her childhood, from which she had long ago read +aloud to Peter, on rainy days when he had exhausted all other kinds +of amusement; for he had never touched a book if he could help it, +therein resembling his father. + +In the corner next the window stood the cot where Peter had slept +often as a little boy, and which had been playfully designated the +hospital, because his mother had always carried him thither when +he was ill. Then she had taken him jealously from the care of his +attendant, and had nursed and guarded him herself day and night, until +even convalescence was a thing of the past. She had never suffered +that little cot to be moved; the white coverlet had been made and +embroidered by her own hands. A gaudy oleograph of a soldier on +horseback--which little Peter had been fond of, and which had been +hung up to amuse him during one of those childish illnesses--remained +in its place. How often had she looked at it through her tears when +Peter was far away! Beside the cot stood a table with a shabby book +of devotions, marked by a ribbon from which the colour had long since +faded. The book had belonged to Lady Mary's father, young Robbie +Setoun, who had become Lord Ferries but one short month before he met +with a soldier's death. His daughter said her prayers at this little +table, and had carried thither her agony and petitions for her boy in +his peril, during the many, many months of the South African War. + +The morning was brilliant and sunny, and the upper casements stood +open, to let in the fresh autumn air, and the song of the robin +balancing on a swaying twig of the ivy climbing the old walls. White +clouds were blowing brightly across a clear, blue sky. + +Lady Mary stretched out her hand and pulled a cord, which drew a rosy +curtain half across the window, and shaded the corner where she was +sitting. She looked anxiously and tenderly into Peter's face; her +quick instinct gathered that something had shaken him from his +ordinary mood of criticism or indifference. + +"Are you come to have a little talk with me, my darling?" she said. + +She was afraid to offer the caress she longed to bestow. She moved +from her stiff elbow-chair to the soft cushions in her favourite +corner of the window-seat, and held out a timid hand. Peter clasped +it in his own, threw himself on a stool at her feet, and rested his +forehead against her knee. + +"I have something to tell you, mother, and I am afraid that, when I +have told you, you will be disappointed in me; that you will think me +inconsistent." + +Her heart beat faster. "Which of us is consistent in this world, my +darling? We all change with circumstances. We are often obliged to +change, even against our wills. Tell me, Peter; I shall understand." + +"There's not really anything to tell," said Peter, nervously +contradicting himself, "because nothing is exactly settled yet. But I +think something might be--before very long, if you would help me to +smooth away some of the principal difficulties." + +"Yes, yes," said Lady Mary, venturing to stroke the closely cropped +black head resting against her lap. + +"You know--Sarah--has been teaching me the new kind of croquet, at +Hewelscourt, since we came back from Scotland?" he said. "I don't get +on so badly, considering." + +"My poor boy!" + +"Oh, I was always rather inclined to be left-handed; it comes in +usefully now," said Peter, who generally hurried over any reference to +his misfortune. "Well, this morning, whilst we were playing, I asked +Sarah, for the third time, to--to marry me. The third's the lucky +time, isn't it?" he said, with a tremulous laugh, "and--and--" + +"She said yes!" cried Lady Mary, clasping her hands. + +"She didn't go so far as that," said Peter, rather reproachfully. His +voice shook slightly. "But she didn't say no. It's the first time she +hasn't said no." + +"What did she say?" said Lady Mary. + +She tried to keep her feelings of indignation and offence against +Sarah out of her voice. After all, who was Sarah that she should +presume to refuse Peter? Or for the matter of that, to accept him? +Either course seems equally unpardonable at times to motherly +jealousy, and Lady Mary was half vexed and half amused to find herself +not exempt from this weakness. + +"Impudent little red-headed thing!" she said to herself, though she +loved Sarah dearly, and admired her red hair with all her heart. + +"She told me a few of the reasons why she--she didn't want to marry +me," said Peter. + +Lady Mary's dismay was rather too apparent. "Surely that doesn't sound +very hopeful." + +Peter moved impatiently. "Oh, mother, it is always so difficult to +make you understand." + +"Is it, indeed?" she said, with a faint, pained smile. "I do my best, +my darling." + +"Never mind; I suppose women are always rather slow of comprehension," +said the young lord of creation--"that is, except Sarah. _She_ always +understands. God bless her!" + +"God bless her, indeed!" said Lady Mary, gently, and the tears started +to her blue eyes, "if she is going to marry my boy." + +Peter repented his crossness. "Forgive me, mother. I know you mean to +be kind," he said. "You will help me, won't you?" + +"With all my heart," she said, anxiously; "only tell me how." + +"You see, I can't help feeling," said Peter, bashfully, "that she +wouldn't have told me why she _couldn't_ marry me, if she hadn't +thought she might bring herself to do it in the end, if I got over the +difficulties she mentioned. I've been--hopeful, ever since she refused +that ass of an Avonwick, in spite of Lady Tintern. It wants some +courage to defy Lady Tintern, I can tell you, though she's such a +little object to look at. By George! I'd almost rather walk up to a +loaded gun than face that woman's tongue. Of course, even if _my_ +share of the difficulties were removed, there'd still be Lady Tintern +against us. But if Sarah can defy Lady Tintern in one thing, she might +in another. She's afraid of nobody." + +"Sarah certainly does not lack courage," said Lady Mary, smiling. + +"I never saw anybody like her," said Peter, whose love possessed him, +mind, body, and soul. "Why, I've heard her keep a whole roomful of +people laughing, and every one of them as dull as ditch-water till she +came in. And to see her hold her own against men at games--she's more +strength in one of her pretty, white wrists," said Peter, looking with +an air of disparagement at his mother's slender, delicate hand, "than +you have in your whole body, I do believe." + +"She is splendidly strong," said Lady Mary; "the very personification +of youth and health." She sighed softly. + +"And beauty," said Peter, excitedly. "Don't leave that out. And a good +sort, through and through, as even _you_ must allow, mother." + +He spoke as though he suspected her of begrudging his praise of Sarah, +and she made haste to reply: + +"Indeed, she is a good sort, dear little Sarah." + +"She is very fond of you," Peter said, in a choking voice. It seemed +to him, in his infatuation, so touching that Sarah should be fond of +any one. "She was dreadfully afraid of hurting your feelings; but yet, +as she said, she was bound to be frank with me." + +"Oh, Peter, do tell me what you mean. You are keeping me on thorns," +said Lady Mary. + +She grew red and white by turns. Was John's happiness in sight +already, as well as Peter's? + +"It's--it's most awfully hard to tell you," said Peter. + +He rose, and leant his elbow against the stone mullion nearest her, +looking down anxiously upon her as he spoke. + +"After all I said to you when we first came home, it's awfully hard. +But if you would only understand, you could make it all easy enough." + +"I will--I do understand." + +But Peter could not make up his mind even now to be explicit. + +"You see," he said, "Sarah is--not like other girls." + +"Of course not," said his mother. + +She controlled her impatience, reminding herself that Peter was very +young, and that he had never been in love before. + +"She's a kind of--of queen," said Peter, dreamily. "I only wish you +could have seen what it was in London." + +"I can imagine it," said Lady Mary. + +"No, you couldn't. I hadn't an idea what she would be there, until +I went to London and saw for myself," said Peter, who measured +everybody's imagination by his own. + +"You see," he explained "my position here, which seems so important to +you and the other people round here, and _used_ to seem so important +to me--is--just nothing at all compared to what has been cast at her +feet, as it were, over and over again, for her to pick up if she +chose. And this house," said Peter, glancing round and shaking his +head--"this house, which seems so beautiful to you now it's all done +up, if you'd only _seen_ the houses _she's_ accustomed to staying at. +Tintern Castle, for instance--" + +"I was born in a greater house than Tintern Castle, Peter," said Lady +Mary, gently. + +"Oh, of course. I'm saying nothing against Ferries," said Peter, +impatiently. "But you only lived there as a child. A child doesn't +notice." + +"Some children don't," said Lady Mary, with that faint, wondering +smile which hid her pain from Peter, and would have revealed it so +clearly to John. + +"It isn't that Sarah _minds_ this old house," said Peter; "she was +saying what a pretty room she could make of the drawing-room only the +other day." + +Lady Mary felt an odd pang at her heart. She thought of the trouble +John had taken to choose the best of the water-colours for the +rose-tinted room--the room he had declared so bright and so +charming--of the pretty curtains and chintzes; and the valuable old +china she had collected from every part of the house for the cabinets. + +"You see, she's got that sort of thing at her fingers' ends, Lady +Tintern being such a connoisseur," said the unconscious Peter. "But +she's so afraid of hurting your feelings--" + +"Why should she be?" said Lady Mary, coldly, in spite of herself. "If +she does not like the drawing-room, she can easily alter it." + +"That's what I say," said Peter, with a touch of his father's +pomposity. "Surely a bride has a right to look forward to arranging +her home as she chooses. And Sarah is mad about old French +furniture--Louis Seize, I think it is--but I know nothing about such +things. I think a man should leave the choice of furniture, and all +that, to his wife--especially when her taste happens to be as good as +Sarah's." + +"I--I think so too, Peter," said Lady Mary. + +Her thoughts wandered momentarily into the past; but his eager tones +recalled her attention. + +"Then you won't mind, so far?" said Peter, anxiously. + +"I--why should I mind?" said Lady Mary, starting. "I believe--I +have read--that old French furniture is all the rage now." Then she +bethought herself, and uttered a faint laugh. "But I'm afraid your +aunts might make it a little uncomfortable for her, if she--tried to +alter anything. I--go my own way now, and don't mind--but a young +bride--does not always like to be found fault with. She might find +that relations-in-law are sometimes--a little trying." Lady Mary felt, +as she spoke these words, that she was somehow opening a way for +herself as well as for Peter. She wondered, with a beating heart, +whether the moment had come in which she ought to tell him-- + +"That's just it," said Peter's voice, breaking in on her thoughts. +"That's just what Sarah means, and what I was trying to lead up to; +only I'm no diplomatist. But that's one of the greatest objections she +has to marrying me, quite apart from disappointing her aunt. I can't +blame Lady Tintern," said Peter, with a new and strange humility, "for +not thinking me good enough for Sarah; and _that's_ not a difficulty +_I_ can ever hope to remove. Sarah is the one to decide that point. +But about relations-in-law--it's what I've been trying to tell you all +this time." He cleared his throat, which had grown dry and husky. +"She says that when she marries she--she intends to have her house to +herself." + +There was a pause. + +"I see," said Lady Mary. + +She was silent; not, as Peter thought, with mortification; but because +she could not make up her mind what words to choose, in which to tell +him that it was freedom and happiness he was thus offering her with +both hands; and not, as he thought, loneliness and disappointment. + +Twice she essayed to speak, and failed through sheer embarrassment. +The second time Peter lifted her hand to his lips. She felt through +all her consciousness the shy remorse which prompted that rare caress. + +"The--the Dower House," faltered Peter, "is only a few yards away." + +A sudden desire to laugh aloud seized Lady Mary. His former words +returned upon her memory. + +"It's--it's rather damp, isn't it?" she said, in a shaking voice. + +He looked into her face, and did not understand the brightness of the +smile that was shining through her tears. + +"But it's very picturesque," said Peter, "and--and roomy. You and +my aunts would be quite snug there; and it could be very prettily +decorated, Sarah says." + +"Perhaps Sarah would advise us on the subject?" said Lady Mary, unable +to resist this thrust. + +"I'm sure she'd be delighted," said Peter, simply. + +Lady Mary fell back on her cushions and laughed helplessly, almost +hysterically. + +"I don't see why you should laugh," said Peter, in a rather sore tone. +"I don't know how it is, but I never _can_ understand you, mother." + +"I see you can't. Never mind, Peter," said Lady Mary. She sat up, and +lifted her pretty hands to smooth the soft waves of her brown hair. +"So I'm to settle down happily in my Dower House, and take your aunts +to live with me?" + +"Why, you see," said Peter, "we couldn't very well let the poor old +things wander away alone into the world, could we?" + +"I think," said Lady Mary, slowly, "that they can take care of +themselves. And it is just possible that they may have foreseen--your +change of intentions." + +"Women can never take care of themselves," said Peter. "And how can +they have foreseen? I had no idea myself of _this_ happening. But they +would be perfectly happy in the Dower House; it is close by, and I +could see them very often. It wouldn't be like leaving Barracombe." + +"Yes, I think they could be happy there," said Lady Mary. She felt +that the moment had come at last. Her heart beat thickly, and her +colour came and went. "But if _they_ were happily settled at the Dower +House," she said slowly, for her agitation was making her breathless, +and she did not want Peter to notice it,"--I would willingly give it +up to them altogether. It could not matter whether _I_ were there +or not. Though they are old, they are perfectly able to look after +themselves--and other people; and if they were not, they would not +like _me_ to take care of them. They have their own servants and +Mrs. Ash. And they have never liked me, Peter, though we have lived +together so many years." + +"That is nonsense," said Peter, very calmly; "and if _they_ don't want +you there, mother, _I_ do. Of course you must live at the Dower House; +my father left it to you. And I shall want you more than ever now." + +"I don't see how," said Lady Mary. + +"Why, _we_--Sarah and I," said Peter, lingering fondly over the words +which linked that beloved name with his own, "if we ever--if _it_ ever +came off--we shall naturally be away from home a good deal. I couldn't +ask Sarah to tie herself down to this dull old place, could I?" + +"I suppose not," said Lady Mary. + +"She's accustomed to going about the world a good deal," said Peter. + +"No doubt." + +"Even _I_," said Peter, turning a flushed face towards his mother--"I +am too young, as Sarah says--and I feel it myself since I have seen +something of the life she lives--to become a complete fixture, like my +father was. It's--it's, as Sarah says--it's narrowing. I can see the +effects of it upon you all," said Peter, calmly, "when I come back +here." + +He could not fathom the wistfulness which clouded the blue eyes she +lifted to his face. + +"It is very narrowing," she said humbly. + +"One may devote one's self to one's duties as a landed proprietor," +said Peter, with another recurrence of pomposity, "and yet see +something of one's fellow-men." + +He replaced the eyeglass, and walked up and down the room for a few +moments, as though he were pacing a quarter-deck. He looked very tall, +and very, very slight and thin; older than his years, tanned and dried +by the African sun, which had enhanced his natural darkness. Though he +spoke as a boy, he looked like a man. His mother's heart yearned over +him. + +Peter had taken his lack of perception with him into the heart of +South Africa, and brought it back intact. Because his body had +travelled many hundreds of miles over land and sea, he believed that +his mind had opened in proportion to the distance covered. He knew +that men and women of action pick up knowledge of the world without +pausing on their busy way; but he did not know that it is to the +silent, the sorrowful, and the solitary--to those who have time to +listen--that God reveals the secrets of life. + +She said to herself that everything about him was dear to her; his +grey eyes, that never saw below the surface of things; his thin, brown +face; his youthful affectation; the strange, new growth which +shaded his long upper lip, and softened the plainness of the Crewys +physiognomy, which Peter would not have bartered for the handsomest +set of Greek features ever imagined by a sculptor. Even for his faults +Lady Mary had a tender toleration; for Peter would not have been Peter +without them. + +"It would not be fair on Sarah, knowing all London--worth knowing--as +she does," said Peter with pardonable exaggeration, "to rob her of the +season altogether. We shall go up regularly, every year, if--if she +marries me. Of that I am determined, and so"--incidentally--"is she." + +"Nothing could be nicer," said Lady Mary, heartily enough to satisfy +even Peter. + +He spoke with more warmth and naturalness. "She likes to go abroad, +mother, too, now and then," he said. + +"That would be delightful," said Lady Mary, eagerly. Her blue eyes +sparkled. Her interest and enthusiasm were easily roused, after all; +and surely these new ideas would make it much easier to tell Peter. +"Oh, Peter!" she said, clasping her hands, "Paris--Rome--Switzerland!" + +"Wherever Sarah fancies," said Peter, magnanimously. "I can't say I +care much. All I am thinking of is--being with her. It doesn't matter +_where_, so long as she is pleased. What does anything matter," he +said, and his dark face softened as she had never seen it soften yet, +"so long as one is with the companion one loves best in the world?" + +"It would be--Paradise," said Lady Mary, in a low voice; and she +thought to herself resolutely, "I will tell him now." + +Peter ceased his walk, and came close to her and took her hand. The +emotion had not altogether died out of his voice and face. + +"But you are not to think, mother, that I shall ever again be the +selfish boy I used to be--the boy who didn't value your love and +devotion." + +"No, dear, no," she answered, with wet eyes; "I will never think +so. We can love each other just the same, perhaps even batter, even +though--Oh, Peter--" + +But Peter was in no mind to brook interruption. He was burning to pour +out his plans for her future, and his own. + +"Wherever we may go, and whatever we may be doing," he said +emotionally, "it will be a joy and a comfort to me to know that my +dear old mother is always _here_. Taking care of the place and looking +after the people, and waiting always to welcome me, with her old sweet +smile on her dear old face." + +Peter was not often moved to such enthusiasm, and he was almost +overcome by his own eloquence in describing this beautiful picture. + +Lady Mary was likewise overcome. She sank back once more in her +cushioned corner, looking at him with a blank dismay that could not +escape even his dull observation. How impossible it was to tell Peter, +after all! How impossible he always made it! + +"I know you must feel it just at first," he said anxiously; "but +you--you can't expect to keep me all to yourself for ever." + +She shook her head, and tried to smile. + +He grew a little impatient. "After all," he said, "you must be +reasonable, mother. Every one has to live his own life." + +Then Lady Mary found words. A sudden rush of indignation--the pent-up +feelings of years--brought the scarlet blood to her cheeks and the +fire to her gentle, blue eyes. + +"Every one--but _me_" she said, trembling violently. + +"You!" said Peter, astonished. + +She clasped her hands against her bosom to still the panting and +throbbing that, it seemed to her, must be evident outwardly, so strong +was the emotion that shook her fragile form. + +"Every one--but me," she said. "Does it never--strike you--Peter--that +I, too, would like to live before I die? Whilst you are living your +own life, why shouldn't I be living mine? Why shouldn't _I_ go to +London, and to Paris, and to Rome, and to Switzerland, or wherever I +choose, now that you--_you_--have set me free?" + +"Mother," said Peter, aghast, "are you gone mad?" + +"Perhaps I am a little mad," said poor Lady Mary. "People go mad +sometimes, who have been too long--in prison--they say." Then she saw +his real alarm, and laughed till she cried. "I am not really mad," she +said. "Do not be frightened, Peter. I--I was only joking." + +"It is enough to frighten anybody when you go on like that," said +Peter, relieved, but angry. "Talking of prison, and rushing about all +over the world--I see no joke in that." + +"Why should I be the only one who must not rush all over the world?" +said Lady Mary. + +"You must know perfectly well it would be preposterous," said Peter, +sullenly, "to break up all your habits, and leave Barracombe and--and +all of us--and start a fresh life--at your age. And if this is how +you mock at me and all my plans, I'm sorry I ever took you into my +confidence at all. I might have known I should repent it," he said; +and a sob of angry resentment broke his voice. + +"Indeed, I am not mocking at you, Peter," she said, sorely repentant +and ashamed of her outburst. "Forgive me, darling! I see it was--not +the moment. You do not understand. You are thinking only of Sarah, as +is natural just now. It was not the moment for me to be talking of +myself." + +"You never used to be selfish," said Peter, thawing somewhat, as she +threw her arms about him, and rested her head against his shoulder. + +She laughed rather sadly. "But perhaps I am growing selfish--in my old +age," said Peter's mother. + +Later, Lady Mary sought John Crewys in the smoking-room. He sprang up, +smiled at her, and held out his hand. + +"So Peter has been confiding his schemes to you?" + +"How did you know?" + +"I only guessed. When a man seeks a _tete-a-tete_ so earnestly, it is +generally to talk about himself. Did the schemes include--Sarah?" + +"They include Sarah--marriage--travelling--London--change of every +kind." + +"Already!" cried John, "Bravo, Peter! and hurray for one-and-twenty! +And you are free?" + +"Oh, no; I am not to be free." + +"What! Do his schemes include you?" + +"Not altogether." + +"That is surely illogical, if yours are to include him?" + +She smiled faintly. "I am to be always here, to look after the place +when he and Sarah are travelling or in London. I am to live with his +aunts. He wants to be able to think of me as always waiting here to +welcome him home, as--as I have been all his life. Not actually in +this house, because--Sarah--my little Sarah--wouldn't like that, it +seems; but in the Dower House, close by." + +"I see," said John. "How delightfully ingenuous, and how pleasingly +unselfish a very young man can sometimes be!" + +"Ah! don't laugh at me, John," she said tremulously. "Indeed, just +now, I cannot bear it." + +"Laugh at you, my queen--my saint! How little you know me!" said John, +tenderly. "It was at Peter that I was presuming to smile." + +"Is it a laughing matter?" she said wistfully. + +"I think it will be, Mary." + +"I tried so hard to tell him," said Lady Mary, "but I couldn't. +Somehow he made it impossible. He looks upon me as quite, quite old." + +John laughed outright. A laugh that rang true even to Lady Mary's +sensitive perceptions. + +"But didn't _you_ look upon everybody over thirty as, quite old when +you were one-and-twenty? I'm sure I did." + +"Perhaps. But yet--I don't know. I am his mother. It is natural he +should feel so. He made me realize how preposterous it was for me, +the mother of a grown-up son, to be thinking selfishly of my own +happiness, as though I were a young, fresh girl just starting life." + +"I had hoped," said John, quietly, "that you might be thinking a +little of my happiness too." + +"Oh, John! But your happiness and mine seemed all the same thing," she +said ingenuously. "Yet he thinks of my life as finished; and I was +thinking of it as though it were beginning all over again. He made +me feel so ashamed, so conscience-stricken." She hid her face in her +hands. "How could I tell him?" + +"I think," said John, "that the time has come when he must be told. I +meant to put it off until he attained his majority; but since he has +broached the subject of your leaving this house himself, he has given +us the best opportunity possible. And I also think--that the telling +had better be left to me." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +John Crewys stood on the walk below the terrace, with Peter by his +side, enjoying an after-breakfast smoke, and watching a party of +sportsmen climbing up the bracken-clothed slopes of the opposite +hillside. A dozen beaters were toiling after the guns, among whom +the short and sturdy figure of Colonel Hewel was very plainly to be +distinguished. A boy was leading a pony-cart for the game. + +Sarah had accepted an invitation to dine and spend the evening with +her beloved Lady Mary at Barracombe; but Peter had another appointment +with her besides, of which Lady Mary knew nothing. He was to meet her +at the ferry, and picnic on the moor at the top of the hill, on his +side of the river. But through all the secret joy and triumph that +possessed him at the remembrance of this rendezvous, he could not but +sigh as he watched the little procession of sportsmen opposite, and +almost involuntarily his regret escaped him in the half-muttered +words-- + +"I shall never shoot again." + +"There are things even better worth doing in life," said John, +sympathetically. + +"Colonel Hewel wouldn't give in to that," said Peter. + +"He's rather a one-idea'd man," John agreed. "But if you asked him +whether he'd sacrifice all the sport he's ever likely to enjoy, for +one chance to distinguish himself in action--why, you're a soldier, +and you know best what he'd say." + +Peter's brow cleared. "You've got a knack," he said, almost +graciously, "of putting a fellow in a good humour with himself, Cousin +John." + +"I generally find it easier to be in a good humour with myself than +with other people," said John, whimsically. "One expects so little +from one's self, that one is scarcely ever disappointed; and so +much from other people, that nothing they can do comes up to one's +expectations." + +"I don't know about that," said Peter, bluntly. "Old Crawley says +_you_ take it out of yourself like anything. Since I came back this +time, he's been holding forth to me about all you've done for me and +the estate, and all that. I didn't know my father had left things in +such a mess. And that was a smart thing you did about buying in the +farm, and settling the dispute with the Crown, which my father used to +be so worried over. I see I've got a good bit to thank you for, Cousin +John. I--I'm no end grateful, and all that." + +"All right," said John. "Don't bother to make speeches, old boy." + +"I must say one thing, though," said Peter, awkwardly. "I was against +all the changes, and thought they might have been left till I came +home; but I didn't realize it was to be now or never, as old Crawley +puts it, and that I'm not to have the right to touch my capital when I +come of age." + +"The whole arrangement was rather an unusual one; but everything's +worked out all right, and, as far as the estate goes, you'll find it +in pretty fair order to start upon, and values increased," said John, +quietly. "But Crawley has the whole thing at his fingers' ends, and +the interest of the place thoroughly at heart. You couldn't have a +better adviser." + +"He's well enough," said Peter, somewhat ungraciously. + +"Shall we take a turn up and down?" said John. He lighted a fresh +cigarette. "There is a chill feeling in the air, though it is such a +lovely morning." + +"It will be warmer when the sun has conquered the mist," said Peter, +with a slight shiver. + +The white dew on the long grass, and the gossamer cobwebs spun in a +single night from twig to twig of the rose-trees, glittered in the +sunshine. + +The autumn roses bloomed cheerfully in the long border, and the robins +were singing loudly on the terrace above. The heavy heads of the +dahlias drooped beneath their weight of moisture, in these last days +of their existence, before the frost would bring them to a sudden end. +Capucines, in every shade of brown and crimson and gold, ran riot over +the ground. + +Peter drew a pipe from his pocket, put it in his mouth, took out his +tobacco-pouch, and filled the pipe with his left hand. + +John watched him with interest. "That was dexterously done." + +"I'm getting pretty handy," said the hero, with satisfaction, striking +a match; "but"--his face fell anew--"no more football; one feels that +sort of thing just at the beginning of the season. No more games. +It wouldn't tell so much on a fellow like you, Cousin John, who's +perfectly happy with a book, and who--" + +"Who's too old for games," suggested John. + +"Oh, there's always golf," said Peter. + +"A refuge for the aged, eh?" said John, and his eyes twinkled. "But +Miss Sarah says you bid fair to beat her at croquet." + +"Oh, she was--just rotting," said Peter; and the tone touched John, +though he detested slang. "And what's croquet, after all, to a fellow +that's used to exercise? I suppose I shall be all right again hunting, +when I've got my nerve back a bit. At present it's rotten. A fellow +feels so beastly helpless and one-sided. However, that'll wear off, I +expect." + +"I hope so," said John. + +They reached the end of the long walk, and stood for a moment beneath +the eastern turret, watching the sparkles on the brown surface of the +river below, and the white mist floating away down the valley. + +"Talking of advice," said Peter, abruptly--"if I wanted _that_, I'd +rather come to you than to old Crawley. After all, though you won't be +my guardian much longer, you're still my mother's trustee." + +"Yes," said John, smiling; "the law still entitles me to take an +interest in--in your mother." + +"Of course I shouldn't dream of mentioning her affairs, or mine +either, for that matter, to any one else," said Peter. + +He made an exception in his own mind, but decided that it was not +necessary to explain this to John, for the moment. + +"Thank you, Peter," said John. + +"My mother--seems to me," said Peter, slowly, "to have changed very +much since I went to South Africa. Have you noticed it?" + +"I have," said John, dryly. + +"I don't suppose," said Peter, quickening his steps, "that any one +could realize exactly what I feel about it." + +"I think--perhaps--I could," said John, without visible satire, "dimly +and, no doubt, inadequately." + +"The fact is," said Peter, and the warm colour rushed into his brown +face, even to his thin temples, "I--I'm hoping to get married very +soon; though nothing's exactly settled yet." + +"A man in your position generally marries early," said John. "I think +you're quite right." + +"As my mother likes--the girl I want to marry," said Peter, "I hoped +it would make everything straight. But she seems quite miserable at +the thought of settling down quietly in the Dower House." + +"Ah! in the Dower House," said John. "Then you will not be wanting her +to live here with you, after all?" + +"It's the same thing, though," said Peter, "as I've tried to explain +to her. She'd be only a few yards off; and she could still be looking +after the place and my interests, and all that, as she does now. And +whenever I was down here, I should see her constantly; you know how +devoted I am to my mother. Of course I can't deny I did lead her +to hope I should be always with her. But a man can't help it if he +happens to fall in love. Of course, if--if all happens as I hope, as I +have reason to hope, I shall _have_ to be away from her a good deal. +But that's all in the course of nature as a fellow grows up. I sha'n't +be any the less glad to see her when I _do_ come home. And yet here +she is talking quite wildly of leaving Barracombe altogether, and +going to London, and travelling all over the world, and doing all +sorts of things she's never done in her life. It's not like my mother, +and I can't bear to think of her like that. I tell you she's changed +altogether," said Peter, and there were tears in his grey eyes. + +John felt an odd sympathy for the boy; he recognized that though +Peter's limitations were obvious, his anxiety was sincere. + +Peter, too, had his ideals; if they were ideals conventional and out +of date, that was hardly his fault. John figured to himself very +distinctly that imaginary mother whom Peter held sacred; the mother +who stayed always at home, and parted her hair plainly, and said many +prayers, and did much needlework; but who, nevertheless, was not, and +never could be, the real Lady Mary, whom Peter did not know. But it +was a tender ideal in its way, though it belonged to that past into +which so many tender and beautiful visions have faded. + +The maiden of to-day still dreams of the knightly armour-clad heroes +of the twelfth century; it is not her fault that she is presently glad +to fall in love with a gentleman on the Stock Exchange, in a top hat +and a frock coat. + +"I have seen something of women of the world," said Peter, who had +scarcely yet skimmed the bubbles from the surface of that society, +whose depths he believed himself to have explored. "I suppose that is +what my mother wants to turn into, when she talks of London and Paris. +_My mother_! who has lived in the country all her life." + +"I suppose some women are worldly," said John, as gravely as possible, +"and no doubt the shallow-hearted, the stupid, the selfish are to be +found everywhere, and belonging to either sex; but, nevertheless, +solid virtue and true kindness are to be met with among the dames of +Mayfair as among the matrons of the country-side. Their shibboleth is +different, that's all. Perhaps--it is possible--that the speech of the +town ladies is the more charitable, that they seek more persistently +to do good to their fellow-creatures. I don't know. Comparisons +are odious, but so," he added, with a slight laugh, "are general +conclusions, founded on popular prejudice rather than individual +experience--odious." + +Here John perceived that his words of wisdom were conveying hardly any +meaning to Peter, who was only waiting impatiently till he had come +to an end of them; so he pursued this topic no further, and contented +himself by inquiring: + +"What do you want me to do?" + +"I want you to explain to her," said Peter, eagerly, "how unsuitable +it would be; and to advise her to settle down quietly at the Dower +House, as I'm sure my father would have wished her to do. That's all." + +"I see," said John, "you want me to put the case to her from your +point of view." + +"I wish you would," said Peter, earnestly; "every one says you're so +eloquent. Surely you could talk her over?" + +"I hope I am not eloquent in private life," said John, laughing. "But +if you want to know how it appears to me--?" + +Peter nodded gravely, pipe in mouth. + +"Let us see. To start with," said John, thoughtfully, "you went off, +a boy from Eton, to serve your country when you thought, and rightly, +that your country had need of you. You distinguished yourself in South +Africa--" + +"Surely you needn't go into all that?" said Peter, staring. + +"Excuse me," said John, smiling. "In putting your case, I can't bear +to leave out vital details. Merely professional prejudice. Shortly, +then, you fully sustained your share in a long and arduous campaign; +you won your commission; you were wounded, decorated, and invalided +home." + +He stopped short in the brilliant sunshine which now flooded their +path, and looked gravely at Peter. + +"Some of us," said John, "have imagination enough to realize, even +without the help of war-correspondents, the scenes of horror through +which you, and scores of other boys, fresh from school, like you, had +to live through. We can picture the long hours on the veldt--on the +march--in captivity--in the hospitals--in the blockhouses--when +soldiers have been sick at heart, wearied to death with physical +suffering, and haunted by ghastly memories of dead comrades." + +Peter hurriedly drew his left hand from the pocket where the beloved +tobacco-pouch reposed, and pulled his brown felt hat down over his +eyes, as though the October sunlight hurt them. + +"I think at such times, Peter," said John, quietly continuing his walk +by the boy's side, "that you must have longed now and then for your +home; for this peaceful English country, your green English woods, and +the silent hall where your mother waited for you, trembled for you, +prayed for you. I think your heart must have ached then, as so many +men's hearts have ached, to remember the times when you might have +made her happy by a word, or a look, or a smile. And you didn't do it, +Peter--_you didn't do it_." + +Peter made a restless movement indicative of surprise and annoyance; +but he was silent still, and John changed his tone, and spoke lightly +and cheerfully. + +"Well, then you came home; and your joy of life, of youth, of health +all returned; and you looked forward, naturally, to taking your share +of the pleasures open to other young men of your standing. But you +never meant to forget your mother, as so many careless sons forget +those who have watched and waited for them. Even though you fell in +love, you still thought of her. When you were weary of travel, or +pleasure connected with the outside world, you meant always to return +to her. You liked to think she would still be waiting for you; +faithfully, gratefully waiting, within the sacred precincts of your +childhood's home. And now, when you remember her submission to your +father's wishes in the past, and her single-hearted devotion to +yourself, you are shocked and disappointed to find that she can wish +to descend from her beautiful and guarded solitude here, and mix with +her fellow-creatures in the work-a-day world. Why," said John, in a +tone rather of dreaming and tenderness than of argument, "that would +be to tear the jewel from its setting--the noble central figure from +the calm landscape, lit by the evening sun." + +There was a pause, during which Peter smoked energetically. + +"Well," he said presently, "of course I can't follow all that +highfalutin' style, you know--" + +"Of course not," said John, "I understand. You're a plain Englishman." + +"Exactly," said Peter, relieved; "I am. But one thing I will +say--you've got the idea." + +"Thank you," said John. + +"If you can put it like that to my mother," said Peter, still busy +with his pipe, but speaking very emphatically, "why, all I can say is, +that I believe it's the way to get round her. I've often noticed +how useless it seems to talk common-sense to her. But a word of +sentiment--and there you are. Strange to say, she likes nothing +better than--er--poetry. I hope you don't mind my calling you rather +poetical," said Peter, in a tone of sincere apology. "I wish, John, +you'd go straight to my mother, and put the whole case before her, +just like that." + +"The whole case!" said John. "But, my dear fellow, that's only half +the case." + +"What do you mean?" + +"The other half," said John, "is the case from _her_ point of view." + +"I don't see," said Peter, "how her point of view can be different +from mine." + +John's thoughts flew back to a February evening, more than two +years earlier. It seemed to him that Sir Timothy stood before him, +surprised, pompous, argumentative. But he saw only Peter, looking at +him with his father's grey eyes set in a boy's thin face. + +"My experience as a barrister," he said, with a curious sense of +repeating himself, "has taught me that it is possible for two persons +to take diametrically opposite views of the same question." + +"And what happens then?" said Peter, stupidly. + +"Our bread and butter." + +"But _why_ should my mother leave the place she's lived in for years +and years, and go gadding about all over the world--at her time of +life? I don't see what can be said for the wisdom of that?" + +"Nothing from your point of view, I dare say," said John. "Much from +hers. If you are willing to listen, and if," he added smiling, as an +afterthought, "you will promise not to interrupt?" + +"Well," said Peter, rather doubtfully, "all right, I promise. You +won't be long, I suppose?" + +He glanced stealthily down towards the ferry, though he knew that +Sarah would not be there for a couple of hours at least, and that he +could reach it in less than ten minutes. But half the pleasure of +meeting Sarah consisted in waiting for her at the trysting-place. + +John observed the glance, and smiled imperceptibly. He took out his +watch. + +"I shall speak," he said, carefully examining it, "for four minutes." + +"Let's sit," said Peter. "It's warm enough now, in all conscience." + +They sat upon an old stone bench below the turret. Peter leant back +with his black head resting against the wall, his felt hat tipped +over his eyes and his pipe in his mouth. He looked comfortable, even +good-humoured. + +"Go ahead," he murmured. + +"To understand the case from your mother's point of view, I am +afraid it is necessary," said John, "to take a rapid glance at the +circumstances of her life which have--which have made her what she +is. She came here, as a child, didn't she, when her father died; and +though he had just succeeded to the earldom, he died a very poor man? +Your father, as her guardian, spared no pains, nor expense for +that matter, in educating and maintaining her. When she was barely +seventeen years old, he married her." + +There was a slight dryness in John's voice as he made the statement, +which accounted for the gruffness of Peter's acquiescence. + +"Of course--she was quite willing," said John, understanding the +offence implied by Peter's growl. "But as we are looking at things +exclusively from her point of view just now, we must not forget that +she had seen nothing of the world, nothing of other men. She had +also"--he caught his breath--"a bright, gay, pleasure-loving +disposition; but she moulded herself to seriousness to please her +husband, to whom she owed everything. When other girls of her age were +playing at love--thinking of dances, and games and outings--she was +absorbed in motherhood and household cares. A perfect wife, a perfect +mother, as poor human nature counts perfection." + +Lady Mary would have cried out in vehement contradiction and +self-reproach, had she heard these words; but Peter again growled +reluctant acquiescence, when John paused. + +"In one day," said John, slowly, "she was robbed of husband and child. +Her husband by death; her boy, her only son, by his own will. He +deserted her without even bidding, or intending to bid her, farewell. +Hush--remember, this is from _her_ point of view." + +Peter had started to his feet with an angry exclamation; but he sat +down again, and bent his sullen gaze on the garden path as John +continued. His brown face was flushed; but John's low, deep tones, +now tender, now scornful, presently enchained and even fascinated his +attention. He listened intently, though angrily. + +"Her grief was passionate, but--her life was not over," said John. +"She, who had been guided from childhood by the wishes of others, now +found that, without neglecting any duty, she could consult her own +inclinations, indulge her own tastes, choose her own friends, enjoy +with all the fervour of an unspoilt nature the world which opened +freshly before her: a world of art, of music, of literature, of a +thousand interests which mean so much to some of us, so little to +others. To her returns this formerly undutiful son, and finds--a +passionately devoted mother, indeed, but also a woman in the full +pride of her beauty and maturity. And this boy would condemn +_her_--the most delightful, the most attractive, the most unselfish +companion ever desired by a man--to sit in the chimney-corner like an +old crone with a distaff, throughout all the years that fate may yet +hold in store for her--with no greater interest in life than to watch +the fading of her own sweet face in the glass, and to await the +intervals during which he would be graciously pleased to afford her +the consolation of his presence." + +"Have you done?" said Peter, furiously. + +"I could say a good deal more," said John, growing suddenly cool. +"But"--he showed his watch--"my time is up." + +"What--what do you mean by all this?" said the boy, stammering with +passion. "What is my mother to _you_?" + +The time had come. + +John's bright hazel eyes had grown stern; his middle-aged face, +flushed with the emotion his own words had aroused, yet controlled and +calm in every line of handsome feature and steady brow, confronted +Peter's angry, bewildered gaze. + +"She is the woman I love," said John. "The woman I mean to make my +wife." + +He remained seated, silently waiting for Peter to imbibe and +assimilate his words. + +After a quick gasp of incredulous indignation, Peter, too, sat silent +at his side. + +John gave him time to recover before he spoke again. + +"I hope," he said, very gently, "that when you have thought it over, +you won't mind it so much. As it's going to be--it would be pleasanter +if you and I could be friends. I think, later on, you may even +perceive advantages in the arrangement--under the circumstances; when +you have recovered from your natural regret in realizing that she must +leave Barracombe--" + +"It isn't that," said Peter, hoarsely. He felt he must speak; and he +also desired, it must be confessed, to speak offensively, and relieve +himself somewhat of the accumulated rage and resentment that was +burning in his breast. "It's--it's simply"--he said, flushing darkly, +and turning his face away from John's calm and friendly gaze--"that to +me--to _me_, the idea is--ridiculous." + +"Ah!" said John. He rose from the stone bench. A spark of anger came +to him, too, as he looked at Peter, but he controlled his voice and +his temper. "The time will come," he said, "when your imagination will +be able to grasp the possibility of love between a man in the forties +and a woman in the thirties. At least, for your sake, I hope it will." + +"Why for my sake?" said Peter. + +"Because I should be sorry," said John, "if you died young." + + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + + +Nearly a thousand feet above the fertile valley of the Youle, +stretched a waste of moorland. Here all the trees were gnarled and +dwarfed above the patches of rust-coloured bracken; save only the +delicate silver birch, which swayed and yielded to the wind. + +Great boulders were scattered among the thorn bushes, and over their +rough and glistening breasts were flung velvet coverings of green moss +and grey lichen. + +On this October day, the heather yet sturdily bore a few last rosy +blossoms, and the ripe blackberries shone like black diamonds on the +straggling brambles. Here and there a belated furze-bush erected its +golden crown. + +Over the dim purple of the distant hills, a brighter purple line +proclaimed the sea. Closer at hand, on a ridge exposed to every wind +of heaven, sighed a little wood of stunted larch and dull blue pine, +against a clear and brilliant sky. + +Sarah was enthroned on a mossy stone, beneath the yellowing foliage of +a sheltering beech. + +Her glorious ruddy hair was uncovered, and a Tyrolese hat was hung on +a neighbouring bramble, beside a little tweed coat. She wore a loose +white canvas shirt, and short tweed skirt; a brown leather belt, and +brown leather boots. + +Being less indifferent to creature-comforts than to the preservation +of her complexion, Miss Sarah was paying great attention to the +contents of a market-basket by her side. She had chosen a site for +the picnic near a bubbling brook, and had filled her glass with clear +sparkling water therefrom, before seating herself to enjoy her cold +chicken and bread and butter, and a slice of game-pie. + +Peter was very far from feeling any inclination towards displaying the +hilarity which an outdoor meal is supposed to provoke. He was obliged +to collect sticks, and put a senseless round-bottomed kettle on a +damp reluctant fire; to himself he used much stronger adjectives in +describing both; he relieved his feelings slightly by saying that he +never ate lunch, and by gloomily eying the game-pie instead of aiding +Sarah to demolish it. + +"It wouldn't be a picnic without a kettle and a fire; and we _must_ +have hot water to wash up with. I brought a dish-cloth on purpose," +said Sarah. "I can't think why you don't enjoy yourself. You used to +be fond of eating and drinking--_anywhere_--and most of all on the +moor--in the good old days that are gone." + +"I am not a philosopher like you," said Peter, angrily. + +"I am anything but that," said Sarah, with provoking cheerfulness. "A +philosopher is a thoughtful middle-aged person who puts off enjoying +life until it's too late to begin." + +"I hate middle-aged people," said Peter. + +"I am not very fond of them myself, as a rule," said Sarah, +indulgently. "They aren't nice and amusing to talk to, like you and +me; or rather" (with a glance at her companion's face), "like _me_; +and they aren't picturesque and fond of spoiling us, as _really_ old +people are. They are just busy trying to get all they can out of +the world, that's all. But there are exceptions; or, of course, it +wouldn't be a rule. Your mother is an exception. No one, young or old, +was ever more picturesque or--or more altogether delicious. It was I +who taught her that new way of doing her hair. By-the-by, how do you +like it?" + +"I don't like it at all," growled Peter. + +"Perhaps you preferred the old way," said Sarah, turning up her short +nose rather scornfully. "Parted, indeed, and brushed down flat over +her ears, exactly like that horrid old Mrs. Ash!" + +"Mrs. Ash has lived with us for thirty years," said Peter, in a tone +implying that he desired no liberties to be taken with the names of +his faithful retainers. + +"That doesn't make her any better looking, however," retorted Sarah. +"In fact, she might have had more chance of learning how to do her +hair properly anywhere else, now I come to think of it." + +"Of course everything at Barracombe is ugly and old-fashioned," said +Peter, gloomily. + +"Except your mother," said Sarah. + +"Sarah! I can't stand any more of this rot!" said Peter, starting from +his couch of heather. "Will you talk sense, or let me?" + +Sarah shot a keen glance of inquiry at his moody face. + +"Well," she said, in resigned tones, "I did hope to finish my lunch in +peace. I saw there was something the matter when you came striding up +the hill without a word, but I thought it was only that you found the +basket too heavy. Of course, if I had known it was only to be lunch +for one, I would not have put in so many things; and certainly not a +whole bottle of papa's best claret. In fact, if I had known I was to +picnic practically alone, I would not have crossed the river at all." + +Then she saw that Peter was in earnest, and with a sigh of regret, +Sarah returned the dish of jam-puffs to the basket. + +"I couldn't talk sense, or even listen to it, with those heavenly +puffs under my very nose," she said. "Now, what is it?" + +"I hate telling you--I hate talking of it," said Peter, and a dark +flush rose to his frowning eyebrows. He threw himself once more at +Sarah's feet, and turned his face away from her, and towards the blue +streak of distant sea. "John Crewys wants to marry--my mother," he +said in choking tones. + +"Is that all?" said Sarah. "I've seen that for ages. Aren't you glad?" + +"Glad!" said Peter. + +"I thought," Sarah said innocently, "that _you_ wanted to marry _me_?" + +"Sarah!" + +"Well!" said Sarah. She looked rather oddly at Peter's recumbent +figure. Then she pushed the loosened waves of her red hair from her +forehead with a determined gesture. "Well," she said defiantly, "isn't +that one obstacle to our marriage removed? Your aunts will go to the +Dower House, and your mother will leave Barracombe, and you'll have +the place all to yourself. And you dare to tell me you're sorry?" + +"Yes," said Peter, sitting up and facing her, "I dare." + +"I'm glad of that," said Sarah. Her deep voice softened. "I should +have thought less of you if you hadn't dared." + +Suddenly she rose from her mossy throne, shook the crumbs off her +skirt, and looked down upon Peter with blue eyes sparkling beneath her +long lashes, and the fresh red colour deepening and spreading in her +cheeks, until even the tips of her delicate ears and her creamy throat +turned pink. + +"_Well_," said Sarah, "go and stop it. Make your mother sorry and +ashamed. It would be very easy. Tell her she's too old to be happy. +But say good-bye to me first." + +"Sarah!" + +"Why is it to be all sunshine for you, and all shade for her?" said +Sarah. "Hasn't she wept enough to please you? Mayn't she have her St. +Martin's summer? God gives it to her. Will _you_ take it away?" + +"Sarah!" + +He looked up at her crimsoned tearful face in dismay. Was this Sarah +the infantile--the pink-and-white--the seductive, laughing, impudent +Sarah? And yet how passionately Peter admired her in this mood of +virago, which he had never seen since the days of her childish rages +of long ago. + +"Why do you suppose," said Sarah, disdainfully, "that I've been +letting you follow _me_ about all this summer, and desert _her_; +except to show her how little you are to be depended upon? To bring +home to her how foolish she'd be to fling away her happiness for your +sake. _You_, who at one word from me, were willing to turn her out of +her own home, to live in a wretched little villa at your very door. +Don't interrupt me," said Sarah, stamping, "and say you weren't +willing. You told her so. I meant you to tell her, and yet--I could +have killed you, Peter, when I heard her sweet voice faltering out to +me, that she would be ready and glad to give up her place to her boy's +wife, whenever the time should come." + +"_She_ told you?" cried Peter. + +"But she didn't say you'd asked her," cried Sarah, scornfully. "_I_ +knew it, but she never guessed I did. She was only gently smoothing +away, as she hoped, the difficulties that lay in the path to _your_ +happiness. Oh, that she could have believed it of me! But she thinks +only of your happiness. _You_, who would snatch away hers this minute +if you could. She never dreamt I knew you'd said a word." + +She paused in her impassioned speech, and the tears dropped from the +dark blue eyes. Sarah was crying, and Peter was speechless with awe +and dismay. + +"I think she would have died, Peter," said Sarah, solemnly, "before +she would have told me how brutal you'd been, and how stupid, and how +selfish. I meant you to show her all that. I thought it would open +her eyes. I was such a fool! As if anything could open the eyes of a +mother to the faults of her only son." + +Peter looked at her with such despair and grief in his dark face that +her heart almost softened towards him; but she hardened it again +immediately. + +"Do you mean that you--you've been playing with me all this time, +Sarah? They--everybody told me--that you were only playing--but I've +never believed it." + +"I _meant_ to play with you," said Sarah, turning, if possible, even +redder than before; "I meant to teach you a lesson, and throw you +over. And the more I saw of you, the more I didn't repent. You, who +dared to think yourself superior to your mother; and, indeed, to +any woman! Kings are enslaved by women, you know," said Miss Sarah, +tossing her head, "and statesmen are led by them, though they oughtn't +to be. And--and poets worship them, or how could they write poetry? +There would be nothing to write about. It is reserved for boys and +savages to look down upon them." + +She sat scornfully down again on her boulder, and put her hands to her +loosened hair. + +"I can't think why a scene always makes one's hair untidy," said +Sarah, suddenly bursting into a laugh; but the whiteness of Peter's +face frightened her, and she had some ado to laugh naturally. "And I +am lost without a looking-glass," she added, in a somewhat quavering +tone of bravado. + +She pulled out a great tortoise-shell dagger, and a heavy mass of +glorious red-gold hair fell about her piquant face, and her pretty +milk-white throat, down to her waist. + +"Dear me!" said Miss Sarah. She looked around. Near the bubbling +brook, dark peaty hollows held little pools, which offered Nature's +mirror for her toilet. + +She went to the side of the stream and knelt down. Her plump white +hands dexterously twisted and secured the long burnished coil. Then +she glanced slyly round at Peter. + +He lay face downwards on the grass. His shoulders heaved. The pretty +picture Miss Sarah's coquetry presented had been lost upon the foolish +youth. + +She returned in a leisurely manner to her place, and leaning her chin +on her hand, and her elbow on her knee, regarded him thoughtfully. + +"Where was I? Yes, I remember. It is a lesson for a girl, Peter, never +to marry a boy or a savage." + +"Sarah!" said Peter. He raised his face and looked at her. His eyes +were red, but he was too miserable to care; he was, as she had said, +only a boy. "Sarah, you're not in earnest! You can't be! I--I know I +ought to be angry." Miss Sarah laughed derisively. "Yes, you laugh, +for you know too well I can't be angry with you. I love you!" said +Peter, passionately, "though you are--as cruel as though I've not had +pretty well as much to bear to-day, as I know how to stand. First, +John Crewys, and now you--saying--" + +"Just the truth," said Sarah, calmly. + +"I don't deny," said Peter, in a quivering voice, "that--that some of +the beastly things he said came--came home to me. I've been a selfish +brute to _her_, I always have been. You've said so pretty plainly, and +I--I dare say it's true. I think it's true. But to _you_--and I was so +happy." He hid his face in his hand. + +"I'm glad you have the grace to see the error of your ways at last," +said Sarah, encouragingly. "It makes me quite hopeful about you. But +I'm sorry to see you're still only thinking of _our_ happiness--I mean +_yours_," she corrected herself in haste, for a sudden eager hope +flashed across Peter's miserable young face. "Yours, yours, _yours_. +It's your happiness and not hers you think of still, though you've all +your life before you, and she has only half hers. But no one has ever +thought of her--except me, and one other." + +"John Crewys?" said Peter, angrily. + +"Not John Crewys at all," snapped Sarah. "He is just thinking of his +own happiness like you are. All men are alike, except the one I'm +thinking of. But though I make no doubt that John Crewys is just as +selfish as you are, which is saying a good deal, yet, as it happens, +John Crewys is the only man who could make her happy." + +"What man are you thinking of?" said Peter. + +Jealousy was a potent factor in his love for Sarah. He forgot his +mother instantly, as he had forgotten her on the day of his return, +when Sarah had walked on to the terrace--and into his heart. + +"I name no names," said Sarah, "but I hope I know a hero when I see +him; and that man is a hero, though he is--nothing much to look at." + +It amused her to observe the varying expressions on her lover's face, +which her artless words called forth, one after another. + +"If you are really not going to eat any luncheon, Peter," she said, "I +must trouble you to help me to wash up and pack the basket. The fire +is out and the water is cold, but it can't be helped. The picnic has +been a failure." + +"We have the whole afternoon before us. I cannot see that there is any +hurry," said Peter, not stirring. + +"I didn't mean to break bad news to you," said Sarah, "until we'd had +a pleasant meal together in comfort, and rested ourselves. But +since you insist on spoiling everything with your horrid premature +disclosures, I don't see why I shouldn't do the same. I must be at +home by four o'clock, because Aunt Elizabeth is coming to Hewelscourt +this very afternoon." + +"Lady Tintern!" cried Peter, in dismay. "Then you won't be able to +come to Barracombe this evening?" + +"I am not in the habit of throwing over a dinner engagement," said +Sarah, with dignity. "But in case they won't let me come," she added, +with great inconsistency, "I'll put a lighted candle in the top window +of the tower, as usual. But you can guess how many more of these +enjoyable expeditions we shall be allowed to make. Not that we need +regret them if they are all to be as lively as this one. Still--" + +She helped herself to a jam-puff, and offered the dish to Peter, with +an engaging smile. He helped himself absently. + +"I don't deny I am fond of taking meals in the open air, and more +especially on the top of the moor," said Sarah, with a sigh of +content. + +"What has she come for?" said Peter. + +"I shall be better able to tell you when I have seen her." + +"Don't you know?" + +"I can pretty well guess. She's going to forgive me, for one thing. +Then she'll tell me that I don't deserve my good luck, but that Lord +Avonwick is so patient and so long-suffering, that he's accepted her +assurance that I don't know my own mind (and I'm not sure I do), and +he's going to give me one more chance to become Lady Avonwick, though +I was so foolish as to say 'No' to his last offer." + +"You didn't say 'No' to _my_ last offer!" cried Peter. + +"I don't believe an offer of marriage is even legal before you're +one-and-twenty," said Miss Sarah, derisively. "What did it matter what +I said? Haven't I told you I was only playing?" + +"You may tell me so a thousand times," said Peter, doggedly, "but I +shall never believe you until I see you actually married to somebody +else." + + + + + +CHAPTER XX + + +Lady Tintern was pleased to leave Paddington by a much earlier +train than could have been expected. She hired a fly, and a pair of +broken-kneed horses, at Brawnton, and once more took her relations +at Hewelscourt by surprise. On this occasion, however, she was not +fortunate enough to find her invalid niece at play in the stable-yard, +though she detected her at luncheon, and warmly congratulated her upon +her robust appearance and her excellent appetite. + +Her journey had, no doubt, been undertaken with the very intentions +Sarah had described; but another motive also prompted her, which Sarah +had not divined. + +Much as she desired to marry her grand-niece to Lord Avonwick, she +was not blind to the young man's personal disadvantages, which were +undeniable; and which Peter had rudely summed up in a word by alluding +to his rival as an ass. He was distinguished among the admirers of +Miss Sarah's red and white beauty by his brainlessness no less than by +his eligibility. + +Nevertheless, Lady Tintern had favoured his suit. She knew him to be a +good fellow, although he was a simpleton, and she was very sure that +he loved Sarah sincerely. + +"Whoever the girl marries, she will rule him with a rod of iron. She +had better marry a fool and be done with it. So why not an eligible +and titled and good-natured fool?" the old lady had written to Mrs. +Hewel, who was very far from understanding such reasoning, and wept +resentfully over the letter. + +Why should Lady Tintern snatch her only daughter away from her in +order to marry her to a fool? Mrs. Hewel was of opinion that a +sensible young man like Peter would be a better match. She supposed +nobody would call Sir Peter Crewys of Barracombe a fool; and as for +his being young, he was only a few months younger than Lord Avonwick, +and Sarah would have just as pretty a title, even if her husband were +only a baronet instead of a baron. Thus she argued to herself, and +wrote the gist of her argument to her aunt. Why was Sarah to go +hunting the highways and byways for titled fools, when there was Peter +at her very door,--a young man she had known all her life, and one of +the oldest families in Devon, and seven thousand acres of land only +next week, when he would come of age, and could marry whomever he +liked? Though, of course, Sarah must not go against her aunt, who +had promised to do so much for her, and given her so many beautiful +things, whether young girls ought to wear jewellery or not. + +This was the distracted letter which was bringing Lady Tintern to +Hewelscourt. She had been annoyed with Sarah for refusing Lord +Avonwick, and thought it would do the rebellious young lady no harm to +return for a time to the bosom of her family, and thus miss Newmarket, +which Sarah particularly desired to attend, since no society function +interested her half so much as racing. + +The old lady had not in the least objected to Sarah's friendship for +young Sir Peter Crewys. Sarah, as John had truly said, was a star with +many satellites; and among those satellites Peter did not shine with +any remarkable brilliancy, being so obviously an awkward country-bred +lad, not at home in the surroundings to which her friendship had +introduced him, and rather inclined to be surly and quarrelsome than +pleasant or agreeable. + +Lady Tintern had not taken such a boy's attentions to her grand-niece +seriously; but if Sarah were taking them seriously, she thought she +had better inquire into the matter at once. Therefore the energetic +old woman not only arrived unexpectedly at Hewelscourt in the middle +of luncheon, but routed her niece off her sofa early in the afternoon, +and proposed that she should immediately cross the river and call upon +Peter's mother. + +"I have never seen the place except from these windows; perhaps I am +underrating it," said Lady Tintern. "I've never met Lady Mary Crewys, +though I know all the Setouns that ever were born. Never mind who +ought to call on me first! What do I care for such nonsense? The boy +is a cub and a bear--_that_ I know--since he stayed in my house for a +fortnight, and never spoke to me if he could possibly help it. He is a +nobody! Sir Peter Fiddlesticks! Who ever heard of him or his family, I +should like to know, outside this ridiculous place? His name is spelt +wrong! Of course I have heard of Crewys, K.C. Everybody has heard of +him. That has nothing to do with it. Yes, I know the young man did +well in South Africa. All our young men did well in South Africa. +Pray, is Sarah to marry them all? If _that_ is what she is after, the +sooner I take it in hand the better. Lunching by herself on the moors +indeed! No; I am not at all afraid of the ferry, Emily. If you are, I +will go alone, or take your good man." + +"The colonel is out shooting, as you know, and won't be back till +tea-time," said Mrs. Hewel, becoming more and more flurried under this +torrent of lively scolding. + +"The colonel! Why don't you say Tom? Colonel indeed!" said Lady +Tintern. "Very well, I shall go alone." + +But this Mrs. Hewel would by no means allow. She reluctantly abandoned +the effort to dissuade her aunt, put on her visiting things with as +much speed as was possible to her, and finally accompanied her across +the river to pay the proposed visit to Barracombe House. + +Lady Mary received her visitors in the banqueting hall, an apartment +which excited Lady Tintern's warmest approval. The old lady dated the +oak carving in the hall, and in the yet more ancient library; named +the artists of the various pictures; criticized the ceilings, and +praised the windows. + +Mrs. Hewel feared her outspokenness would offend Lady Mary, but she +could perceive only pleasure and amusement in the face of her hostess, +between whom and the worldly old woman there sprang up a friendliness +that was almost instantaneous. + +"And you are like a Cosway miniature yourself, my dear," said Lady +Tintern, peering out of her dark eyes at Lady Mary's delicate white +face. "Eh--the bright colouring must be a little faded--all the +Setouns have pretty complexions--and carmine is a perishable tint, as +we all know." + +"Sarah has a brilliant complexion," struck in Mrs. Hewel, zealously +endeavouring to distract her aunt from the personalities in which she +preferred to indulge. + +"Sarah looks like a milkmaid, my love," said the old lady, who did +not choose to be interrupted, "And when she can hunt as much as she +wishes, and live the outdoor life she prefers, she will get the +complexion of a boatwoman." She turned to Lady Mary with a gracious +nod. "But _you_ may live out of doors with impunity. Time seems to +leave something better than colouring to a few Heaven-blessed women, +who manage to escape wrinkles, and hardening, and crossness. I +am often cross, and so are younger folk than I; and your boy +Peter--though how he comes to be your boy I don't know--is very often +cross too." + +"You have been very kind to Peter," said Lady Mary, laughing. "I am +sorry you found him cross." + +"No; I was not kind to him. I am not particularly fond of cross +people," said the old lady. "It is Sarah who has been kind," and she +looked sharply again at Lady Mary. + +"I am getting on in years, and very infirm," said Lady Tintern, "and I +must ask you to excuse me if I lean upon a stick; but I should like to +take a turn about the garden with you. I hear you have a remarkable +view from your terrace." + +Lady Mary offered her arm with pretty solicitude, and guided her aged +but perfectly active visitor through the drawing-room--where she +stopped to comment favourably upon the water colours--to the terrace, +where John was sitting in the shade of the ilex-tree, absorbed in the +London papers. + +Lady Mary introduced him as Peter's guardian and cousin. + +"How do you do, Mr. Crewys? Your name is very familiar to me," said +the old lady. "Though to tell you the truth, Sir Peter looks so much +older than his age that I forgot he had a guardian at all." + +"He will only have one for a few days longer," said John, smiling. "My +authority will expire very shortly." + +"But you are, at any rate, the very man I wanted to see," said Lady +Tintern, who seldom wasted time in preliminaries. "I would always +rather talk business with a man than with a woman; so if Mr. Crewys +will lend me his arm to supplement my stick, I will take a turn with +him instead of with you, my dear, if you have no objection." + +"Did you ever hear anything like her?" said poor Mrs. Hewel, turning +to Lady Mary as soon as her aunt was out of hearing. "What Mr. Crewys +must think of her, I cannot guess. She always says she had to exercise +so much reticence as an ambassadress, that she has given her tongue a +holiday ever since. But there is only one possible subject _they_ can +have to talk about. And how can we be sure her interference won't +spoil everything? She is quite capable of asking what Peter's +intentions are. She is the most indiscreet person in the world," said +Sarah's mother, wringing her hands. + +"I think _Peter_ has made his intentions pretty obvious," said Lady +Mary. She smiled, but her eyes were anxious. + +"And you are sure you don't mind, dear Lady Mary? For who can depend +on Lady Tintern, after all? She is supposed to be going to do so much +for Sarah, but if she takes it into her head to oppose the marriage, I +can do nothing with her. I never could." + +"I am very far from minding," said Lady Mary. "But it is Sarah on whom +everything depends. What does she say, I wonder? What does she want?" + +"It's no use asking _me_ what Sarah wants," said Mrs. Hewel, +plaintively. "Time after time I have told her father what would come +of it all if he spoilt her so outrageously. He is ready enough to find +fault with the boys, poor fellows, who never do anything wrong; but he +always thinks Sarah perfection, and nothing else." + +"Sarah is very fortunate, for Peter has the same opinion of her." + +"Fortunate! Lady Mary, if I were to tell you the chances that girl has +had--not but what I had far rather she married Peter--though she might +have done that all the same if she had never left home in her life." + +"I am not so sure of that," said Peter's mother. + +Lady Tintern's turn took her no further than the fountain garden, +where she sank down upon a bench, and graciously requested her escort +to occupy the vacant space by her side. + +"I started at an unearthly hour this morning, and I am not so young as +I was," she said; "but I am particularly desirous of a good night's +rest, and I never can sleep with anything on my mind. So I came over +here to talk business. By-the-by, I should have come over here long +ago, if any one had had the sense to give me a hint that I had only to +cross a muddy stream, in a flat-bottomed boat, in order to see a face +like _that_--" She nodded towards the terrace. + +John's colour rose slightly. He put the nod and the smile, and the +sharp glance of the dark eyes together, and perceived that Lady +Tintern had drawn certain conclusions. + +"There is some expression in her face," said the old lady, musingly, +"which makes me think of Marie Stuart's farewell to France. I don't +know why. I have odd fancies. I believe the Queen of Scots had hazel +eyes, whereas this pretty Lady Mary has the bluest eyes I ever +saw--quite remarkable eyes." + +"Those blue eyes," said John, smiling, "have never looked beyond this +range of hills since Lady Mary's childhood." + +The old lady nodded again. "Eh--a State prisoner. Yes, yes. She has +that kind of look." Then she turned to John, with mingled slyness and +humour, "On va changer tout cela?" + +"As you have divined," he answered, laughing in spite of himself. +"Though how you have divined it passes my poor powers of +comprehension." + +Lady Tintern was pleased. She liked tributes to her intelligence as +other women enjoy recognition of their good looks. + +"It is very easy, to an observer," she said. "She is frightened at +her own happiness. Yes, yes. And that cub of a boy would not make it +easier. By-the-by, I came to talk of the boy. You are his guardian?" + +"For a week." + +"What does it signify for how long? Five minutes will settle my views. +Thank Heaven I did not come later, or I should have had to talk to +him, instead of to a man of sense. You must have seen what is going +on. What do you think of it?" + +"The arrangement suits me so admirably," said John, smiling, "that I +am hardly to be relied upon for an impartial opinion." + +"Will you tell me his circumstances?" + +John explained them in a few words, and with admirable terseness and +lucidity; and she nodded comprehensively all the while. + +"That's capital. He can't make ducks and drakes of it. All tied up +on the children. I hope they will have a dozen. It would serve Sarah +right. Now for my side. Whatever sum the trustees decide to settle +upon Sir Peter's wife, I will put down double that sum as Sarah's +dowry. Our solicitors can fight the rest out between them. The +property is much better than I had been given any reason to suspect. I +have no more to say. They can be married in a month. That is settled. +I never linger over business. We may shake hands on it." They did so +with great cordiality. "It is not that I am overjoyed at the match," +she explained, with great frankness. "I think Sarah is a fool to marry +a boy. But I have observed she is a fool who always knows her own +mind. The fancies of some girls of that age are not worth attending +to." + +"Miss Sarah is a young lady of character," said John, gravely. + +"Ay, she will settle him," said Lady Tintern. Her small, grim face +relaxed into a witchlike smile. + +"The lad is a good lad. No one has ever said a word against him, and +he is as steady as old Time. I believe Miss Sarah's choice, if he is +her choice, will be justified," said John. + +"I didn't think he was a murderer or a drunkard," said Lady Tintern, +cheerfully. Her phraseology was often startling to strangers. "But he +is absolutely devoid of--what shall I say? Chivalry? Yes, that is +it. Few young men have much nowadays, I am told. But Sir Peter has +none--absolutely none." + +"It will come." + +"No, it will not come. It is a quality you are born with or without. +He was born without. Sarah knows all about it. It won't hurt her; she +has the methods of an ox. She goes direct to her point, and tramples +over everything that stands in her way. If he were less thick-skinned +she would be the death of him; but fortunately he has the hide of a +rhinoceros." + +"I think you do them both a great deal less than justice," said John; +but he was unable to help laughing. + +"Oh, you do, do you? I like to be disagreed with." Her voice shook +a little. "You must make allowances--for an old woman--who +is--disappointed," said Lady Tintern. + +John said nothing, but his bright hazel eyes, looking down on the +small, bent figure, grew suddenly gentle and sympathetic. + +"It is a pleasure to be able to congratulate somebody," she said, +returning his look. "I congratulate _you_--and Lady Mary." + +"Thank you." + +"Most of all, because there is nothing modern about her. She has +walked straight out of the Middle Ages, with the face of a saint and a +dreamer and a beautiful woman, all in one. I am an old witch, and I am +never deceived in a woman. Men, I am sorry to say, no longer take the +trouble to deceive me. Now our business is over, will you take me +back?" + +She took the arm he offered, and tottered back to the terrace. + +"Bring her to see me in London, and bring her as soon as you can," +said. Lady Tintern. "She is the friend I have dreamed of, and never +met. When is it going to be?" + +"At once," said John, calmly. + +"You are the most sensible man I have seen for a long time," said Lady +Tintern. + + * * * * * + +Peter and Sarah hardly exchanged a word during their return journey +from the moors after the unlucky picnic; and at the door of Happy +Jack's cottage in Youlestone village she commanded her obedient swain +to deposit the luncheon basket, and bade him farewell. + +The aged road-mender, to his intense surprise and chagrin, had one +morning found himself unable to rise from his bed. He lay there for a +week, indignant with Providence for thus wasting his time. + +"There bain't nart the matter wi' I! Then why be I a-farced to lie +thic way?" he said faintly. "If zo be I wor bod, I cude understand, +but I bain't bod. There bain't no pain tu speak on no-wheres. It vair +beats my yunderstanding." + +"Tis old age be the matter wi' yu, vather," said his mate, a young +fellow of sixty or so, who lodged with him. + +"I bain't nigh so yold as zum," said Happy Jack, peevishly. "Tis a +nice way vor a man tu be tuke, wi'out a thing the matter wi' un, vor +the doctor tu lay yold on." + +Dr. Blundell soothed him by giving his illness a name. + +"It's Anno Domini, Jack." + +"What be that? I niver yeard till on't befar," he said suspiciously. + +"It's incurable, Jack," said the doctor, gravely. + +Happy Jack was consoled. He rolled out the word with relish to his +next visitor. + +"Him's vound it out at last. 'Tis the anny-dominy, and 'tis incurable. +You'm can't du nart vor I. I got tu go; and 'taint no wonder, wi' zuch +a complaint as I du lie here wi'. The doctor were vair beat at vust; +but him worried it out wi' hisself tu the last. Him's a turble gude +doctor, var arl he wuden't go tu the war." + +Sarah visited him every day. He was so frail and withered a little +object that it seemed as though he could waste no further, and yet he +dwindled daily. But he suffered no pain, and his wits were bright to +the end. + +This evening the faint whistle of his voice was fainter than ever, and +she had to bend very low to catch his gasping words. He lay propped up +on the pillows, with a red scarf tied round the withered scrag of his +throat, and his spotless bed freshly arrayed by his mate's mother, who +lived with them and "did for" both. + +"They du zay as Master Peter be _carting_ of 'ee, Miss Zairy," he +whispered. "Be it tru?" + +"Yes, Jack dear, it's true. Are you glad?" + +"I be glad if yu thinks yu'll git 'un," wheezed poor Jack. "'Twude be +a turble gude job var 'ee tu git a yusband. But doan't 'ee make tu +shar on 'un, Miss Zairy. 'Un du zay as him be turble vond on yu, and +as yu du be playing vast and loose wi' he. That's the ways a young +maid du go on, and zo the young man du slip thru' 'un's vingers." + +"Yes, Jack," said Sarah, with unwonted meekness. + +She looked round the little unceiled room, open on one side to the +wooden staircase which led to the kitchen below; at the earth-stained +corduroys hanging on a peg; at the brown mug which held Happy Jack's +last meal, and all he cared to take--a thin gruel. + +"'Twude be a grand marriage vor the likes o' yu, Miss Zairy, vor the +Crewys du be the yoldest vambly in all Devonsheer, as I've yeard tell; +and yure volk bain't never comed year at arl befar yure grandvather's +time. Eh, what a tale there were tu tell when old Sir Timothy married +Mary Ann! 'Twas a vine scandal vor the volk, zo 'twere; but I wuden't +niver give in tu leaving Youlestone. But doan't 'ee play the vule wi' +Master Peter, Miss Zairy. Take 'un while yu can git 'un, will 'ee? And +be glad tu git 'un. Yu listen tu I, vor I be a turble witty man, and I +be giving of yu gude advice, Miss Zairy." + +"I am listening, Jack, and you know I always take your advice." + +"Ah! if 'twerent' for the anny-dominy, I'd be tu yure wedding," sighed +Happy Jack, "zame as I were tu Mary Ann's. Zo I wude." + +She took his knotted hand, discoloured with the labour of eighty +years, and bade him farewell. + +"Thee be a lucky maid," said Happy Jack, closing his eyes. + + * * * * * + +The tears were yet glistening on Sarah's long lashes, when she met the +doctor on his way to the cottage she had just quitted. + +She was in no mood for talking, and would have passed him with a hasty +greeting, but the melancholy and fatigue of his bearing struck her +quick perceptions. + +She stopped short, and held out her hand impulsively. + +"Dr. Blunderbuss," said Sarah, "did you _very_ much want Peter to find +out that--that he could live without his mother?" + +"Has anything happened?" said the doctor; his thin face lighted up +instantly with eager interest and anxiety. + +"Only _that_" said Sarah. "You trusted me, so I'm trusting you. +Peter's found out everything. And--and he isn't going to let her +sacrifice her happiness to him, after all. I'll answer for that. So +perhaps, now, you won't say you're sorry you told me?" + +"For God's sake, don't jest with me, my child!" said the doctor, +putting a trembling hand on her arm. "Is anything--settled?" + +"Do I ever jest when people are in earnest? And how can I tell you if +it's settled?" said Sarah, in a tone between laughing and weeping. +"I--I'm going there to-night. I oughtn't to have said anything about +it, only I knew how much you wanted her to be happy. And--she's going +to be--that's all." + +The doctor was silent for a. moment, and Sarah looked away from him, +though she was conscious that he was gazing fixedly at her face. But +she did not know that he saw neither her blushing cheeks, nor the +groups of tall fern on the red earth-bank beyond her, nor the +whitewashed cob walls of Happy Jack's cottage. His dreaming eyes saw +only Lady Mary in her white gown, weeping and agitated, stumbling over +the threshold of a darkened room into the arms of John Crewys. + +"You said you wished it," said Sarah. + +She stole a hasty glance at him, half frightened by his silence and +his pallor, remembering suddenly how little the fulfilment of his +wishes could have to do with his personal happiness. + +The doctor recovered himself. "I wish it with all my heart," he said. +He tried to smile. "Some day, if you will, you shall tell me how you +managed it. But perhaps--not just now." + +"Can't you guess?" she said, opening her eyes in a wonder stronger +than discretion. + +How was it possible, she thought, that such a clever man should be so +dull? + +The doctor shook his head. "You were always too quick for me, little +Sarah," he said. "I am only glad, however it happened, that--she--is +to be happy at last." He had no thoughts to spare for Sarah, or any +other. As she lingered he said absently, "Is that all?" + +She looked at him, and was inspired to leave the remorseful and +sympathetic words that rushed to her lips unsaid. + +"That is all," said Sarah, gently, "for the present." + +Then she left him alone, and took her way down to the ferry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +She looked round the banqueting hall. The wax candles shed a radiance +upon their immediate surroundings, which accentuated the shadows of +each unlighted corner. Bowls of roses, red and white and golden, +bloomed delicately in every recess against the black oak of the +panels. + +The flames were leaping on the hearth about a fresh log thrown into +the red-hot wood-ash. The two old sisters sat almost in the chimney +corner, side by side, where they could exchange their confidences +unheard. + +Lady Belstone still mourned her admiral in black silk and _crepe_, +whilst Miss Georgina's respect for her brother's memory was made +manifest in plum-coloured satin. + +Lady Mary, too, wore black to-night. Since the day of Peter's return +she had not ventured to don her favourite white. Her gown was of +velvet; her fair neck and arms shone through the yellowing folds of an +old lace scarf which veiled the bosom. A string of pearls was twisted +in her soft, brown hair, lending a dim crown to her exquisite and +gracious beauty in the tender light of the wax candles. + +Candlelight is kind to the victims of relentless time; disdaining to +notice the little lines and shadows care has painted on tired faces; +restoring delicacy to faded complexions, and brightness to sad eyes. + +The faint illumination was less kind to Sarah, in her white gown and +blue ribbons. The beautiful colour, which could face the morning +sunbeams triumphantly in its young transparency, was almost too high +in the warmth of the shadowy hall, where her golden-red hair made a +glory of its own. + +The October evening seemed chilly to the aged sisters, and even Lady +Mary felt the comfort of her velvet gown; but Sarah was impatient of +the heat of the log fire, and longed for the open air. She envied +Peter and John, who were reported to be smoking outside on the +terrace. + +"The very last of the roses," said Lady Mary. + +"There will be a sharp frost to-night; they won't stand that," said +Sarah, shaking her head. + +"The poor roses of autumn," said Lady Mary, rather dreamily, "they are +never so sweet as the roses of June." + +"But they are much rarer, and more precious," said Sarah. + +Lady Mary looked at her and smiled. How quickly Sarah always +understood! + +Sarah caught her hand and kissed it impulsively. Her back was turned +to the old sisters in the chimney corner. + +"Lady Mary," she said, "oh, never mind if I am indiscreet; you know I +am always that." A little sob escaped her. "But I _must_ ask you this +one thing--you--you didn't really think _that_ of me, did you?" + +"Think what, dear child?" said Lady Mary, bewildered. + +Sarah looked round at the two old ladies. + +The head of Miss Crewys was inclined towards the crochet she held in +her lap. She slumbered peacefully. + +Lady Belstone was absently gazing into the heart of the great fire. +The heat did not appear to cause her inconvenience. She was nodding. + +"They will hear nothing," said Lady Mary, softly. "Tell me, Sarah, +what you mean. I would ask you," she said, with a little smile and +flush, "to tell me something else, only, I--too--am afraid of being +indiscreet." + +"There is nothing I would not tell you," murmured Sarah, "though I +believe I would rather tell you--out in the dark--than here," she +laughed nervously. + +"The drawing-room is not lighted, except by the moon," said Lady Mary, +also a little excited by the thought of what Sarah might, perhaps, be +going to say; "but there is no fire there, I am afraid. The aunts do +not like sitting there in the evening. But if you would not be too +cold, in that thin, white gown--?" + +"I am never cold," said Sarah; "I take too much exercise, I suppose, +to feel the cold." + +"Then come," said Lady Mary. + +They stole past the sleeping sisters into the drawing-room, and closed +the communicating door as noiselessly as possible. + +Here only the moonlight reigned, pouring in through the uncurtained +windows and rendering the gay, rose-coloured room, with its pretty +contents, perfectly weird and unfamiliar. + +Sarah flung her warm, young arms about her earliest and most beloved +friend, and rested her bright head against the gentle bosom. + +"You never thought I meant all the horrid, cruel things I made Peter +say to you? You never believed it of me, did you? That I wouldn't +marry him unless _you_ went away. You whom I love best in the world, +and always have," she said defiantly, "or that I would ever alter a +single corner of this dear old house, which used to be so hideous, and +which you have made so beautiful?" + +"Sarah! My--my darling!" said Lady Mary, in frightened, trembling +tones. + +"You needn't blame Peter for saying any of it," said Sarah, "for it +was I who put the words into his mouth. It made him miserable to +say them; but he could not help himself. He wasn't really quite +responsible for his actions. He isn't now. When people are--are in +love, I've often noticed they're not responsible." + +"But why--" + +"I only wanted to show him what a goose he really was," murmured +Sarah, hanging her head. "He came back so pompous and superior; +talking about his father's place, and being the only man in the house, +and obliged to look after you all; and it was all so ridiculous, and +so out of date. I didn't mean to hurt _you_ except just for a moment, +because it could not be helped," said Sarah. She hid her face in Lady +Mary's neck, half laughing and half crying. "I was so afraid you--you +were taking him seriously; and--and he was so selfish, wanting to keep +you all to himself." + +"Oh, Sarah, hush!" Lady Mary cried. + +She divined it all in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye. It was to +Sarah that she owed the pain and mortification, not to her boy. + +Sarah had said Peter was not responsible. + +Was he only a puppet in the hands of the girl he loved? Could John +ever have been thus blindly led and influenced? Her wounded heart said +quickly that John was of a different, nobler, stronger nature. But the +mother's instinct leapt to defend her son, and cried also that John +was a man, and Peter but a boy in love, ready to sacrifice the whole +world to her he worshipped. His father would never have done that. +Lady Mary was even capable of an unreasoning pride in Peter's power of +loving; though it was not her--alas! it never had been her--for whom +her boy was willing to make the smallest sacrifice. + +But he had honestly meant to devote himself to his mother, according +to his lights, had Sarah's influence not come in the way. Sarah, +who must have divined her secret all the while, and who, with the +dauntlessness of youth, had not hesitated to force open the door +into a world so bright that Lady Mary almost feared to enter it, but +trembled, as it were, upon the threshold of her own happiness--and +Peter's. + +They were silent, holding each other in a close embrace, both +conscious of the passing and repassing footsteps upon the gravel path +without. + +Sarah was the first to recover herself. She put Lady Mary into her +favourite chair, and came and knelt by her side. + +"That's over, and I'm forgiven," she said softly. + +"You will make my boy--happy?" whispered Lady Mary. + +"I can't tell whether he will be happy or not, if--if he marries me," +said Sarah. She appeared to smother a laugh. "But Aunt Elizabeth seems +reconciled to the idea. I think you bewitched her this afternoon. She +is in love with you, and with this house, and with Mr. John. But more +particularly with you. When I said I had refused Peter over and over +again, she said I was a fool. But she says that whatever I do. I--I +suppose I let her think," said Sarah, leaning her head against Lady +Mary's knee, "that _some day_--if he is still idiotic enough to wish +it--and if _you_ don't mind--" + +"My pretty Sarah--my darling!" + +"I'm sure it's only because he's your son," said Sarah, vehemently; +"I've always wanted to be your child. What's the use of pretending I +haven't? Think what a time poor mamma used to give me, and what an +angel of goodness you were to the poor little black sheep who loved +you so." + +Sarah's white dress, shining in the moonlight, caught the attention of +John Crewys, through the open window. He paused in his walk outside. +Peter's voice uttered something, and the two dark figures passed +slowly on. + +"They won't interrupt us," said Sarah, serenely. "I told Peter at +dinner that I wanted to talk to you, and that he was to go and smoke +with Mr. John, and behave as if nothing had happened. He said he +hadn't spoken to him since this morning. He is all agog to know what +Lady Tintern came for. But he won't dare to come and interrupt." + +"What have you done to my boy," said Lady Mary, half laughing and +half indignant, "that your lightest word is to be his law? And oh, +Sarah"--her tone grew wistful--"it is strange--even though he loves +you, that you should understand him better than I, who would lay down +my life for him." + +"It's very easy to see why," said Sarah, calmly. The deep contralto +music of her voice contrasted oddly with her matter-of-fact manner and +words. "It's just that Peter and I are made of common clay, and that +you are not. So, of course, we understand each other. I don't mean to +say that we don't quarrel pretty often. I dare say we always shall. +I am good-tempered, but I like my own way; and, besides"--she spoke +quite cheerfully--"anybody would quarrel with Peter. But you and he +are a little like Aunt Elizabeth and me. _She_ wants me to behave like +a _grande dame_, and to know exactly who everybody is, and treat them +accordingly, and be never too much interested in anything, but never +bored; and always look beautiful, and, above all, _appropriate_. And +_I_--would rather be taking the dogs for a run on the moors, in a +short skirt and big boots; or up at four in the morning otter-hunting; +or out with the hounds; or--or--digging in the garden, for that +matter;--than be the prettiest girl in London, and going to a State +ball or the opera. You see, I've tried both kinds of life now, and +I know which I like best. And--and flirting with people is pleasant +enough in its way, but it gives you a kind of sick feeling afterwards, +which hunting never does. I don't think I'm really much of a hand at +sentiment," said Sarah, with great truth. + +"And Peter?" asked Lady Mary, gently. + +"You wanted Peter to be a--a noble kind of person, a great statesman, +or something of that sort, didn't you?" Her soft lips caressed Lady +Mary's hand apologetically. "To be fond of reading and poetry, and all +sorts of things; and _he_ wanted to shoot rabbits and go fishing. But, +of course, he couldn't help _knowing_ you wanted him to be something +he wasn't, and never could be, and didn't want to be." + +"Oh, Sarah!" said poor Lady Mary. "But--yes, it is true what you are +saying." + +"It's true, though I say it so badly; and I know it, because, as I +tell you, Peter and I are just the same sort at heart. I've been +teasing him, pretending to be a worldling, but foreign travel and +entertaining in London are just about as unsuited to me as to Peter. +I--I'm glad"--she uttered a quick, little sob--"that I--I played my +part well while it all lasted; but you know it wasn't so much me as my +looks that did it. And because I didn't care, I was blunt and natural, +and they thought it _chic_. But it wasn't _chic_; it was that I +_really_ didn't care. And I don't think I've ever quite succeeded in +taking Peter in either; for he _couldn't_ believe I could really think +any sort of life worth living but the dear old life down here, which +he and I love best in the world, in our heart of hearts." + +The twinkling, frosty blue points of starlight glittered in the +cloudless vault of heaven, above the moonlit stillness of the valley. +The clear-cut shadows of the balcony and the stone urns fell across +the cold paths and whitened grass of the terrace. + +Ghostlike, Sarah's white form emerged from the darkness of the room, +and stood on the threshold of the window. + +John threw away the end of his cigar, and smiled. "I presume the +interview we were not to interrupt is over?" he said, good-humouredly. +"Surely it is not very prudent of Miss Sarah to venture out-of-doors +in that thin gown; or has she a cloak of some kind--" + +But Peter was not listening to him. + +Sarah, wrapped in her white cloak and hood, had already flitted across +the moonlit terrace, into the deep shadow of the ilex grove; and the +boy was by her side before John could reach the window she had just +quitted. + +"Oh, is it you, Peter?" said Miss Sarah, looking over her shoulder. "I +was looking for you. I have put on my things. It is getting late, and +I thought you would see me home." + +"Must you go already?" cried Peter. "Have they sent to fetch you?" + +"I dare say I could stay a few moments," said Sarah; "but, of course, +my maid came ages ago, as usual. But if there was anything you +particularly wanted to say--you know how tiresome she is, keeping as +close as she can, to listen to every word--why, it would be better to +say it now. I am not in such a hurry as all that." + +"You know very well I want to say a thousand things," said Peter, +vehemently. "I have been walking up and down till I thought I should +go mad, making conversation with John Crewys." Peter was honestly +unaware that it was John who had made the conversation. "Has Lady +Tintern come to take you away, Sarah? And why did she call on my +mother this afternoon, the very moment she arrived?" + +"Your mother would be the proper person to tell you that. How should I +know?" said Sarah, reprovingly. "Have you asked her?" + +"How can I ask her?" said Peter. His voice trembled. "I've not spoken +to her once--except before other people--since John Crewys told +me--what I told you this afternoon. I've scarcely seen any one since I +left you. I wandered off for a beastly walk in the woods by myself, +as miserable as any fellow would be, after all you said to me. Do you +think I--I've got no feelings?" + +His voice sounded very forlorn, and Sarah felt remorseful. After all, +Peter was her comrade and her oldest friend, as well as her lover. At +the very bottom of her heart there lurked a remnant of her childish +admiration for him, which would, perhaps, never quite be extinguished. +The boy who got into scrapes, and was thrashed by his father, and who +did not mind; the boy who vaulted over fences she had to climb or +creep through; who went fishing, and threw a fly with so light and +sure a hand, and filled his basket, whilst she wound her line about +her skirts, and caught her hook, and whipped the stream in vain. +He had climbed a tall fir-tree once, and brought down in safety a +weeping, shame-stricken little girl with a red pigtail, whose daring +had suddenly failed her; and he had gone up the tree himself like a +squirrel afterwards, and fetched her the nest she coveted. Nor did he +ever taunt her with her cowardice nor revert to his own exploit; but +this was because Peter forgot the whole adventure in an hour, though +Sarah remembered it to the end of her life. He climbed so many trees, +and went birds'-nesting every spring to his mother's despair. + +Sarah thought of him wandering all the afternoon in his own woods, +lonely and mortified, listening to the popping of the guns on the +opposite side of the hill, which echoed through the valley; she knew +what those sounds meant to Peter--the boy who had shot so straight and +true, and who would never shoulder a gun any more. + +"I don't see why you should be so miserable," she said, as lightly +as she could; but there were tears in her eyes, she was so sorry for +Peter. + +"I dare say you don't," said Peter, bitterly. "Nobody has ever made a +fool of you, no doubt. A wretched, self-confident fool, who gave you +his whole heart to trample in the dust. I suppose I ought to have +known you were only--playing with me--as you said--a wretched object +as I am now, but--" + +"An object!" cried Sarah, so anxious to stem the tide of his +reproaches that she scarce knew what she was saying, "which appeals +to the soft side of every woman's heart, high or low, rich or poor, +civilized or savage--a wounded soldier." + +"Do you think I want to be pitied?" said Peter, glowering. + +"Pitied!" said Sarah, softly. "Do you call this pity?" She leant +forward and kissed his empty sleeve. + +Peter trembled at her touch. + +"It is--because you are sorry for me," he said hoarsely. + +"Sorry!" said Sarah, scornfully; "I glory in it." Then she suddenly +began to cry. "I am a wicked girl," she sobbed, "and you _were a_ +fool, if you ever thought I could be happy anywhere but in this stupid +old valley, or with--with any one but you. And I am rightly punished +if my--my behaviour has made you change your mind. Because I _did_ +mean, just at first, to throw you over, and to--to go away from you, +Peter. But--but the arm that wasn't there--held me fast." + +"Sarah!" + +She hid her face against his shoulder. + + * * * * * + +John Crewys was playing softly on the little oak piano in the +banqueting hall, and Lady Mary stood before the open hearth, absently +watching the sparks fly upward from the burning logs, and listening. + +The old sisters had gone to bed. + +Sarah's bright face, framed in her white hood, fresh and rosy from the +cold breath of the October night, appeared in the doorway. + +"Peter is in there--waiting for you," she whispered, blushing. + +John Crewys rose from the piano, and came forward and held out his +hand to Sarah, with a smile. + +Lady Mary hurried past them into the unlighted drawing-room. Her eyes, +dazzled by the sudden change, could distinguish nothing for a moment. + +But Peter was there, waiting, and perhaps Lady Mary was thankful for +the darkness, which hid her face from her son. + +"Peter!" + +"Mother!" + +She clung to her boy, and a kiss passed between them which said all +that was in their hearts that night--of appeal--of understanding--of +forgiveness--of the love of mother and son. + +And no foolish words of explanation were ever uttered to mar the +gracious memory of that sacred reconciliation. + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Peter's Mother, by Mrs. Henry De La Pasture + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PETER'S MOTHER *** + +***** This file should be named 10452.txt or 10452.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/4/5/10452/ + +Produced by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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