Chapter 108
"Perhaps she is wiser now."
"That would make it even more likely that I should say what would be better left alone. No, mother! Ten years hence, if--"
She thought of Magnum Bonum, and said, "Sooner, perhaps!"
"No," he said, laughing. "It is only in the 'Traveller's Joy' that all the bigwigs are out of sight, and the apothecary's boy saved the Lord Mayor's life."
With that laugh, rather a sad one, he inserted the latch-key and ended the discussion.
Whether Barbara were really unwilling to go was not clear, for she had no such excuse as her brother; but she grumbled almost as much as her aunt at the solecism of a wedding in the gentleman's home; and for the only time in her life showed ill-humour. She was vexed with Esther for her taste in bridesmaid's attire (hers was given by her uncle); sarcastic to Cecil for his choice of gifts; cross to her mother about every little arrangement as to dress; satirical on Allen's revival of spirits in prospect of a visit to a great house; annoyed at whatever was done or not done; and so much less tolerant of having little Lina left on her hands, that Aunt Carey became the child's best reliance.
Some of this temper might be put to the score of that pity for Bobus, which Babie in her caprice had begun to dwell on, most inconsistently with her former gaiety; but her mother attributed it to an unconfessed reluctance to meet Lord Fordham again, and a sense that the light thoughtlessness to which she had clung so long might perforce be at an end.
So sharp-edged was her tongue, even to the moment of embarkation in the train, that her mother began to fear how she might behave, and dreaded lest she should wound Fordham; but she grew more silent all the way down, and when the carriage came to the station, and they drove past banks starred by primroses, and with the blue eyes of periwinkles looking out among the evergreen trailers, she spoke no word. Even Allen brightened to enjoy that lamb-like March day; and John, with his little sister on his knee, was most joyously felicitous. Indeed, the tall, athletic, handsome fellow looked as if it were indeed spring with him, all the more from the contrast with Allen's languid, sallow looks, savouring of the fumes in which he lived.
Out on the steps were Fordham, wrapped up to the ears; Sydney ready to devour Babie, who pa.s.sively submitted; and Mrs. Evelyn, as usual, giving her friend a sense of rest and reliance.
The last visit, though only five years previous to this one, had seemed in past ages, till the familiar polished oak floor was under foot, and the low tea-table in the wainscoted hall, before the great wood fire, looked so homelike and natural, that the newcomers felt as if they had only left it yesterday. Fordham, having thrown off his wraps, waited on his guests, looking exceedingly happy in his quiet way, but more fragile than ever. He had a good deal of fair beard, but it could not conceal the hollowness of his cheeks, and there were great caves round his eyes, which were very bright and blue. Yet he was called well, waited a.s.siduously on little Lina, and talked with animation.
"We have nailed the weatherc.o.c.k," he said, "and telegraphed to the clerk of the weather-office not to let the wind change for a week."
"Meantime we have three delicious days to ourselves," said Sydney, "before any of the nonsense and preparation begins."
"Indeed! As if Sydney were not continually drilling her unfortunate children!"
"If you call the Psalms and hymns nonsense, Duke--"
"No! no! But isn't there a course of instruction going on, how to strew the flowers gracefully before the bride?"
"Well, I don't want them thrown at her head, as the children did at the last wedding, when a great cowslip ball hit the bride in the eye. So I told the mistress to show them how, and the other day we found them in two lines, singing--
'This is the way the flowers we strew!'"
"I suppose Cecil is keeping his residence?"
"No. Did you not know that this little Church of ours is not licensed for weddings? The parish Church is three miles off and a temple of the winds. This is only a chapelry, there is a special licence, and Cecil is hunting with the Hamptons, and comes with them on Monday."
"Special
"Everybody comes then," said Sydney; "not that it is a very large everybody after all, and we have not asked more neighbours than we can help, because it is to be a feast for all the chief tenants--here in this hall--then the poor people dine in the great barn, and the children drink tea later in the school. Come, little Caroline, you've done tea, and I have my old baby-house to show you. Come, Babie! Oh! isn't it delicious to have you?"
When Sydney had carried off Babie, and the two mothers stood over the fire in the bedroom, Mrs. Evelyn said--
"So Lucas stays with his good old G.o.dfather. I honour him more than I can show."
"We did not like to leave the old people alone. They were my kindest friends in my day of trouble."
"You will not let me press him to run down for the one day, if he cannot leave them for more? Would he, do you think?"
"I believe he would, if you did it," said Caroline, slowly; "but I ought not let you do so, without knowing his full reason for staying away."
They both coloured as if they had been their own daughters, and Mrs.
Evelyn smiled as she said--
"We have outgrown some of our folly about choice of profession."
"But does that make it safer? My poor boy has talked it over with me. He says he is afraid of his own impulses, leading him to say what would not be an honourable requital for all your kindness to him."
"He is very good. I think he is right--quite right," said Mrs. Evelyn.
"I am afraid I must say so. For anything to begin afresh between them might lead to suspense that my child's const.i.tution might not stand, and I am very grateful to him for sparing her."
"Afresh? Do you think there ever was anything?"
"Never anything avowed, but a good deal of sympathy. Indeed, so far as I can guess, my foolish girl was first much offended and disquieted with Jock for not listening to her persuasions, and then equally so with herself for having made them, and now I confess I think shame and confusion are predominant with her when she hears of him."
"So that she is relieved at his absence."
"Just so, and it is better so to leave it; I should be only too happy to keep her with me waiting for him, only I had rather she did not know it."
"My dear friend!" And again Caroline thought of Magnum Bonum. All the evening she said to herself that Sydney showed no objection to medical students, when she was looking over the Engelberg photographs with John, who had been far more her companion in the mountain rambles they recalled than had Jock in his half-recovered state.
The mother could not help feeling a little pang of jealousy as she owned to herself that the Friar was a very fine-looking youth, with the air of a university man, and of one used to good society, and that he did look most perilously happy. He was the next thing to her own son, but not quite the same, and she half repented of her candour to Mrs. Evelyn, and wished that the keen, sensitive face and soldierly figure could be there to rea.s.sert their influence.
There ensued a cheerful, pleasant Sat.u.r.day, which did much to restore the ordinary tone between the old friends and to take off the sense of strangeness. It was evident that Lord Fordham had insensibly become much more the real head and master of the house than at the time when the Brownlow party had last been there, and that he had taken on him much more of the duties of his position than he had then seemed capable of fulfilling. It might cost much effort, but he had ceased to be the mere invalid, and had come to take his part thoroughly and effectively, and to win trust and confidence. It was strange to think how Babie could ever have called him a m.u.f.f merely to be pitied.
The Sundays at Fordham were always delightful. The little Church was as near perfection as might be. It was satisfactory to see that Fordham's gentleness and courtesy had dispelled all the clouds, and Barbara had returned to her ordinary manner; perhaps a little more sedate and gentle than usual, and towards him she was curiously submissive, as if she had a certain awe of the tenderness she had rejected.
After the short afternoon service, Sydney waited to exercise her choir once more in their musical duties; but Babie, hearing there was to be no rehearsal of the flower-strewing, declared she had enough of cla.s.ses at home, and should take Lina for a stroll on the sunny terrace among the crocuses, where Fordham joined them till warned that the sun was getting low.
One there was who would have been glad of an invitation to join in the practice, but who did not receive one. John lingered with Allen about the gardens till the latter disposed of himself on a seat with a cigar beyond the public gaze. Then saying something about seeing whether the stream promised well for fis.h.i.+ng, John betook himself to the bank of the river, one of the many Avons, probably with a notion that by the merest accident he might be within distance at the break-up of the choir practice.
He was sauntering with would-be indifference towards the foot-bridge that shortened the walk to the Church, but he was still more than one hundred yards from it, when on the opposite side he beheld Sydney herself. She was on the very verge of the stream, below the steep, slippery clay bank, clinging hard with one hand to the bared root of a willow stump, and with the other striving to uphold the head and shoulder of a child, the rest of whose person was in the water.
One cry, one shout pa.s.sed, then John had torn off coat, boots, and waistcoat, and plunged in to swim across, perceiving to his horror that not only was there imminent danger of the boy's weight overpowering her, but that the bank, undermined by recent floods, was crumbling under her feet, and the willow-stump fast yielding to the strain on its roots.
And while each moment was life or death to her, he found the current unexpectedly strong, and he had to use his utmost efforts to avoid being carried down far below where she stood watching with cramped, strained failing limbs, and eyes of appealing, agonising hope.
One shout of encouragement as he was carried past her, but stemming the current all the time, and at last he paddled back towards her, and came close enough to lay hold of the boy.
"Let go," he said, "I have him."
But just as Sydney relaxed her hold on the boy the willow stump gave way and toppled over with an avalanche of clay and stones. Happily Sydney had already unfastened her grasp, and so fell, or threw herself backwards on the bank, scratched, battered, bruised, and feeling half buried for an instant, but struggling up immediately, and shrieking with horror as she missed John and the boy, who had both been swept in by the tree. The next moment she heard a call, and scrambling up the bank, saw John among the reedy pools a little way down, dragging the boy after him.
She dashed and splashed to the spot and helped to drag the child to a drier place, where they all three sank on the gra.s.s, the boy, a st.u.r.dy fellow of seven years old, lying unconscious, and the other two sitting not a little exhausted, Sydney scarcely less drenched than the child.
She was the first to gasp--
"The boy?"