Off waddled the small fat legs. Lilias stooped and received the somewhat dusty embrace of two rounded arms, while cherub lips were pressed on hers.
"You do comfort me, little Gerry," she gasped under her breath.
Then she rose, almost staggering under his weight.
"Let me carry him for you," said Carr, coming up to her.
"No, thank you, I like to have him," she said; and she turned and walked by Valentine"s side.
"Are you tired, Val? I did not mean you to walk home. I sent Augusta with Bob and the basket chaise. I thought you knew they were to meet you at the turnpike."
"I"m afraid I forgot," answered Valentine. "I met Mr. Carr, and we came to a delicious field, full of primroses, and baby wanted to pick lots, didn"t you, treasure? We sat and had a rest; I am not very tired, and Mr. Carr carried this big boy all the way home. Hey-ho," she continued, throwing off her hat, and showing a head as full of cl.u.s.tering richly-colored hair as of old, "what a lovely day it is, it makes me feel young. Come along, baby, we"ll race together to the house. It"s time for you to go to sleep, little master. Now, then--baby first, mother after--one, two, three and away!"
The child shouted with glee, the mother raced after him, they disappeared through the rose-covered porch of the old rectory. Lilias raised two eyes full of pain to Carr"s.
"Is she beginning to forget?" she asked.
"No; why should you say so? She will never forget."
"She looked so young just now--so like a child. Poor Val! She was only twenty-two her last birthday. Mr. Carr. I don"t want her to forget."
"In one sense rest a.s.sured she never will--in another--would you wish her to endure a life-long pain?"
"I would--I would. It was done for her--she must never forget."
"You always allow me to say plain words, don"t you?" said Carr. "May I say some now?"
"Say anything you please, only don"t teach her to forget."
"What do you mean?"
The man"s eyes blazed. Lilias colored all over her face.
"I mean nothing," she said hurriedly. "Come into the flower-garden. We shall have a great show of roses this year. Come and look at the buds.
You were going to say something to me," she added presently.
"Yes. I was going to prepare you for what may come by-and-bye. It is possible that in the future--remember. I don"t know anything--but it is possible that in the future your young sister-in-law may once more be happy. I don"t know how--I am not going to prognosticate anything, but I think as a rule one may safely infer that the very bitterest grief, the most poignant sorrows which come before twenty are not abiding.
Mrs. Wyndham has her child. It would not do for the child to a.s.sociate only sorrow with the mother"s face. Some time in the future she will be happy again. It is my opinion that your brother would be glad of this."
"Hush; you don"t know. My brother--my only brother! I at least can never be the Lilias of old."
"I believe you," said Carr much moved by her tone. "You, too, are very young; but in your heart, Miss Wyndham, in your heart, you were an older woman, a woman more acquainted with the grave side of life, than that poor young thing was when the blow fell."
Lilias did not answer for a moment or two.
"I am glad Marjory is out of it all," she said then. "You know what a long nervous illness she had at the time. Dear old Marjory, she was such a tempestuous darling."
"But she is happy now."
"Oh, yes, she has her husband. Philip is very good, he suits Marjory.
Yes, she is quite happy now, and I am not miserable--you mustn"t think it. I know in whom I have believed."
Her eyes were raised to the sky overhead.
"I know He won"t fail me. Some day Gerald and I shall meet."
"Some day, a.s.suredly," answered Carr.
"And in the meantime, I am not unhappy, only I don"t intend ever to forget. Nor shall she."
"One question," said Carr. "Have you heard news lately of Mrs.
Wyndham"s father?"
"I believe he has recovered. He never comes here. I must own I have a great antipathy to Valentine"s father. I don"t want to hear of him nor to think of him."
"I can understand that. Still, if it will not trouble you greatly I should like to ask you a question or two with regard to him. He was very ill, at the--at the time, wasn"t he?"
"He was very ill, mentally, he was quite off his head for several months."
"Don"t you think that was rather strange?"
"I never thought much about it, as far as he was concerned. Of course he must have had a dreadful shock."
"But not such a shock as you had. Not a shock to be named with what that poor girl, his daughter, went through. Your brother was not his own son, and--and----"
"I never thought about it, Mr. Carr. I heard that he was ill, and that the illness was mental. He has been quite well again for some time."
"I a.s.sure you you"re mistaken. I met him a fortnight ago in town. I never saw a man so completely altered in the whole course of my life."
"Please don"t tell me about him. It never was, nor could be, an interesting subject. Ah, there is my dear father calling me. I must run to him."
The rector was seen approaching. His figure was slightly more bent, and his hair whiter than of old. Lilias linked her hand within his arm, and Carr turned away.
"I can never have it out with her," he said to himself. "I never seem to have the courage when I"m with her. And besides, I don"t believe she"d leave her father. But if she did--if I ever could hope to win her for my wife, then I might venture to whisper to her some of my suspicions. How little she guesses what my thoughts are. Can I act in any way without consulting her? I have a good mind to try."
CHAPTER x.x.xVII.
The house of Paget Brothers was never more flourishing than during the spring and summer of 18--. It was three years since the death of its junior partner, Gerald Wyndham, and three years since Mortimer Paget had paid away in full the trust money of eighty thousand pounds which he owed to George Carmichael, of the firm of Carmichael, Parr and Co., Calcutta. Although none of the parties concerned quite intended it, certain portions of the story of this trust got abroad, and became the subject of a nine days" gossip in the City and elsewhere. It had never even been whispered that Paget Brothers were in difficulties. Still such a sum would not be easy to find even in the wealthiest concern.
Then the fact also trickled out that Wyndham"s life had been insured, heavily insured, in three or four different offices. His death must have come in handily, people said, and they said no more--just then.
The fact was, that had one been even inclined to suspect foul play, Mr.
Paget"s dangerous illness at the time would have prevented their doing so. Surely no man ever before grieved so bitterly for a dead son-in-law as did this man. The blow had felled him with a stroke. For many months his mind gave way utterly. The words spoken in delirium are seldom considered valuable. What Mr. Paget did or said during the dark summer which followed Wyndham"s death never got known. In the autumn he was better; that winter he went abroad, and the following spring he once more was seen in the City.
He looked very old, people said, but he was as shrewd and careful a business man as ever.