That evening baby told his mother that a man met him in the Park, who kissed him and looked sad, and said he had a little boy of his own.
"And he crunched me up with kisses, mover," concluded baby.
"Was this man a friend of yours, Esther?" queried Mrs. Wyndham.
"Yes, madam, a friend of mine, and of my father"s. A gentleman with a very sorrowful story. I think it comforted him to kiss master baby."
Esther was a woman of acute observation. It seemed to her that if there was an individual on earth to be envied it was Valentine Wyndham. What matter though she thought herself a widow? Still she had won a love of a quality and depth which surely must satisfy the most exacting heart.
Esther often said to herself that if she were Valentine she must surely rest content. As to her forgetting Wyndham that could surely, surely never be.
These were Esther"s thoughts, always supposing the case to be her own; but she had not been many weeks in the house in Park-Lane before she began to open her eyes and to suspect that matters were otherwise with her young mistress. Valentine, although still a wife, supposed herself a widow. All the world thought her such. What more natural than that she should turn her thoughts once more to love. At the time of her supposed widowhood she was under twenty years of age. Why should she mourn for her young husband all her days? Surely there was somebody who considered that she ought not to mourn--somebody who came almost daily to the house, whom Mrs. Wyndham liked to talk to. For Esther noticed that her eyes were bright after Adrian Carr went away. She did not guess that their brightness was generally caused by the shedding of tears.
Esther began to feel very uncomfortable. Should she or should she not tell Wyndham of the danger which was threatening Valentine?
There came a Sunday when Mrs. Wyndham entered her nursery with a request.
"Nurse, my head aches dreadfully. I know you stipulated to have every Sunday afternoon to yourself, but if you could stay at home to-day I should be grateful."
No one could make requests more sweetly than Valentine, and Esther felt herself coloring up with the pain of refusing.
"I am very sorry, madam," she said in a low constrained voice; "but--but--my father will expect me. You know it was an understood thing, madam, that I was to see him once a week. You remember my telling you I am his only child."
"Yes, yes," said Valentine, "and I have thought of that. If you will take care of Gerry this one afternoon I will send the page in a cab to your home to fetch your father here." Esther changed color, from red to white.
"I am more sorry than I can express, my dear madam, but it would make all the difference to my father seeing me in my own little home and here. My father is very humble in his ways, dear madam. I think, perhaps, if you have a headache, Jane, the under housemaid, might be trusted for once with master baby."
"Jane has already gone out," replied Valentine coldly. Then with an effort she swallowed down her resentment. "I will be frank with you, Esther," she said. "If it was simply a headache I could certainly take care of my little boy, even at some inconvenience. But there is more behind. I promised Miss Wyndham, who is now in town, to meet her this afternoon at Mr. Carr"s new church. She is most anxious to hear him preach, and I should be sorry to disappoint her."
"You mean _you_ are anxious to hear him preach," quoth Esther, under her breath. "And is it on that account I will leave a hungry heart to starve?" Aloud she said: "Do you object to my taking master baby with me, madam?"
"I do object. The child must not be out so late. Then you distinctly refuse to accommodate me, Esther?"
"I am obliged to adhere to our arrangement, Mrs. Wyndham. I am truly sorry."
Valentine held out her hand to her little boy.
"Come, then, Baby Bunting," she said. "Mother will play with her boy; and poor Aunt Lilias must go to church alone."
She did not look at Esther, but went quietly away, holding the child"s hand.
"What a brute I am," soliloquized the nurse. "And yet, she, poor young lady, how can she--how can she forget?"
Esther"s home was in all its Sunday quiet when she reached it. Helps was having his afternoon siesta in the kitchen. Cherry was spending the day with the cousins who admired her recitations. Helps started out of his slumbers when his daughter came in.
"Essie," he said, "I"m glad you"ve come. That young man upstairs is very ill."
Esther felt her heart sinking down. She pressed her hand to her side.
"Is he worse, father?" she gasped.
"Oh, I don"t know that he"s worse; he"s bad enough as it is, without going in for being worse. He coughs constant, and Cherry says he don"t eat enough to keep a robin going. Esther, I wish to goodness we could get him out of this."
"Why so, father? He doesn"t hurt you. Even Cherry can"t name any fault in him."
"No, but suppose he was to die here. There"d be an inquest, maybe, and all kinds of questions. Well, I"m not hard-hearted, but I do wish he"d go."
Esther sank down into the nearest chair.
"You speak cruel words now and then, father," she said. "Who talks of dying? _He_ won"t die. If it comes to that, or any chance of it, I"ll come back and nurse him to life again."
"Essie, you think a sight of that young man."
"Well, I do. I"m not going to deny it. I"m going upstairs to see him now."
CHAPTER XLIV.
AT THE SOUND OF THE CLOCK.
She left the room, tripping lightly upstairs in her neat nurse"s dress.
When she got to Wyndham"s door and knocked gently for admission her heart, however, was beating so wildly that she feared he might notice it.
"Come in," said his voice; she entered.
He was lying back in his easy-chair. When he saw Esther he took off the soft hat which he always wore in Cherry"s presence, and greeted her with that brightness in his eyes which was the greatest reward he could possibly offer her.
"You are a little late," he said; "but I thought you would not fail me."
"I won"t ever fail you, Mr. Wyndham; you know that."
"Esther, it is safer to call me Brother Jerome."
"Not at the present moment. The house is empty but for my father.
Still, if you wish it, sir."
"I think I do wish it. A habit is a habit. The name may slip out at a wrong moment, and then--my G.o.d, think what would happen then!"
"Don"t excite yourself, sir. Esther Helps is never likely to forget herself. Still I see the sense of your wishes. You are Brother Jerome to me always from this out. And now, before I go any further, I want to state a fact. Brother Jerome, you are ill."
"I am ill, Esther. Ill, nigh unto death."
"My G.o.d, you shan"t die!"
"Hush; the question of dying does not rest with you or me. I want to die, so probably I shall live."
"You look like dying. Does Cherry feed you well?"