"When d"ye expect her?"
"Not till evening now. She"s safe enough at Miss Bicknell"s, bless ye."
Elfride went round to the door. She did not knock or ring; and seeing n.o.body to take the horse, Elfride led her round to the yard, slipped off the bridle and saddle, drove her towards the paddock, and turned her in.
Then Elfride crept indoors, and looked into all the ground-floor rooms.
Her father was not there.
On the mantelpiece of the drawing-room stood a letter addressed to her in his handwriting. She took it and read it as she went upstairs to change her habit.
STRATLEIGH, Thursday.
"DEAR ELFRIDE,--On second thoughts I will not return to-day, but only come as far as Wadcombe. I shall be at home by to-morrow afternoon, and bring a friend with me.--Yours, in haste,
C. S."
After making a quick toilet she felt more revived, though still suffering from a headache. On going out of the door she met Unity at the top of the stair.
"O Miss Elfride! I said to myself "tis her sperrit! We didn"t dream o"
you not coming home last night. You didn"t say anything about staying."
"I intended to come home the same evening, but altered my plan. I wished I hadn"t afterwards. Papa will be angry, I suppose?"
"Better not tell him, miss," said Unity.
"I do fear to," she murmured. "Unity, would you just begin telling him when he comes home?"
"What! and get you into trouble?"
"I deserve it."
"No, indeed, I won"t," said Unity. "It is not such a mighty matter, Miss Elfride. I says to myself, master"s taking a hollerday, and because he"s not been kind lately to Miss Elfride, she----"
"Is imitating him. Well, do as you like. And will you now bring me some luncheon?"
After satisfying an appet.i.te which the fresh marine air had given her in its victory over an agitated mind, she put on her hat and went to the garden and summer-house. She sat down, and leant with her head in a corner. Here she fell asleep.
Half-awake, she hurriedly looked at the time. She had been there three hours. At the same moment she heard the outer gate swing together, and wheels sweep round the entrance; some prior noise from the same source having probably been the cause of her awaking. Next her father"s voice was heard calling to Worm.
Elfride pa.s.sed along a walk towards the house behind a belt of shrubs.
She heard a tongue holding converse with her father, which was not that of either of the servants. Her father and the stranger were laughing together. Then there was a rustling of silk, and Mr. Swancourt and his companion, or companions, to all seeming entered the door of the house, for nothing more of them was audible. Elfride had turned back to meditate on what friends these could be, when she heard footsteps, and her father exclaiming behind her:
"O Elfride, here you are! I hope you got on well?"
Elfride"s heart smote her, and she did not speak.
"Come back to the summer-house a minute," continued Mr. Swancourt; "I have to tell you of that I promised to."
They entered the summer-house, and stood leaning over the knotty woodwork of the bal.u.s.trade.
"Now," said her father radiantly, "guess what I have to say." He seemed to be regarding his own existence so intently, that he took no interest in nor even saw the complexion of hers.
"I cannot, papa," she said sadly.
"Try, dear."
"I would rather not, indeed."
"You are tired. You look worn. The ride was too much for you. Well, this is what I went away for. I went to be married!"
"Married!" she faltered, and could hardly check an involuntary "So did I." A moment after and her resolve to confess perished like a bubble.
"Yes; to whom do you think? Mrs. Troyton, the new owner of the estate over the hedge, and of the old manor-house. It was only finally settled between us when I went to Stratleigh a few days ago." He lowered his voice to a sly tone of merriment. "Now, as to your stepmother, you"ll find she is not much to look at, though a good deal to listen to. She is twenty years older than myself, for one thing."
"You forget that I know her. She called here once, after we had been, and found her away from home."
"Of course, of course. Well, whatever her looks are, she"s as excellent a woman as ever breathed. She has had lately left her as absolute property three thousand five hundred a year, besides the devise of this estate--and, by the way, a large legacy came to her in satisfaction of dower, as it is called."
"Three thousand five hundred a year!"
"And a large--well, a fair-sized--mansion in town, and a pedigree as long as my walking-stick; though that bears evidence of being rather a raked-up affair--done since the family got rich--people do those things now as they build ruins on maiden estates and cast antiques at Birmingham."
Elfride merely listened and said nothing.
He continued more quietly and impressively. "Yes, Elfride, she is wealthy in comparison with us, though with few connections. However, she will introduce you to the world a little. We are going to exchange her house in Baker Street for one at Kensington, for your sake. Everybody is going there now, she says. At Easters we shall fly to town for the usual three months--I shall have a curate of course by that time. Elfride, I am past love, you know, and I honestly confess that I married her for your sake. Why a woman of her standing should have thrown herself away upon me, G.o.d knows. But I suppose her age and plainness were too p.r.o.nounced for a town man. With your good looks, if you now play your cards well, you may marry anybody. Of course, a little contrivance will be necessary; but there"s nothing to stand between you and a husband with a t.i.tle, that I can see. Lady Luxellian was only a squire"s daughter. Now, don"t you see how foolish the old fancy was? But come, she is indoors waiting to see you. It is as good as a play, too,"
continued the vicar, as they walked towards the house. "I courted her through the privet hedge yonder: not entirely, you know, but we used to walk there of an evening--nearly every evening at last. But I needn"t tell you details now; everything was terribly matter-of-fact, I a.s.sure you. At last, that day I saw her at Stratleigh, we determined to settle it off-hand."
"And you never said a word to me," replied Elfride, not reproachfully either in tone or thought. Indeed, her feeling was the very reverse of reproachful. She felt relieved and even thankful. Where confidence had not been given, how could confidence be expected?
Her father mistook her dispa.s.sionateness for a veil of politeness over a sense of ill-usage. "I am not altogether to blame," he said. "There were two or three reasons for secrecy. One was the recent death of her relative the testator, though that did not apply to you. But remember, Elfride," he continued in a stiffer tone, "you had mixed yourself up so foolishly with those low people, the Smiths--and it was just, too, when Mrs. Troyton and myself were beginning to understand each other--that I resolved to say nothing even to you. How did I know how far you had gone with them and their son? You might have made a point of taking tea with them every day, for all that I knew."
Elfride swallowed her feelings as she best could, and languidly though flatly asked a question.
"Did you kiss Mrs. Troyton on the lawn about three weeks ago? That evening I came into the study and found you had just had candles in?"
Mr. Swancourt looked rather red and abashed, as middle-aged lovers are apt to do when caught in the tricks of younger ones.
"Well, yes; I think I did," he stammered; "just to please her, you know." And then recovering himself he laughed heartily.
"And was this what your Horatian quotation referred to?"
"It was, Elfride."
They stepped into the drawing-room from the verandah. At that moment Mrs. Swancourt came downstairs, and entered the same room by the door.
"Here, Charlotte, is my little Elfride," said Mr. Swancourt, with the increased affection of tone often adopted towards relations when newly produced.