And sitting down on a stool beside the elder woman, Delia leant her head against her friend"s knee caressingly.
Gertrude gave an absent touch to the girl"s beautiful hair, and then said--
"So you _will_ take these four meetings?"
"Certainly!" Delia sprang up. "What are they? One at Latchford, one at Brownmouth--Wanchester--and Frimpton. All right. I shall be pelted at Brownmouth. But rotten eggs don"t matter so much when you"re looking out for them--except on your face--Ugh!"
"And the meeting here?"
"Of course. Can"t I do what I like with my own house? We"ll have the notices out next week."
Gertrude looked up--
"When did you say that man--Mr. Winnington--was coming?"
"His note this morning said 4:30."
"You"d better see him alone--for the first half hour anyway."
Delia made a face.
"I wish I knew what line to take up. You"ve been no use at all, Gertrude!"
Gertrude smiled.
"Wait till you see him," she said coolly. "Mother-wit will help you out."
"I wish I had anything to bargain with."
"So you have."
"Pray, what?"
"The meeting here. You _could_ give that up. And he needn"t know anything of the others yet awhile."
"What a charming opinion he will have of us both, by and bye," laughed Delia, quietly. "And by all accounts he himself is a simple paragon.--Heavens, how tiresome!"
Gertrude Marvell turned back to her letters.
"What does anyone know about a _man_?" she said, with slow deliberation.
The midday post at Maumsey brought letters just after luncheon. Delia turning hers over was astonished to see two or three with the local postmark.
"What can people from _here_ be writing to me about?"
Gertrude absorbed in the new weekly number of the _Tocsin_ took no notice, till she was touched on the shoulder by Delia.
"Yes?"
"Gertrude!--it"s too amazing!" The girl"s tone was full of a joyous wonder. "You know they told us at head-quarters that this was one of the deadest places in England--a nest of Antis--nothing doing here at all. Well, what do you think?--here are _three_ letters by one post, from the village--all greeting us--all knowing perfectly who you are--that you have been in prison, etcetera--all readers of the _Tocsin_, and burning to be doing something--"
"Burning something?" interposed the other in her most ordinary voice.
Delia laughed, again with the note of constraint.
"Well, anyway, they want to come and see us."
"Who are they?"
"An a.s.sistant mistress at the little grammar-school--that"s No. 1. No.
2--a farmer"s daughter, who says she took part in one of the raids last summer, but n.o.body knows down here. Her father paid her fine. And No.
3. a consumptive dressmaker, who declares she hasn"t much life left anyway, and she is quite willing to give it to the "cause"! Isn"t it wonderful how it spreads--it spreads!"
"Hm"--said Miss Marvell. "Well, we may as well inspect them. Tell them to come up some time next week after dusk."
As she spoke, the temporary parlour-maid threw open the door of the room which Delia had that morning chosen as her own sitting-room.
"Are you at home, Miss? Mrs. France would like to see you."
"Mrs. France?--Mrs. France? Oh, I know--the doctor"s wife--Mrs. Bird was talking of him this morning. Well, I suppose I must go." Delia moved unwillingly. "I"m coming, Mary."
"Of course you must go," said Gertrude, a little peremptorily. "As we are here we may as well reconnoitre the whole ground--find out everything we can."
In the drawing-room, to which some flowers, and a litter of new books and magazines had already restored its inhabited look, Delia found a woman awaiting her, in whom the girl"s first glance discerned a personality. She was dressed with an entire disregard of the fashion, in plain, serviceable clothes. A small black bonnet tied under the chin framed a face whose only beauty lay in the expression of the clear kind eyes, and quiet mouth. The eyes were a little prominent; the brow above them unusually smooth and untroubled, answering to the bands of brown hair touched with grey which defined it. But the rest of the face was marked by many deep lines--of experience, or suffering?--which showed clearly that its owner had long left physical youth behind. And yet perhaps youth--in some spiritual poetic sense--was what Mrs. France"s aspect most sharply conveyed.
She rose as Delia entered, and greeted her warmly.
"It is nice to see you settled here! Dr. France and I were great friends of your old grandmother. He and she were regular cronies. We were very sorry to see the news of your poor father"s death."
The voice was clear and soft, and absolutely sincere. Delia felt drawn to her. But it had become habitual to her to hold herself on the defensive with strangers, to suspect hostility and disapproval everywhere. So that her manner in reply, though polite enough, was rather chilly.
But--the girl"s beauty! The fame of it had indeed reached Maumsey in advance of the heiress. Mrs. France, however, in its actual presence was inclined to say "I had not heard the half!" She remembered Delia"s mother, and in the face before her she recognised again the Greek type, the old pure type, reappearing, as it constantly does, in the mixed modern race. But the daughter surpa.s.sed her mother. Delia"s eyes, of a lovely grey blue, lidded, and fringed, and arched with an exquisite perfection; the curve of the slightly bronzed cheek, suggesting through all its delicacy the fulness of young, sensuous life; the mouth, perhaps a trifle too large, and the chin, perhaps a trifle too firm; the abundance of the glossy black hair, curling wherever it was allowed to curl, or wherever it could escape the tight coils in which it was bound--at the temples, and over the brow; the beauty of the uncovered neck, and of the amply-rounded form which revealed itself through the thin black stripe of the mourning dress:--none of these "items" in Delia"s good looks escaped her admiring visitor.
"It"s to be hoped Mr. Mark realises his responsibilities," she thought, with amus.e.m.e.nt.
Aloud, she said--
"I remember you as quite a little thing staying with your Grandmother--but you wouldn"t remember me. Dr. France was grieved not to come, but it"s his hospital day."
Delia thanked her, without effusion. Mrs. France presently began to feel conversation an effort, and to realise that the girl"s wonderful eyes were very observant and very critical. Yet she chose the very obvious and appropriate topic of Lady Blanchflower, her strong character, her doings in the village, her relation to the labourers and their wives.
"When she died, they really missed her. They miss her still."
"Is it good for a village to depend so much on one person?" said Delia in a detached voice.
Mrs. France looked at her curiously. Jealousy of one"s grandmother is not a common trait in the young. It struck her that Miss Blanchflower was already defending herself against examples and ideals she did not mean to follow. And again amus.e.m.e.nt--and concern!--on Mark Winnington"s account made themselves felt. Mrs. France was quite aware of Delia"s "militant" antecedents, and of the history of the lady she had brought down to live with her. But the confidence of the doctor"s wife in Winnington"s powers and charm was boundless. "He"ll be a match for them!" she thought gaily.