Althea put out her hand, and Helen gave her hers, saying, "You _are_ a dear," and adding, as though to take refuge from her own discomposure, "much too dear for the likes of me."
The bond was thus sealed, yet Aunt Julia"s shaft still stuck. It was she who had felt near, and who had drawn Helen near. Helen, probably, would never have thought of keeping in touch. She was Helen"s friend because she had appealed for friendship, and because Helen thought her a dear.
The only comfort was to know that Helen"s humility was real. She might have offered her friendship could she have realised that it was of value to anybody.
It was a few evenings after this, and perhaps as a result of their talk, that, as they sat in Althea"s room over coffee, Helen said: "Why don"t you come to England this summer, Althea?"
Aunt Julia had proposed that Althea should go on to Bayreuth with her and the girls, and Althea was turning over the plan, thinking that perhaps she had had enough of Bayreuth, so that Helen"s suggestion, especially as it was made in Aunt Julia"s presence, was a welcome one.
"Perhaps I will," she said. "Will you be there?"
"I"ll be in London, with Aunt Grizel, until the middle of July; after that, in the country till winter. You ought to take a house in the country and let me come to stay with you," said Helen, smiling.
"Will you pay me a long visit?" Althea smiled back.
"As long as you"ll ask me for."
"Well, you are asked for as long as you will stay. Where shall I get a house? There are some nice ones near Miss Buckston"s."
"Oh, don"t let us be too near Miss Buckston," said Helen, laughing.
"But surely, Althea, you won"t give up Bayreuth," Aunt Julia interposed.
"It is going to be specially fine this year. And then you know so few people in England, you will be very lonely. Nothing is more lonely than the English country when you know n.o.body."
"Helen is a host in herself," said Althea; and though Helen did not realise the full force of the compliment, it was more than satisfactory to have her acquiesce with: "Oh, as to people, I can bring you heaps of them, if you want them."
"It is a lovely idea," said Althea; "and if I must miss Bayreuth, Aunt Julia, I needn"t miss you and the girls. You will have to come and stay with me. Do you know of a nice house, Helen, in pretty country, and not too near Miss Buckston?" It was rather a shame of her, she felt, this proviso, but indeed she had never found Miss Buckston endearing, and since knowing Helen she had seen more clearly than before that she was in many ways oppressive.
Helen was reflecting. "I do know of a house," she said, "in a very nice country, too. You might have a look at it. It"s where I used to go, as a girl, you know, and stay with my cousins, the Digbys."
"That would be perfect, Helen."
"Oh, I don"t know that you would find it perfect. It is a plain stone house, with a big, dilapidated garden, nice trees and lawns, miles from everything, and with old-fashioned, shabby furniture. Since Gerald came into the place, he"s not been able to keep it up, and he has to let it.
He hasn"t been able to let it for the last year or so, and would be glad of the chance. If you like the place you"ll only have to say the word."
"I know I shall like it. Don"t you like it?"
"Oh, I love it; but that"s a different matter. It is more of a home to me than any place in the world."
"I consider it settled. I don"t need to see it."
"No; it certainly isn"t settled," Helen replied, with her pleasant decisiveness. "You certainly shan"t take it till you see it. I will write to Gerald and tell him that no one else is to have it until you do."
"I am quite determined to have that house," said Althea. "A place that you love must be lovely. Write if you like. But the matter is settled in my mind."
"Don"t be foolish, my dear," said Aunt Julia. "Miss Buchanan is quite right. You mustn"t think of taking a house until you see it. How do you know that the drainage is in order, or even that the beds are comfortable. Miss Buchanan says that it is miles away from everything, too. You may find the situation very dismal and unsympathetic."
"It"s pretty country, I think," said Helen, "and I"m sure the drainage and the beds are all right. But Althea must certainly see it first."
It was settled, however, quite settled in Althea"s mind that she was to take Merriston House. She bade Helen farewell three days later, and they had arranged that they were, within a fortnight, to meet in London, and go together to look at it.
And Althea wrote to Franklin Winslow Kane, and informed him of her new plans, and that he must be her guest at Merriston House for as long as his own plans allowed him. Her mood in regard to Franklin had greatly altered since that evening of gloom a fortnight ago. Franklin, then, had seemed the only fact worth looking at; but now she seemed embarked on a voyage of discovery, where bright new planets swam above the horizon with every forward rock of her boat. Franklin was by no means dismissed; Franklin could never be dismissed; but he was relegated; and though, as far as her fondness went, he would always be firmly placed, she could hardly place him clearly in the new and significantly peopled environment that her new friendship opened to her.
CHAPTER VI.
Helen Buchanan was a person greatly in demand, and, in her migratory existence, her pauses at her Aunt Grizel"s little house near Eaton Square were, though frequent, seldom long. When she did come, her bedroom and her sitting-room were always waiting for her, as was Aunt Grizel with her cheerful "Well, my dear, glad to see you back again."
Their mutual respect and trust were deep; their affection, too, though it was seldom expressed. She knew Aunt Grizel to the ground, and Aunt Grizel knew her to the ground--almost; and they were always pleased to be together.
Helen"s sitting-room, where she could see any one she liked and at any time she liked, was behind the dining-room on the ground floor, and from its window one saw a small neat garden with a plot of gra.s.s, bordering flower-beds, a row of little fruit-trees, black-branched but brightly foliaged, and high walls that looked as though they were built out of sooty plum cake. Aunt Grizel"s cat, Pharaoh, sleek, black, and stalwart, often lay on the gra.s.s plot in the sunlight; he was lying there now, languidly turned upon his side, with outstretched feet and drowsily blinking eyes, when Helen and her cousin, Gerald Digby, talked together on the day after her return from Paris.
Gerald Digby stood before the fireplace looking with satisfaction at his companion. He enjoyed looking at Helen, for he admired her more than any woman he knew. It was always a pleasure to see her again; and, like Aunt Grizel, he trusted and respected her deeply, though again, like Aunt Grizel, he did not, perhaps, know her quite down to the ground. He thought, however, that he did; he knew that Helen was as intimate with n.o.body in the world as with him, not even with Aunt Grizel, and it was one of his most delightful experiences to saunter through all the chambers of Helen"s mind, convinced that every door was open to him.
Gerald Digby was a tall and very slender man; he tilted forward when he walked, and often carried his hands in his pockets. He had thick, mouse-coloured hair, which in perplexed or meditative moments he often ruffled by rubbing his hand through it, and even when thus disordered it kept its air of fashionable grace. His large, long nose, his finely curved lips and eyelids, had a delicately carved look, as though the sculptor had taken great care over the details of his face. His brown eyes had thick, upturned lashes, and were often in expression absent and irresponsible, but when he looked at any one, intent and merry, like a gay dog"s eyes. And of the many charming things about Gerald Digby the most charming was his smile, which was as infectious as a child"s, and exposed a joyous array of large white teeth.
He was smiling at his cousin now, for she was telling him, dryly, yet with a mocking humour all her own, of her Paris fiasco that had delayed her return to London by a fortnight, and, by the expense it had entailed upon her, had deprived her of the new hat and dress that she had hoped in Paris to secure. Talking of Paris led to the letter she had sent him four or five days ago. "About this rich American," said Gerald; "is she really going to take Merriston, do you think? It"s awfully good of you, Helen, to try and get a tenant for me."
"I don"t know that you"d call her rich--not as Americans go; but I believe she will take Merriston. She wanted to take it at once, on faith; but I insisted that she must see it first."
"You must have cried up the dear old place for her to be so eager."
"I think she is eager about pleasing me," said Helen. "I told her that I loved the place and hadn"t been there for years, and that moved her very much. She has taken a great fancy to me."
"Really," said Gerald. "Why?"
"I"m sure I don"t know. She is a dear little person, but rather funny."
"Of course, there is no reason why any one shouldn"t take a fancy to you," said Gerald, smiling; "only--to that extent--in so short a time."
"I appealed to her pity, I think; she came in and took care of me, and was really unspeakably kind. And she seemed to get tremendously interested in me. But then, she seemed capable of getting tremendously interested in lots of things. I"ve noticed that Americans often take things very seriously."
"And you became great pals?"
"Yes, I suppose we did."
"She interested you?"
Helen smiled a little perplexedly, and lit a cigarette before answering. "Well, no; I can"t say that she did that; but that, probably, was my own fault."
"Why didn"t she interest you?" Gerald went on, taking a cigarette from the case she offered. He was fond of such desultory pursuit of a subject; he and Helen spent hours in idle exchanges of impression.
Helen"s answer was hardly illuminating: "She wasn"t interesting."
"It was rather interesting of her to take such an interest in you," said Gerald subtly.
"No." Helen warmed to the theme. It had indeed perplexed her, and she was glad to unravel her impressions to this understanding listener. "No, that"s just what it wasn"t; it might have been if one hadn"t felt her a person so easily affected. She had--how can I put it?--it seems brutal when she is such a dear--but she had so little stuff in her; it was as if she had to find it all the time in other things and people. She is like a gla.s.s of water that would like to be wine, and she has no wine in her; it could only be poured in, and there"s not room for much. At best she can only be _eau rougie_."