Mrs. Prockter smiled.
"By the way," said James, "where"s them childer?"
The old people looked around. Emanuel and Helen, who had entered the proud precincts with them, had vanished.
"I believe they"re upstairs, ma"am," said the fat caretaker, pleating her respectable white ap.r.o.n.
"You can go," said Mrs. Prockter, curtly, to this vestige of grandeur.
"I will see you before I leave."
The ap.r.o.n resented the dismissal, and perhaps would have taken it from none but Mrs. Prockter. But Mrs. Prockter had a mien, and a flowered silk, before which even an ap.r.o.n of the Wilbrahams must quail.
"I may tell you, Mr. Ollerenshaw," she remarked, confidentially, when they were alone, "that I have not the slightest intention of buying this place. Emanuel takes advantage of my good nature. You"ve no idea how persistent he is. So all you have to do is to advise me firmly not to buy it. That"s why I"ve asked you to come up. He acknowledges that you"re an authority, and he"ll be forced to accept your judgment."
"Why didn"t ye say that afore, missis?" asked James bluntly.
"Before when?"
"Before that kick-up (party) o" yours. He got out of me then as I thought it were dirt cheap at eight thousand."
"But I don"t want to move," pleaded Mrs. Prockter.
"I"m asking ye why ye didn"t tell me afore?" James repeated.
Mrs. Prockter looked at him. "Men are trying creatures!" she said. "So it seems you can"t tell a tarradiddle for me?" And she sighed.
"I don"t know as I object to that. What I object to is contradicting mysen."
"Why did you bring Helen?" Mrs. Prockter demanded.
"I didna". She come hersen."
They exchanged glances.
"And now she and Emanuel have run off."
"It looks to me," said James, "as if your plan for knocking their two heads together wasna" turning out as you meant it, missis."
"And what"s more," said she, "I do believe that Emanuel wants me to buy this place so that when I"m gone he can make a big splash here with your niece and your money, Mr. Ollerenshaw! What do you think of that?"
"He may make as much splash as he"s a mind to, wi" my niece," James answered. "But he won"t make much of a splash with my money, I can promise ye." His...o...b.. twinkled. "I can promise ye," he repeated.
"To whom do you mean to leave it, then?"
"Not to _his_ wife."
"H"m! Well, as we"re here, I suppose we may as well see what there is to be seen. And those two dreadful young people must be found."
They mounted the stairs.
"Will you give me your arm, Mr. Ollerenshaw?"
To such gifts he was not used. Already he had given twenty-six pounds that day. The spectacle of Jimmy ascending the state staircase of Wilbraham Hall with all the abounding figure of Mrs. Prockter on his arm would have drawn crowds had it been offered to the public at sixpence a head.
They inspected the great drawing-room, the great dining-room, the great bedroom, and all the lesser rooms; the galleries, the balconies, the panellings, the embrasures, the suites and suites and suites of Georgian and Victorian decaying furniture; the ceilings and the cornices; the pictures and engravings (of which some hundreds remained); the ornaments, the clocks, the screens, and the microscopic knick-knacks.
Both of them lost count of everything, except that before they reached the attics they had pa.s.sed through forty-five separate apartments, not including linen closets. It was in one of the attics, as empty as Emanuel"s head, that they discovered Emanuel and Helen, gazing at a magnificent prospect over the moorlands, with the gardens, the paddock, and Wilbraham Water immediately beneath.
"We"ve been looking for you everywhere," Helen burst out. "Oh, Mrs.
Prockter, do come with me to the end of the corridor, and look at three old distaffs that I"ve found in a cupboard!"
During the absence of the women, James Ollerenshaw contradicted himself to Emanuel for the sweet sake of Emanuel"s stepmother. Little by little they descended to the earth, with continual detours and halts by Helen, who was several times lost and found.
"I"ve told him," said James, quietly and proudly. "I"ve told him it"s no use to you unless you want to turn it into a building estate."
They separated into two couples at the gate, with elaborate formalities on the part of Emanuel, which Uncle James more or less tried to imitate.
"Well?" murmured James, sighing relief, as they waited for the electric tram in that umbrageous and aristocratic portion of the Oldcastle-road which lies nearest to the portals of Wilbraham Hall. He was very pleased with himself, because, at the cost of his own respect, he had pleased Mrs. Prockter.
"Well?" murmured Helen, in response, tapping on the edge of the pavement the very same sunshade in whose company James had first made her acquaintance. She seemed nervous, hesitating, apprehensive.
"What about that house as ye"ve so kindly chosen for me?" he asked, genially. He wanted to humour her.
She looked him straight in the eyes. "You"ve seen it," said she.
"What!" he snorted. "When han I seen it?"
"Just now," she replied. "It"s Wilbraham Hall. I knew that Mrs. Prockter wouldn"t have it. And, besides, I"ve made Emanuel give up all idea of it."
He laughed, but with a strange and awful sensation in his stomach.
"A poor joke, la.s.s!" he observed, with the laugh dead in his throat.
"It isn"t a poor joke," said she. "It isn"t a joke at all."
"Didst thou seriously think as I should buy that there barracks to please thee?"
"Certainly," she said, courageously. "Just that--to please me."
"I"m right enough where I am," he a.s.serted, grimly. "What for should I buy Wilbraham Hall? What should I do in it?"
"Live in it."
"Trafalgar-road"s good enough for me."
"But it isn"t good enough for me," said she.
"I wouldna" ha" minded," he said, savagely--"I wouldna" ha" minded going into a house a bit bigger, but--"
"Nothing is big enough for me except Wilbraham Hall," she said.