"Did they know you?"
"_Did_ they know me!"
"Were they awfully pleased?"
"They were ever so jolly; even Tony shouted."
At the lodge they met the Squire. Jan introduced Peter and explained that he had just come down for a few days" fishing and was staying at "The Green Hart." The Squire proffered advice as to the best flies and a warning that he must not hope for much sport. The Amber was a difficult river, very; and variable; and it had been a particularly dry June.
Peter bore up under this depressing intelligence and he and Jan walked on through warm, scented lanes to Wren"s End; and Peter looked at Jan a good deal.
Those who happened to be in London during the season of 1914 will remember that it was a period of powder and paint and frankest touching-up of complexions. The young and pretty were blackened and whitened and reddened quite as crudely as the old and ugly. There was no attempt at concealment. The faces of many Mayfair ladies filled Peter with disrespectful astonishment. He had not been home for four years, and then nice girls didn"t do that sort of thing--much.
Now one of Jan"s best points was her complexion; it was so fair and fresh. The touch of sunburn, too, was becoming, for she didn"t freckle.
Peter found himself positively thankful to behold a really clean face; a face, too, that just then positively beamed with warm welcome and frank pleasure.
A clean face; a cool, clean frock; kind, candid eyes and a gentle, sincere voice--yes, they were all there just as he remembered them, just as he had so often dreamt of them. Moreover, he decided there and then that the Georgian ladies knew what they were about when they powdered their hair--white hair, he thought, was extraordinarily becoming to a woman.
"You are looking better than when I was in Bombay. I think your leave must have done you good already," said the kind, friendly voice.
"I need a spell of country air, really to set me up," said Peter.
They had an hilarious tea with the children on the Wren"s lawn, and the tamest of the robins hopped about on the step just to show that he didn"t care a fig for any of them.
Meg was just going to take the children to bed when Mr. With.e.l.ls brought Hugo back. It was an awkward moment. Peter knew far too much about Hugo to simulate the smallest cordiality; and Hugo was too well aware of some of the things Peter knew to feel at all comfortable in his presence. But he had no intention of giving way an inch. He took the chair Meg had just vacated and sat down. Mr. With.e.l.ls, too, sat down for a few minutes, and no sooner had he done so than William dashed out from amongst them, and, returning, was accompanied by Captain Middleton.
"No tea, thank you. Just got down from town, came with a message from my uncle--would Miss Ross"s friend care for a rod on the Manor water on Monday? A brother officer who had been coming had failed at the last minute--there was room for four rods, but there wasn"t a chance of much sport."
Miles was introduced to Peter and sat down by him. The children rushed at Miles and, ably impeded by William, swarmed over him in riotous welcome, wholly regardless of their nurse"s voice which summoned them to bed.
Meg stood waiting.
"Miss Morton"s father lives in Cheltenham," Jan said to Mr. With.e.l.ls, who seemed rather left out. "She"s going to see him on Tuesday--to spend the day."
"Then," said Mr. With.e.l.ls in his clear staccato, "she must take the 9.15--it"s much the best train in the day. And the 4.55 back. No other trains are at all suitable. I hope you will be guided by me in this matter, Miss Morton. I"ve made the journey many times."
So had Meg; but Mr. With.e.l.ls always irritated her to such an extent that had it been possible, she would have declared her intention to go and return by quite different trains. As it was, she nodded pleasantly and said those were the very trains she had selected.
Miles thrust his head out from among the encompa.s.sing three and respectfully implored Mr. With.e.l.ls" advice about trains to Cricklade, which lay off the Cheltenham route, even going so far as to note the hours of departure and arrival carefully in a little book.
Finally Meg came and disenc.u.mbered Miles of the children and bore them away.
When her voice took on a certain tone it was as useless to cope with Meg as with Auntie Jan. They knew this, and like wise children gave in gracefully.
Elaborate farewells had to be said to everybody, and with a final warm embrace for Miles, little Fay called to him "Tum and see me in my baff."
"Captain Middleton will have gone long before you are ready for that,"
Meg said inhospitably, and trying to look very tall and dignified she walked up the three steps leading to the nursery. But it is almost impossible to look imposing with a lagging child dragging at each hand, and poor Meg felt that her exit was far from effective.
William settled himself comfortably across his master"s knees and in two minutes was snoring softly.
Miles manifested so keen an interest in Mr. With.e.l.ls" exhibits (he had got a second prize and a highly commended) that the kindly little man was quite attracted; and when Miles inquired about trains to Cheltenham he gave him precisely the same advice that he had given Meg.
The station at Amber Guiting is seldom crowded; it"s on a shuttle line, and except on market-day there is but little pa.s.senger traffic.
Therefore a small young lady with rather conspicuously red hair, a neat grey coat and skirt, a shady grey straw hat trimmed with white clover and green leaves, and a green parasol, was noticeable upon the platform out of all proportion to her size.
The train was waiting. The lady entered an empty third-cla.s.s carriage, and sitting in the corner with her back to the engine, shut herself in.
The train departed punctually, and she took out from her bag a note-book which she studied with frowning concentration.
Ten minutes further down the line the train stops again at Guiting Green, and here the young lady looked out of the window to see whether anyone was travelling that she recognised.
There was. But it was impossible to judge from the young lady"s expression whether the recognition gave her pleasure or not.
She drew in her head very quickly, but not before she had been seen.
"Hullo, Miss Morton! Where are you going? May I get in here?"
"Aren"t you travelling first?"
"Not a bit of it. Sure you don"t mind? How jolly to have met you!"
Miles looked so smiling, so big and well turned out, and pleased with life, that Meg"s severe expression relaxed somewhat.
"I suppose," she said, "you"re just going to the junction. But why come to Guiting Green?"
"I came to Guiting Green because it"s exactly four miles from the Manor House. And I"ve walked those four miles, Miss Morton, walked "em for the good of my health. Wish it wasn"t so dusty, though--look at my boots! _I"m_ going to Cheltenham. Where are you going?"
"Cheltenham?" Meg repeated suspiciously. "What are you going to do there?"
"I"m going to see about a horse--not a dog this time--I hear that Smith"s have got a horse that may suit me; really up to my weight they say it is, so I took the chance of going over while I"m with my uncle--it"s a lot nearer than town, you know. But where are _you_ going?"
"I," said Meg, "am going to Cheltenham----"
"To Cheltenham!" Miles exclaimed in rather overdone astonishment. "What an extraordinary coincidence! And what are _you_ going to buy in Cheltenham?"
"I am going to see my father. I thought I had told you he lives there."
"So you did, of course. How stupid of me to forget! Well, it"s very jolly we should happen to be going down together, isn"t it?"
They looked at one another, and Miles laughed.
"I"m not at all sure that we ought to travel together after we reach the junction, and I don"t believe you"ve got a third-cla.s.s ticket." Meg looked very prim.
Miles produced his ticket--it _was_ third-cla.s.s.