"But, Aunt Louisa, upon my honour he wasn"t----"
"Good-night. Ask Janey to send up Nurse to me as soon as she returns."
Roger left the room clumsily, but yet with a certain dignity. His upright soul was shocked to the very core. He marched heavily downstairs to the library, where Janey was keeping his coffee hot for him over a little spirit-lamp. There was indignation in his clear grey eyes. And over his coffee and his cigarette he recounted to her exactly how everything had been, and how d.i.c.k wasn"t fit, he really wasn"t. And Janey thought that when he had quite finished she would tell him of the pressure her mother was bringing to bear on her to promise to make a home for Harry after her death. But when at last Roger got off the subject, and his cigarette had soothed him, he went on to tell Janey about a man he had met on the boat, who oddly enough turned out to be a cousin of a land agent he knew in Kent. This surprising incident took so long, the approaches having been both gradual and circuitous, and primarily connected with the proffer of a paper, that when it also had been adequately dealt with and disposed of, it was getting late.
"I must be off," he said, rising. "Good-night, Janey. Keep a brave heart, old girl." He nodded slightly to the room above, which was his aunt"s. "Rough on you sometimes, I"m afraid."
"You always cheer me up," she said, with perfect truthfulness. He _had_ cheered her. It would be a sad world for most of us if it were by our conversational talents that we could comfort those we loved. But Roger believed it was so in his case, and complacently felt that he had broached a number of interesting Parisian subjects, and had refreshed Janey, whom Lady Louisa led a dog"s life and no mistake. He was fond of her, and sorry for her beyond measure, and his voice and eyes were very kindly as he bade her good-night. She went to the door with him, and they stood a moment together in the moonlight under the cl.u.s.tering stars of the clematis. He took his hat and stick and repeated his words: "Keep a brave heart."
She said in a voice which she tried, and failed, to make as tranquil as usual--
"I had been so afraid you weren"t coming, that you had missed your train."
"Oh no! I didn"t miss it. But just as I got to the gate at eight o"clock I met Miss Georges coming out of the churchyard, and it was pretty dark--moon wasn"t up--and I thought I ought to see her home first. That was why I was late."
Janey bade him good-night again, and slipped indoors. The moonlight and the clematis which a moment before had been so full of mysterious meaning were suddenly emptied of all significance.
CHAPTER XIV
"O Life, how naked and how hard when known!
Life said, As thou hast carved me, such am I."
GEORGE MEREDITH.
Janey lit her bedroom candle with a hand that trembled a little, and in her turn went slowly upstairs.
She could hear the clatter of knives and forks in the dining-room, and Harry"s vacant laugh, and Nurse"s sharp voice. They had come back, then.
She went with an effort into her mother"s room, and sat down in her accustomed chair by the bed.
"It is ten o"clock. Shall I read, mother?"
"Certainly."
It was the first time they had spoken since she had been ordered out of the room earlier in the day.
Janey opened the Prayer Book on the table by the bedside, and read a psalm and a chapter from the Gospel:--
"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light."
Janey closed the book, and said timidly, "May I stay until Nurse comes up?"
"Pray do exactly what you like."
She did not move.
"I am heavy laden," said her mother. "I don"t suppose you have ever given it one moment"s thought what it must be like to lie like a log as I do."
Her daughter dared not answer.
"How many months have I lain in this room?"
"Eight months."
"Ever since I went to Paris last October. I was too ill to go, but I went."
Silence.
"I am heavy laden, but it seems I must not look to you for help, Janey."
Janey"s heart sickened within her. When had her mother ever relinquished anything if once her indomitable will were set upon it? She felt within herself no force to withstand a second attack.
The nurse came in at that moment, a tall, shrewd, capable woman of five-and-thirty, with a certain remnant of haggard good looks.
"May Mr. Harry come in to say good-night, milady?"
"Yes."
She went to the door and admitted a young man. Harry came and stood beside the bed, looking sheepishly at his mother. If his face had not been slightly vacant, the mouth ajar, he would have been beautiful. As it was, people turned in the street to see him pa.s.s. He was tall, fair, well grown, with a delightful smile. He smiled now at his mother, and she tried hard to smile back at him, her rigid face twitching a little.
"Well, my son! Had you a nice day in Ipswich?"
"Yes, mamma."
"And I hope you were brave at the dentist"s, and that he did not hurt you much?"
"Oh no, mamma. He did not hurt me at all."
"Not at all?" said his mother, surprised.
The nurse stepped forward at once.
"Mr. Harry did not have his tooth out, milady."
"No," said Harry slowly, looking at the nurse as if he were repeating a lesson, "the tooth was _not_ taken out. It was _not_."
"Mr. Milson had been called away," continued the nurse glibly.
"Called away," echoed Harry.
"Then the expedition was all for nothing?" said Lady Louisa wearily.
"Oh _no_, mamma."
The nurse intervened once more, and recounted how she had taken Harry to have his hair cut, and to buy some gloves, and to an entertainment of performing dogs, and to tea at Frobisher"s. They could have been home earlier, but she knew the carriage was ordered to meet the later train.
Harry began to imitate the tricks which the dogs had done, but the nurse peremptorily interrupted him.