"He is a murderer!" Avery cried pa.s.sionately. "He would murder me too if--if he could bring himself to do without me! He hates me in his soul."
"Avery, hush! You are distraught. You don"t know what you are saying."
Mrs. Lorimer drew her back to her chair with tender insistence. "Sit down, darling! And try--do try--to be quiet for a little! You are worn out. I don"t think you can have had any sleep."
"Sleep!" Avery almost laughed, and then again those burning, blinding tears rushed to her eyes. "Oh, you don"t know what I"ve been through!"
she sobbed. "You don"t know! You don"t know!"
"G.o.d knows, darling," whispered Mrs. Lorimer.
Minutes later, when Avery was lying back exhausted, no longer sobbing, only dumbly weeping, there came a gentle knock at the door.
Mrs. Lorimer went to it quickly, and met her eldest daughter upon the point of entering. Jeanie looked up at her enquiringly.
"Is anyone here?"
"Yes, dear. Avery is here. She isn"t very well this morning. Run and fetch her a gla.s.s of milk!"
Jeanie hastened away. Mrs. Lorimer returned to Avery.
"My darling," she said, "do you know I think I can see a way to help you?"
Avery"s eyes were closed. She put out a trembling hand. "You are very good to me."
"I wonder how often I have had reason to say that to you," said Mrs.
Lorimer softly. "Listen, darling! You must go back. Yes, Avery, you must!
You must! But--you shall take my little Jeanie with you."
Avery"s eyes opened. Mrs. Lorimer was looking at her with tears in her own.
"I know I may trust her to you," she said. "But oh, you will take care of her! Remember how precious she is--and how fragile!"
"But, my dear--you couldn"t spare her!" Avery said.
"Yes, I can,--I will!" Mrs. Lorimer hastily rubbed her eyes and smiled--a resolute smile. "You may have her, dear. I know she will be happy with you. And Piers is so fond of her too. She will be a comfort to you--to you both, please G.o.d. She comforts everyone--my little Jeanie. It seems to be her _role_ in life. Ah, here she comes! You shall tell her, dear.
It will come better from you."
"May I come in?" said Jeanie at the door.
Her mother went to admit her. Avery sat up, and pushed her chair back against the window-curtain.
Jeanie entered, a gla.s.s of milk in one hand and a plate in the other.
"Good morning, dear Avery!" she said, in her gentle, rather tired voice.
"I"ve brought you a hot cake too--straight out of the oven. It smells quite good." She came to Avery"s side, and stood within the circle of her arm; but she did not kiss her or look into her piteous, tearstained face.
"I hope you like currants," she said. "Baby Phil calls them flies. Have you seen Baby Phil lately? He has just cut another tooth. He likes everybody to look at it."
"I must see it presently," Avery said, with an effort.
She drank the milk, and broke the cake, still holding Jeanie pressed to her side.
Jeanie, gravely practical, held the plate. "I saw Piers ride by a little while ago," she remarked. "He was on Pompey. But he was going so fast he didn"t see me. He always rides fast, doesn"t he? But I think Pompey likes it, don"t you?"
"I don"t know." There was an odd frozen note in Avery"s voice. "He has to go--whether he likes it or not."
"But he is very fond of Piers," said Jeanie. "And so is Caesar." She gave a little sigh. "Poor Mikey! Do you remember how angry he used to be when Caesar ran by?"
Avery suppressed a shiver. Vivid as a picture flung on a screen, there rose in her brain the memory of that winter evening when Piers and Mike and Caesar had all striven together for the mastery. Again she seemed to hear those savage, pitiless blows. She might have known! She might have known!
Sharply she wrenched herself back to the present. "Jeanie darling," she said, "your mother says that you may come and stay at the Abbey for a little while. Do you--would you--like to come?"
Her voice was unconsciously wistful. Jeanie turned for the first time and looked at her.
"Oh, Avery!" she said. "Stay with you and Piers?"
Her eyes were shining. She slid a gentle arm round Avery"s neck.
"You would like to?" Avery asked, faintly smiling.
"I would love to," said Jeanie earnestly. She looked across at her mother. "Shall you be able to manage, dear?" she asked in her grown-up way.
Mrs. Lorimer stifled a sigh. "Oh yes, Jeanie dear. I shall do all right.
Gracie will help with the little ones, you know."
Jeanie smiled at that. "I think I will go and talk to Gracie," she said, quietly releasing herself from Avery"s arm.
But at the door she paused. "I hope Father won"t mind," she said. "But he did say I wasn"t to have any more treats till my Easter holiday-task was finished."
"I will make that all right, dear," said Mrs. Lorimer.
"Thank you," said Jeanie. "Of course I can take it with me. I expect I shall get more time for learning it at the Abbey. You might tell him that, don"t you think?"
"I will tell him, darling," said Mrs. Lorimer.
And Jeanie smiled and went her way.
CHAPTER IX
THE GREAT GULF
"Hullo!" said Piers. "Has the Queen of all good fairies come to call?"
He strode across the garden with that high, arrogant air of his as of one who challenges the world, and threw himself into the vacant chair by the tea-table at which his wife sat.
The blaze of colour that overspread her pale face at his coming faded as rapidly as it rose. She glanced at him momentarily, under fluttering lids.
"Jeanie has come to stay," she said, her voice very low.