Miss Bird was too overcome for the moment to give words to her horror, but she put her arm round Joan, who winced in her turn, and said, "Not that shoulder," through her convulsive sobs.
"Don"t be silly, Joan," said Nancy firmly. "William will wonder what is the matter, and you know what you will get if you let it out.
Starling darling, you _won"t_ say anything to anybody, will you? It will be much worse for us if you do, and after all when a bruise gets blue and green it doesn"t hurt so very much."
"Do you mean to say that she _beats_ you?" exclaimed Miss Bird, her eyebrows almost up to her hat-brim. "Then I shall go _at once_ to Mrs.
Clinton the _moment_ I get into the house and tell her that----"
Joan threw her arms round her neck and laughed. "Angel lamb!" she said, "it"s too bad to tease her. She"s just as green and sweet as ever."
"Oh, why do you spoil everything?" exclaimed Nancy. Then she too relented and added her embraces to Joan"s. "Oh, you"re too priceless,"
she said. "Are you really glad to see us again?"
"Well I suppose I must not be angry and I know your naughty ways too well," said Miss Bird, "but you gave me quite a _turn_ and I suppose really Miss Phipp is all she should be and you love her very much as you ought to do and it is only natural that those who are near should take the place of those who are far."
"I believe she"s really disappointed that Pipp doesn"t beat us black and blue," said Joan. "But she"ll never take _your_ place, Starling, my own. You"re the one and only. I suppose you know we"re aunts again. Walter and Muriel have got a boy."
"A boy!" exclaimed Miss Bird, enraptured. "Now that _is_ good news and how _delighted_ your father will be the pet how I should like to see him."
"Starling _darling_," expostulated Nancy. "You _will_ see him directly, but father won"t like your calling him a pet."
Miss Bird blushed. "You know very well I should say no such thing, Nancy," she said; "it was the baby I meant if you repeat that untruth in the house I shall go _straight_ back where I came from."
The twins laughed. "Isn"t she pathetic and cherubic?" said Joan.
"_We_ haven"t seen him yet, though we"re going to to-morrow. He was only born yesterday. We"ll take you over."
"Isn"t everybody very pleased?" asked Miss Bird, meaning by "everybody"
the Squire, but not liking to mention his name again.
"_We_ are," replied Joan, "and so is mother. Father isn"t quite certain about it, although he is glad that he was born at Mountfield--at the Lodge, you know--instead of at Melbury Park. Unless d.i.c.k or Humphrey have sons he"ll succeed to the property, you see, and it is very important that he should be touched by nothing common or unclean. We"ve got such a lot to tell you--all about the weddings and the rows. Everything is made up now, but we had the very deuce of a time since you left."
"Now, Joan," said Miss Bird sharply, "if you talk like that I shall be sorry I came and I am sure Miss Phipp would be very angry you must act while she is away as if she were _present_, here we are and I declare there is dear Mrs. Clinton at the door how pleased I am to see her once more oh it is almost too much." And she began waving her hand and bobbing up and down and saying, "Oh how do you do how do you do," until the carriage drew up under the porch, when she hopped out of it and received a greeting from Mrs. Clinton which put the seal on her happiness.
The Squire came out of his room as they were going into the morning-room. "Why, Miss Bird!" he exclaimed heartily, "here"s a sight for sore eyes! How de do, Miss Bird, how de do! "Pon my word, it looks so natural to see you here that I wonder we ever allowed you to go. We"ve got a very learned lady in your place, and a dangerously attractive one, by George--ha, ha!--but we don"t forget you, Miss Bird, and we often wish you were back again."
Now could anything have been handsomer than this! as Miss Bird asked of her sister when she went back home again. From such a man too! who had so many important things and people to think of.
"I"m sure Mr. Clinton all your kindness I never shall forget and never _can_ forget," she began; but Joan and Nancy stopped her by pushing her into a chair, and the Squire laughed and said, "They don"t play tricks like that with Miss Phipp, the young monkeys! How do you think they"re looking, Miss Bird? Pretty good specimens for Kencote air, eh? Well, I suppose you"ve heard all our news--d.i.c.k married, and Humphrey going to be. You"ve never seen Mrs. d.i.c.k, I think; she was after your time."
"No but she wrote me the kindest possible letter Mr. Clinton when I sent a small gift to d.i.c.k and there was really no necessity for _anybody_ to write but d.i.c.k wrote at once and _she_ wrote too and said she should hope to see me soon which touched me very deeply and made me feel that I _knew_ her though I had never seen her."
"Ah, yes," said the Squire complacently; "she thinks of everybody and identifies herself with all d.i.c.k"s interests, and you"re not the _least_ of them, Miss Bird. You"ll see her to-night, for they"re dining here, and if you don"t take to her out of hand, Miss Bird, I shall be very much surprised. We"re all in love with her here--eh, children?"
"Rather!" said the twins in one breath; and Mrs. Clinton said, "They are at the dower-house for a week or two. d.i.c.k is looking after some other properties, but he has arranged it so that it does not take up all his time. They live chiefly in Yorkshire, but they will be able to live at the dower-house for a week or two every now and then, and by and by we hope that they will be able to live there altogether."
"And where is Humphrey going to live?" enquired Miss Bird, who had gathered certain facts from her correspondence with the twins, and had no wish to be indiscreet, but did wish to know.
"Oh, he"ll settle down in London," said the Squire. "It will suit him and Lady Susan better; and he"s getting on well with his work and has to be near it," and Miss Bird was too discreet to indicate that she had heard that he had been going to give up his work.
"We hope that they will come here often," said Mrs. Clinton. "The idea was that they should go to the dower-house when d.i.c.k and Virginia didn"t want it, but there is plenty of room here, as you know, and they chose not to have the responsibility of another house."
Miss Bird was well posted in the general hang of family affairs when she presently went upstairs with the twins, but it remained for them to enlighten her on the events that had led up to the existing state of things.
They took her to her old room, which had been in the occupancy of Miss Phipp. "We told mother we were sure you would like to sleep here,"
said Joan, "and we"ve cleared all her things out, and made it just like it used to be for you."
"Darlings!" said Miss Bird. "It will be like old times and I shall scarcely be able to sleep for happiness oh, look at the daffodils under the trees."
"We didn"t think you"d want to be bothered up with her books," said Nancy, "so we"ve put the ones you like instead. _The Pilgrim"s Progress_ and Longfellow and _The Wide, Wide World_. You"ll be able to cry over that to-morrow before you get up."
Miss Bird was nearly overcome again by these thoughtful preparations for her happiness. "Now I"ll just take off my things pets and then we"ll have a cosey time in the schoolroom I"m so looking forward to seeing it again you go and take off your things too and I"ll come in a minute."
"If you would like to look through her photographs," said Nancy, as they were leaving the room, "they"re all in this drawer; but they"re not very interesting. Hullo, here"s Hannah--always on the spot when she isn"t wanted, and never there when she is."
"Indeed, Miss Nancy," said Hannah, "and I suppose I may come and see Miss Bird without stepping out of my place, which unwilling I should be to do, and Miss Bird always treating me as a perfect lady, and very pleased all are to see her back again, high and low."
"You treat her as a perfect lady, Starling darling, for a minute while we go and take our things off," said Nancy, "and try and persuade her to do her work better, or she"ll have to go."
Hannah was left indignantly spluttering something about working her fingers to the bone and getting small thanks for it, while Miss Bird soothed her ruffled spirits, and told her that if she didn"t know how to put up with her young ladies" nonsense by this time she wasn"t as sensible as she had thought, but she was delighted to see her again, and was sure that she was doing her duty as she always had done it.
A little later she was sitting between the twins on the schoolroom sofa, having duly expressed her rapture at finding herself once more in that dear old room.
"Now we"ll tell you all about everything," began Joan. "You heard father say how much he liked Virginia, didn"t you?"
"Yes," said Miss Bird, "and Mrs. Clinton too and very pleasant it is when some one comes into a family to be welcomed so _lovingly_ and I hope you and Nancy are equally fond of her Joan for I am sure she deserves it so kind and considerate as she has shown herself."
"We adore her," said Nancy. "It is very easy for people to make us like them if they take a little trouble. We are very simple-minded."
"It"s a question of chocolates judiciously administered," said Joan.
"But we could do without them from her, because we like her immensely.
Well, you"d hardly believe, from the way father talked, that he threatened to cut d.i.c.k off with a shilling if he married her, could you?"
"Now Joan I don"t want to listen to any nonsense," said Miss Bird.
"You have taken me in _once_ this evening and let that be enough."
"But, Starling darling, it"s _true_. It wasn"t till she saved his life out hunting that he would put up with her at all. Of course, now he thinks he always liked her, but that"s what he is."
"I don"t wish to hear any more of that tell me about the wedding," said Miss Bird.
"Well, if you won"t believe it, you won"t," said Nancy. "And it doesn"t much matter now, because it is all over, and we are a united family once more; but you have no idea of the trouble Joan and I had with them all. Except mother, we were the only ones who kept our heads."
"At one time"--Joan took up the tale--"Humphrey was going to be put in to lord it over us, and sweet Sue Clinton; but directly d.i.c.k turned up and took father in hand we didn"t hear any more about that, and they are going to have a scrumptious flat in town, and we are going up, one at a time, to stay with them, because they only have one spare room."
"Sue isn"t bad," said Nancy. "We didn"t care for her at first, but she"s got a horrible old painted dragon of a mother, and when she"s away from her she"s quite decent, and I dare say we shall be able to make something of her."
"Now I don"t want to hear any more gossip about people Joan "n" Nancy,"
said Miss Bird, "tell me about d.i.c.k"s wedding."
"Ivory satin," said Joan, "with sable hats and stoles and m.u.f.fs, which d.i.c.k gave us, and shower bouquets of violets. We were the admired of all beholders."