"Hm?" said the discontented old man. "Does she find time to do anything else?"
"Else?" the doctor repeated.
"Yes. These people who do so much abroad are apt to be cyphers at home, in my experience."
Dr. Arthur laughed a little over the word "cypher."
"Any one who had known Chickaree years ago," he said, "with its gay rush of surface pleasure, would find much to study in the full literary and artistic life that now fills the old place."
"Eh?" said the other in the same way, but p.r.i.c.king up his ears at the same time. "Literary? Then they do not go much into society?if I understand you?"
"They go?and they receive?both "much," " said the doctor; "yet both after an unusual fashion. Where they can confer a favour, or shew a kindness, or get refreshment and help in their life-work, they go. And they receive?all people!?for everybody goes there.
Yet not to great entertainments; at Chickaree society is not finished off at wholesale. It is the usual dinner, or breakfast, or luncheon, to which rich friends and strangers are welcomed. If there comes one who has known "the loss of all things," "?the doctor paused a moment, with some thought he did not put into words;?"if one of the Lord"s special guests comes," he ended abruptly, "then indeed he is received as such."
"Do I understand you, that they never give entertainments like other people?"
"Never?what are called by that name. Unless to people who are "entertained" nowhere else," said the doctor with a tone of satisfaction which was every now and then perceptible in his talk.
"Their "feasts" are all "Bible feasts,"?but their hospitality is boundless! And the cuisine at Chickaree is perfect."
"It remains nevertheless," said the other after a slight pause, and speaking with a certain concealed grumble in his voice, "that if they?or anybody?neglects the world, the world will neglect them. Concourse is not society, sir."
"Chickaree hospitality is not precisely _neglect_," said the doctor with some quickness. "I have yet to see the first person?scientific, literary, fashionable?who was not glad of a chance to enjoy it. It is _the_ house in all this region where you are sure to meet whoever is worth seeing."
"Well, sir, well," said the old gentleman, getting up and giving himself an uneasy shake, "perhaps I have something to learn!"
If he had, he began upon his course of lessons that very evening, appearing at Chickaree for dinner. A few days after, Mr. Falkirk took possession of his old cottage again; and he has no purpose to forsake it any more.