"Perhaps I _will_ stay in bed to-morrow," she said, at last, reluctantly. "Should you mind? We were going down to see the Lavender Lady, you remember."
"I"ll go alone. Anyway"--smiling--"if you"re safely tucked up in bed, I shall know you"re not getting into any mischief while Doctor d.i.c.k"s away! But very likely the hot water and mustard will put you all right."
"Perhaps it will," agreed Molly hopefully.
The next morning, however, found her in bed, snuffling and complaining of headache, and pathetically resigned to the idea of spending the day between the sheets. Obviously she was in no fit state to inflict her company on other people, so, in the afternoon, after settling her comfortably with a new novel and a box of cigarettes at her bedside, Sara took her solitary way to Rose Cottage.
There she found Garth Trent, sitting beside Herrick"s couch and deep in an enthusiastic discussion of amateur photography. But, immediately on her entrance, the eager, interested expression died out of his face, and very shortly after tea he made his farewells, nor could any soft blandishments on the part of the Lavender Lady prevail upon him to remain longer.
Sara felt hurt and resentful. Since the day of the expedition to Devil"s Hood Island, Trent had punctiliously avoided being in her company whenever circ.u.mstances would permit him to do so, and she was perfectly aware that it was her presence at Rose Cottage which was responsible for his early departure this afternoon.
A gleam of anger flickered in the black depths of her eyes as he shook hands.
"I"m sorry I"ve driven you away," she flashed at him beneath her breath, with a bitterness akin to his own. He made no answer, merely releasing her hand rather quickly, as though something in her words had flicked him on the raw.
"What a pity Mr. Trent had to leave so soon," remarked Miss Lavinia, with innocent regret, when he had gone. "I"m afraid we shall never persuade him to be really sociable, poor dear man! He seems a little moody to-day, don"t you think?"--hesitating delicately.
"He"s a bore!" burst out Sara succinctly.
Miles shook his head.
"No, I don"t think that," he said. "But he"s a very sick man. In my opinion, Trent"s had his soul badly mauled at some time or other."
"He needn"t advertise the fact, then," retorted Sara, unappeased. "We all get our share of ill-luck. Garth behaves as if he had the monopoly."
"There are some scars which can"t be hidden," replied Miles quietly.
Sara smiled a little. There was never any evading Herrick"s broad tolerance of human nature.
It was nearly an hour later when at last she took her way homewards, carrying in her heart, in spite of herself, something of the gentle serenity that seemed to be a part of the very atmosphere at Rose Cottage.
Outside, the calm and fragrance of a June evening awaited her. Little, delicate, sweet-smelling airs floated over the tops of the hedges from the fields beyond, and now and then a few stray notes of a blackbird"s song stole out from a plantation near at hand, breaking off suddenly and dying down into drowsy, contented little cluckings and twitterings.
Across the bay the sun was dipping towards the horizon, flinging along the face of the waters great shafts of lambent gold and orange, that split into a thousand particles of shimmering light as the ripples caught them up and played with them, and finally tossed them back again to the sun from the shining curve of a wave"s sleek side.
It was all very tranquil and pleasant, and Sara strolled leisurely along, soothed into a half-waking dream by the peaceful influences of the moment. Even the manifold perplexities and tangles of life seemed to recede and diminish in importance at the touch of old Mother Nature"s comforting hand. After all, there was much, very much, that was beautiful and pleasant still left to enjoy.
It is generally at moments like these, when we are sinking into a placid quiescence of endurance, that Fate sees fit to prod us into a more active frame of mind.
In this particular instance destiny manifested itself in the una.s.suming form of Black Brady, who slid suddenly down from the roadside hedge, amid a crackling of branches and rattle of rubble, and appeared in front of Sara"s astonished eyes just as she was nearing home.
"Beg pardon, miss"--Brady tugged at a forelock of curly black hair--"I was just on me way to your place."
"To Sunnyside? Why, is Mrs. Brady ill again?" asked Sara kindly.
"No, miss, thank you, she"s doing nicely." He paused a moment as though at a loss how to continue. Then he burst out: "It"s about Miss Molly--the doctor bein" away and all."
"About Miss Molly?" Sara felt a sudden clutch at her heart. "What do you mean? Quick, Brady, what is it?"
"Well, miss, I"ve just seed "er go off "long o" Mr. Kent in his big motor-car. They took the London road, and"--here Brady shuffled his feet with much embarra.s.sment--"seein" as Mr. Kent"s a married man, I"ll be bound he"s up to no good wi" Miss Molly."
Sara could have stamped with vexation. The little fool--oh! The utter little _fool_--to go off joy-riding in an evening like that! A break-down of any kind, with a consequent delay in returning, and all Monkshaven would be buzzing with the tale!
For the moment, however, there was nothing to be done except to put Black Brady in his place and pray for Molly"s speedy return.
"Well, Brady," she said coldly, "I imagine Mr. Kent"s a good enough driver to bring Miss Selwyn back safely. I don"t think there"s anything to worry about."
Brady stared at her out of his sullen eyes.
"You haven"t understood, miss," he said doggedly. "Mr. Kent isn"t for bringing Miss Molly back again. They"d their luggage along wi" "em in the car, and Mr. Kent, he stopped at the "Cliff" to have the tank filled up and took a matter of another half-dozen cans o" petrol with "im."
In an instant the whole dreadful significance of the thing leaped into Sara"s mind. Molly had bolted--run away with Lester Kent!
It was easy enough now, in the flashlight kindled by Brady"s slow, inexorable summing up of detail, to see the drift of recent happenings, the meaning of each small, disconcerting fact that added a fresh link to the chain of probability.
Molly"s unwonted secretiveness; her strange, uncertain moods; her embarra.s.sment at finding she was expected at Greenacres when she had presumably agreed to meet Lester Kent in Oldhampton; and, last of all, the sudden "cold" which had developed coincidentally with her father"s absence from home and which had secured her freedom from any kind of supervision for the afternoon. And the opportunity of clinching arrangements--probably already planned and dependent only on a convenient moment--had been provided by her errand to the post office to send off her father"s telegram--it being as easy to send two telegrams as one.
The colour ebbed slowly from Sara"s face as full realization dawned upon her, and she swayed a little where she stood. With rough kindliness Brady stretched out a grimy hand and steadied her.
""Ere, don"t" take on, miss. They won"t get very far. I didn"t, so to speak, _fill_ the petrol tank"--with a grin--"and there ain"t more than two o" they cans I slipped aboard the car as "olds more"n air. The rest was empties"--the grin widened enjoyably--"which I shoved in well to the back. Mr. Kent won"t travel eighty miles afore "e calls a "alt, I reckon."
Sara looked at Brady"s cunning, kindly face almost with affection.
"Why did you do that?" she asked swiftly.
"I"ve owed Mr. Lester Kent summat these three years," he answered complacently. "And I never forgets to pay back. I owed you summat, too, Miss Tennant. I haven"t forgot how you spoke up for me when I was catched poachin"."
Sara held out her hand to him impulsively, and Brady sheepishly extended his own grubby paw to meet it.
"You"ve more than paid me back, Brady," she said warmly. "Thank you."
Turning away, she hurried up the road, leaving Brady staring alternately at his right hand and at her receding figure.
"She"s rare gentry, is Miss Tennant," he remarked with conviction, and then slouched off to drink himself blind at "The Jolly Sailorman."
Black Brady was, after all, only an inexplicable bundle of good and bad impulses--very much like his betters.
Arrived at the house, Sara fled breathlessly upstairs to Molly"s room.
Jane Crab was standing in the middle of it, staring dazedly at all the evidences of a hasty departure which surrounded her--an overturned chair here, an empty hat-box there, drawers pulled out, and clothes tossed heedlessly about in every direction. In her hand she held a chemist"s parcel, neatly sealed and labeled; she was twisting it round and round in her trembling, gnarled old fingers.
At the sound of Sara"s entrance, she turned with an exclamation of relief.
"Oh, Miss Sara! I"m main glad you"ve come! Whatever"s happened? Miss Molly was here in bed not three parts of an hour ago!" Then, her boot-b.u.t.ton eyes still roving round the room, she made a sudden dart towards the dressing-table. "Here, miss, "tis a note she"s left for you!" she exclaimed, s.n.a.t.c.hing it up and thrusting it into Sara"s hands.
Written in Molly"s big, sprawling, childish hand, the note was a pathetic mixture of confession and apology--
"I feel a perfect pig, Sara mine, leaving you behind to face Father, but it was my only chance of getting away, as I know Dad would have refused to let me marry for years and years. He never _will_ realize that I"m grown-up. And Lester and I couldn"t wait all that time.