"True. You speak, if not like a physician, yet like a metaphysician; so you will not laugh at me, and compel the weak old man and his fancy to take refuge with a girl--who is not weak.--Grace, darling, you think still that he is coming?"
She came forward and leaned over him.
"Yes," she half whispered. "He is coming soon to us: or else we are soon going to him. It may mean that, sir. Perhaps it is better that it should."
"It matters little, child, if he be near, as near he is. I tell you, Mr.
Mellot, this conviction has become so intense during the last week, that--that I believe I should not be thrown off my balance if he entered at this moment.... I feel him so near me, sir, that--that I could swear, did I not know how the weak brain imitates expected sounds, that I heard his footstep outside now."
"I heard horses" footsteps," says Claude.--"Ah, there comes Stangrave and our host."
"I heard them: but I heard my boy"s likewise," said the old man quietly.
The next minute he seemed to have forgotten the fancy, as the two hunters entered, and Mark began open-mouthed as usual--
"Well, Ned! In good company, eh? That"s right. Mortal cold I am! We shall have a white Christmas, I expect. Snow"s coming."
"What sport?" asked the doctor blandly.
"Oh! Nothing new. Bothered about Sidricstone till one. Got away at last with an old fox, and over the downs into the vale. I think Mr. Stangrave liked it?"
"Mr. Stangrave likes the vale better than the vale likes him. I have fallen into two brooks following, Claude; to the delight of all the desperate Englishmen."
"Oh! You rode straight enough, sir! You must pay for your fun in the vale:--but then you have your fun. But there were a good many falls the last ton minutes: ground heavy, and pace awful; old rat-tail had enough to do to hold his own. Saw one fellow ride bang into a pollard-willow, when there was an open gate close to him--cut his cheek open, and lay; but some one said it was only Smith of Ewebury, so I rode on."
"I hope you English showed more pity to your wounded friends in the Crimea," quoth Stangrave, laughing, "I wanted to stop and pick him up: but Mr. Armsworth would not hear of it."
"Oh, sir, if it had been a stranger like you, half the field would have been round you in a minute: but Smith don"t count--he breaks his neck on purpose three days a week:--by the by, Doctor, got a good story of him for you. Suspected his keepers last month. Slips out of bed at two in the morning; into his own covers, and blazes away for an hour. n.o.body comes. Home to bed, and tries the same thing next night. Not a soul comes near him. Next morning has up keepers, watchers, beaters, the whole posse; and "Now, you rascals! I"ve been poaching my own covers two nights running, and you"ve been all drunk in bed. There are your wages to the last penny; and vanish! I"ll be my own keeper henceforth; and never let me see your faces again!"
The old Doctor laughed cheerily. "Well: but did you kill your fox?"
"All right: but it was a burster,--just what I always tell Mr.
Stangrave. Afternoon runs are good runs; pretty sure of an empty fox and a good scent after one o"clock."
"Exactly," answered a fresh voice from behind; "and fox-hunting is an epitome of human life. You chop or lose your first two or three: but keep up your pluck, and you"ll run into one before sun-down; and I seem to have run into a whole earthful!"
All looked round; for all knew that voice.
Yes! There he was, in bodily flesh and blood; thin, sallow, bearded to the eyes, dressed in ragged sailor"s clothes: but Tom himself.
Grace uttered a long, low, soft, half-laughing cry, full of the delicious agony of sudden relief; a cry as of a mother when her child is born; and then slipped from the room past the unheeding Tom, who had no eyes but for his father. Straight up to the old man he went, took both his hands, and spoke in the old cheerful voice,--
"Well, my dear old daddy! So you seem to have expected me; and gathered, I suppose, all my friends to bid me welcome. I"m afraid I have made you very anxious: but it was not my fault; and I knew you would be certain I should come at last, eh?"
"My son! my son! Let me feel whether thou be my very son Esau or not!"
murmured the old man, finding half-playful expression in the words of Scripture, for feelings beyond his failing powers.
Tom knelt down: and the old man pa.s.sed his hands in silence over and over the forehead, and face, and beard; while all stood silent.
Mark Armsworth burst out blubbering like a great boy:
"I said so! I always said so! The devil could not kill him, and G.o.d wouldn"t!"
"You won"t go away again, dear boy? I"m getting old--and--and forgetful; and I don"t think I could bear it again, you see."
Tom saw that the old man"s powers were failing. "Never again, as long as I live, daddy!" said he, and then, looking round,--"I think that we are too many for my father. I will come and shake hands with you all presently."
"No, no," said the Doctor. "You forget that I cannot see you, and so must only listen to you. It will be a delight to hear your voice and theirs;--they all love you."
A few moments of breathless congratulation followed, during which Mark had seized Tom by both his shoulders, and held him admiringly at arm"s length.
"Look at him, Mr. Mellot! Mr. Stangrave! Look at him! As they said of Liberty Wilkes, you might rob him, strip him, and hit him over London Bridge: and you find him the next day in the same place, with a laced coat, a sword by his side, and money in his pocket! But how did you come in without our knowing?"
"I waited outside, afraid of what I might hear--for how could I tell!"
said he, lowering his voice; "but when I saw you go in, I knew all was right, and followed you; and when I heard my father laugh, I knew that he could bear a little surprise. But, Stangrave, did you say? Ah! this is too delightful, old fellow! How"s Marie and the children?"
Stangrave, who was very uncertain as to how Tom would receive him, had been about to make his amende honorable in a fashion graceful, magnificent, and, as he expressed it afterwards laughingly to Thurnall himself, "altogether highfalutin:" but what chivalrous and courtly words had arranged themselves upon the tip of his tongue, were so utterly upset by Tom"s matter-of-fact bonhomie, and by the cool way in which he took for granted the fact of his marriage, that he burst out laughing, and caught both Tom"s hands in his.
"It is delightful; and all it needs to make it perfect is to have Marie and the children here."
"How many?" asked Tom.
"Two."
"Is she as beautiful as ever!"
"More so, I think."
"I dare say you"re right; you ought to know best, certainly."
"You shall judge for yourself. She is in London at this moment."
"Tom!" says his father, who has been sitting quietly, his face covered in his handkerchief, listening to all, while holy tears of grat.i.tude steal down his face.
"Sir!"
"You have not spoken to Grace yet!"
"Grace?" cries Tom, in a very different tone from that in which he had yet spoken.
"Grace Harvey, my boy. She was in the room when you came in."
"Grace? Grace? What is she doing here?"
"Nursing him, like an angel as she is!" said Mark.
"She is my daughter now, Tom; and has been these twelve months past."
Tom was silent, as one astonished.