"Oh, Malcolm, I know how good you are, but----"
"Never mind any "buts,"" said Mrs. Lindsay brightly, catching the last word. ""All"s well, that ends well.""
"I know now who foraged for us so successfully," said Edith. "Who was the mysterious friend that gave Mrs. Jones the mushrooms!"
"And nearly betrayed myself by laughing at the door, when pa.s.sing I heard Helen"s enthusiastic thanks to Mrs. Jones," said Malcolm.
"Yes, and frightened me horribly by so doing," added Helen, "as I really began to think that clock was bewitched, and had a special ill-will against me. In fact it took the place of my conscience for the time being."
"I have the very greatest regard for the clock," said Malcolm demurely, "and I intend to make Mrs. Jones an offer for it forthwith."
"Please don"t," said Helen piteously. "I daresay it is very silly, but I really don"t quite like that clock, though, after all, its warning of ill-luck has brought the very reverse to me. But I have not heard yet what kept Edith out so late, or how in the world you and Mrs. Lindsay met her at the Black Lake."
"The Black Lake?" said Mrs. Lindsay, "what do you mean?"
Whereupon Edith hastened on with that part of her story relating to her own adventures. She, it appeared, feeling confident in Mrs. Lindsay"s ready kindness, and never doubting but what she would at once respond to her appeal by coming to nurse Helen, instead of going to the Black Lake to sketch, as Helen imagined, set off on the pony to meet her friend at the station, having proposed to her to come by a certain train.
Overtaking Griffith on the road to Llanfair, as she expected from Mrs.
Jones"s account, he accompanied her to the village, where she gave over the pony to his care. As she entered the station she saw a return train about to start for the Junction about half an hour"s journey from where she was. Finding by her watch that she was in ample time, it struck her that she might as well go so far to meet her friend, but on arriving at the Junction she was startled to find that with the new month a change had taken place in the trains, and that consequently Mrs. Lindsay could not arrive till late in the evening. Worse still she herself could not now get back to Helen till she was frightened to think what hour, the evening train in question not going farther than Llanfar, the station near the Junction at which she and her sister had by mistake got out on their arrival, and which was fifteen miles from the Black Nest. It is needless to describe her distress of mind all the long hours she had to sit in the little waiting-room at the Junction; or her corresponding delight when, on the train coming up, she descried looking out of a window the familiar face of Malcolm Willoughby, and found that he was accompanied by his sister whom he had gone to meet half-way on her journey.
Helen woke at noon the next day feeling indescribably happy, she could not tell why till the sight of Mrs. Lindsay"s sweet face recalled to her mind all her misery of the night before and the relief and happiness with which it had ended.
"How little I deserve it!" thought she humbly and gratefully, "and how can I ever repay Malcolm for his goodness?"
Their dull little parlour looked very different now that it was enlivened by the presence of the two newcomers; and Helen could scarcely believe it to be the same room in which, but yesterday, she had pa.s.sed hours of such agonising suspense. So thoroughly penitent and softened did she feel that she offered no opposition to anything proposed, and it was therefore arranged that as soon as Helen was well enough to travel they should all return home together to relieve poor Aunt f.a.n.n.y"s anxiety.
"I wonder," said Helen, with a little sigh, a few days afterwards, when they were packing up their painting materials, "I wonder if I shall ever finish my sketch of the Black Lake."
"I don"t like to make rash promises," said Malcolm, "but if somebody I know is _very_ good perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake again, provided she will neither catch cold nor tumble off her pony."
Edith laughed and Helen blushed.
"But there"s one thing still," said Edith, "which I don"t understand.
Why, Malcolm, did you always shut your door as the clock struck thirteen?"
"Very simply explained," replied he. "The first night I was here I was sitting up reading till midnight and thought I heard it strike thirteen.
I thought it very odd, and for a night or two I listened till it began to strike and then opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken. And one night I went out with my candle to examine the clock, trying to make out the cause of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man, they say, can resist meddling with a clock even though he is no mechanical genius."
"All the same," said Edith triumphantly, "notwithstanding your examinations, you and no one else can tell the reason why that clock does strike thirteen."
THE END.