Jack, looking ruffled and uneasy, very unlike his quiet, cool self, burst into the room. "I can"t think where that old shabby green gardening book has gone, Janet. Do you know where it is?"
"You mean "Gardening for Ladies"?"
"Yes."
"What on earth d"you want it for?"
"For Mrs. Crofton. Her garden"s been awfully neglected."
"I"ll find it presently. I think it"s in my bedroom."
Again the door shut, and Janet turned to Radmore: "Your friend has made a conquest of Jack!" She spoke with a touch of rather studied unconcern, for she had been a little taken aback last evening when Timmy had told her casually of his own and his G.o.dfather"s call at The Trellis House.
"My friend?" Radmore repeated uncertainly.
"I mean Mrs. Crofton. The coming of a new person to live in Beechfield is still quite an event, G.o.dfrey."
"I don"t think she"ll make much difference to Beechfield," again he spoke with a touch of hesitation. "To tell you the truth, Janet, I rather wonder that she decided to live in the country at all. I should have thought that she would far prefer London, and all that London stands for.
But I"m afraid that she"s got very little money, and, of course, the country _is_ cheaper than town, isn"t it?"
"I suppose it is. But Mrs. Crofton can"t be poor. I know she paid a premium for the lease of The Trellis House."
"That"s odd." Radmore spoke in an off-hand manner, but Janet, watching him, thought he felt a little awkward. He went on:--"I know that Colonel Crofton was hard up. He told me so, quite frankly, the last time I saw him. But of course she may have had money of her own."
Janet looked at him rather hard. A disagreeable suspicion had entered her mind. She wondered whether there was anything like an "understanding"
between the man she was talking to and the tenant of The Trellis House.
If so, she wished with all her heart that G.o.dfrey Radmore had kept away.
Why stir up embers they had all thought were dead, if he was going to marry this very pretty but, to her mind, second-rate little woman, as soon as a decent time had elapsed?
"What are your plans for the future?" she asked. "Are you going to settle down, or are you going to travel a bit?" ("After all, he won"t be able to marry Mrs. Crofton for at least another six months," she said to herself.)
"Oh, I mean to settle down." His answer was quick, decisive, final.
He went on: "My idea is to find a place, not too far from here, that I can buy; and my plan is to go about and look for it now. That"s why I"ve hired a motor for a month. Perhaps you"d lend me Timmy, and, if it wouldn"t be improper, one of the girls, now and again? We might go round and look about a bit."
And then he walked across to where she was standing, and put his hand on her arm, "How about you?" he asked, "why shouldn"t I take you and Timmy a little jaunt just for a week or so--that would be rather fun, eh?"
She smiled and shook her head.
He took a step back. "Look here, Janet--do try and forgive me--I"m a more sensible chap than I was, honest Injun!"
"I"m beginning to think you are," she cried, and then they both burst out laughing.
He lingered a moment. He was longing, longing intensely, to ask her certain questions. He wanted to know about Betty--what sort of a life Betty had made for herself. He still, in an odd way, felt responsible for Betty--which was clearly absurd.
And then Janet Tosswill said something that surprised him very much. "I think you"d better go round and see some of the people in the village to-day. I was rather sorry you went off straight to The Trellis House last evening. You know how folks talked, even in the old days, in Beechfield?"
He looked uneasy--taken aback, and she felt, if a little ashamed, glad that she had made that "fishing" remark.
There was a pause, and then he said with a touch of formality: "Look here, Janet? I"d like you to know that though I"ve become quite fond of Mrs. Crofton, I"m only fond--nothing more, you understand? Perhaps I"ll make my meaning clearer when I tell you that I was the only man in Egypt who knew her who wasn"t in love with her."
He saw her face change and, rather piqued, he asked: "Did you think I was?"
"I thought that you and she were great friends--"
"Well, so we are in a way. I saw a great deal of her in London."
"And you went straight off to see her the moment you arrived here."
"Well, perhaps I was foolish to do that."
What an odd admission to make. He certainly had changed amazingly in the last nine years!
Then it was Janet who surprised him: "Don"t make any mistake," she said quickly. "There"s no reason in the world why you shouldn"t marry Mrs.
Crofton--after a decent interval has elapsed. All I meant to say--and I"d rather say it right out now--is that as most people know that her husband hasn"t been dead more than a few weeks, you ought to be rather careful, all the more careful if--if your friendship should come to anything, G.o.dfrey."
"But it won"t!" he exclaimed, with a touch of the old heat, "indeed it won"t, Janet. To tell you the truth, I don"t think I shall ever marry."
"_I_ certainly shouldn"t if I were a rich bachelor," she said laughing; and yet somehow what he had just said hurt her.
As for Radmore, he felt just a little jarred by her words. Had she quite forgotten all that had happened in that long ago which, in a sense, seemed to belong to another life? He hadn"t, and since his arrival yesterday certain things had come back in a rushing flood of memory.
"I"ve something to do in the garden now." Janet was smiling--she really did feel perhaps rather absurdly relieved. Like Timmy, she didn"t care for Mrs. Crofton, and the mere suspicion that G.o.dfrey Radmore had come back here to Old Place in order to carry on a love affair had disturbed her.
"By the way, how"s McPherson?" he asked abruptly. "He _is_ a splendid gardener and no mistake! I"ve never seen a garden looking more beautiful than yours does just now, Janet. I woke early this morning and looked out of my window. I suppose McPherson"s about--I"ll go out and speak to him."
Her face shadowed. "McPherson," she said slowly, "was one of the first men to leave Beechfield. He was perfectly fit, and he made up his mind to go at once. You know, G.o.dfrey--or perhaps you don"t know--that the Scotch glens emptied first of men?"
"D"you mean...?"
She nodded. "He was killed at the second battle of Ypres. He was sent to the Front rather sooner than most, for he was a very intelligent man, and really keen. I"ve got a boy now, a lad of seventeen--not half a bad sort, but it does seem strange to give him every Sat.u.r.day just double the money I used to give McPherson!"
She went out, through into the garden, on these last words, and again there came over Radmore a feeling of poignant sadness. How strange that he should have spent those weeks in London, knowing so little, nay, not knowing at all, what the War had really meant to the home country.
He opened the door into the corridor, and listened, wondering where they had all gone. He had some business letters to write, and he told himself that he would go and get them done in what he still thought of in his mind as George"s room. He had noticed that the big plain deal writing table was still there.
He went upstairs, and when he opened the bedroom door, he was astonished to find Rosamund kneeling in front of George"s old play-box, routing among what looked like a lot of papers and books.
"I"m hunting for a prescription for father," she said, looking up. "Timmy thinks he put it in here one day after coming back from the chemist"s at Guildford." She looked flushed, and decidedly cross, as she went on: "No one"s taught Timmy to put things in their proper place, as we were taught to do, when we were children!"
Radmore felt amused. She certainly was very, very pretty, and did not look much more than a child herself.
"Look here," he said good-naturedly, "let me help. I don"t think you"re going the right way to work." He felt just a little bit sorry for Timmy; Rosamund was raking about as if the play-box was a bran-pie.
Bending down he took up out of the box a bundle of envelopes, copybooks, and Christmas cards. Then he sat himself down on a chair in the window, and began going through what he held, carefully and methodically.
Suddenly through the open door there came a cry of "Miss Rosamund, I want you!"