What Timmy Did.
by Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes.
CHAPTER I
The telephone bell rang sharply in the sunlit and charming, if shabby, hall of Old Place.
To John Tosswill there was always something incongruous, and recurringly strange, in this queer link between a little country parish mentioned in Domesday Book and the big bustling modern world.
The bell tinkled on and on insistently, perhaps because it was now no one"s special duty to attend to it. But at last the mistress of the house came running from the garden and, stripping off her gardening gloves, took up the receiver.
Janet Tosswill was John Tosswill"s second wife, and, though over forty, a still young and alert looking woman, more Irish than Scotch in appearance, with her dark hair and blue eyes. But she came of good Highland stock and was proud of it.
"London wants you," came the tired, cross voice she knew all too well.
"I think there must be some mistake. This is Old Place, Beechfield, Surrey. I don"t think anyone can be ringing us from London."
She waited a moment impatiently. Of course it was a mistake! Not a soul in London knew their telephone number. It had never been put on their notepaper. Still, she went on listening with the receiver held to her ear, and growing more and more annoyed at the futile interruption and waste of time.
She was just going to hang up the receiver when all at once the expression of her face altered. From being good-humoured, if slightly impatient, it became watchful, and her eyes narrowed as was their way when Janet Tosswill was "upset" about anything. She had suddenly heard, with startling clearness, the words:--"Is that Old Place, Beechfield? If so, Mr. G.o.dfrey Radmore would like to speak to Mrs. Tosswill."
She was so surprised, so taken aback that for a moment she said nothing.
At last she answered very quietly:--"Tell Mr. Radmore that Mrs. Tosswill is here waiting on the "phone."
There was another longish pause, and then, before anything else happened, Janet Tosswill experienced an odd sensation; it was as if she felt the masterful, to her not over-attractive, presence of G.o.dfrey Radmore approaching the other end of the line. A moment later, she knew he was there, within earshot, but silent.
"Is that you, G.o.dfrey? We thought you were in Australia. Have you been home long?"
The answer came at once, in the deep, resonant, once familiar voice--the voice no one had heard in Old Place for nine years--nine years with the war having happened in between.
"Indeed no, Janet! I"ve only been back a very short time." (She noticed he did not say how long.) "And I want to know when I may come down and see you all? I hope you and Mr. Tosswill will believe me when I say it wasn"t my fault that I didn"t come to Beechfield last year. I hadn"t a spare moment!"
The tone of the unseen speaker had become awkward, apologetic, and the listener bit her lips--she did not believe in his explanation as to why he had behaved with such a lack of grat.i.tude and good feeling last autumn.
"We shall be very glad to see you at any time, of course. When can we expect you?"
But the welcoming words were uttered very coldly.
"It"s Tuesday to-day; I was thinking of motoring down on Friday or Sat.u.r.day. I"ve got a lot of business to do before then. Will that be all right?"
"Of course it will. Come Friday."
She was thawing a little, and perhaps he felt this, for there came an eager, yearning note into the full, deep voice which sounded so oddly near, and which, for the moment, obliterated the long years since she had heard it last.
"How"s my G.o.dson? Flick still in the land of the living, eh?"
"Thank heaven, yes! That dog"s the one thing in the world Timmy cares for, I sometimes think."
He felt that she was smiling now.
She heard the question:--"Another three minutes, sir?" and the hasty answer:--"Yes, another three minutes," and then, "Still there, Janet?"
"Of course I am. We"ll expect you on Friday, G.o.dfrey, by tea-time, and I hope you"ll stay as long as you can. You won"t mind having your old room?"
"Rather not!" and then in a hesitating, shamefaced voice:--"I needn"t tell _you_ that to me Old Place _is_ home."
It was in a very kindly voice that she answered: "I"m glad you still feel like that, G.o.dfrey."
"Of course I do, and of course I am ashamed of not having written more often. I often think of you all--especially of dear old George--" There came a pause, then the words:--"I want to ask you a question, Janet."
Janet Tosswill felt quite sure she knew what that question would be.
Before linking up with them all again G.o.dfrey wanted to know certain facts about George. While waiting for him to speak she had time to tell herself that this would prove that her husband and Betty, the eldest of her three step-daughters, had been wrong in thinking that G.o.dfrey Radmore knew that George, Betty"s twin, had been killed in the autumn of 1916. At that time all correspondence between Radmore and Old Place had ceased for a long time. When it had begun again in 1917, in the form of a chaffing letter and a cheque for five pounds to the writer"s G.o.dson, Betty had suggested that nothing should be said of George"s death in Timmy"s answer. Of course Betty"s wish had been respected, the more so that Janet herself felt sure that G.o.dfrey did not know. Why, he and George--dear, sunny-natured George--had been like fond brothers in the long ago, before G.o.dfrey"s unfortunate love-affair with Betty.
And so it was that when she heard his next words they took her entirely by surprise, for it was such an unimportant, as well as unexpected, question that the unseen speaker asked.
"Has Mrs. Crofton settled down at The Trellis House yet?"
"She"s arriving to-day, I believe. When she first thought of coming here she wrote John such a nice letter, saying she was a friend of yours, and that you had told her about Beechfield. Luckily, The Trellis House was to let, so John wrote and told her about it."
Then, at last, came a more intimate question. The man"s voice at the other end of the telephone became diffident--hesitating:--"Are you all right? Everything as usual?"
She answered, drily. "Everything"s quite as usual, thank you. Beechfield never changes. Since you were last here there have only been two new cottages built." She paused perceptibly, and then went on:--"I think that Timmy told you that Betty was with the Scottish Women"s Hospital during the war? She"s got one of the best French decorations."
Should she say anything about George? Before she could make up her mind she heard the words--"You can"t go on any longer now. Time"s up." And Radmore called out hastily:--"Till Friday then--so long!"
Janet Tosswill hung up the receiver; but she did not move away from the telephone at once. She stood there, wondering painfully whether she had better go along and tell Betty _now_, or whether it would be better to wait till, say, lunch, when all the young people would be gathered together? After all Betty had been nineteen when her engagement to G.o.dfrey Radmore had been broken off, and so very much had happened since then.
And then, in a sense, her mind was made up for her by the fact that a shadow fell across the floor of the hall, and looking up, she saw her old friend and confidant, Dr. O"Farrell, blocking up the doorway with his big burly body.
"D"you remember G.o.dfrey Radmore?" she asked as their hands met.
"Come now, you"re joking surely. Remember Radmore? I"ve good cause to; I don"t know whether I ever told you--" there came a slight, very slight note of embarra.s.sment into his hearty Irish voice--"that I wrote to the good fellow just after the Armistice, about our Pat. That the boy"s doing as well out in Brisbane as he is, is largely owing to Radmore"s good offices."
Mrs. Tosswill was surprised, and not quite pleased. She wondered why Dr.
O"Farrell had not told her at the time that he was writing to G.o.dfrey.
She still subconsciously felt that G.o.dfrey Radmore belonged to Old Place and to no one else in Beechfield.
"I didn"t know about Pat," she said slowly. "But you"ll be able to thank him in person now, for he"s coming on Friday to stay with us."
"Is he now?" The shrewd Irishman looked sharply into her troubled face.
"Well, well, you"ll have to let bygones be bygones--eh, Mrs. Toss? I take it he"s a great man now."
"I don"t think money makes for greatness," she said.
"Don"t you?" he queried drily. "I do! Come admit, woman, that you"re sorry _now_ you didn"t let Betty take the risk?"
"I"m not at all sorry--" she cried. "It was all his fault. He was such a strange, rough, violent young fellow!"