'Has Drake written to you, mother?' he asked. 'I met him the other day at Mrs. Lucas's, and it seems his soul is expanding. He wants to give up the old house-you know the lease is nearly out-and to hang out in a more fashionable quarter.'
'Dear old house!'
'Now, mother, here's my notion. Why should not we hide our diminished heads there? You could keep house while the Monk and I go through the lectures and hospitals, and King's College might not be too far off for Armine.'
'You, Jock, my dear.'
'You see, it is a raving impossibility for me to stay where I am.'
'I am afraid so; but you might exchange into the line.'
'There would be no great good in that. I should have stuck to the Guards because there I am, and I have no opinion of fellows changing about for nothing-and because of Evelyn and some capital fellows besides. But I found out long ago that it had been a stupid thing to go in for. When one has mastered the routine, it is awfully monotonous; and one has nothing to do with one's time or one's brains. I have felt many a time that I could keep straight better if I had something tougher to do.'
'Tell me, just to satisfy my mind, my dear, you have no debts.'
'I don't owe forty pounds in the world, mother; and I shall not owe that, when I can get my tailor to send in his bill. You have given me as jolly an allowance as any man in the corps, and I've always paid my way. I've got no end of things about my rooms, and my horses and cab, but they will turn into money. You see, having done the thing first figure, I should hate to begin in the cheap and nasty style, and I had much rather come home to you, Mother Carey. I'm not too old, you know-not one-and-twenty till August. I shall not come primed like the Monk, but I'll try to grind up to him, if you'll let me, mother.'
'Oh, Jock, dear Jock!' she cried, 'you little know the strength and life it gives me to have you taking it so like a young hero.'
'I tell you I'm sick of drill and parade,' said Jock, 'and heartily glad of an excuse to turn to something where one can stretch one's wits without being thought a disgrace to humanity. Now, don't you think we might be very jolly together?'
'Oh, to think of being there again! And we can have the dear old furniture and make it like home. It is the first definite notion any one has had. My dear, you have given me something to look forward to. You can't guess what good you have done me! It is just as if you had shown me light at the end of the thicket; ay, and made yourself the good stout staff to lead me through!'
'Mother, that's the best thing that ever was said to me yet; worth ever so much more than all old Barnes's money-bags.'
'If the others will approve! But any way it is a nest egg for my own selfish pleasure to carry me through. Why, Jock, to have your name on the old door would be bringing back the golden age!'
Nobody but Jock knew what made this such a cheerful Sunday with his mother. She was even heard making fun, and declaring that no one knew what a relief it would be not to have to take drives when all the roads were beset with traction engines. She had so far helped Armine out of the difficulties his lavish assurances had brought him into, that she had written a note to the Vicar, Mr. Parsons, telling him that she should be better able to reply in a little while; but Armine, knowing that he must not speak, and afraid of betraying the cause of his unhappiness and of the delay, was afraid to stir out of reach of the others lest Miss Parsons should begin an inquiry.
The Vicar of Woodside was, in fact, as some people mischievously called her, the Reverend Petronella Parsons. Whether she wrote her brother's sermons was a disputed question. She certainly did other things in his name which she had better have let alone. He was three or four years her junior, and had always so entirely followed her lead, that he seemed to have no personal identity; but to be only her male complement. That Armine should have set up a lady of this calibre for the first goddess of his fancy was one of the comical chances of life, but she was a fine, handsome, fresh-looking woman of five-and-thirty, with a strong vein of sentiment-ecclesiastical and poetic-just ignorant enough to gush freely, and too genuine to be _always_ offensive. She had been infinitely struck with Armine, had hung a perfect romance of renovation on him, sympathised with his every word, and lavished on him what perhaps was not quite flattery, because she was entirely in earnest, but which was therefore all the worse for him.
Barbara had a natural repulsion from her, and could not understand Armine's being attracted, and for the first time in their lives this was creating a little difference between the brother and sister. Babie had said, in rather an uncalled-for way, that Miss Parsons would draw back when she knew the truth, and Armine had been deeply offended at such an ungenerous hint, and had reduced her to a tearful declaration that she was very sorry she had said anything so uncalled for.
Petronella herself had been much vexed at Armine's three days' defection, which was ascribed to the worldly and anti-ecclesiastical influences of the rest of the family. She wanted her brother to preach a sermon about Lot's wife; but Jemmie, as she called him, had on certain occasions a passive force of his own, and she could not prevail. She regretted it the less when Armine and Babie duly did the work they had undertaken in the Sunday-school, though they would not come in for any intermediate meals.
'What did Mrs. Brownlow tell you in her note?' she asked of her brother while giving him his tea before the last service.
'That in a few days she shall be able to answer me.'
'Ah, well! Do you know there is a belief in the parish that something has happened-that a claim is to be set up to the whole property, and that the whole family will be reduced to beggary?'
'I never heard of an estate to which there was not some claimant in obscurity.'
'But this comes from undoubted authority.' Mr. Parsons smiled a little. 'One can't help it if servants _will_ hear things. Well! any way it will be overruled for good to that dear boy-though it would be a cruel stroke on the parish.'
It was the twilight of a late spring evening when the congregation streamed out of Church, and Elvira, who had managed hitherto to avoid all intercourse with the River Hollow party, found herself grappled by Lisette without hope of rescue. 'My dear, this is a pleasure at last; I have so much to say to you. Can't you give us a day?'
'I am going to town to-morrow,' said Elvira, never gracious to any Gould.
'To-morrow! I heard the family had put off their migration.'
'I go with Lucas. I am to stay with Mrs, Evelyn, Lord Fordham's mother, you know, who is to present me at the Drawing-room,' said Elvira, magnificently.
'Oh! if I could only see you in your court dress it would be memorable,' cried Mrs. Gould. 'A little longer, my dear, our paths lie together.'
'I must get home. My packing-'
'And may I ask what you wear, my dear? Is your dress ordered?'
'O yes, I had it made at Paris. It is white satin, with lilies-a kind of lily one gets in Algiers.' And she expatiated on the fashion till Mrs. Gould said-
'Well, my love, I hope you will enjoy yourself at the Honourable Mrs. Evelyn's. What is the address, in case I should have occasion to write?'
'I shall have no time for doing commissions.'
'That was not my meaning,' was the gentle answer; 'only if there be anything you ought to be informed of-'
'They would write to me from home. Why, what do you mean?' asked the girl, her attention gained at last.
'Did it never strike you why you are sent up alone?'
'Only that Mrs. Brownlow is so cut up about Janet.'
'Ah! youth is so sweetly unconscious. It is well that there are those who are bound to watch for your interests, my dear.'
'I can't think what you mean.'
'I will not disturb your happy innocence, my love. It is enough for your uncle and me to be awake, to counteract any machinations. Ah! I see your astonishment! You are so simple, my dear child, and you have been studiously kept in the dark.'
'I can't think what you are driving at,' said Elvira, impatiently. 'Mrs. Brownlow would never let any harm
