'He said, my dear, that you were really well now,' said Mrs. Lucas, tenderly; 'and that you only wanted rousing.'
She clasped her hands together.
'Yes, I know it. I have been knowing it all yesterday and last night. It hasn't been right of me, keeping you all this time, and not facing it.'
'I don't think you could, my dear.'
'Not at first. It seems to me like having been in a whirlpool, and those two went down in it.' She put her hands to her temples. 'But I must do it all now, and I will. I'll get up now. Oh! dear, if they only would let me come down and go about quietly.' Then smiling a piteous smile. 'It is very naughty, but of all things I dread the being cried over and fondled by Ellen!'
Mrs. Lucas shook her head, though the tears were in her eyes, and bethought her whether she could caution Mrs. Robert Brownlow not to be too demonstrative; but it was a delicate matter in which to interfere, and after all, whatever she might think beforehand, Caroline might miss these tokens of feeling.
She had sat up for some hours the evening before, so that there was no fear of her not being strong enough to get up as she proposed; but how would it be when she left her room, and beheld all that she could not have realised?
However, matters turned out contrary to all expectation. Mrs. Lucas was in the drawing-room, talking to the Colonel's wife, and Janet up stairs helping her mother to dress, when there was a sound of feet on the stairs, the door hastily opened for a moment, and two rough- headed, dusty little figures were seen for one moment, startling Mrs. Brownlow with the notion of little beggars; but they vanished in a moment, and were heard chattering up stairs with calls of 'Mother! Mother Carey!' And looking out, they beheld at the top of the stairs the two little fellows hanging one on each side of Carey, who was just outside her door, with her hair down, in her white dressing gown, kneeling between them, all the three almost devouring one another.
'Jockie! Armie! my dears! How did you come? Where are the rest?'
'Still at Kyve,' said Jock. 'Mother we have done such a thing-we came to tell you of it.'
'We've lost the man's boat,' added Armine, 'and we must give him the money for another.'
'What is it? What is it, Caroline?' began her sister-in-law; but Mrs. Lucas touched her arm, and as a mother herself, she saw that mother and sons had best be left to one another, and let them retreat into the bedroom, Carey eagerly scanning her two little boys, who had a battered, worn, unwashed look that puzzled her as much as their sudden appearance, which indeed chimed in with the strange dreamy state in which she had lived ever since that telegram. But their voices did more to restore her to ordinary life than anything else could have done; and their hearts were so full of their own adventure, that they poured it out before remarking anything,-
'How did you come, my dear boys?'
'We walked, after the omnibus set us down at Charing Cross, because we hadn't any more money,' said Armine. 'I'm so tired.' And he nestled into her lap, seeming to quell the beating of her aching heart by his pressure.
'This is it, mother,' said Jock, pulling her other arm round him. 'We two went down to the beach yesterday, and we saw a little boat- Peter Lary's pretty little boat, you know, that is so light-and we got in to rock in her, and then I thought I would pull about in her a little.'
'Oh! Jock, Jock, how could you?'
'I'd often done it with Allen and Young Pete,' said Jock, defensively.
'But by yourselves!' she said in horror.
'Nobody told us not,' said Jock rather defiantly; and Armine, who, with his little sister Barbara, always seemed to live where dreamland and reality bordered on each other, looked up in her face and innocently said-
'Mrs. Acton read us about the Rocky Island, and she said father and granny had brought their boats to the beautiful country, and that we ought to go after them, and there was the bright path along the sea, and I thought we would go too, and that it would be nicer if Jock went with me.'
'I knew it did not mean that,' said Jock, hanging his mischievous black head a little, as he felt her shudder; 'but I thought it would be such fun to be Columbus.'
'And then? Oh! my boys, what a fearful thing! Thank God I have you here.'
'I wasn't frightened,' said Jock, with uplifted head; 'we could both row, couldn't we, Armie? and the tide was going out, and it was so jolly; it seemed to take us just where we wanted to go, out to that great rock, you know, mother, that Bobus called the Asses' Bridge.'
Carey knew that the current at the mouth of the river did, at high tide, carry much drift to the base of this island, and she could understand how her two boys had been floated thither. Jock went on-
'We had a boat-hook, and I pulled up to the island; I did, mother, and I made fast the boat to a little stick, and we went out to explore the island.'
'It has a crater in the top, mother, and we think it must be an instinct volcano,' said Armine, looking up sleepily.
'And there were such lots of jolly little birds,' went on Jock.
'Never mind that now. What happened?'
'Why, the brute of a boat got away,' said Jock, much injured, 'when I'd made her ever so fast. She pulled up the stick, I'm sure she did, for I can tie a knot as well as Pete.'
'So you could not get away?'
'No, and we'd got nothing to eat but chocolate creams and periwinkles, and Armie wouldn't look at them, and I don't think I could while they were alive. So I hoisted a signal of distress, made of my tie, for we'd lost our pocket- handkerchiefs. I was afraid they would think we were pirates, and not venture to come near us, for we'd only got black flags, and it was a very, very long time, but at last, just as it got a little darkish, and Armie was crying-poor little chap-that steamer came by that always goes between Porthole and Kyvemouth on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I hailed and I hailed, and they saw or heard, and sent a boat and took us on board. The people all came and looked at us, and one of them said I was a plucky little chap; he did, mother, and that I'd the making of an admiral in me; and a lady gave us such a jolly paper of sandwiches. But you see the steamer was going to Porthole, and the captain said he could not anyhow put back to Kyve, but he must take us on, and we must get back by train.'
Mother Carey understood this, for the direct line ran to Porthole, and there was a small junction station whence a branch ran to Kyvemouth, from which Kyve St. Clements was some three miles distant.
'Were you carried on?' she asked.
'Well, yes, but we meant it,' said Jock. 'I remembered the boat. I knew father would say we must buy another, so I asked the captain what was the price of one, for Armine and I had each got half-a- sovereign.'
'How was that?'
'An old gentleman the day before was talking to Mr. Acton. I think he is some great swell, for he has got a yacht, and servants, and a carriage, and lots of things; and he said, 'What! are those poor Brownlow's boys? bless me!' and he tipped us each. Allen and Bobus were to go with Mr. Acton and have a sail in his yacht, but they said we should be too many, so we thought we'd get a new boat, but the Captain-'
'Said your money would go but a little way,' put in Caroline.
'He laughed!' said Jock, as a great offence; 'and said that was a matter for our governor, and we had better go home and tell as fast as we could. There was a train just starting when we got in to Porthole, and somebody got our tickets for us, and Armie went fast off to sleep, and I, when I came to think about it, thought we would not get out at the junction, but come on home at once, Mother Carey, and tell you all about it. When Armie woke-why, he's asleep now-he said he would rather come home than to Kyve.'
'Then you travelled all night?'
'Yes, there was a jolly old woman who made us a bed with her shawl, only I tumbled off three times and bumped myself, and she gave us gooseberries, and cake, and once when we stopped a long time a porter got us a cup of tea. Then when we came to where they take the tickets, I think the man was going to make a row, but the guard came up and told him all about it, and I gave him my two half-sovereigns, and he gave me back fourteen shillings change, for he said we were only half-price and second class. Then when once I was in London,' said Jock, as if his foot was on his native heath, 'of course I knew what to be at.'
'Have you had nothing to eat?'
'We had each a bun when we got out at Charing Cross, but I'm awfully hungry, mother!'
'I should think so. Janet, my dear, go and order some breakfast for them.'
