'That can't help being done, Uncle,' said Alda, with streaming eyes and a choked voice. 'You have been very good to me, but he must come first;' and she moved towards Felix, who put his arm round her kindly, and kissed her, saying,
'Then, Alda, I will leave you to prepare; I must go and see the children and Edgar. I will come back for you in time for the half- past five train.'
Alda's tears flowed too fast again for words, and she turned to leave the room.
'I shall see you again,' said Mr. Underwood. 'Can I give you a lift anywhere, Felix?'
'No, thank you, Sir; Travis is waiting for me.'
'Ay, ay, very fine with his thorough-bred; but when his allowance is docked, how is he to live on his pay?'
The brougham had long been waiting for Tom Underwood, and he left them together. Alda hung on her brother. 'O Felix, is it not dreadful?'
'I thought him very kind and forgiving,' said Felix.
'Is that what you call forgiving? And oh! if you could hear Aunt Mary! You little think what I have gone through!'
'It will be over soon,' said Felix, kindly. 'You are going home, you know, and Wilmet is wild to have you.'
'But, Felix, you don't think they mean to do more than frighten me? Ferdinand must have a real right to his own father's money; and besides, he can't properly object to me; Uncle Tom promised me my 5000 pounds whatever happened!'
'I cannot stay to discuss that now, Alda,' said Felix. 'I have a great deal to do, and Fernan is waiting for me. I shall come back in time.'
'Oh, I wish I could come with you now! Dear Fernan! Tell him I have borne it all for his sake, but it is such an age since I saw him!'
'No doubt he will meet us at the station,' said Felix, escaping at last, and finding Ferdinand not many yards off in the road outside.
'Well, Fernan, to Brompton, if you please. Mr. Underwood is really much kinder than I expected; but as things stand, you can't carry it on in their house, so Alda comes home with me to-night.'
'Then the dear girl is really banished for my sake! I mean, no place is like Bexley to me. But it is very noble of her!' exclaimed Ferdinand, curiously divided between regard for Felix and sense of Alda's sacrifice.
'It is the proper place in which for her to wait for your uncle's answer,' said Felix; 'but indeed, Fernan, it is a question whether we ought to let you risk all your prospects.'
Ferdinand's vehement demand what Felix took him for, and equally eager protest that his uncle must know he had no right to withhold the means that were in all equity due to him, lasted through all the brief transit to the farther end of Brompton, where a great old house and grounds, once quite in the country, had been adapted and revivified by Miss Fulmort.
'Might I not come in and see the little girls?' asked Ferdinand, wistfully.
'I should rather suppose not,' said Felix, smiling. 'Life-Guardsmen are not exactly the visitors expected in establishments for young ladies. You had better not wait for me; I cannot give the children less than an hour.'
'I would wait if it were ten hours.'
'But how about your horse? He isn't in love!'
Ferdinand would not, however, be denied; and when at length a rendezvous was agreed on, Felix, free of the dashing equipage, of which he was, to tell the truth, slightly ashamed, rang at the gates, arrived at the house door, announced himself as Mr. Underwood, asked to see his sisters; and after a long labyrinth of matted passages, found himself in a pretty countrified room, where a wiry, elderly, sensible lady, with grey hair and a keen face, gave him a friendly reception, drew a favourable, but not enthusiastic, picture of Robina's steadiness and industry, and said that Angela was a more difficult character. By this time Robina came into the room with her hat on, eagerly, but with her face flushed and her eyes rather frightened, and as she received her brother's kiss, she said, 'The little ones are not come in yet.-May I take my brother into the garden, Miss Fennimore?'
Permission was given, and Robina held his hand with an unusually tight grasp as she led him to the wide, square, walled garden, with a broad gravel-walk around an old-fashioned bowling-green. He thought the round face looked anxious and perplexed, and was rather uneasy as he began by saying, 'I hope not to lose Angel. Do you always walk so early in the day?'
'On Herr Muller's days, because he only comes in the afternoon,' said Robina; 'but I am rather glad; I wanted to speak to you, Felix.'
'Is anything wrong?' said Felix, seeing that the child's face had become crimson, and hearing effort in her voice. 'You are happy here? Don't be afraid to tell me anything, my dear. Remember, there is no one so bound to watch over you.'
'I know,' said Robina, looking up into those kind eyes. 'I want to tell you-' but she panted, and he encouraged her by putting his other hand over hers caressingly. 'Edgar comes every Sunday,' came out at last.
'And what of that? Isn't it a pleasure?'
'It-it would be-but he and Alice ought not to send each other notes and messages.'
'What?' very low.
'Indeed they do; and I can't tell what to do.'
'What sort of notes and messages?' asked Felix, in a half reproving voice, as though he thought the solemnity of thirteen was taking alarm needlessly.
'O Felix, love notes,' half whispered the girl, hanging her burning head.
'Nonsense, child; you have misunderstood some joke.'
'No,' said Robina, looking full in his face with sturdy offended dignity. 'They both were in earnest when they told me about it.'
'About what?' said he, still severely, as he sat down on a bench, unheeding February damp.
'About-' she was not far from tears, as she faltered out, 'their engagement.'
'Theirs! he wrung the hand that he still retained; 'Edgar and-'
'And Alice Knevett,' said Robin. 'I would not promise not to tell. I hope it is not treachery!'
'How long?' asked Felix, hoarsely.
'Ever since the holidays. They used to walk together when Miss Pearson thought she was with us, but none of us ever knew it then.'
'You are certain? Remember, this is a graver matter than perhaps you understand.'
'I think I do understand, and it is that which makes me so unhappy; but, indeed, it can't be fancy. I have seen her ring, emerald and amethyst, for Edgar and Alice, and the locket with their hairs twisted together. The very first Sunday we were here, he gave me a note for her, and when I told him it was not allowed, he tried quizzing me at first, and at last told me I was a silly child who did not know what was proper between engaged people. So I said,' continued Robina, with dignity, 'that I could allow much to be proper in that case, but I wanted to know whether this was only kept from me because I was a baby, and was known to you and the grown-up people.'
'Right, Robin,' muttered Felix, feeling that she needed encouragement.
'Then he laughed at me more than ever about expecting things to be proclaimed on the market-cross, and tried to puzzle me out of my senses, till I could only stick to one thing, that I couldn't take his notes unless somebody knew. And after all I found the thing in my jacket pocket. He must have put it in when I was not looking.'
'And what did you do with it!'
'Oh! the dreadful thing! I felt as if it would bite me all the week long, but I didn't think it would be honourable to tear it or burn it, and I kept it. Luckily Alice didn't ask if I had a note, only whether he had said anything; and when she found I knew, she told me all about it, and said all sorts of things about my being unkind and mean to stand out, but I never promised to keep the secret.'
'Are you still keeping this note!'
'No. I gave it back to Edgar on Sunday, and told him to play no such tricks. I thought he would have been in a rage, but he was-oh! so provoking! just as if he didn't care for a little spite in a naughty child.'
'Then is this intercourse checked!'
'No, that's the worst of it. When I would not, they took to Angel. You know she got very fond of Edgar in the winter, and was always running after him and waiting on him. So she did what he told her quite innocently at first, till I found out what was going on, and tried to stop her; but she doesn't care for me as she does for Edgar, and thinks it grand to be in all their secrets, when I am too cross. And then there's a class that goes to the South
