an obligation which I shall remember gratefully to the end of my life.”
He stopped suddenly after saying those remarkable words. Seeing that he had startled her, his natural kindness prompted him instantly to soften the reproof, and to end the suspense from which she was plainly suffering. “Give me a kiss, my love,” he resumed; “and I’ll tell you in return that Mr. Clare has said-YES.”
She attempted to thank him; but the sudden luxury of relief was too much for her. She could only cling round his neck in silence. He felt her trembling from head to foot, and said a few words to calm her. At the altered tones of his master’s voice, Snap’s meek tail reappeared fiercely from between his legs; and Snap’s lungs modestly tested his position with a brief, experimental bark. The dog’s quaintly appropriate assertion of himself on his old footing was the interruption of all others which was best fitted to restore Magdalen to herself. She caught the shaggy little terrier up in her arms and kissed him next. “You darling,” she exclaimed, “you’re almost as glad as I am!” She turned again to her father, with a look of tender reproach. “You frightened me, papa,” she said. “You were so unlike yourself.”
“I shall be right again tomorrow, my dear. I am a little upset to-day.”
“Not by me?”
“No, no.”
“By something you have heard at Mr. Clare’s?”
“Yes — nothing you need alarm yourself about; nothing that won’t wear off by tomorrow. Let me go now, my dear; I have a letter to write; and I want to speak to your mother.”
He left her and went on to the house. Magdalen lingered a little on the lawn, to feel all the happiness of her new sensations — then turned away toward the shrubbery to enjoy the higher luxury of communicating them. The dog followed her. She whistled, and clapped her hands. “Find him!” she said, with beaming eyes. “Find Frank!” Snap scampered into the shrubbery, with a bloodthirsty snarl at starting. Perhaps he had mistaken his young mistress and considered himself her emissary in search of a rat?
Meanwhile, Mr. Vanstone entered the house. He met his wife slowly descending the stairs, and advanced to give her his arm. “How has it ended?” she asked, anxiously, as he led her to the sofa.
“Happily — as we hoped it would,” answered her husband. “My old friend has justified my opinion of him.”
“Thank God!” said Mrs. Vanstone, fervently. “Did you feel it, love?” she asked, as her husband arranged the sofa pillows — ”did you feel it as painfully as I feared you would?”
“I had a duty to do, my dear — and I did it.”
After replying in those terms, he hesitated. Apparently, he had something more to say — something, perhaps, on the subject of that passing uneasiness of mind which had been produced by his interview with Mr. Clare, and which Magdalen’s questions had obliged him to acknowledge. A look at his wife decided his doubts in the negative. He only asked if she felt comfortable; and then turned away to leave the room.
“Must you go?” she asked.
“I have a letter to write, my dear.”
“Anything about Frank?”
“No: tomorrow will do for that. A letter to Mr. Pendril. I want him here immediately.”
“Business, I suppose?”
“Yes, my dear — business.”
He went out, and shut himself into the little front room, close to the hall door, which was called his study. By nature and habit the most procrastinating of letter-writers, he now inconsistently opened his desk and took up the pen without a moment’s delay. His letter was long enough to occupy three pages of notepaper; it was written with a readiness of expression and a rapidity of hand which seldom characterized his proceedings when engaged over his ordinary correspondence. He wrote the address as follows: “Immediate — William Pendril, Esq., Serle Street, Lincoln’s Inn, London” — then pushed the letter away from him, and sat at the table, drawing lines on the blotting-paper with his pen, lost in thought. “No,” he said to himself; “I can do nothing more till Pendril comes.” He rose; his face brightened as he put the stamp on the envelope. The writing of the letter had sensibly relieved him, and his whole bearing showed it as he left the room.
On the doorstep he found Norah and Miss Garth, setting forth together for a walk.
“Which way are you going?” he asked. “Anywhere near the postoffice? I wish you would post this letter for me, Norah. It is very important — so important that I hardly like to trust it to Thomas, as usual.”
Norah at once took charge of the letter.
“If you look, my dear,” continued her father, “you will see that I am writing to Mr. Pendril. I expect him here tomorrow afternoon. Will you give the necessary directions, Miss Garth? Mr. Pendril will sleep here tomorrow night, and stay over Sunday. — Wait a minute! Today is Friday. Surely I had an engagement for Saturday afternoon?” He consulted his pocketbook and read over one of the entries, with a look of annoyance. “Grailsea Mill, three o’clock, Saturday. Just the time when Pendril will be here; and I must be at home to see him. How can I manage it? Monday will be too late for my business at Grailsea. I’ll go to-day, instead; and take my chance of catching the miller at his dinner-time.” He looked at his watch. “No time for driving; I must do it by railway. If I go at once, I shall catch the down train at our station, and get on to Grailsea. Take care of the letter, Norah. I won’t keep dinner waiting; if the return train doesn’t suit, I’ll borrow a gig and get back in that way.”
As he took up his hat, Magdalen appeared at the door, returning from her interview with Frank. The hurry of her father’s movements attracted her attention; and she asked him where he was going.
“To Grailsea,” replied Mr. Vanstone. “Your business, Miss Magdalen, has got in the way of mine — and mine must give way to it.”
He spoke those parting words in his old hearty manner; and left them, with the old characteristic flourish of his trusty stick.
“My business!” said Magdalen. “I thought my business was done.”
Miss Garth pointed significantly to the letter in Norah’s hand. “Your business, beyond all doubt,” she said. “Mr. Pendril is coming tomorrow; and Mr. Vanstone seems remarkably anxious about it. Law, and its attendant troubles already! Governesses who look in at summerhouse doors are not the only obstacles to the course of true-love. Parchment is sometimes an obstacle. I hope you may find Parchment as pliable as I am — I wish you well through it. Now, Norah!”
Miss Garth’s second shaft struck as harmless as the first. Magdalen had returned to the house, a little vexed; her interview with Frank having been interrupted by a messenger from Mr. Clare, sent to summon the son into the father’s presence. Although it had been agreed at the private interview between Mr. Vanstone and Mr. Clare that the questions discussed that morning should not be communicated to the children until the year of probation was at an end — -and although under these circumstances Mr. Clare had nothing to tell Frank which Magdalen could not communicate to him much more agreeably — the philosopher was not the less resolved on personally informing his son of the parental concession which rescued him from Chinese exile. The result was a sudden summons to the cottage, which startled Magdalen, but which did not appear to take Frank by surprise. His filial experience penetrated
