Chapter Nineteen.

Chapter Nineteen.Gervase Vanburgh.“Humph!” remarked Miss Nan to herself the next afternoon, as she watched the lovers pacing the garden walk, “Humph! unless my eyes deceive me, relationships are strained between our dear young friends. The atmosphere seems charged with—not electricity, but an amount of ice which is suitable neither to the season nor the occasion. Strikes me, I’d better be out of the way! I’ll do an act of charity to another and a good turn to myself at one and the same time, and go and have tea with Diogenes!”She spoke with a certainty of welcome, justified by the delight with which Mr Vanburgh invariably greeted her appearance, for she had discovered that nothing pleased him so much as to see her running in and out of the house, popping in for ten minutes’ chat on her return from a walk, or livening a dull afternoon by taking her work across the road, and stitching by his couch. This latter attention had also brought about the happy results of interesting the invalid in the coming sale, and more than one of Nan’s efforts was bought before it was completed, thereby affording that young lady a terrible temptation to scamp the work which remained. On the present occasion, however, she was in a lazy mood, and frowned sternly on her conscience, when it suggested that she should make use of the opportunity to finish a certain table centre. No, indeed, she decided, she would do nothing of the kind. Unwilling work was invariably a failure, and she felt no vocation to do anything more energetic than sit still and eat Mr Vanburgh’s delicious cakes, and drink Mr Vanburgh’s excellent tea.She stood up then, and, as a preliminary step, regarded herself critically in the mirror, for among other things which had been borne in upon her concerning her new neighbour, one was that he was exceedingly fastidious about appearances, and as sharp as a needle to discover any discrepancies in her attire. He was too polite to put his criticisms into words, but his face spoke volumes, and certain historic occasions, when she had sat smarting beneath the consciousness of a missing button or a crooked tie, had made a lasting impression on the mind of the careless young woman. Nowadays, however fleeting might be her visit to the Grange, she never went without a careful examination of her appearance. A shop window answered the purpose of a mirror, if nothing better could be found, and one morning, as Agatha and Christabel walked along the village street, they had been reduced to a state of speechless amazement by discovering Nan twisting and turning before the wired windows of the Bank, with as much concern for her appearance as though she had been Lilias herself.On the present occasion there were only a few stray locks to be pinned in order, and then the glass reflected a charming picture of happy girlhood. The piqué skirt was fresh and neat; the pink shirt belted in by a natty white band, and the dark hair curled softly round the fresh bright face. Nan stared at herself solemnly, contorting her face into the curious, strained expression with which nine women out of ten regard themselves in a mirror, twisted round, to be sure that her belt showed no unsightly gap, pulled her tie accurately into the middle of her collar, and finally fastened on a sailor hat, and ran gaily across the street. She did not go to the front door this time, for—unique and extraordinary sign of favour—to her, and to her alone, had been granted permission to use the garden gate, enter the house by the side door, and so make her way upstairs unannounced. Mr Vanburgh had been anxious to put every facility in his favourite’s way, for only an invalid can appreciate the brightness which had come into his life since this merry-hearted girl had taken compassion upon his loneliness. To see her bonnie face peering in at the door, to hear her ringing laugh, and listen to her voice, was better than any tonic, and seemed to put fresh strength into his feeble body.Up the stairs, then, Nan ran, and made straight for the study where the invalid spent his afternoons. The door was closed, but to wait to announce her arrival by a knock was a proceeding far too dignified for one of her impetuous nature; she merely turned the handle, thrust a mischievous face round the corner, and announced boldly, “I’ve come to tea!”There was no answering exclamation of delight, and Nan had just discovered, with a gasp of surprise, that the couch was empty, when a tall, fair-haired man rose suddenly and confronted her.“Oh,” cried Nan, and stood agape with astonishment.“I beg your pardon,” drawled the stranger, and stared back out of a pair of handsome, sleepy eyes, “You—er—you expected to see Mr Vanburgh; I am sorry to say he is not very well—”“Not well? Oh dear, I’m sorry! And are you the doctor?—Have you come from town?”“Oh no!” The tall man smiled, as if, for some reason, the idea seemed quite preposterous to his mind. “I am not the doctor. I am Mr Vanburgh’s nephew. I was coming to visit him shortly in any case, and as I heard that he was not well, I thought it better to come down and see for myself exactly how he was.”“Of course. I am so vexed that I did not know about it, but I have been so busy this week that I have not seen him since Sunday. He is really ill? In bed? Not able to get up?”“He has kept in bed for two days, but is coming in presently to join me at tea, so I hope that you—er—you will fulfil the intention with which you came!” and the speaker smiled at the pretty girl with a sudden lighting of the sleepy eyes. He was thinking to himself what a marvellous difference her coming had made in the aspect of the dim, solemn room. All day long he had roamed about the house and grounds with the eerie feeling of being alone in an enchanted castle, where a spell of sleep was laid on the occupants. Wherever the eye lighted, some rare and costly treasure greeted the sight; the great rooms opened one into the other, while rare Venetian mirrors reduplicated the tapestries on the walls and seemed to open out fresh vistas before the eye. It was a palace among houses, a very storehouse of treasures, but the want of life chilled the blood in the young man’s veins. Not a human soul to be seen but the silent-footed servant with his foreign tongue, and the crippled master, dead already to all that makes life worth living! All day long he had been alone, struggling with a depression which seemed to close more and more heavily around him; but here, at last, was a creature like himself, young, radiant, full of life, with the glow of health and happiness on her rosy cheek. His glance was so undisguisedly friendly that Nan responded to it with a smile, and seated herself forthwith on her accustomed chair. Shyness not being a complaint by which she was troubled, she saw no reason for refusing the stranger’s invitation, or for disguising the keen interest which she took in his own individuality.“Thank you; I’d like to stay,” she said frankly. “I am so pleased to meet you, for I know all about you. ‘Gervase Farrington Vanburgh’,”—she checked off each word on uplifted fingers, and nodded her head with an air of triumph at the completeness of her information.“‘The Boundaries, Lipton, Devonshire.’ I have posted ever so many notes to you, and once I addressed an envelope. Perhaps you remember my scrawly writing, with long tails to the letters? We were dreadfully disappointed that Mr Vanburgh had no daughters, for we have not many friends of our own age, but he tried to console us by saying that you were coming to pay him a visit. I asked him especially to arrange it for June, for we shall have our brother home then, and several things going on which will make it livelier than usual. We have made all sorts of plans for your amusement!”“That is kind; I appreciate it very much. I have heard of you too, and of the pleasure which your acquaintance has given my uncle. He was giving me an account of you all last night, from which I have no difficulty in recognising you from your sisters. You are Miss Lilias!”“Lilias!—I! Good gracious! Whatever made you think that?” gasped Nan, staring at him with eyes so clear and honest, that, though an adept in the gentle art of flattery, Gervase Vanburgh found himself incapable of explaining the reason of his mistake. He could not tell Nan Rendell that, after hearing Lilias described as the beauty of the family, he had at once identified her with the charming figure whose presence had brought sunshine into the gloomy house. He murmured some vague excuse, while Nan proceeded to expatiate on the difference between herself and her sister. “Lilias is fair, and I am dark; she has golden hair, and is quite grown up and staid and proper. I am supposed to be grown up too, in the afternoons and in the evenings, but the mornings are my own, and then I am disgracefully young, and behave as badly as if I were a child again. I wish I were! I shall never be so happy again as I was in the dear old school-days.” Nan’s eyes roamed wistfully across the road to the porch room, where Elsie’s sleek head could be seen bent over her work, with Agatha and Christabel vaguely outlined at the table; then suddenly her face lit up with mischievous smiles. “If they could only see me!” she told herself ecstatically. “If the girls could see me sitting here talking to this strange young man! They’d have a fit! They’d go crazy with excitement! I must, I must lure him to the window, and let them see us together! They will never believe me unless I do.” She looked up, to meet Gervase’s eyes fixed upon her, and found inspiration in his first remark.“You are looking at your own house, are you not? It is exactly opposite this, I think. My uncle pointed it out to me last night.”“Yes, just opposite. It stands on the road, as this one does, but we have a lovely garden behind. You can see a little bit of it from here!” and wily Nan led the way to the window, secure of bringing Gervase in her train, and keeping him in evidence until it pleased her to finish her explanations. The appearance of her own light dress was sufficient to attract Elsie’s attention; but what of the agitation of the three at sight of her companion? Elsie fled into the background—“The better to see you, my dear,”—and Nan’s keen eyes could discern the three patches of white made by the gaping faces, the while she smiled and posed, far more for their benefit than that of her companion. Presently Elsie disappeared, and Nan knew as well as if she had heard the words spoken, that the object of her flight had been to bring the opera-glasses from the drawing-room, when the three would take turns to stare at the stranger, and speculate as to his identity. In the first mischievous enjoyment of the moment she found it impossible to face her companion, but when at last she did venture to meet his glance she was vastly impressed by his appearance. A superfine specimen indeed, this Gervase Vanburgh, with his frock-coat, well-creased trousers, and immaculate linen. Even Nan, the unnoticing, noted the faultlessness of detail which characterised his attire, and had an instant perception that Ned Talbot would look rough and countrified by his side, and even Jim himself suffer from the contrast. Evidently this was a dandy of the first water; yet, despite his languid bearing, his face was full of intelligence, and decision of character was proclaimed in the large nose and square, clean-cut chin.“What a mercy I tidied my hair!” sighed Nan to herself; and at that moment the door opened, and in came the Italian servant, pushing his master before him in the wheeled chair in which he was moved from one room to another. The invalid was looking more death-like than ever, but his face lighted with pleasure at the sight of Nan, while she ran to the sofa and arranged his cushions with loving solicitude. When he was settled she knelt beside him to exchange greetings, putting her hand on his with a caressing gesture, and he held it firmly while he replied, as if gaining strength from the contact. Gervase Vanburgh thought he had never seen so typical a picture of youth and age as that made by his uncle and the bright-faced girl, and mentally contrasted this welcome with the one given to himself the day before. His uncle had never shown such pleasure on his arrival; but he felt no jealousy of the girl who was so evidently preferred before himself; for, whatever his faults might be, he was free at least from any tinge of self-seeking. The lazy smile lingered on his face as he listened to the exchange of question and answer.“This is a pleasant surprise, little woman! When did you come across? I did not hear of your arrival.”“Bounced in ten minutes ago, and had such a fright to find a stranger here instead of you. Why didn’t you send at once to tell me that you were worse?”“Because I could not have seen you if you had come. On my bad days I am best alone; but I am pulling round again, and am glad to have Gervase’s company. You have made each other’s acquaintance, I see! I suppose neither had much difficulty in guessing the identity of the other.”“He thought I was Lilias!” said Nan, glancing at Gervase with laughing eyes. “Think of that! He will be surprised when he sees her, won’t he? But I knew who he was in a moment. Now, tell me honestly, would you rather I went away? I came meaning to stay to tea, but if you don’t feel able to talk to two people at once I’ll come again when you are alone. I won’t be a scrap offended!”Mr Vanburgh smiled.“I am sure you would not, but I should like you to stay, please. We want you to pour out tea for us; and I won’t attempt to talk, but just lie still and amuse myself listening to you.”“But I never can be amusing when I try,—can you?” said Nan, appealing to Gervase with a friendly smile. “The girls at home think I am amusing, because I generally say the wrong thing at the wrong moment, which may be entertaining to them, but is very poor fun for me. Maud says I speak first and think afterwards; but what can I do? I once made a vow to cure myself of being impetuous by counting twenty slowly before I began to speak, and I kept it religiously two whole days. They seemed like a month; and if I had persevered I should have become dumb, for by the time I had counted twenty the conversation had hopped on to another subject, and any remark was hopelessly out of date! So now I have gone back to my old ways, and say my say, and take the consequences.”“You don’t look to me as if you were given to making painful remarks,” Gervase remarked in a conciliatory tone, and Nan straightened her back in defence of her own behaviour.“Wouldn’t hurt a fly! That’s the worst part of it. For I am so soft-hearted over other people’s woes, that I shed tears regularly every time I meet a tramp, and he tells me that he is a discharged seaman who has lost his certificate, and only needs four and sixpence to take him to a port where he is certain to find fresh work. They always have lost their certificates and want a railway fare, but I can’t help relieving them and handing-over last Saturday’s money. But a tender heart is not much use if you make awkward remarks and quote people’s own doings to their faces, as capital jokes against somebody else! I got into terrible trouble in that way with a caller only the other day, and if I had had any sense I should have stopped in time, for I had plenty of warning. Her face grew all stiff and rigid, and I wondered what in the world had given Elsie such a cough all of a sudden. Is there any cure, do you think, for a habit like this—anything I could do to make myself careful?”There was a pause while the two men looked at the eager face, smiled, and grew sober, as the question awoke memories from their own past.“A practical kindness of heart, Nan, which is not satisfied with facile tears and offerings, but takes continual thought of the feelings of others!”“Or a severe lesson!” added the younger man thoughtfully. “If you wounded some one very near and dear, and saw them suffer through your thoughtlessness, you could never forget it. I learnt that for myself long ago, when—”But Nan heard no more of what he said, for, with a flash, her eager mind had leapt to the solution of the mystery. More love! That was what was needed. Love, the cure for every human fault. She applied the test to her own experience, and found it abundantly proven. Had any word or deed of hers hurt Maud through the period of ultra-sensitiveness through which that dear sister had passed? Ten thousand times, no! On the contrary, she had been quick to ward off blows, to turn dangerous conversations into new channels, to stand between the sufferer and the world. Where she loved it was obvious that she could show both care and tact; it was want of love which lay at the root of her thoughtless acts and speeches. Gervase looked up at the conclusion of his story, to find the girl staring blankly across the room, with a glimmer of tears in the brown eyes, and was at a loss to guess the meaning.“I’ll begin this instant, and love every one in this world!” Nan was saying to herself determinedly. “It will be fatiguing, but so good for my character. I’ll think of what they will like, and what I can do for them, and spend my time in good works. What can I do now for these two men? It’s no credit pouring out tea, for I want some myself; but I might do something for that poor Gervase to-night, when Mr Vanburgh goes to bed, and he is left alone. He looked dolefully dull when I came in, and I believe he would enjoy coming across and seeing us all, as he has heard so much about us. I’ll ask him anyway, and see what he says.”The idea was so pleasant that the dimples came back to greet it; she looked across at Gervase with a brilliant smile, and struck amazement to his heart by inquiring blandly—“Would you like to come to dinner with us tonight?”Gervase Vanburgh stared, as well he might, at so informal an invitation. His uncle also struggled with a smile, and Nan, tardily conscious of her lack of formality, plunged headlong into explanations—“I meant to say that it will be lonely for you after Mr Vanburgh goes to bed, and I am sure mother would be delighted to see you. We have Ned Talbot, a friend of Lil—of my brother Jim staying with us, so that there would be two other men to keep you company. When father and Jim are away, we never ask gentlemen to the house, for mother says seven women at one time are too great a tax on any man’s nervous system; but you wouldn’t be afraid of us when there were two other men, would you? The schoolroom girls don’t come down until after dinner, so we are really only three.”Gervase Vanburgh laughed aloud, and Nan looked up with a quick flash of approval, for a laugh has a tell-tale sound, and this one rang unmistakably honest and true.“I am not in the least afraid,” he cried boldly. “I’d like to see you all, school-girls included. It is most kind of you to think of it, and if Mrs Rendell will really allow me, I shall be delighted to accept your invitation.”So Nan ran across the street, and entered the house with the great news that Gervase Vanburgh had arrived, and—given a formal invitation—was coming that very evening to make the acquaintance of the family.

“Humph!” remarked Miss Nan to herself the next afternoon, as she watched the lovers pacing the garden walk, “Humph! unless my eyes deceive me, relationships are strained between our dear young friends. The atmosphere seems charged with—not electricity, but an amount of ice which is suitable neither to the season nor the occasion. Strikes me, I’d better be out of the way! I’ll do an act of charity to another and a good turn to myself at one and the same time, and go and have tea with Diogenes!”

She spoke with a certainty of welcome, justified by the delight with which Mr Vanburgh invariably greeted her appearance, for she had discovered that nothing pleased him so much as to see her running in and out of the house, popping in for ten minutes’ chat on her return from a walk, or livening a dull afternoon by taking her work across the road, and stitching by his couch. This latter attention had also brought about the happy results of interesting the invalid in the coming sale, and more than one of Nan’s efforts was bought before it was completed, thereby affording that young lady a terrible temptation to scamp the work which remained. On the present occasion, however, she was in a lazy mood, and frowned sternly on her conscience, when it suggested that she should make use of the opportunity to finish a certain table centre. No, indeed, she decided, she would do nothing of the kind. Unwilling work was invariably a failure, and she felt no vocation to do anything more energetic than sit still and eat Mr Vanburgh’s delicious cakes, and drink Mr Vanburgh’s excellent tea.

She stood up then, and, as a preliminary step, regarded herself critically in the mirror, for among other things which had been borne in upon her concerning her new neighbour, one was that he was exceedingly fastidious about appearances, and as sharp as a needle to discover any discrepancies in her attire. He was too polite to put his criticisms into words, but his face spoke volumes, and certain historic occasions, when she had sat smarting beneath the consciousness of a missing button or a crooked tie, had made a lasting impression on the mind of the careless young woman. Nowadays, however fleeting might be her visit to the Grange, she never went without a careful examination of her appearance. A shop window answered the purpose of a mirror, if nothing better could be found, and one morning, as Agatha and Christabel walked along the village street, they had been reduced to a state of speechless amazement by discovering Nan twisting and turning before the wired windows of the Bank, with as much concern for her appearance as though she had been Lilias herself.

On the present occasion there were only a few stray locks to be pinned in order, and then the glass reflected a charming picture of happy girlhood. The piqué skirt was fresh and neat; the pink shirt belted in by a natty white band, and the dark hair curled softly round the fresh bright face. Nan stared at herself solemnly, contorting her face into the curious, strained expression with which nine women out of ten regard themselves in a mirror, twisted round, to be sure that her belt showed no unsightly gap, pulled her tie accurately into the middle of her collar, and finally fastened on a sailor hat, and ran gaily across the street. She did not go to the front door this time, for—unique and extraordinary sign of favour—to her, and to her alone, had been granted permission to use the garden gate, enter the house by the side door, and so make her way upstairs unannounced. Mr Vanburgh had been anxious to put every facility in his favourite’s way, for only an invalid can appreciate the brightness which had come into his life since this merry-hearted girl had taken compassion upon his loneliness. To see her bonnie face peering in at the door, to hear her ringing laugh, and listen to her voice, was better than any tonic, and seemed to put fresh strength into his feeble body.

Up the stairs, then, Nan ran, and made straight for the study where the invalid spent his afternoons. The door was closed, but to wait to announce her arrival by a knock was a proceeding far too dignified for one of her impetuous nature; she merely turned the handle, thrust a mischievous face round the corner, and announced boldly, “I’ve come to tea!”

There was no answering exclamation of delight, and Nan had just discovered, with a gasp of surprise, that the couch was empty, when a tall, fair-haired man rose suddenly and confronted her.

“Oh,” cried Nan, and stood agape with astonishment.

“I beg your pardon,” drawled the stranger, and stared back out of a pair of handsome, sleepy eyes, “You—er—you expected to see Mr Vanburgh; I am sorry to say he is not very well—”

“Not well? Oh dear, I’m sorry! And are you the doctor?—Have you come from town?”

“Oh no!” The tall man smiled, as if, for some reason, the idea seemed quite preposterous to his mind. “I am not the doctor. I am Mr Vanburgh’s nephew. I was coming to visit him shortly in any case, and as I heard that he was not well, I thought it better to come down and see for myself exactly how he was.”

“Of course. I am so vexed that I did not know about it, but I have been so busy this week that I have not seen him since Sunday. He is really ill? In bed? Not able to get up?”

“He has kept in bed for two days, but is coming in presently to join me at tea, so I hope that you—er—you will fulfil the intention with which you came!” and the speaker smiled at the pretty girl with a sudden lighting of the sleepy eyes. He was thinking to himself what a marvellous difference her coming had made in the aspect of the dim, solemn room. All day long he had roamed about the house and grounds with the eerie feeling of being alone in an enchanted castle, where a spell of sleep was laid on the occupants. Wherever the eye lighted, some rare and costly treasure greeted the sight; the great rooms opened one into the other, while rare Venetian mirrors reduplicated the tapestries on the walls and seemed to open out fresh vistas before the eye. It was a palace among houses, a very storehouse of treasures, but the want of life chilled the blood in the young man’s veins. Not a human soul to be seen but the silent-footed servant with his foreign tongue, and the crippled master, dead already to all that makes life worth living! All day long he had been alone, struggling with a depression which seemed to close more and more heavily around him; but here, at last, was a creature like himself, young, radiant, full of life, with the glow of health and happiness on her rosy cheek. His glance was so undisguisedly friendly that Nan responded to it with a smile, and seated herself forthwith on her accustomed chair. Shyness not being a complaint by which she was troubled, she saw no reason for refusing the stranger’s invitation, or for disguising the keen interest which she took in his own individuality.

“Thank you; I’d like to stay,” she said frankly. “I am so pleased to meet you, for I know all about you. ‘Gervase Farrington Vanburgh’,”—she checked off each word on uplifted fingers, and nodded her head with an air of triumph at the completeness of her information.

“‘The Boundaries, Lipton, Devonshire.’ I have posted ever so many notes to you, and once I addressed an envelope. Perhaps you remember my scrawly writing, with long tails to the letters? We were dreadfully disappointed that Mr Vanburgh had no daughters, for we have not many friends of our own age, but he tried to console us by saying that you were coming to pay him a visit. I asked him especially to arrange it for June, for we shall have our brother home then, and several things going on which will make it livelier than usual. We have made all sorts of plans for your amusement!”

“That is kind; I appreciate it very much. I have heard of you too, and of the pleasure which your acquaintance has given my uncle. He was giving me an account of you all last night, from which I have no difficulty in recognising you from your sisters. You are Miss Lilias!”

“Lilias!—I! Good gracious! Whatever made you think that?” gasped Nan, staring at him with eyes so clear and honest, that, though an adept in the gentle art of flattery, Gervase Vanburgh found himself incapable of explaining the reason of his mistake. He could not tell Nan Rendell that, after hearing Lilias described as the beauty of the family, he had at once identified her with the charming figure whose presence had brought sunshine into the gloomy house. He murmured some vague excuse, while Nan proceeded to expatiate on the difference between herself and her sister. “Lilias is fair, and I am dark; she has golden hair, and is quite grown up and staid and proper. I am supposed to be grown up too, in the afternoons and in the evenings, but the mornings are my own, and then I am disgracefully young, and behave as badly as if I were a child again. I wish I were! I shall never be so happy again as I was in the dear old school-days.” Nan’s eyes roamed wistfully across the road to the porch room, where Elsie’s sleek head could be seen bent over her work, with Agatha and Christabel vaguely outlined at the table; then suddenly her face lit up with mischievous smiles. “If they could only see me!” she told herself ecstatically. “If the girls could see me sitting here talking to this strange young man! They’d have a fit! They’d go crazy with excitement! I must, I must lure him to the window, and let them see us together! They will never believe me unless I do.” She looked up, to meet Gervase’s eyes fixed upon her, and found inspiration in his first remark.

“You are looking at your own house, are you not? It is exactly opposite this, I think. My uncle pointed it out to me last night.”

“Yes, just opposite. It stands on the road, as this one does, but we have a lovely garden behind. You can see a little bit of it from here!” and wily Nan led the way to the window, secure of bringing Gervase in her train, and keeping him in evidence until it pleased her to finish her explanations. The appearance of her own light dress was sufficient to attract Elsie’s attention; but what of the agitation of the three at sight of her companion? Elsie fled into the background—“The better to see you, my dear,”—and Nan’s keen eyes could discern the three patches of white made by the gaping faces, the while she smiled and posed, far more for their benefit than that of her companion. Presently Elsie disappeared, and Nan knew as well as if she had heard the words spoken, that the object of her flight had been to bring the opera-glasses from the drawing-room, when the three would take turns to stare at the stranger, and speculate as to his identity. In the first mischievous enjoyment of the moment she found it impossible to face her companion, but when at last she did venture to meet his glance she was vastly impressed by his appearance. A superfine specimen indeed, this Gervase Vanburgh, with his frock-coat, well-creased trousers, and immaculate linen. Even Nan, the unnoticing, noted the faultlessness of detail which characterised his attire, and had an instant perception that Ned Talbot would look rough and countrified by his side, and even Jim himself suffer from the contrast. Evidently this was a dandy of the first water; yet, despite his languid bearing, his face was full of intelligence, and decision of character was proclaimed in the large nose and square, clean-cut chin.

“What a mercy I tidied my hair!” sighed Nan to herself; and at that moment the door opened, and in came the Italian servant, pushing his master before him in the wheeled chair in which he was moved from one room to another. The invalid was looking more death-like than ever, but his face lighted with pleasure at the sight of Nan, while she ran to the sofa and arranged his cushions with loving solicitude. When he was settled she knelt beside him to exchange greetings, putting her hand on his with a caressing gesture, and he held it firmly while he replied, as if gaining strength from the contact. Gervase Vanburgh thought he had never seen so typical a picture of youth and age as that made by his uncle and the bright-faced girl, and mentally contrasted this welcome with the one given to himself the day before. His uncle had never shown such pleasure on his arrival; but he felt no jealousy of the girl who was so evidently preferred before himself; for, whatever his faults might be, he was free at least from any tinge of self-seeking. The lazy smile lingered on his face as he listened to the exchange of question and answer.

“This is a pleasant surprise, little woman! When did you come across? I did not hear of your arrival.”

“Bounced in ten minutes ago, and had such a fright to find a stranger here instead of you. Why didn’t you send at once to tell me that you were worse?”

“Because I could not have seen you if you had come. On my bad days I am best alone; but I am pulling round again, and am glad to have Gervase’s company. You have made each other’s acquaintance, I see! I suppose neither had much difficulty in guessing the identity of the other.”

“He thought I was Lilias!” said Nan, glancing at Gervase with laughing eyes. “Think of that! He will be surprised when he sees her, won’t he? But I knew who he was in a moment. Now, tell me honestly, would you rather I went away? I came meaning to stay to tea, but if you don’t feel able to talk to two people at once I’ll come again when you are alone. I won’t be a scrap offended!”

Mr Vanburgh smiled.

“I am sure you would not, but I should like you to stay, please. We want you to pour out tea for us; and I won’t attempt to talk, but just lie still and amuse myself listening to you.”

“But I never can be amusing when I try,—can you?” said Nan, appealing to Gervase with a friendly smile. “The girls at home think I am amusing, because I generally say the wrong thing at the wrong moment, which may be entertaining to them, but is very poor fun for me. Maud says I speak first and think afterwards; but what can I do? I once made a vow to cure myself of being impetuous by counting twenty slowly before I began to speak, and I kept it religiously two whole days. They seemed like a month; and if I had persevered I should have become dumb, for by the time I had counted twenty the conversation had hopped on to another subject, and any remark was hopelessly out of date! So now I have gone back to my old ways, and say my say, and take the consequences.”

“You don’t look to me as if you were given to making painful remarks,” Gervase remarked in a conciliatory tone, and Nan straightened her back in defence of her own behaviour.

“Wouldn’t hurt a fly! That’s the worst part of it. For I am so soft-hearted over other people’s woes, that I shed tears regularly every time I meet a tramp, and he tells me that he is a discharged seaman who has lost his certificate, and only needs four and sixpence to take him to a port where he is certain to find fresh work. They always have lost their certificates and want a railway fare, but I can’t help relieving them and handing-over last Saturday’s money. But a tender heart is not much use if you make awkward remarks and quote people’s own doings to their faces, as capital jokes against somebody else! I got into terrible trouble in that way with a caller only the other day, and if I had had any sense I should have stopped in time, for I had plenty of warning. Her face grew all stiff and rigid, and I wondered what in the world had given Elsie such a cough all of a sudden. Is there any cure, do you think, for a habit like this—anything I could do to make myself careful?”

There was a pause while the two men looked at the eager face, smiled, and grew sober, as the question awoke memories from their own past.

“A practical kindness of heart, Nan, which is not satisfied with facile tears and offerings, but takes continual thought of the feelings of others!”

“Or a severe lesson!” added the younger man thoughtfully. “If you wounded some one very near and dear, and saw them suffer through your thoughtlessness, you could never forget it. I learnt that for myself long ago, when—”

But Nan heard no more of what he said, for, with a flash, her eager mind had leapt to the solution of the mystery. More love! That was what was needed. Love, the cure for every human fault. She applied the test to her own experience, and found it abundantly proven. Had any word or deed of hers hurt Maud through the period of ultra-sensitiveness through which that dear sister had passed? Ten thousand times, no! On the contrary, she had been quick to ward off blows, to turn dangerous conversations into new channels, to stand between the sufferer and the world. Where she loved it was obvious that she could show both care and tact; it was want of love which lay at the root of her thoughtless acts and speeches. Gervase looked up at the conclusion of his story, to find the girl staring blankly across the room, with a glimmer of tears in the brown eyes, and was at a loss to guess the meaning.

“I’ll begin this instant, and love every one in this world!” Nan was saying to herself determinedly. “It will be fatiguing, but so good for my character. I’ll think of what they will like, and what I can do for them, and spend my time in good works. What can I do now for these two men? It’s no credit pouring out tea, for I want some myself; but I might do something for that poor Gervase to-night, when Mr Vanburgh goes to bed, and he is left alone. He looked dolefully dull when I came in, and I believe he would enjoy coming across and seeing us all, as he has heard so much about us. I’ll ask him anyway, and see what he says.”

The idea was so pleasant that the dimples came back to greet it; she looked across at Gervase with a brilliant smile, and struck amazement to his heart by inquiring blandly—

“Would you like to come to dinner with us tonight?”

Gervase Vanburgh stared, as well he might, at so informal an invitation. His uncle also struggled with a smile, and Nan, tardily conscious of her lack of formality, plunged headlong into explanations—

“I meant to say that it will be lonely for you after Mr Vanburgh goes to bed, and I am sure mother would be delighted to see you. We have Ned Talbot, a friend of Lil—of my brother Jim staying with us, so that there would be two other men to keep you company. When father and Jim are away, we never ask gentlemen to the house, for mother says seven women at one time are too great a tax on any man’s nervous system; but you wouldn’t be afraid of us when there were two other men, would you? The schoolroom girls don’t come down until after dinner, so we are really only three.”

Gervase Vanburgh laughed aloud, and Nan looked up with a quick flash of approval, for a laugh has a tell-tale sound, and this one rang unmistakably honest and true.

“I am not in the least afraid,” he cried boldly. “I’d like to see you all, school-girls included. It is most kind of you to think of it, and if Mrs Rendell will really allow me, I shall be delighted to accept your invitation.”

So Nan ran across the street, and entered the house with the great news that Gervase Vanburgh had arrived, and—given a formal invitation—was coming that very evening to make the acquaintance of the family.

Chapter Twenty.Among the Roses.By no one was the news of Gervase Vanburgh’s advent greeted with more enthusiasm than by Lilias herself, for, truth to tell, the day had seemed interminably long in the company of a depressed and anxious lover. The points of view from which Ned and herself regarded his position seemed to grow more hopelessly far apart the more it was discussed, and the consciousness that he was disappointed by her lack of sympathy did not tend to raise Lilias’s spirits. If the question at stake had not touched the all-important subject of future comfort, she would have been willing to sacrifice her own wishes in order to preserve Ned’s approval, but in this crisis of their fate she would allow no such weakness. If her own parents seemed to place Ned’s scruples before her interests, if Ned himself were so ignorant of what was due to hisfiancéeas to talk calmly of accepting the position of a clerk on a few hundreds a year, it behoved her to be firm, and make Ned understand that she would never be his wife until he could provide something more than the bare necessaries of life. Nevertheless, the task of opposition was far from pleasant, and the grave wonder of his glance cut like a knife into her vain little heart.It was a relief to know that the presence of a stranger would prevent further reference to the subject for this evening at least, while the Vanburgh nephew and heir was in himself a sufficiently interesting person. Lilias put on her prettiest dress, and sat trifling with a book until the company had assembled in the drawing-room, and the time was ripe for an effective entrance, when she glided into the room, and smiled sweetly at the stranger, while Nan watched his face with mischievous enjoyment. He was surprised—there was no mistake about that! When Lilias raised her face to his, he gave a distinct little start of surprise, and the sleepy eyes looked for once quite wide-awake and animated.“And the stupid fellow actually mistook me for her!” chuckled Nan to herself, with that pride in her sister’s beauty which the Rendell girls shared so loyally, looking upon it as a family possession which reflected credit on one and all. “That’s one mistake he will never make again, however much confused he may get among six sisters!”Conversation at the dinner table was of a general character; but every now and then Nan found an opportunity of exchanging a few quiet remarks with Gervase Vanburgh, who sat next herself, the result of which was to assure her that she had found a character as diametrically different from her own as it was possible to imagine. She was full of energy, he was languid to the verge of apathy; she had hard and fast opinions to offer on every topic, known or unknown, while his “Don’t know!” and “Couldn’t say!” repeated themselves with wearisome echo. She was afire with ardour, with enthusiasm, with the burning desire to right all wrongs, redress all evils, bring peace on earth, and start the millennium without a moment’s delay; judging from appearances, he seemed incapable of any sort of emotion, and possessed with the conviction that nothing was really worth taking any trouble about.Nan grew irritated beyond measure, wriggled about on her seat, shrugged her shoulders, and crumbled her bread, unconscious alike of her father’s smiles and her mother’s frowns, and, when actions failed to relieve her feelings, was forced into emphatic speech.“Nothing interests you, nothing gives you pleasure! You care for nothing, you hope for nothing! I wouldn’t be like you for the whole wide world!” she declared; and Gervase Vanburgh fixed his melancholy eyes upon her, and said tragically—“And I would give the whole wide world if I could once more care and hope like you!”This was disconcerting. Nan had not expected so speedy a concession, and she followed her mother from the room oppressed by the remembrance of that melancholy look, and consumed with curiosity as to its cause. Money anxiety it could not be, seeing that Mr Vanburgh’s heir need never fear want; but a broken home, disappointed love, and faithless friendship held out wide avenues for speculation. Nan sat and pondered, listening meekly to her mother’s reproofs, while inside the dining-room Mr Rendell could not resist putting a home question to his visitor.“You were amused by my little girl’s enthusiasm! I saw her growing hot and eager, and had a strong suspicion that you were leading her on! She is a most fervent young person, and cannot understand being less than in deadly earnest over any question.”“She is er—refreshingly young!” replied Gervase in his soft, drawling voice. He took no notice of the charge made against himself, but went on peeling his fruit with an air of pensive exhaustion, at which the two elder men exchanged glances of amusement. He looked at once so young, so healthy, and so prosperous, that this affectation of depression had somewhat of a ludicrous air to men who knew the world and had acquaintance with real and pressing anxieties. Ned Talbot looked across the table at the handsome youngster, and heaved a sigh to the memory of the good old days when he also was happy enough to invent troubles, and philosophise darkly concerning unknown woes. He had come south with a heart heavy with care, yet with an expectation of comfort which had taken away half the sting, but that hope had been doomed to disappointment, and on the morrow he must return to his work with an added fear in his heart. Could it be that he had been mistaken in Lilias? As a man eating a soft bloomy peach jars his teeth suddenly against its stone, so had Ned found himself confronted with a hardness in hisfiancée’snature which had brought with it a shock of disillusionment. Surely, surely, if a girl were ever to be sweet and sympathetic to the man whom she had promised to marry, it was when he was threatened by misfortune; but Lilias evidently refused to believe in his version of affairs, and cherished a grudging conviction that he was sacrificing her to romantic scruples. He had talked, and pleaded, and reasoned—it was like hitting one’s self against a wall. She never swerved from her position, her voice never lost its tone of studied toleration; and now he sat, the poor fellow! listening dreamily to the conversation between the other two men, too weary and depressed to take any active share in it himself.When a movement was made towards the drawing-room half an hour later, however, Lilias was discovered leaning against the lintel of the window, looking so young, so sweet and fragile, that every chivalrous instinct rose up in her defence. Such a girl was not made to endure hardships, Ned reflected tenderly. The man who was lucky enough to own her should be prepared to carry all burdens on his own shoulders. He was ready! Oh yes; if Lilias would but love him faithfully, he would work for her with the strength of twenty men. He was eager to tell her so, to apologise for his harshness of the afternoon; and, stepping past into the garden, he caught her hand in his, and tried to draw her away.“Come, dear, come! Let us walk round the garden. I want to speak to you alone.”Lilias laughed, gave a caressing little squeeze to his hand, but stood firmly in her position. Gervase Vanburgh and her father were approaching, and a general conversation seemed at the moment more interesting than atête-à-têtewith her lover. So far she had had little opportunity of speaking to the stranger, and his appearance both interested and perplexed her. The air of languid elegance which provoked Nan, filled her sister with admiration, yet there was something baffling in the expression of the sleepy eyes. Lilias had an uncomfortable impression that those eyes might be very keen on occasions, and would have suspected a quizzical expression at the present moment, had the idea not been so palpably absurd. Why should Gervase find anything amusing in her attitude? It was surely a most natural thing that she, as the eldest daughter at home, should wait for the gentlemen, while her sisters went out into the garden, and, that being so, where should she stand, if not by the window? Nevertheless, the slow, quiet smile which followed his glance around, sent the blood into her cheeks, and seemed to intimate that he was as well aware as herself of the appropriateness of the background, and the care which had devised that seemingly careless pose! So disconcerted was she that she would have been inclined to retire in Ned’s company had he pressed his request a second time, but he was silenced by the first refusal, and the little group stood together exchanging commonplaces, until a white dress appeared among the rose-bushes, and Nan’s voice called out an unabashed summons—“I thought you were never coming! Why don’t you come out? It’s perfectly lovely here. The roses smell so delicious in the dusk; and oh, father, there are two whole flowers on the little pink-belled saxifrage you brought home from Norway!”“No!” cried Mr Rendell in tones of incredulous ecstasy, which stamped him on the spot as one of the noble army of gardeners. He hurried forward to inspect the new treasures, while Nan went down on her knees to hold up their tiny heads and expatiate on their fragile beauty. When she arose five minutes later, she found two surprises awaiting her, the first being the presence of Mr Vanburgh by her side, and the second, alas! two large green stains on her white skirt, in the middle of the front seam, where she had knelt on the dewy grass. Her face of dismay as she pointed downwards evoked a laugh from the two men, but Mr Rendell checked himself, glanced over his shoulder towards where his wife paced to and fro, and said quickly—“Better run upstairs, dear, and change it. No need to be distressed; you have plenty more, I suppose, and it will wash.”Nan groaned in a sepulchral fashion, and shook her head.“You don’t understand! It’s an evening skirt with trimmings, not an ordinary piqué. My very best too! I put it on because Mr Vanburgh was coming, and now it’s spoilt!”“Oh, surely not! Don’t say that; it makes me feel so horribly guilty. Let me try if I can rub it off,” cried the visitor eagerly; and, before Nan could protest, out came a superfine hemstitched handkerchief, and Gervase began rubbing the damaged skirt with such vigour, that the stains grew larger and larger, and increased their borders so rapidly that they met and blended in one great whole. His face lengthened with horror as he withdrew his handkerchief, and gazed upon the results of his labour; and Nan said dismally—“Thank you so much! It’s much worse now! Wish I were old enough to wear black always, and not be bothered. My life’s a burden to me because of my clothes!”“For the mother’s pride the child must suffer pain!” cried Mr Rendell, laughing. “That is what Kitty said, isn’t it, when her mother insisted on pinning down the end of her collar? Better confess at once, Mops, and get it over! Tell your mother she can send it to the cleaner’s, and I’ll stand the racket.”“Come and tell her yourself. D–oo, ducky darling! Sweetest father in all the world, come and plead for me!” coaxed Nan, hanging on to his arm, and rubbing his face with her soft cool cheek, while he affected to push her away, and in reality allowed himself to be led where she would take him.Mr Vanburgh followed, stroking his moustache to conceal his smile, and Mrs Rendell’s quick eyes saw their approach, and fixed themselves sternly upon Nan’s ruined skirt.“Another accident, Edith, worse luck! The grass would get damp, and Mops and I were so interested in looking at our plant that we forgot everything else, and—”“So I observe! It is a pity, but I am not surprised. What can one expect from Nan, but destruction!” Mrs Rendell spoke with melancholy resignation, while the assembled sisters looked on with solemn eyes. Dainty Lilias, pensive Elsie, kindly Agatha, Christabel the immaculate, they stood gazing in a solid phalanx of disapproval, while Nan the culprit hung her head and flushed with embarrassment. A moment later Mrs Rendell had turned the conversation into another channel, unwilling to prolong the present discussion in the presence of a stranger, and Nan seized the opportunity to escape to the far end of the garden. Gervase Vanburgh stood in her path, and spied the glimmer of tears on the dark eyelashes as she passed by. Then she disappeared, and Elsie’s chin dropped with amazement as she saw the elegant stranger deliberately mark a stone on the path, and kick it savagely with the toe of his patent leather shoe.“Bland of exterior, but concealing beneath the surface secret and violent impulses!” Such was the character given to Gervase Vanburgh in Miss Elsie Rendell’s diary that evening; and perhaps for once the youthful author was not far wrong in her conclusions!

By no one was the news of Gervase Vanburgh’s advent greeted with more enthusiasm than by Lilias herself, for, truth to tell, the day had seemed interminably long in the company of a depressed and anxious lover. The points of view from which Ned and herself regarded his position seemed to grow more hopelessly far apart the more it was discussed, and the consciousness that he was disappointed by her lack of sympathy did not tend to raise Lilias’s spirits. If the question at stake had not touched the all-important subject of future comfort, she would have been willing to sacrifice her own wishes in order to preserve Ned’s approval, but in this crisis of their fate she would allow no such weakness. If her own parents seemed to place Ned’s scruples before her interests, if Ned himself were so ignorant of what was due to hisfiancéeas to talk calmly of accepting the position of a clerk on a few hundreds a year, it behoved her to be firm, and make Ned understand that she would never be his wife until he could provide something more than the bare necessaries of life. Nevertheless, the task of opposition was far from pleasant, and the grave wonder of his glance cut like a knife into her vain little heart.

It was a relief to know that the presence of a stranger would prevent further reference to the subject for this evening at least, while the Vanburgh nephew and heir was in himself a sufficiently interesting person. Lilias put on her prettiest dress, and sat trifling with a book until the company had assembled in the drawing-room, and the time was ripe for an effective entrance, when she glided into the room, and smiled sweetly at the stranger, while Nan watched his face with mischievous enjoyment. He was surprised—there was no mistake about that! When Lilias raised her face to his, he gave a distinct little start of surprise, and the sleepy eyes looked for once quite wide-awake and animated.

“And the stupid fellow actually mistook me for her!” chuckled Nan to herself, with that pride in her sister’s beauty which the Rendell girls shared so loyally, looking upon it as a family possession which reflected credit on one and all. “That’s one mistake he will never make again, however much confused he may get among six sisters!”

Conversation at the dinner table was of a general character; but every now and then Nan found an opportunity of exchanging a few quiet remarks with Gervase Vanburgh, who sat next herself, the result of which was to assure her that she had found a character as diametrically different from her own as it was possible to imagine. She was full of energy, he was languid to the verge of apathy; she had hard and fast opinions to offer on every topic, known or unknown, while his “Don’t know!” and “Couldn’t say!” repeated themselves with wearisome echo. She was afire with ardour, with enthusiasm, with the burning desire to right all wrongs, redress all evils, bring peace on earth, and start the millennium without a moment’s delay; judging from appearances, he seemed incapable of any sort of emotion, and possessed with the conviction that nothing was really worth taking any trouble about.

Nan grew irritated beyond measure, wriggled about on her seat, shrugged her shoulders, and crumbled her bread, unconscious alike of her father’s smiles and her mother’s frowns, and, when actions failed to relieve her feelings, was forced into emphatic speech.

“Nothing interests you, nothing gives you pleasure! You care for nothing, you hope for nothing! I wouldn’t be like you for the whole wide world!” she declared; and Gervase Vanburgh fixed his melancholy eyes upon her, and said tragically—

“And I would give the whole wide world if I could once more care and hope like you!”

This was disconcerting. Nan had not expected so speedy a concession, and she followed her mother from the room oppressed by the remembrance of that melancholy look, and consumed with curiosity as to its cause. Money anxiety it could not be, seeing that Mr Vanburgh’s heir need never fear want; but a broken home, disappointed love, and faithless friendship held out wide avenues for speculation. Nan sat and pondered, listening meekly to her mother’s reproofs, while inside the dining-room Mr Rendell could not resist putting a home question to his visitor.

“You were amused by my little girl’s enthusiasm! I saw her growing hot and eager, and had a strong suspicion that you were leading her on! She is a most fervent young person, and cannot understand being less than in deadly earnest over any question.”

“She is er—refreshingly young!” replied Gervase in his soft, drawling voice. He took no notice of the charge made against himself, but went on peeling his fruit with an air of pensive exhaustion, at which the two elder men exchanged glances of amusement. He looked at once so young, so healthy, and so prosperous, that this affectation of depression had somewhat of a ludicrous air to men who knew the world and had acquaintance with real and pressing anxieties. Ned Talbot looked across the table at the handsome youngster, and heaved a sigh to the memory of the good old days when he also was happy enough to invent troubles, and philosophise darkly concerning unknown woes. He had come south with a heart heavy with care, yet with an expectation of comfort which had taken away half the sting, but that hope had been doomed to disappointment, and on the morrow he must return to his work with an added fear in his heart. Could it be that he had been mistaken in Lilias? As a man eating a soft bloomy peach jars his teeth suddenly against its stone, so had Ned found himself confronted with a hardness in hisfiancée’snature which had brought with it a shock of disillusionment. Surely, surely, if a girl were ever to be sweet and sympathetic to the man whom she had promised to marry, it was when he was threatened by misfortune; but Lilias evidently refused to believe in his version of affairs, and cherished a grudging conviction that he was sacrificing her to romantic scruples. He had talked, and pleaded, and reasoned—it was like hitting one’s self against a wall. She never swerved from her position, her voice never lost its tone of studied toleration; and now he sat, the poor fellow! listening dreamily to the conversation between the other two men, too weary and depressed to take any active share in it himself.

When a movement was made towards the drawing-room half an hour later, however, Lilias was discovered leaning against the lintel of the window, looking so young, so sweet and fragile, that every chivalrous instinct rose up in her defence. Such a girl was not made to endure hardships, Ned reflected tenderly. The man who was lucky enough to own her should be prepared to carry all burdens on his own shoulders. He was ready! Oh yes; if Lilias would but love him faithfully, he would work for her with the strength of twenty men. He was eager to tell her so, to apologise for his harshness of the afternoon; and, stepping past into the garden, he caught her hand in his, and tried to draw her away.

“Come, dear, come! Let us walk round the garden. I want to speak to you alone.”

Lilias laughed, gave a caressing little squeeze to his hand, but stood firmly in her position. Gervase Vanburgh and her father were approaching, and a general conversation seemed at the moment more interesting than atête-à-têtewith her lover. So far she had had little opportunity of speaking to the stranger, and his appearance both interested and perplexed her. The air of languid elegance which provoked Nan, filled her sister with admiration, yet there was something baffling in the expression of the sleepy eyes. Lilias had an uncomfortable impression that those eyes might be very keen on occasions, and would have suspected a quizzical expression at the present moment, had the idea not been so palpably absurd. Why should Gervase find anything amusing in her attitude? It was surely a most natural thing that she, as the eldest daughter at home, should wait for the gentlemen, while her sisters went out into the garden, and, that being so, where should she stand, if not by the window? Nevertheless, the slow, quiet smile which followed his glance around, sent the blood into her cheeks, and seemed to intimate that he was as well aware as herself of the appropriateness of the background, and the care which had devised that seemingly careless pose! So disconcerted was she that she would have been inclined to retire in Ned’s company had he pressed his request a second time, but he was silenced by the first refusal, and the little group stood together exchanging commonplaces, until a white dress appeared among the rose-bushes, and Nan’s voice called out an unabashed summons—

“I thought you were never coming! Why don’t you come out? It’s perfectly lovely here. The roses smell so delicious in the dusk; and oh, father, there are two whole flowers on the little pink-belled saxifrage you brought home from Norway!”

“No!” cried Mr Rendell in tones of incredulous ecstasy, which stamped him on the spot as one of the noble army of gardeners. He hurried forward to inspect the new treasures, while Nan went down on her knees to hold up their tiny heads and expatiate on their fragile beauty. When she arose five minutes later, she found two surprises awaiting her, the first being the presence of Mr Vanburgh by her side, and the second, alas! two large green stains on her white skirt, in the middle of the front seam, where she had knelt on the dewy grass. Her face of dismay as she pointed downwards evoked a laugh from the two men, but Mr Rendell checked himself, glanced over his shoulder towards where his wife paced to and fro, and said quickly—

“Better run upstairs, dear, and change it. No need to be distressed; you have plenty more, I suppose, and it will wash.”

Nan groaned in a sepulchral fashion, and shook her head.

“You don’t understand! It’s an evening skirt with trimmings, not an ordinary piqué. My very best too! I put it on because Mr Vanburgh was coming, and now it’s spoilt!”

“Oh, surely not! Don’t say that; it makes me feel so horribly guilty. Let me try if I can rub it off,” cried the visitor eagerly; and, before Nan could protest, out came a superfine hemstitched handkerchief, and Gervase began rubbing the damaged skirt with such vigour, that the stains grew larger and larger, and increased their borders so rapidly that they met and blended in one great whole. His face lengthened with horror as he withdrew his handkerchief, and gazed upon the results of his labour; and Nan said dismally—

“Thank you so much! It’s much worse now! Wish I were old enough to wear black always, and not be bothered. My life’s a burden to me because of my clothes!”

“For the mother’s pride the child must suffer pain!” cried Mr Rendell, laughing. “That is what Kitty said, isn’t it, when her mother insisted on pinning down the end of her collar? Better confess at once, Mops, and get it over! Tell your mother she can send it to the cleaner’s, and I’ll stand the racket.”

“Come and tell her yourself. D–oo, ducky darling! Sweetest father in all the world, come and plead for me!” coaxed Nan, hanging on to his arm, and rubbing his face with her soft cool cheek, while he affected to push her away, and in reality allowed himself to be led where she would take him.

Mr Vanburgh followed, stroking his moustache to conceal his smile, and Mrs Rendell’s quick eyes saw their approach, and fixed themselves sternly upon Nan’s ruined skirt.

“Another accident, Edith, worse luck! The grass would get damp, and Mops and I were so interested in looking at our plant that we forgot everything else, and—”

“So I observe! It is a pity, but I am not surprised. What can one expect from Nan, but destruction!” Mrs Rendell spoke with melancholy resignation, while the assembled sisters looked on with solemn eyes. Dainty Lilias, pensive Elsie, kindly Agatha, Christabel the immaculate, they stood gazing in a solid phalanx of disapproval, while Nan the culprit hung her head and flushed with embarrassment. A moment later Mrs Rendell had turned the conversation into another channel, unwilling to prolong the present discussion in the presence of a stranger, and Nan seized the opportunity to escape to the far end of the garden. Gervase Vanburgh stood in her path, and spied the glimmer of tears on the dark eyelashes as she passed by. Then she disappeared, and Elsie’s chin dropped with amazement as she saw the elegant stranger deliberately mark a stone on the path, and kick it savagely with the toe of his patent leather shoe.

“Bland of exterior, but concealing beneath the surface secret and violent impulses!” Such was the character given to Gervase Vanburgh in Miss Elsie Rendell’s diary that evening; and perhaps for once the youthful author was not far wrong in her conclusions!

Chapter Twenty One.A Vow of Friendship.The next morning at ten o’clock the Italian servant was entrusted with a message from his master which created a wild excitement in the Rendell family. Mr Vanburgh was restored to his usual health, and wished to celebrate that fact, and provide at the same time a little entertainment for his nephew, by giving analfrescoluncheon in the garden, to which he invited his friends at Thurston House. The meal would be served under the beech-tree on the lawn, and Mr Vanburgh hoped to welcome his guests at one o’clock precisely.“But not all of us! There are six of us—six women—not to mention Mr Talbot. Mr Vanburgh cannot mean to include the school-room party! The elder ones will be delighted to accept, but—”“Mother!” gasped Christabel. Agatha laid hold of the back of a couch, and prepared to faint on the spot, and the Italian looked from one to the other, a gleam of amusement showing in the dusky eyes.“My master would be much disappointed, madam. He wishes especially the young signorinas. I am to bear an invitation also to Mrs Maitland and to Miss Kitty.”That settled the matter! If Kitty were going, it would be nothing short of cruelty to keep her companions at home, so Mrs Rendell sent a general acceptance to the invitation, and shrugged her shoulders resignedly as each of the five girls hugged her in turns, and deafened her with questions.“Mother, what shall I wear?”“Mother, my piqué skirts have not come home from the wash! I wish you would leave that horrid laundry. It’s the third time—”“Mother, will my pink blouse do? It’s the nicest I have, and it’s only a little bit soiled on the sleeves, and if I wore clean cuffs—”“Mother, need I change? Can’t I go as I am, and be happy? I might want to climb over a fence, and it’s such spiky work.”“Mother, I think we should all go dressed alike in white dresses and blue ties, and march across the road in a crocodile. Do let’s! It would be such fun!”Mrs Rendell pressed her hands to her head in distracted fashion.“If every single one of you is not out of this room in two minutes from now, I’ll retract, and send a refusal instead! Get away to your work! I’ll see you separately later on, if you want instructions, but surely girls of your age ought to be able to dress without my assistance! The only thing I bargain for is that you arenotalike, for that would only accentuate your number, and as it is I feel ashamed to appear with such a battalion.”“Lilias, need we go?” Ned Talbot slid his hand through hisfiancée’sarm, and drew her into the garden. “If the party is too large, why should we not reduce it by two, and have a quiet little lunch by ourselves? I must leave before four o’clock, and if we go to the Grange it will mean that we have no more time together, for we cannot run away immediately after lunch. Mr Vanburgh would understand our position if we sent an excuse.”“Oh, Ned!” cried Lilias, and the tone of reproach was so eloquent that there could be no mistaking her wishes on the subject. “Oh, Ned, the first time we have been asked! Our first invitation! You couldn’t really wish me to refuse it. I should be so dreadfully disappointed. You don’t know how much we have longed to be asked, or what castles in the air we have built about this day!”“Very well, dear; don’t trouble yourself. We will do just as you please,” said Ned wearily. He tried to convince himself of the reasonableness of Lilias’s position, and to show no sign of resentment; but the jar was there all the same, and seemed to set up a barrier between them in all they did and said. If any one had foretold that he should feel time drag heavily in Lilias’s company, and cast about in his mind for subjects on which to talk, how he would have derided the idea! yet, alas, it had come true, for he felt a distinct sense of gratitude towards Nan when she thrust her head out of a bedroom window and summoned Lilias to her assistance. When there is no sympathy in the great principles of life, small talks become increasingly difficult, as this poor fellow was discovering to his cost.Punctually at one o’clock the door of Thurston House was thrown open, and Mrs Rendell was discovered standing upon the threshold, issuing final directions to her flock.“Stop talking! My dear, good girls, if you insist upon speaking all together, how am I to make myself heard? Pray calm yourselves, and behave like reasonable beings. Don’t let me have the humiliation of taking about a crowd of excited children who might never before have been outside their own gate!” Then she marched majestically ahead, with the demure Elsie as her companion, while the engaged couple followed, and each of the three remaining girls fell back in turns to cast a critical glance at her companions. Half-way across the road Nan’s belt was discovered to have parted company with the skirt, and the most strategic measures were necessary in order to secure it before her mother reached the door of the Grange.“And remember, all of you, not to put your arms round her waist! The pin will stick out, whatever I do with it,” said Christabel darkly; then the door was thrown open, and the butler led the way across the hall towards the entrance to the garden. Each member of the visiting party was consumed with curiosity to examine the beautiful objects on either side, but had too much ado to keep her footing on the slippery oak floor to have any attention to spare. Lilias clung to Ned’s arm, Mrs Rendell and Elsie minced along with tiny footsteps, and Nan waited until no one was looking, and then gave giant strides from one mat to another, or clung to a friendly rail to help her round slippery corners. Then at last the garden was reached, and there, beneath the trees, stood an enchanted table, laden with everything that was beautiful in the way of glass and china, and banked up with a wealth of pink roses.Mr Vanburgh’s couch was drawn up at its head, and Kitty Maitland sat at his side, bearing herself with that preternatural solemnity of manner which she invariably adopted along with her best dress and hat. A moment later Mrs Maitland and Gervase appeared from behind a tree, and the elders shook hands and murmured the meaningless speeches common to such occasions, while Kitty took an early opportunity of stepping to Chrissie’s side, and calling her attention to the splendours on the table in a series of awed and breathless whispers.“Gold spoons! Venetian glass! It breaks if you look at it! I daren’t drink a drop out of those tumblers, and I’m so thirsty! Such cream! Such strawberries!—big as peaches, my love, and such lots of them. I feel like the Queen of Sheba. There’s no spirit left in me, it’s all so grand and gorgeous.”“I like it. It suits me! I was born to splendour!” said Chrissie, with an air. “I call it awfully sweet of him to do the thing so well. But what a dreadful number of knives and forks! I shall never know which to use. I wish I had asked mother about it before we came, for I do so detest making mistakes. Before a butler, too—so humiliating! And yet I don’t want to refuse anything I can help!”“Don’t refuse! Take all that comes, and crumble bread until you see how other people eat it. That’s my dodge when I go out to lunch with mother. I say, how do you like the nephew? Doesn’t he look ex-actly like the tailor’s advertisement that you see in the shop windows? I have never seen any man look like that before, and want to pinch him, to see if he is real. Do you suppose it’s possible to be so handsome, and yet as nice as if he were ugly, like Jim?”“Jim! Jim ugly!” gasped Jim’s outraged sister furiously. “Gwendoline Maitland, you are raving! Jim is the best-looking man I know, and I’ll tell him the moment that he comes home that you said—”“Jim won’t mind. I told him so myself last year. He asked how I liked his moustache, and I said it was ‘stubbly,’ and he said moral worth was better than brilliantine. There’s none of your nasty pride about Jim.”Chrissie glared, but Kitty refused to be annihilated, and crinkled her nose in sauciest defiance, whereupon her companion stared into space with an expression of disdain. An onlooker would have concluded that a serious quarrel had taken place; but such small interludes were of common occurrence in the friendship of these two young women, and five minutes later they were pinching each other in the most amicable manner, and whispering, “Sit by me! Sit by me!” as if true happiness could not be enjoyed apart.During the meal which followed there was ample opportunity of “crumbling bread,” for the Vanburgh cook had received instructions to eclipse himself for the young ladies’ benefit, and the succession of curious unknown dishes which he sent to table would have puzzled more experienced “diners out” than the members of the present party. A prettier scene could hardly be imagined than the table under the trees, with the green lawn sweeping away on either side, the foreign servants flitting to and fro, and the six girlish faces of the guests beaming with delighted approval. Elsie’s eyes grew large and dreamy, as she mentally rehearsed the most appropriate language in which to chronicle the event in her diary. Such expressions as “Arabian Nights entertainment,” “Green sward,” and “Princely Splendour,” figured largely in the description, which ran to an inordinate length, and still seemed to have left half the wonders untold.Nan spoke little during the meal, but, like the proverbial parrot, noticed much. She noticed that, though the utmost courtesy was maintained between uncle and nephew, the elder man was evidently annoyed by the persistent nonchalance of the younger; and she had a shrewd suspicion that Gervase knew as much, yet did not trouble himself to rectify it. She noticed that, while Ned was depressed, Lilias’s mood was of the gayest and sweetest; and she noticed that Gervase noticed as much, and studied the lovers narrowly from his point of vantage across the table. She heard dear old Agatha discussing politics with her host, and quoting her father wholesale in her gallant attempt to be grown up and important; and she chuckled audibly over the two schoolgirls’ enjoyment of the fare. Then at last the meal was over, and she heaved a sigh of relief that all had passed off without catastrophe and with credit to the family. No one had broken the fragile glass, no one had betrayed a plebeian ignorance of theconvenances, nor showed ill-bred surprise. They had examined themenuwith an understanding air, as though every other name was not as Greek to their ears, and had refrained from any signs of approval more noticeable than pressures of feet under the table, and occasional sly joltings of elbows.The two ladies stayed beside Mr Vanburgh, whilethe younger members of the party strolled about the grounds, Gervase Vanburgh first walking with Lilias, and then making an excuse to cross to Nan’s side. He smiled as he came, and his first words showed that he had grasped the situation without any need for words.“I shall get myself disliked if I stay there any longer! Mr Talbot leaves in another hour, I think, so it is hardly fair to him to engross your sister.”“But how do you know anything about Mr Talbot? I never told you,” cried Nan in amaze; and Gervase smiled in his aggravating, lazy fashion as he replied—“Oh no, you simply said that ‘a friend of Lil—a friend of my brother Jim’ was staying with you at present. That was all, I think. You gave me no information.”“Which means that I did, of course, and blurted out everything in my stupid, headlong fashion,” sighed Nan dolefully. “It doesn’t matter much in this case, for a good many people know; but mother wishes it kept as quiet as possible, because—”“Just so. But I assure you that even without your hint I should have discovered for myself that they were at present engaged; so there is no necessity to blame yourself.”Nan wheeled round upon him with flashing eyes.“Why do you say ‘at present’?” she demanded; and Gervase smiled in impenetrable fashion.“Did I say so? Foolish slip! They are engaged, of course. I wish Miss Lilias every happiness, and congratulate Mr Talbot on his good taste. She is certainly a lovely girl.”“Oh, isn’t she?” cried Lilias’s sister gladly. “I knew you would say so. You see now how absurd it was to mistake me for her, and what a difference there is between us! I knew quite well you would be surprised.”Gervase Vanburgh put back his head, and stared at her with a scrutiny which was not without a touch of cynicism; but the eager face he met was at once so frank and so honest, that the sneer faded from his lips and gave place to a smile.“Yes,” he said slowly, “there is a great difference. I cannot imagine two people more unlike. You are complete contrasts in every respect.”“She is so fair, and I am dark,” sighed Nan, a trifle abashed by so vehement an assent, but striving loyally to conceal her discomfiture. “Lilias is our beauty, and we are all very proud of her; but you cannot really know the family until you have met Maud. Maud is the eldest sister, and the best and sweetest of them all. She isn’t pretty, but she is such a dear that every one loves her. ‘Maud of all work’ Jim calls her, because she is always helping other people and forgetting herself.”“Most exemplary, I’m sure. Excellent example!” drawled Gervase with a yawn, at the sound of which the last trace of Nan’s patience gave way. She stood still in the path and fixed him with a glittering eye; but the speech which swelled in her throat was slow in coming, choked back by very excess of emotion. Gervase, in some alarm, demanded the cause of her agitation, and received a straighter answer than he expected.“I don’t care to speak about Maud to a person who only sneers at her goodness. If you don’t mind, I’d rather talk about the weather, and the garden, and things that don’t matter; and then I can keep as indifferent as you are yourself, and we sha’n’t quarrel.”“I sneer! I beg a hundred pardons, Miss Nan, if I have appeared to sneer at anything you say; but I assure you that I have never yet voluntarily sneered at goodness; so that in this instance at least you are doing me an injustice. You must believe me, please, for I am thoroughly in earnest.”“Yes, I see you are. I’m sorry that I misjudged you.”“And I am sorry too. You are sorry, I am sorry, we are both sorry, so now suppose we drop this subject and start afresh. I’d like to be friends with you if you will; for I expect we shall see a good deal of each other in future, and it would distress my uncle if we disagreed. Do you think you could sign a treaty of friendship with me?”“Well,” said Nan slowly—and then paused, too honest to pledge her word without counting the cost—“I could, but I’m not sure that it would last. We are so different. Would you mind answering one personal question?”“I’ll answer fifty with pleasure if it’s in my power.”“Then have you known some awful trouble? Has something dreadful, heart-breaking, happened to you, which you are trying to cover up and hide from the world?”Gervase stared at her in amazement, which ended in a laugh.“Certainly not! I have had an absolutely smooth life—too smooth, I am afraid, for the growth of character. Now I wonder what made you take such an idea into your head!”“I thought perhaps your heart was broken, and that was why you took no interest in anything that was going on.”“Do I take no interest? I was under the impression that I took a great deal—sometimes; but I have learned to conceal my feelings. You may not perhaps be aware that English boys are educated in this fashion, nowadays. At a public school it is considered ‘bad form’ to be enthusiastic on any subject. ‘Not bad’ or ‘pretty decent’ are the superlatives of praise, and anything more emphatic is sure to be snubbed. Perhaps I have been too apt a disciple in that school.”“I call it a hateful school! and if I had a hundred sons I would not let one of them be trained under such an influence. If a boy is not to be enthusiastic when he is young, when will he be, pray? Youth is the time for noble dreams, for enthusiasm which carries all before it. It is the enthusiasm of youth which keeps the world moving. None of your languid half-measures for me!” declaimed Nan dramatically, backing into a flower-bed in her earnestness, and trampling half a dozen begonias beneath her heels. “Life is real—life is earnest!”“It is indeed,” cried Gervase, laughing; “and so, if you will permit me to say so, is my uncle’s gardener, when he is roused! Begonias, I fancy, are his special passion. Miss Nan, you will have to be friends with me whether you will or not, for our natures are so different that we could be of infinite service to each other. You could inspire me with your own enthusiasm, and I, in my turn, could curb and restrain you.”“But, dear me,” cried Nan, “I don’t want to be curbed!” Then she looked at the begonias, and her face fell. “But I suppose, like all disagreeable things, it would be good for me; so I’ll be friends, if you like, Mr Vanburgh, and take my share of the discipline.”“I feel much honoured. It shall be my endeavour to be as little disagreeable as I can,” said Gervase Vanburgh, with his courtly bow; and thus were the deeds signed in a friendship destined to have far-reaching consequences.

The next morning at ten o’clock the Italian servant was entrusted with a message from his master which created a wild excitement in the Rendell family. Mr Vanburgh was restored to his usual health, and wished to celebrate that fact, and provide at the same time a little entertainment for his nephew, by giving analfrescoluncheon in the garden, to which he invited his friends at Thurston House. The meal would be served under the beech-tree on the lawn, and Mr Vanburgh hoped to welcome his guests at one o’clock precisely.

“But not all of us! There are six of us—six women—not to mention Mr Talbot. Mr Vanburgh cannot mean to include the school-room party! The elder ones will be delighted to accept, but—”

“Mother!” gasped Christabel. Agatha laid hold of the back of a couch, and prepared to faint on the spot, and the Italian looked from one to the other, a gleam of amusement showing in the dusky eyes.

“My master would be much disappointed, madam. He wishes especially the young signorinas. I am to bear an invitation also to Mrs Maitland and to Miss Kitty.”

That settled the matter! If Kitty were going, it would be nothing short of cruelty to keep her companions at home, so Mrs Rendell sent a general acceptance to the invitation, and shrugged her shoulders resignedly as each of the five girls hugged her in turns, and deafened her with questions.

“Mother, what shall I wear?”

“Mother, my piqué skirts have not come home from the wash! I wish you would leave that horrid laundry. It’s the third time—”

“Mother, will my pink blouse do? It’s the nicest I have, and it’s only a little bit soiled on the sleeves, and if I wore clean cuffs—”

“Mother, need I change? Can’t I go as I am, and be happy? I might want to climb over a fence, and it’s such spiky work.”

“Mother, I think we should all go dressed alike in white dresses and blue ties, and march across the road in a crocodile. Do let’s! It would be such fun!”

Mrs Rendell pressed her hands to her head in distracted fashion.

“If every single one of you is not out of this room in two minutes from now, I’ll retract, and send a refusal instead! Get away to your work! I’ll see you separately later on, if you want instructions, but surely girls of your age ought to be able to dress without my assistance! The only thing I bargain for is that you arenotalike, for that would only accentuate your number, and as it is I feel ashamed to appear with such a battalion.”

“Lilias, need we go?” Ned Talbot slid his hand through hisfiancée’sarm, and drew her into the garden. “If the party is too large, why should we not reduce it by two, and have a quiet little lunch by ourselves? I must leave before four o’clock, and if we go to the Grange it will mean that we have no more time together, for we cannot run away immediately after lunch. Mr Vanburgh would understand our position if we sent an excuse.”

“Oh, Ned!” cried Lilias, and the tone of reproach was so eloquent that there could be no mistaking her wishes on the subject. “Oh, Ned, the first time we have been asked! Our first invitation! You couldn’t really wish me to refuse it. I should be so dreadfully disappointed. You don’t know how much we have longed to be asked, or what castles in the air we have built about this day!”

“Very well, dear; don’t trouble yourself. We will do just as you please,” said Ned wearily. He tried to convince himself of the reasonableness of Lilias’s position, and to show no sign of resentment; but the jar was there all the same, and seemed to set up a barrier between them in all they did and said. If any one had foretold that he should feel time drag heavily in Lilias’s company, and cast about in his mind for subjects on which to talk, how he would have derided the idea! yet, alas, it had come true, for he felt a distinct sense of gratitude towards Nan when she thrust her head out of a bedroom window and summoned Lilias to her assistance. When there is no sympathy in the great principles of life, small talks become increasingly difficult, as this poor fellow was discovering to his cost.

Punctually at one o’clock the door of Thurston House was thrown open, and Mrs Rendell was discovered standing upon the threshold, issuing final directions to her flock.

“Stop talking! My dear, good girls, if you insist upon speaking all together, how am I to make myself heard? Pray calm yourselves, and behave like reasonable beings. Don’t let me have the humiliation of taking about a crowd of excited children who might never before have been outside their own gate!” Then she marched majestically ahead, with the demure Elsie as her companion, while the engaged couple followed, and each of the three remaining girls fell back in turns to cast a critical glance at her companions. Half-way across the road Nan’s belt was discovered to have parted company with the skirt, and the most strategic measures were necessary in order to secure it before her mother reached the door of the Grange.

“And remember, all of you, not to put your arms round her waist! The pin will stick out, whatever I do with it,” said Christabel darkly; then the door was thrown open, and the butler led the way across the hall towards the entrance to the garden. Each member of the visiting party was consumed with curiosity to examine the beautiful objects on either side, but had too much ado to keep her footing on the slippery oak floor to have any attention to spare. Lilias clung to Ned’s arm, Mrs Rendell and Elsie minced along with tiny footsteps, and Nan waited until no one was looking, and then gave giant strides from one mat to another, or clung to a friendly rail to help her round slippery corners. Then at last the garden was reached, and there, beneath the trees, stood an enchanted table, laden with everything that was beautiful in the way of glass and china, and banked up with a wealth of pink roses.

Mr Vanburgh’s couch was drawn up at its head, and Kitty Maitland sat at his side, bearing herself with that preternatural solemnity of manner which she invariably adopted along with her best dress and hat. A moment later Mrs Maitland and Gervase appeared from behind a tree, and the elders shook hands and murmured the meaningless speeches common to such occasions, while Kitty took an early opportunity of stepping to Chrissie’s side, and calling her attention to the splendours on the table in a series of awed and breathless whispers.

“Gold spoons! Venetian glass! It breaks if you look at it! I daren’t drink a drop out of those tumblers, and I’m so thirsty! Such cream! Such strawberries!—big as peaches, my love, and such lots of them. I feel like the Queen of Sheba. There’s no spirit left in me, it’s all so grand and gorgeous.”

“I like it. It suits me! I was born to splendour!” said Chrissie, with an air. “I call it awfully sweet of him to do the thing so well. But what a dreadful number of knives and forks! I shall never know which to use. I wish I had asked mother about it before we came, for I do so detest making mistakes. Before a butler, too—so humiliating! And yet I don’t want to refuse anything I can help!”

“Don’t refuse! Take all that comes, and crumble bread until you see how other people eat it. That’s my dodge when I go out to lunch with mother. I say, how do you like the nephew? Doesn’t he look ex-actly like the tailor’s advertisement that you see in the shop windows? I have never seen any man look like that before, and want to pinch him, to see if he is real. Do you suppose it’s possible to be so handsome, and yet as nice as if he were ugly, like Jim?”

“Jim! Jim ugly!” gasped Jim’s outraged sister furiously. “Gwendoline Maitland, you are raving! Jim is the best-looking man I know, and I’ll tell him the moment that he comes home that you said—”

“Jim won’t mind. I told him so myself last year. He asked how I liked his moustache, and I said it was ‘stubbly,’ and he said moral worth was better than brilliantine. There’s none of your nasty pride about Jim.”

Chrissie glared, but Kitty refused to be annihilated, and crinkled her nose in sauciest defiance, whereupon her companion stared into space with an expression of disdain. An onlooker would have concluded that a serious quarrel had taken place; but such small interludes were of common occurrence in the friendship of these two young women, and five minutes later they were pinching each other in the most amicable manner, and whispering, “Sit by me! Sit by me!” as if true happiness could not be enjoyed apart.

During the meal which followed there was ample opportunity of “crumbling bread,” for the Vanburgh cook had received instructions to eclipse himself for the young ladies’ benefit, and the succession of curious unknown dishes which he sent to table would have puzzled more experienced “diners out” than the members of the present party. A prettier scene could hardly be imagined than the table under the trees, with the green lawn sweeping away on either side, the foreign servants flitting to and fro, and the six girlish faces of the guests beaming with delighted approval. Elsie’s eyes grew large and dreamy, as she mentally rehearsed the most appropriate language in which to chronicle the event in her diary. Such expressions as “Arabian Nights entertainment,” “Green sward,” and “Princely Splendour,” figured largely in the description, which ran to an inordinate length, and still seemed to have left half the wonders untold.

Nan spoke little during the meal, but, like the proverbial parrot, noticed much. She noticed that, though the utmost courtesy was maintained between uncle and nephew, the elder man was evidently annoyed by the persistent nonchalance of the younger; and she had a shrewd suspicion that Gervase knew as much, yet did not trouble himself to rectify it. She noticed that, while Ned was depressed, Lilias’s mood was of the gayest and sweetest; and she noticed that Gervase noticed as much, and studied the lovers narrowly from his point of vantage across the table. She heard dear old Agatha discussing politics with her host, and quoting her father wholesale in her gallant attempt to be grown up and important; and she chuckled audibly over the two schoolgirls’ enjoyment of the fare. Then at last the meal was over, and she heaved a sigh of relief that all had passed off without catastrophe and with credit to the family. No one had broken the fragile glass, no one had betrayed a plebeian ignorance of theconvenances, nor showed ill-bred surprise. They had examined themenuwith an understanding air, as though every other name was not as Greek to their ears, and had refrained from any signs of approval more noticeable than pressures of feet under the table, and occasional sly joltings of elbows.

The two ladies stayed beside Mr Vanburgh, whilethe younger members of the party strolled about the grounds, Gervase Vanburgh first walking with Lilias, and then making an excuse to cross to Nan’s side. He smiled as he came, and his first words showed that he had grasped the situation without any need for words.

“I shall get myself disliked if I stay there any longer! Mr Talbot leaves in another hour, I think, so it is hardly fair to him to engross your sister.”

“But how do you know anything about Mr Talbot? I never told you,” cried Nan in amaze; and Gervase smiled in his aggravating, lazy fashion as he replied—

“Oh no, you simply said that ‘a friend of Lil—a friend of my brother Jim’ was staying with you at present. That was all, I think. You gave me no information.”

“Which means that I did, of course, and blurted out everything in my stupid, headlong fashion,” sighed Nan dolefully. “It doesn’t matter much in this case, for a good many people know; but mother wishes it kept as quiet as possible, because—”

“Just so. But I assure you that even without your hint I should have discovered for myself that they were at present engaged; so there is no necessity to blame yourself.”

Nan wheeled round upon him with flashing eyes.

“Why do you say ‘at present’?” she demanded; and Gervase smiled in impenetrable fashion.

“Did I say so? Foolish slip! They are engaged, of course. I wish Miss Lilias every happiness, and congratulate Mr Talbot on his good taste. She is certainly a lovely girl.”

“Oh, isn’t she?” cried Lilias’s sister gladly. “I knew you would say so. You see now how absurd it was to mistake me for her, and what a difference there is between us! I knew quite well you would be surprised.”

Gervase Vanburgh put back his head, and stared at her with a scrutiny which was not without a touch of cynicism; but the eager face he met was at once so frank and so honest, that the sneer faded from his lips and gave place to a smile.

“Yes,” he said slowly, “there is a great difference. I cannot imagine two people more unlike. You are complete contrasts in every respect.”

“She is so fair, and I am dark,” sighed Nan, a trifle abashed by so vehement an assent, but striving loyally to conceal her discomfiture. “Lilias is our beauty, and we are all very proud of her; but you cannot really know the family until you have met Maud. Maud is the eldest sister, and the best and sweetest of them all. She isn’t pretty, but she is such a dear that every one loves her. ‘Maud of all work’ Jim calls her, because she is always helping other people and forgetting herself.”

“Most exemplary, I’m sure. Excellent example!” drawled Gervase with a yawn, at the sound of which the last trace of Nan’s patience gave way. She stood still in the path and fixed him with a glittering eye; but the speech which swelled in her throat was slow in coming, choked back by very excess of emotion. Gervase, in some alarm, demanded the cause of her agitation, and received a straighter answer than he expected.

“I don’t care to speak about Maud to a person who only sneers at her goodness. If you don’t mind, I’d rather talk about the weather, and the garden, and things that don’t matter; and then I can keep as indifferent as you are yourself, and we sha’n’t quarrel.”

“I sneer! I beg a hundred pardons, Miss Nan, if I have appeared to sneer at anything you say; but I assure you that I have never yet voluntarily sneered at goodness; so that in this instance at least you are doing me an injustice. You must believe me, please, for I am thoroughly in earnest.”

“Yes, I see you are. I’m sorry that I misjudged you.”

“And I am sorry too. You are sorry, I am sorry, we are both sorry, so now suppose we drop this subject and start afresh. I’d like to be friends with you if you will; for I expect we shall see a good deal of each other in future, and it would distress my uncle if we disagreed. Do you think you could sign a treaty of friendship with me?”

“Well,” said Nan slowly—and then paused, too honest to pledge her word without counting the cost—“I could, but I’m not sure that it would last. We are so different. Would you mind answering one personal question?”

“I’ll answer fifty with pleasure if it’s in my power.”

“Then have you known some awful trouble? Has something dreadful, heart-breaking, happened to you, which you are trying to cover up and hide from the world?”

Gervase stared at her in amazement, which ended in a laugh.

“Certainly not! I have had an absolutely smooth life—too smooth, I am afraid, for the growth of character. Now I wonder what made you take such an idea into your head!”

“I thought perhaps your heart was broken, and that was why you took no interest in anything that was going on.”

“Do I take no interest? I was under the impression that I took a great deal—sometimes; but I have learned to conceal my feelings. You may not perhaps be aware that English boys are educated in this fashion, nowadays. At a public school it is considered ‘bad form’ to be enthusiastic on any subject. ‘Not bad’ or ‘pretty decent’ are the superlatives of praise, and anything more emphatic is sure to be snubbed. Perhaps I have been too apt a disciple in that school.”

“I call it a hateful school! and if I had a hundred sons I would not let one of them be trained under such an influence. If a boy is not to be enthusiastic when he is young, when will he be, pray? Youth is the time for noble dreams, for enthusiasm which carries all before it. It is the enthusiasm of youth which keeps the world moving. None of your languid half-measures for me!” declaimed Nan dramatically, backing into a flower-bed in her earnestness, and trampling half a dozen begonias beneath her heels. “Life is real—life is earnest!”

“It is indeed,” cried Gervase, laughing; “and so, if you will permit me to say so, is my uncle’s gardener, when he is roused! Begonias, I fancy, are his special passion. Miss Nan, you will have to be friends with me whether you will or not, for our natures are so different that we could be of infinite service to each other. You could inspire me with your own enthusiasm, and I, in my turn, could curb and restrain you.”

“But, dear me,” cried Nan, “I don’t want to be curbed!” Then she looked at the begonias, and her face fell. “But I suppose, like all disagreeable things, it would be good for me; so I’ll be friends, if you like, Mr Vanburgh, and take my share of the discipline.”

“I feel much honoured. It shall be my endeavour to be as little disagreeable as I can,” said Gervase Vanburgh, with his courtly bow; and thus were the deeds signed in a friendship destined to have far-reaching consequences.

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