CHAPTER XXXV"Denis," said Nell, "let's!"She turned to him; her cheeks were flushed pink, her breath came in quick little pants between her lips."Right you are!"She ran towards the door, but Ted barred her way."I'm a mere cautious Englishman," he said, with an uncomfortable little laugh. "I want to remind you—"She danced before him, her hands over her ears."I know it all by heart, Teddie. 'Tis mere waste of breath to tell it me all over again. And if you died for want of breath through telling me, I shouldn't understand any more than I do now, not if you went on and on for ever! 'The shares,'" her laughing voice sobered, echoed his ponderously, "'have only gone up a little. It is true that they continue to go up, but they may never pay a high enough dividend to enable you to return to Kilbrannan.' There, don't I know it all?"Suddenly she dropped her hands, her lips quivered."I must tell them, oh, I must! Even if—if—it comes to nothing,—oh, we must risk it, mustn't we, Denis? Sheila Pat—"She turned and went over to the window.Ted looked as if all the cares of the state sat upon his shoulders.Denis said:—"We've kept it from them till it's pretty well certain—""You can't tell," put in Ted, moodily."Well, they'll face it somehow, whatever happens. And meanwhile—why, man, think what it'll mean to them! Come along, Nell!"Molly and Sheila Pat were downstairs trying to play a duet on the piano.When Nell and Denis went in, Sheila Pat glanced round; her eyes widened suddenly, her hand fell with a little crash of notes on the keyboard. She sat staring at Nell; a little quiver went through her."Yes—yes—oh, Atom!" Nell cried out.She left Molly to Denis. She went closer to Sheila Pat, and told her—told her breathlessly, almost incoherently, her words hurrying one over the other.Sheila Pat sat awhile, rigid on the stool, then suddenly she slipped to the floor, she ran at Nell, her arms held out: "Nell—oh, Nell!"Nell held her close, whispering to her, and Sheila Pat cried, with never a thought of the hurt to her dignity.That night when ready for bed she turned to Nell."Nell," she said in very dignified tones, "please don't wait."She stood, a small figure in her white nightgown, her face very tired, her eyes very bright. Nell, looking at her, thought suddenly of the time she had been so ill. A little shiver went through her."Why not, sweet?" she said."I shall be a long while over my prayers, you see. It worries me to have you waitin'; I've got a good deal to say to God to-night."As Nell left the room, the Atom's voice pursued her:—"Nell, I do want to be very perlite to-night. Don't you think I'd better call himMisterGod?"CHAPTER XXXVIIt was on the 9th of May that the letters came. They came in the middle of the morning, when Nell and Molly and Sheila Pat were wrestling with their studies. It was a real wrestle to fix their minds on their work, for they knew it was mail day, and they knew that they might get an answer to their cablegram that week. The Rêve d'or shares had gone up and up. That alone was sufficient to make any study a weariness of the flesh. The wild hilarity in the atmosphere lately had been borne with a considerable amount of fortitude by Miss Kezia. There had been storms; there had been lectures; but Miss Kezia found herself making excuses for her Irish relatives. She was not given to making excuses for people, any more than she would have made them for herself; but she certainly took to reminding herself during these hilarious days of such facts connected with the O'Briens, as their youth, the peculiar circumstances attending the Rêve d'or shares, and largest excuse of all, their nationality. Had she possessed nerves, they would have suffered acutely. She wished sincerely that her relatives would not make such undesirable acquaintances. She came upon Nell in the hall one day holding a diminutive baby. It was enveloped entirely in an old shawl, and Nell told her it was Irish! Miss Kezia had no fondness for babies, but being in an amiable mood, she came forward to examine this one. But Nell drew back with all the appearance of anxious alarm."Do you think you'd better come near, Aunt Kezia? He's fretful—perhaps he has the measles or scarlet fever."Miss Kezia had been very angry, and considerably alarmed. She had ordered his instant return to his parents."Who is he? Where does he come from? Where are his people?"Nell had told her that the baby's name was James O'Driscoll, that she did not know where his people were, but would take him to some friends of his.Miss Kezia had been a good deal worried. For several days she scrutinised her relatives' countenances, dreading to find them flushed or spotted. But the weeks slipped by and not a spot appeared; not one face was unduly flushed. Then the 9th of May dawned. It was a beautiful 9th of May; the hilarity of these spring days was mixed with a great restlessness; no one could settle down to anything. The letters—there were four of them—came in the middle of the morning.The first Miss Kezia knew of their arrival, was when she was swept aside in the hall by an advancing trio, making for the door. She asked questions. She received answers, breathless, wild, glad answers that left her with a dazed understanding that something very wonderful had happened, that they had received letters of marvellous import. Then they swept out of the door. They left Miss Kezia calling out that Molly's gloves were odd; that Sheila Pat's hat was on back to front; that Nell had left her painting pinafore on, and it showed beneath her coat. They laughed and waved back to her airily; they started, to her consternation, running. She would have been more concerned had she known where they were going. They made straight for the bank where Denis worked. They ran all the way; they pushed open the swing doors, they hurried in waving their letters above their heads.Mr. Tellbridge was there, giving instructions to a clerk. Both he and the clerk looked startled. Mr. Tellbridge also looked disapproving."Good morning!" Nell cried out breathlessly. "Oh, where is Denis? Where is he, Mr. Tellbridge?""Here I am! What's up?"From round the partition he came."Letters, Denis! They're coming home! In about two weeks! They got the cablegram! He was just going to sell out! P.&O. boat! In a fortnight they'll be here!"Mr. Tellbridge pushed his spectacles up on his brow, and eyed them with a mild surprise. He seemed to find the study of them and their joy bewildering. In the babel his somewhat pompous, but not unkindly, "Dear me, I cannot allow this!" passed unheard.At last Nell turned to him:—"Denis may come with us now, mayn't he, Mr. Tellbridge? You see, he couldn't do any work now, possibly.""Pennington will do my share, when he comes in," observed Denis, easily.Nell looked at the bank manager, gave a little laugh."We're being awfully rude," she said. "I will try to explain."She did try. She tried to speak soberly, plainly, but her words sang, jostled each other, grew picturesquely extravagant.Mr. Tellbridge's mild disapproval was not proof against her eloquence. He professed himself delighted at the good news. He gave Denis a half-holiday, his benignity tempered by a drily expressed suggestion that the work would not suffer much from his absence.They went straight to Gowan Square, found Ted in, and dragged him off to lunch.At No. 35 Henley Road, boiled mutton and a bread-and-butter pudding awaited them in vain. At the Express Dairy in Oxford Street four perfectly happy people lunched that day. Ted was quieter. He seemed to derive a certain amount of satisfaction from watching and teasing Sheila Pat. Sheila Pat was very Irish, her sharp little tongue very quick, and very broadly accented. She was never at a loss for a repartee. Her great eyes fairly glittered with excitement; a faint pink flush glowed on either cheek; her pig-tail, owing to constant rude tweaks, stuck out at an aggressive angle. Halfway through lunch, Ted said:—"And now, suppose some one explains what it's all about.""Explain!""One at a time, please. Oh, not just yet, perhaps. I thought I'd given you time for the effervescence to have subsided a little—""Time? An hour or so?" laughed Nell. "Why, we shall go on effervescing like ginger beer for the whole of the next fortnight!"He sighed."I wonder if Miss Kezia's effervescing, too! Why do you laugh? I'm thinking of applying to her for an explanation of your state."Nell bent toward him."Ask," she said softly; "after all, it's you—you—you—who did it all! Oh, Ted, dad says he had had an offer for the shares, and had just decided to sell out when he received the cablegram!""How'll they be home in a fortnight?" he put in quickly, warding off her gratitude. "Question No. 1.""Why, mother's quite strong and well now, so she doesn't need the long sea voyage, by sailing vessel now, you see!""But I thought the passage was booked—""Dad managed to exchange on to a P.&O. boat.""Ah, now I begin to understand.""Time you did," Denis remarked. "Your skull must be a foot thick."It was later, up in the Stronghold, that Nell drew near to Ted."Mother and dad are so surprised and inquisitive," she began. "They can't thinkhowwe knew about those shares, you see." She paused. "If it hadn't been for you, dad would have sold out—I don't understand a bit—but he says it would have been for quite a little, we—we couldn't have gone back to Kilbrannan."There was a little pause.Denis strolled up to them."Ted," Nell said, "you will spend all your vacations with us, won't you? Except just a week here and there for other people—won't you?"He laughed uncomfortably."I know I've been pretty good at poking myself in here—" he began."Teddie!" Nell ejaculated."Don't be such a fool!" Denis exclaimed angrily."Well, anyhow, your people—""Will be delighted if you'll make Kilbrannan another home," finished Denis, proudly.Nell held her letter out to him."It's true, Teddie. Read what mother says about you. She knows all about you. There—at the top of the page."He took the letter and read:—"I know you would not have cabled to us as you did unless you had very strong reasons for your opinion that the shares were going up; that, and the fact that your father had an offer for them—oh, Nell, he is telling Denis about that! He very nearly accepted it!—well, this makes me hope that we shall be able to return to our home. Won't we all be willing to economise? Bread and potatoes and Kilbrannan are not to be despised, are they, asthore? You and Denis must make your friend, Ted Lancaster, promise that, if we only can go back, he will look upon it as a second home. Tell him we shall want as much of his time as he can spare to be spent at Kilbrannan, and we'll manage to add a trout or two, perhaps even a salmon, to the bread and potatoes when he is with us. With these extras, and the hearty welcome he will receive from us all, I hope he'll find Kilbrannan so bearable that all his vacations will be given to us!"Ted grew very red as he perused the letter. He handed it back in silence."Well?" Nell laughed."I say—er—why, it's no end kind—""That'll do. You needn't say anything, except—you will, Teddie, won't you?""By Jove, yes!" he said.He stood looking out of the window. He felt then the first liking for Mrs. O'Brien that afterwards developed into such devotion that she always declared she had two sons.Once he approached Nell."I say," he said, "you know—I—I mean a lot!"She gave a little laugh."So do I," she said. "Oh, Ted—""But you say it!" he remonstrated, and strode across to Sheila Pat, whose pig-tail he proceeded to pull. But Sheila Pat was very dignified."Please don't intrude. I'm thinkin'."Presently she came to Nell."Nell," she whispered, "Kilbrannan's very healthy, isn't it?""Why, yes, sweet!""I'm thinkin' maybe it'll make Tommy's left leg grow as long as the other one!""I'm afraid it won't do that, asthore."Her face fell."I'm glad I didn't mention it to him," she said earnestly. "I didn't on purpose, because I wasn't wantin' to give false hopes to him, you see."Nell bent and kissed her."It will make him strong and well, anyway."Sheila Pat nodded. She went across to James O'Driscoll."In a fortnight and two days we'll introduce you to your cousin!" she said.That evening Nell went into her bedroom. She came upon an absorbed Atom, kneeling before her treasure box."What are you doing, Sheila Pat?"Sheila Pat lifted her head; her small face was full of a restless joy. She said staidly:—"Sure, Nell O'Brien, and what would I be doin' then?I'm packin'!"*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOKTHE YOUNG O'BRIENS***
CHAPTER XXXV
"Denis," said Nell, "let's!"
She turned to him; her cheeks were flushed pink, her breath came in quick little pants between her lips.
"Right you are!"
She ran towards the door, but Ted barred her way.
"I'm a mere cautious Englishman," he said, with an uncomfortable little laugh. "I want to remind you—"
She danced before him, her hands over her ears.
"I know it all by heart, Teddie. 'Tis mere waste of breath to tell it me all over again. And if you died for want of breath through telling me, I shouldn't understand any more than I do now, not if you went on and on for ever! 'The shares,'" her laughing voice sobered, echoed his ponderously, "'have only gone up a little. It is true that they continue to go up, but they may never pay a high enough dividend to enable you to return to Kilbrannan.' There, don't I know it all?"
Suddenly she dropped her hands, her lips quivered.
"I must tell them, oh, I must! Even if—if—it comes to nothing,—oh, we must risk it, mustn't we, Denis? Sheila Pat—"
She turned and went over to the window.
Ted looked as if all the cares of the state sat upon his shoulders.
Denis said:—
"We've kept it from them till it's pretty well certain—"
"You can't tell," put in Ted, moodily.
"Well, they'll face it somehow, whatever happens. And meanwhile—why, man, think what it'll mean to them! Come along, Nell!"
Molly and Sheila Pat were downstairs trying to play a duet on the piano.
When Nell and Denis went in, Sheila Pat glanced round; her eyes widened suddenly, her hand fell with a little crash of notes on the keyboard. She sat staring at Nell; a little quiver went through her.
"Yes—yes—oh, Atom!" Nell cried out.
She left Molly to Denis. She went closer to Sheila Pat, and told her—told her breathlessly, almost incoherently, her words hurrying one over the other.
Sheila Pat sat awhile, rigid on the stool, then suddenly she slipped to the floor, she ran at Nell, her arms held out: "Nell—oh, Nell!"
Nell held her close, whispering to her, and Sheila Pat cried, with never a thought of the hurt to her dignity.
That night when ready for bed she turned to Nell.
"Nell," she said in very dignified tones, "please don't wait."
She stood, a small figure in her white nightgown, her face very tired, her eyes very bright. Nell, looking at her, thought suddenly of the time she had been so ill. A little shiver went through her.
"Why not, sweet?" she said.
"I shall be a long while over my prayers, you see. It worries me to have you waitin'; I've got a good deal to say to God to-night."
As Nell left the room, the Atom's voice pursued her:—
"Nell, I do want to be very perlite to-night. Don't you think I'd better call himMisterGod?"
CHAPTER XXXVI
It was on the 9th of May that the letters came. They came in the middle of the morning, when Nell and Molly and Sheila Pat were wrestling with their studies. It was a real wrestle to fix their minds on their work, for they knew it was mail day, and they knew that they might get an answer to their cablegram that week. The Rêve d'or shares had gone up and up. That alone was sufficient to make any study a weariness of the flesh. The wild hilarity in the atmosphere lately had been borne with a considerable amount of fortitude by Miss Kezia. There had been storms; there had been lectures; but Miss Kezia found herself making excuses for her Irish relatives. She was not given to making excuses for people, any more than she would have made them for herself; but she certainly took to reminding herself during these hilarious days of such facts connected with the O'Briens, as their youth, the peculiar circumstances attending the Rêve d'or shares, and largest excuse of all, their nationality. Had she possessed nerves, they would have suffered acutely. She wished sincerely that her relatives would not make such undesirable acquaintances. She came upon Nell in the hall one day holding a diminutive baby. It was enveloped entirely in an old shawl, and Nell told her it was Irish! Miss Kezia had no fondness for babies, but being in an amiable mood, she came forward to examine this one. But Nell drew back with all the appearance of anxious alarm.
"Do you think you'd better come near, Aunt Kezia? He's fretful—perhaps he has the measles or scarlet fever."
Miss Kezia had been very angry, and considerably alarmed. She had ordered his instant return to his parents.
"Who is he? Where does he come from? Where are his people?"
Nell had told her that the baby's name was James O'Driscoll, that she did not know where his people were, but would take him to some friends of his.
Miss Kezia had been a good deal worried. For several days she scrutinised her relatives' countenances, dreading to find them flushed or spotted. But the weeks slipped by and not a spot appeared; not one face was unduly flushed. Then the 9th of May dawned. It was a beautiful 9th of May; the hilarity of these spring days was mixed with a great restlessness; no one could settle down to anything. The letters—there were four of them—came in the middle of the morning.
The first Miss Kezia knew of their arrival, was when she was swept aside in the hall by an advancing trio, making for the door. She asked questions. She received answers, breathless, wild, glad answers that left her with a dazed understanding that something very wonderful had happened, that they had received letters of marvellous import. Then they swept out of the door. They left Miss Kezia calling out that Molly's gloves were odd; that Sheila Pat's hat was on back to front; that Nell had left her painting pinafore on, and it showed beneath her coat. They laughed and waved back to her airily; they started, to her consternation, running. She would have been more concerned had she known where they were going. They made straight for the bank where Denis worked. They ran all the way; they pushed open the swing doors, they hurried in waving their letters above their heads.
Mr. Tellbridge was there, giving instructions to a clerk. Both he and the clerk looked startled. Mr. Tellbridge also looked disapproving.
"Good morning!" Nell cried out breathlessly. "Oh, where is Denis? Where is he, Mr. Tellbridge?"
"Here I am! What's up?"
From round the partition he came.
"Letters, Denis! They're coming home! In about two weeks! They got the cablegram! He was just going to sell out! P.&O. boat! In a fortnight they'll be here!"
Mr. Tellbridge pushed his spectacles up on his brow, and eyed them with a mild surprise. He seemed to find the study of them and their joy bewildering. In the babel his somewhat pompous, but not unkindly, "Dear me, I cannot allow this!" passed unheard.
At last Nell turned to him:—
"Denis may come with us now, mayn't he, Mr. Tellbridge? You see, he couldn't do any work now, possibly."
"Pennington will do my share, when he comes in," observed Denis, easily.
Nell looked at the bank manager, gave a little laugh.
"We're being awfully rude," she said. "I will try to explain."
She did try. She tried to speak soberly, plainly, but her words sang, jostled each other, grew picturesquely extravagant.
Mr. Tellbridge's mild disapproval was not proof against her eloquence. He professed himself delighted at the good news. He gave Denis a half-holiday, his benignity tempered by a drily expressed suggestion that the work would not suffer much from his absence.
They went straight to Gowan Square, found Ted in, and dragged him off to lunch.
At No. 35 Henley Road, boiled mutton and a bread-and-butter pudding awaited them in vain. At the Express Dairy in Oxford Street four perfectly happy people lunched that day. Ted was quieter. He seemed to derive a certain amount of satisfaction from watching and teasing Sheila Pat. Sheila Pat was very Irish, her sharp little tongue very quick, and very broadly accented. She was never at a loss for a repartee. Her great eyes fairly glittered with excitement; a faint pink flush glowed on either cheek; her pig-tail, owing to constant rude tweaks, stuck out at an aggressive angle. Halfway through lunch, Ted said:—
"And now, suppose some one explains what it's all about."
"Explain!"
"One at a time, please. Oh, not just yet, perhaps. I thought I'd given you time for the effervescence to have subsided a little—"
"Time? An hour or so?" laughed Nell. "Why, we shall go on effervescing like ginger beer for the whole of the next fortnight!"
He sighed.
"I wonder if Miss Kezia's effervescing, too! Why do you laugh? I'm thinking of applying to her for an explanation of your state."
Nell bent toward him.
"Ask," she said softly; "after all, it's you—you—you—who did it all! Oh, Ted, dad says he had had an offer for the shares, and had just decided to sell out when he received the cablegram!"
"How'll they be home in a fortnight?" he put in quickly, warding off her gratitude. "Question No. 1."
"Why, mother's quite strong and well now, so she doesn't need the long sea voyage, by sailing vessel now, you see!"
"But I thought the passage was booked—"
"Dad managed to exchange on to a P.&O. boat."
"Ah, now I begin to understand."
"Time you did," Denis remarked. "Your skull must be a foot thick."
It was later, up in the Stronghold, that Nell drew near to Ted.
"Mother and dad are so surprised and inquisitive," she began. "They can't thinkhowwe knew about those shares, you see." She paused. "If it hadn't been for you, dad would have sold out—I don't understand a bit—but he says it would have been for quite a little, we—we couldn't have gone back to Kilbrannan."
There was a little pause.
Denis strolled up to them.
"Ted," Nell said, "you will spend all your vacations with us, won't you? Except just a week here and there for other people—won't you?"
He laughed uncomfortably.
"I know I've been pretty good at poking myself in here—" he began.
"Teddie!" Nell ejaculated.
"Don't be such a fool!" Denis exclaimed angrily.
"Well, anyhow, your people—"
"Will be delighted if you'll make Kilbrannan another home," finished Denis, proudly.
Nell held her letter out to him.
"It's true, Teddie. Read what mother says about you. She knows all about you. There—at the top of the page."
He took the letter and read:—
"I know you would not have cabled to us as you did unless you had very strong reasons for your opinion that the shares were going up; that, and the fact that your father had an offer for them—oh, Nell, he is telling Denis about that! He very nearly accepted it!—well, this makes me hope that we shall be able to return to our home. Won't we all be willing to economise? Bread and potatoes and Kilbrannan are not to be despised, are they, asthore? You and Denis must make your friend, Ted Lancaster, promise that, if we only can go back, he will look upon it as a second home. Tell him we shall want as much of his time as he can spare to be spent at Kilbrannan, and we'll manage to add a trout or two, perhaps even a salmon, to the bread and potatoes when he is with us. With these extras, and the hearty welcome he will receive from us all, I hope he'll find Kilbrannan so bearable that all his vacations will be given to us!"
Ted grew very red as he perused the letter. He handed it back in silence.
"Well?" Nell laughed.
"I say—er—why, it's no end kind—"
"That'll do. You needn't say anything, except—you will, Teddie, won't you?"
"By Jove, yes!" he said.
He stood looking out of the window. He felt then the first liking for Mrs. O'Brien that afterwards developed into such devotion that she always declared she had two sons.
Once he approached Nell.
"I say," he said, "you know—I—I mean a lot!"
She gave a little laugh.
"So do I," she said. "Oh, Ted—"
"But you say it!" he remonstrated, and strode across to Sheila Pat, whose pig-tail he proceeded to pull. But Sheila Pat was very dignified.
"Please don't intrude. I'm thinkin'."
Presently she came to Nell.
"Nell," she whispered, "Kilbrannan's very healthy, isn't it?"
"Why, yes, sweet!"
"I'm thinkin' maybe it'll make Tommy's left leg grow as long as the other one!"
"I'm afraid it won't do that, asthore."
Her face fell.
"I'm glad I didn't mention it to him," she said earnestly. "I didn't on purpose, because I wasn't wantin' to give false hopes to him, you see."
Nell bent and kissed her.
"It will make him strong and well, anyway."
Sheila Pat nodded. She went across to James O'Driscoll.
"In a fortnight and two days we'll introduce you to your cousin!" she said.
That evening Nell went into her bedroom. She came upon an absorbed Atom, kneeling before her treasure box.
"What are you doing, Sheila Pat?"
Sheila Pat lifted her head; her small face was full of a restless joy. She said staidly:—
"Sure, Nell O'Brien, and what would I be doin' then?I'm packin'!"
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOKTHE YOUNG O'BRIENS***