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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!
When Mrs Rendell entered the room, and recognised the odours of eau-de- Cologne, menthol, and sal volatile, her first thought was of poor brokenhearted Maud; but, behold! it was Maud who was playing doctor, and buxom Nan who lay prone upon the bed. A few inquiries and expressions of sympathy were spoken, and then a gesture bade Maud follow into another room.
Perhaps, if the truth were known, Mrs Rendell was scarcely less excited than her daughters at the prospect of being admitted into the presence of the mysterious stranger; but if this were so, she was doomed to disappointment, for the invalid seemed too weary and dispirited to enter into conversation, and it was only by a most apparent effort that he roused himself to reply to her remarks.
I had set my heart on your being the first caller; and now it's too late, and you can only be second. I told you so! I said how it would be!" Mrs Rendell lifted her brows with the little surprised air of reproof which Chrissie knew so well.
Mrs Rendell would have felt repelled by his coldness of manner, had it not been for one redeeming point his unaffected interest in her children! The wan face brightened into a smile at the mention of Nan's name, and he begged that the girl might be allowed to come over to see him "often as often as possible," in a tone of unmistakable sincerity.
Until Kitty has been consulted nothing can be called certain," said Mrs Rendell, smiling again; and as she spoke she lifted her head in a listening gesture, and pushed her stool from the fire.
What glass?" queried Mrs Rendell quickly; and Nan smiled back at her with infantile candour. "Better tell her the first evening, when she can't find it in her heart to be cross," she had decided diplomatically; and there was certainly no nervousness apparent in the manner in which she made her confession. "Oh, only some tumblers. Not so many. Seven or eight, perhaps.
There was only one occasion when the Rendell girls subsided into silence, and that was when Jim the brother, the typical man of the race came home on a visit and shed the lustre of his presence on his native village. Then the Miss Rendells sat in rows at his feet, paying obeisance, and, meekly opening their mouths, swallowed all he said, not even Nan herself daring to raise a question.
Hugh Becconsall realises 100 pounds a-year for the minister the Rev. E. D. Rendell, who has been at the church ever since its opening; and the investment of a sum of money by the late Mr. John Becconsall, of Ashton, who was a great believer in Swedenborgianism, brings in on his behalf 50 pounds more.
"Nan will help me," she told herself encouragingly, as she mounted the staircase and saw through the window a procession of girlish figures making their way down the garden path, escorting Ned to a survey of the daffodils and spring bulbs, for which Mr Rendell was famous among amateur gardeners.
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