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Penfold waved the silver box aside. "I never learnt" she said, adding with soft, upturned eyes confidingly "sometimes I wish I did. Oh, Lydia will!" And Lydia, following Lady Tatham's lead, quietly lit up.
They reach the Chaplain's hotel, and go to his room. Saxham waits silently while Julius searches for and finds Father Tatham's letter, takes it and reads it attentively, puts it carefully away in a worn notecase, restores the notecase to the inner pocket of his jacket, and, without a nod or word of farewell, is gone.
Victoria was truly attached to him. He had been with her during the days of her husband's sudden illness and death; he had advised her with regard to the passing difficulties of Tatham's school and college days and pointed a way for her through many perplexities of her own. Duddon was as much of a home to him, as he probably possessed in the world.
"It was foolish, wrong! I see it now. I ask your pardon. We must say good-bye, Harry and oh! oh! I'm so sorry I let you " Her voice died away. In the distance of the lane, a labourer emerged whistling from a gate, with his dog. Tatham's hands dropped to his sides; they walked on together as before. The man passed them with a cheerful good-night. Tatham spoke slowly.
Various guests had been invited to meet him. Two guests members of the Tatham family had invited themselves, much to Lady Tatham's annoyance. And certain neighbours were coming to dine; among them Mrs. Penfold and her daughters.
"He has the decency not to 'regret," said Lady Tatham. "No. It is awkward of course going at all" Tatham's brow was a little furrowed "but I somehow think I ought to go." "Oh, go," said his mother. "If he does play a trick you will know how to meet it. It would be very like him to play some trick," she added, thoughtfully. "Mother," said Tatham impetuously, "was Melrose ever in love with you?"
Lady Tatham's dress, her old hat, and country shoes attracted Lydia, no less than the boyish, open-air look, which still survived through all the signs of a complex life and a cosmopolitan experience. Mrs. Penfold, on her part, thought the old hat, and the square-toed shoes "unsuitable." In her young days great ladies "dressed" in the afternoons. "Do you like your cottage?" Lady Tatham inquired.
He was looking harassed, pale, and perceptibly older. No doubt his general health had not yet fully recovered from his accident. But those who disliked in him a certain natural haughtiness, said that he had now more "side on" than ever. A bell below warned him of Tatham's arrival. He hurriedly took out papers from various drawers, and arranged them on the office table.
They emerged from it to see the Helvellyn range lying purple under a southwest sky, and Tatham's gray mare waiting a hundred yards away. "You have no note?" Tatham tapped his breast pocket. "Rather!" "All right go along!" Lady Tatham came to a halt. "And Harry don't call too often! Is this the third visit this week?" "Oh, but the others were such little ones!" he said eagerly.
Yet there was a condition implied in the question. Tatham broke out passionately, "Just tell me. There's there's no one else?" She suffered for him; she hastened to comfort him. "No, no indeed there's no one else. Though, mind, I'm free. And so are you. Shall I come to-morrow?" she asked again, with quiet insistence. There was a gulp in Tatham's throat. Yet he rose dismally to her challenge.
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