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Updated: May 12, 2025
One and all were on their best company manners on the occasion of Darsie's last lunch, and the most honeyed replies took the place of the usual somewhat stormy skirmish of wits; nevertheless, there was a universal feeling of relief when the meal was over, and a peal at the bell announced the arrival of the cab which was to convey Darsie and a girl companion on the first stage of their journey.
He sat silent for a few moments, his chin poking forward, his thin, expressive lips twitching as if struggling with difficult speech. A canader came gliding slowly by, the man and girl occupants chatting gaily together, unconscious of the watchers in the tree on the bank. Their words fell absently on Darsie's ear, she was waiting for what Dan had to say.
Rather to Darsie's disappointment tea was served in the drawing-room in formal, grown-up fashion, Mrs Percival presiding over the little table, with its shining silver and fine old-world china.
I am constantly looking, looking out for fellow-workers. That's why I invited you here to-day to ask you to be on my side!" "I!" Darsie's gasp of amazement sounded throughout the room. "I! Oh, you can't mean it! What could I do? I can do nothing I'm only a girl!" "Only a girl! But, dear child, that's your finest qualification!
Having collected all the scattered and broken associations which were necessary, Alan's thoughts reverted to Dumfriesshire, and the precarious situation in which he feared his beloved friend had placed himself; and once and again he consulted his watch, eager to have his present task commenced and ended, that he might hasten to Darsie's assistance. The hour and moment at length arrived.
The present moment showed him in the latter mood, and Darsie's lips curled as she watched and listened, and in her eyes there danced a mocking light. "Like a vain, affected girl!" was the mental comment, as her thoughts flew back to Harry and Russell, uncompromising and blunt, and to Dan Vernon in his shaggy strength.
It seemed callous of the girls to expatiate on the joys of bathing, fishing, and generally running wild, to one who was practising a lady- like decorum in the society of an old lady over seventy years of age, and although Dan kept his promise to the extent of a letter of two whole sheets, he gave no hint of deploring Darsie's own absence.
To Darsie's mind the spot was the most picturesque on the whole estate, and a good many people could be found ready to agree with her in the conclusion; for the backwater though narrow was bordered by banks rich in reeds and bulrushes, while a hundred yards or so below the miniature jetty a pair of ancient wooden gates spanned the stream, through whose decaying beams could be seen fascinating peeps of a baby waterfall, and a great moss- covered wheel which proclaimed the former use of the old grey building of which it was a part.
"I've been beastly unlucky, never knew such a persistent run. That's the dickens of it, Darsie. I haven't dared to tell the Governor yet, but I positively must get hold of the money before the tenth. I'm bound to pay up by then. It's a debt of honour." Darsie's red lip curled over that word. She sat stiff and straight in her seat, not deigning a reply.
"They'll catch it they'll rush down the steps just as it's going to start, bundle in anyhow, into different carriages never miss me go off, never know I'm not there till they get out!" These thoughts rushed through Darsie's head as she ran gaspingly along the dusty road.
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