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Tuke had no raison d'etre but work for the library that would one day be Arthur's, and by its excellence add to the honour of Mortgrange! He forgot that Richard had opened his eyes to its merit, and imagined himself the discoverer of its value: did he not pay the man for his work? and is not what a man pays for his own? Does not the purchaser of a patent purchase also the credit of the invention?
The day was coming, he said to himself, when there would be a sight to see at Mortgrange a baronet that could shoe a horse better than any smith in the land! If his people then would not stand up for a landlord able to thrash every man-jack of them, and win his bread with his own hands, they deserved to become the tenants of a London grocer or American money-dealer!
But the mother was sending all over the country to find who had Miss Brown; and she had not inquired long before she learned that she was in the stables at Mortgrange. There she knew she would be well treated, and therefore told Barbara the result of her inquiries. Barbara went yet oftener to Mr. and Mrs. Wingfold.
So the next day, as soon us they had had their breakfast, they set out to walk the four or five miles that, by the road, lay between them and Mortgrange. It was a fine frosty morning. Not a few yellow leaves were still hanging, and the sun was warm and bright.
He knew that he was at his grandfather's; he had himself seen him at work at the anvil; but he did not know that the hope in which he lingered there was vain. Richard waited a week, but no Barbara came to the smithy. He could not endure the thought of going away without seeing her once more. He must once thank her for what she had done for him! He must let her know why he had left Mortgrange.
He had not sent word to his grandfather that he was coming, and had told his father that he would walk from the station which suited sir Wilton, for he felt nervous, and was anxious there should be no stir. So Richard came to Mortgrange as quietly as a star to its place.
Thus it came that Richard heard nothing more of his threatened expulsion from Mortgrange. The same afternoon appeared Barbara as none knew when she might not appear before the front windows of the house, perched upon her huge yet gracious Miss Brown.
"And the little lady was their daughter, I suppose!" rejoined Richard, with an odd quiver somewhere near his heart. "She's an Australian, they say," answered his grandfather; " no relation, I fancy." "Is Mortgrange a grand place?" asked Richard. "It's a fine house and a great estate," answered Simon. "More might be made of it, no doubt; and I hope one day more will be made of it."
When she responded, as she did at once, to her sister's cry for her help, she made her promise that no one should understand who she was, but that she should in the house be taken for and treated as a hired nurse. Why Jane stipulated thus, it were hard to say, but so careful were they both, that no one at Mortgrange suspected the nurse as personally interested in the ugly heir left in her charge!
What a power over her ladyship would he not possess, what a plough and harrow for her frozen equanimity, if only he knew where the heir to Mortgrange was! He was damned ugly, but the uglier the better! If he but had him, he swore he would have a merry time, with his lady's pride on its marrow-bones!
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