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"Oh, mamma!" said Arthur breathlessly; "who is all that money for?" "Who do you think?" she asked, smiling. "Well, I suppose for me," said Arthur; "but, mother, is all that really for me? It will last until you come back." "Do you think so?" said Mrs. Vivyan. "Well, I hope you will use it well, and show that you can be trusted with so much."
Presently there was the sound of carriage wheels on the gravel outside. "Now," said Mrs. Estcourt, starting up, "there is the carriage, Ronald; I knew it would be here before you were ready." "Well," said Mr. Vivyan quietly, "you know one of us would have to be ready first, and I would rather the carriage waited for me than I for it. Besides, I am quite ready.
"Oh, dear, I wish I could be turned into a telegram!" sighed Arthur. "Oh, but," said Mrs. Vivyan, laughing, "that would be only doing one little bit of good, and I want my Arthur to be of some use all the day long." "How can I," asked Arthur, "without you?" "Do you know who you belong to before me?" said his mother.
Estcourt gave Arthur a beautifully-ornamented hand-screen to shade the heat from his face; as he sat with his feet on the fender, listening to his father's and aunt's conversation. "Well, you have a snug little place here," said Mr. Vivyan. "Yes, I suppose so," Mrs. Estcourt said; but she sighed as she spoke. "It seems like old times, eh, Daisy?"
He went and told Him exactly what was in it, and then he lay at His feet; and he felt as he had not felt before, what it was to be in His keeping, and to hear His voice saying, "Thou art mine," to feel the everlasting arms enfolding him, and to know that One so strong, and kind, and true, loved him with an everlasting love. The Lord Jesus Christ was a real person to Arthur Vivyan.
Vivyan himself seemed very well contented with his present position, and Arthur thought so. "Father," he said presently, "as I have to stay in England, of course I would rather be with Aunt Daisy than with any one else, and I think this is a very pretty place indeed. But you don't know how frightfully I wish I was going to India with you.
Her own face was very, very pale, and Arthur little knew the intense effort it was to her to speak at all. So he sat down in his own little chair, and was very still and silent for some moments; but presently Mrs. Vivyan saw him moving his cup of coffee away, and when there was a clear space before him he threw his arms on the table and buried his head there.
Showers, the member of the Government, was unseated on petition from some borough or other, and came down here post-haste to get re-elected. But he had Sir Percy Vivyan against him, and, as I know to my cost, this benighted country is not fond of those who preach the gospel of progress.
Then Mr. Vivyan turned round, and explained that his son was going to live with his aunt, and that he would go to school from her house. "Oh, that's it eh? Fine times for you then, young man. When I was a boy things were different with me, I can tell you. Hundred boys where I was; and I was one of the little fellows, who had to make it easy for the big ones.
She greeted her brother very warmly, and then she turned to him. "And so this is Arthur," she said; and it was almost timidly that she spoke, for she was almost as much afraid of her little nephew, as he was of her. "Ronald, he is a great deal more like Louisa than you. His eyes are like hers." "Yes, I believe he is generally considered to be so," said Mr. Vivyan, smiling.
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