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"I think you'll have a whole vaudeville show at Champ-au-Haut for the rest of your days and gratis." "I've been coming to that conclusion myself," said Mrs. Champney, smiling in turn at the recollection of some of her experiences during the past three weeks. "She amuses me, and I've concluded to keep her. I'm going to have her with me a good part of the time.
In that hour he saw himself as he was unworthy of a good woman's love. He saw other things as well; these he hoped to make good in the near future, but this but this! He rowed back under cover of the dark to Champ-au-Haut. Octavius, who was wondering at his non-appearance with the boat, met him with a lantern at the float. "Here's a telegram just come up; the operator gave it to me for you.
He wondered what connection its coming might have with the unexpected arrival of this orphan child? On his way home Octavius Buzzby found himself wondering, as he had wondered many times before on occasion, how he could checkmate this latest and most unexpected move on the part of the mistress of Champ-au-Haut.
"That's just what I'd like to know myself." "What do you think of him?" "Who? Rag or Mr. Googe?" She was always herself with Mrs. Champney, and her daring spirit of mischief rarely gave offence to the mistress of Champ-au-Haut. But by the tone of voice in which she answered, Aileen knew that, without intention, she had irritated her. "You know perfectly well whom I mean my nephew, Mr. Googe."
Had the mistress of Champ-au-Haut stood on the terrace a few minutes longer, she might have seen with those far-sighted eyes of hers a dark form passing quickly along the strip of highroad that showed white between the last houses at The Bow. It was Father Honoré. He walked rapidly along the highway that, skirting the base of the mountain, follows the large curve of the lake shore.
The interest of the first faction was centred in Champ-au-Haut and its present possessor, the widow of Louis Champney, old Judge Champney's only son. That of the second in the Googes, Aurora and her son Champney, the owners of Googe's Gore and its granite outcrop.
"Help me up stairs, Aileen," the old woman was in command as usual, "give me my cane, Ann; don't stand there staring like two fools." Aileen made a sign to Octavius to call Hannah; the two women helped the mistress of Champ-au-Haut up to her room. Mrs. Googe seemed not to have lost consciousness, for as Hannah bent over her she noticed that her eyelids quivered.
Aurora turned and looked at her. The girl's heart was nigh to bursting. Impulsively she threw her arms around the woman's neck and whispered: "If you need me, do send for me I'll come." But Aurora Googe went forth from Champ-au-Haut without a word either to the girl, to Hannah, or to Octavius Buzzby. For the first two miles they drove in silence.
Champney remained the only one who read Aileen Armagh's secret, yet even she asked herself as the summer sped if she read aright. During the three weeks in which her nephew was making himself familiar with all the inner and outer workings of the business at The Gore and in the sheds, she came to anticipate his daily coming to Champ-au-Haut, for he brought with him the ozone of success.
Upon her arrival in Flamsted, the child's adaptability to changed circumstances and new environment was furthered by the play of this imagination that fed itself on what others, who lack it, might call the commonplace of life: the house at Champ-au-Haut became her lordly palace; the estate a park; she herself a princess guarded only too well by an aged duenna; Octavius Buzzby and Romanzo Caukins she looked upon as life-servitors.
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