“It did indeed, but I couldn’t believe he was in earnest.”
“You bet he was.”
“My dear boy, I am sorry!”
“So am I. It’s pretty hard luck. I’m darned if I’ll stand it. He thinks he owns the earth.”
“I’m afraid things aren’t going to be so pleasant for you boys. I’m afraid your Uncle Nicholas and Meggie and I have spoilt you.”
Piers looked lovingly at him. “Well, he’s not going to, you can see that.” Piers almost blubbered.
Ernest’s hand went to his pocket. “Take this, old fellow. Go to a film or something.” He put a silver half dollar into Piers’s hand.
Alone, Ernest felt both pleased and amused at himself. “I’ve given two presents this morning,” he thought. “Two kind deeds. I’m like an absurd old Boy Scout.”
V
Frustrated Plans
Renny found Meg poking about in the flower border to find out if a certain dark-blue delphinium, given her by Miss Pink, were flourishing. He stood watching her leisurely movements, unseen by her. As she squatted on her haunches, her light-brown hair slightly ruffled, her skin fair in the sunlight, she looked as though she had spent all her days in just such tranquil pursuits. Yet her life had been far from tranquil. Their mother had died when she was a child. She had never got on with their stepmother. She had been unfortunate in her one love affair. She had been hedged in by old people, keeping peace among them, adoring her father. Two deaths and a birth had shaken her world while Renny was in France. Tenderness for her welled up in him as he watched her hands move gently among the leaves.
“Hullo, Meggie,” he said.
She looked up at him. Her face clouded.
“Oh, Renny, I did think you were hard on Piers. Not letting him go with Tom Fennel. He must be terribly disappointed.”
“He’s a young ruffian.”
“Have you seen him since?”
“For a few minutes.”
She stood up, brushing the earth from her skirt.
“I’m glad you’re going to take him in hand. The truth is, I can’t do anything with him.”
He put an arm around her. “Don’t worry. He’ll soon find out he can’t be high cockalorum here.”
“If I try to control him, Gran interferes. She says he is like Grandfather….”
“I’ll take it out of him.”
“And Eden, he does just as he likes. Uncle Ernest and Aunt Augusta say he’s artistic. They encourage him.”
“Good God — artistic!”
“I don’t know what to think about that Mrs. Stroud. He spends a good deal of time in her house.”
“Hmph.”
“Finch is a dear little boy but he’s a great trial in some ways. If you tell him anything it goes straight in one ear and out the other. He can’t or won’t remember anything. Yesterday he put on his new shoes and ran through the gravel pit. He almost ruined them. Uncle Nick just laughed.”
“Hmph.”
“It’s so lovely having you home again. I have had no one of my own age about for so long.”
“Meg, there is something I want to talk to you about.”
She looked at him with a little apprehension. She was afraid he might be going to object to the way the place was run. She loathed the words economize and change.
“Yes?”
“It’s about Maurice.”
A flicker of amusement passed over her face. After the four years of his absence it was not disagreeable to know that he was once again in his house beyond the ravine, still hopelessly devoted to her. It would not be the first time that Renny had pleaded for him. She looked like a teasing girl now.
“Don’t imagine that I want to hear about him. You saw what my feelings were at the railway station.”
“You were wrought up. Now listen, Maurice loves you and you think you ought to let bygones be bygones and marry him. He’s served his country for four years. I think he deserves some reward.”
“I’d be a like a medal to pin to his breast. He could throw back his shoulders and say — ‘Well, boys, here is my medal.’”
“Don’t be a fool, Meg.”
Renny put both arms around her.
“Think of how nice it would be to have a wedding in the house. There hasn’t been one for twenty years.”
“Don’t remind me of that wedding. If you imagine that reminding me of it will make me want another, you’re mistaken.”
“Well, after all, Dad was very much in love. They were happy and the marriage gave you these young brothers you’re so fond of.”
She laid her hand on her smooth forehead. “Oh, how unhappy I was! To have him marry our governess! Do you remember, Gran was visiting her relations in Ireland and she came all the way home to stop the marriage but she couldn’t. When the hour came my hair was still in the plait I wore it in at night. I went to the church that way. It was tied with a faded blue ribbon. In the vestry Daddy was so annoyed he pulled off the ribbon and threw it under a seat. He shook out my hair so hard it hurt. I was weeping when I went into the church.”
He grinned. “Yes, I remember. But that was nothing to do with what I’m telling you. I’m telling you that you should marry and have children of your own.”
“I have my hands full. I don’t want any more children.”
“But Meggie, even if you don’t want more children, you should marry. This is the mating season. Listen to those birds.”
A jolly jargon of untutored sweetness rose to them from the ravine. Baritone and tenor, soprano and alto, stretched their breasts to make their own part the solo. The very branches shook with the passion of their singing.
“Let them sing,” said Meg. “I’m not made that way.”
He opened the little wicket gate and led her down the mossy path. At their coming the voices of the bids were stilled but the cool impersonal song of the stream could now be heard. It showed itself between branches of trees and bushes in their spring flowering.
With a somewhat dramatic gesture Meg threw out her hand toward it.
“I’m more like that,” she said. “I don’t need a mate.”
“Don’t fool yourself!” he exclaimed. “Just follow that stream down to the lake, in flood time. You’ll see a mating that would put the stable to shame!”
“If you’re so keen about marriage,” she said, “you’d better get married yourself.”
It was the last thing on earth she wanted him to do. She was surprised at his answer.
“I’d like to, if I hadn’t all these boys to educate and could find the right woman.”
“And bring another woman into the house,” she cried. “That would be the last straw!”
“You’d not have to live in the house with her. You’d be happily married at Vaughanlands.”
“So you want to get rid of me!”
“Meg, I only want you to be happy.”
“If you think it will make me happy to live under the same roof with that child of his!”
“I’ve thought that