"Oh, papa," I said, "is it about the Whytes?--is it all right?"
"I think so. I quite believe so," he replied. "I had a most cheerful
note from Captain Whyte this morning written from his aunt's house. We
were together in London yesterday. He came to my hotel with Mary, on
his way to Mrs Fetherston's, little thinking of your stealing a march
on us! Indeed, it was a good deal my idea--the taking Mary to show that
she was herself, and not--"
"Not _me_," I interrupted. "Oh, papa, I have been _so_ sorry, _so_
ashamed."
"I know you have," said papa, gravely. "I would have spared it you if I
could; but yet, Connie--"
"I deserved it," I said, "and I wouldn't have minded its being twice as
bad as it was yesterday, if it was to put things right. And the old
lady was really kind, papa, at the end."
"Captain Whyte told me all," he said. "I don't think any of them dared
to hope in the least that things would turn out so well. They are all
going up to town to-morrow--all, that is to say, except the three little
fellows. Mrs Fetherston is not one to do things by halves, I fancy.
The saddest part of the whole is poor Hugo Whyte's precarious state."
"Have you seen him?" mamma asked.
"Yes," papa replied. "I called on him the day I went up to speak about
Captain Whyte's idea of bringing Mary. He is very, very ill. I don't
think they quite realise how ill he is. Perhaps, however, it is just as
well. He may have a little breathing-time now he is happier and cheered
by having them all about him; he may live a few months in comparative
comfort. That is the best I can hope for."
"It is a comfort to think that his last days will be cheered and happy,"
said mamma, softly.
But I could not help crying again just a little, at night when I was
alone, when I thought of Major Whyte's face, and that I could never hope
to see him well and strong and bright like papa and Captain Whyte.
Things turned out pretty much as papa had predicted. Two days after the
evening I have been telling you about--the evening of papa's return--all
the Yew Trees people came home again. We knew they had come home by
hearing accidentally that the fly from the Stag's Head had been ordered
to meet them at the station at three o'clock. So I posted myself at the
dining-room window, and had the tantalising gratification of seeing both
it and Lady Honor's brougham pass our door on their way to the Yew
Trees. I could distinguish Mrs Whyte in the brougham, and a bag or
two, and the back of a hat which I was sure was Yvonne's. And the fly
was well filled too. But none of them looked out our way, nor nodded to
me, though they _might_ have seen me. I felt rather unhappy again.
"Mamma," I said, when I got back to the drawing-room, "I have seen them
all pass, but they didn't look this way. Mamma, you and papa have
forgiven me, but perhaps--even if they _forgive_ me, they're perhaps not
going to be the same ever again," and I could scarcely choke down a sob.
"Connie, dearest," said mamma, "how can you fancy such things? You will
see, dear, it will be all right."
But I was very unhappy all that evening.
"They have _never_ passed before without looking out," I kept saying to
myself, and mamma could not manage to cheer me. But just as I was going
to bed, the "odd man" from the Yew Trees made his appearance with a note
for "Miss Percy," from Evey! I knew the handwriting, and tore it open.
"Dearest Connie," it said, "we _were_ so disappointed not to find you
here, at the Yew Trees, when we arrived. I wrote yesterday from London,
to ask you to be here to spend the evening, so that we could tell you
everything. I gave the note to Lancey, and he has just found it in his
pocket! So please ask dear Mrs Percy to let you come to-morrow. You
must have a whole holiday for once, and stay all day. Oh, we are so
happy.
"Your loving
"Evey."
"_Now_, Connie," said mamma, triumphantly, "surely you will never
mistrust your friends again."
I thought I never could, and I thought so still more when I came home
the next evening, after one of the very happiest days I ever spent. But
I have not _quite_ kept to it, as I will tell before I come to the end
of my story.
I must go straight on--was it not sweet of them to make me so happy?--
they would not let me keep the least sore feeling about what I had done;
they would have it I had been so "brave and unselfish"--fancy _me_
unselfish!--in going to see Mrs Fetherston on my own account, as I had
done. Everything was coming right, Mrs Fetherston had fallen in love
with their mother, and what wonder! They were all to spend the next
summer holidays at Southerwold--that was the old home of the Whytes,
which none of the Yew Trees children had ever seen; "Uncle Hugo," as
they called him, was to get quite well immediately, and though I felt
more inclined to cry than to smile when they said this, knowing what
papa thought about Major Whyte, I took care not to cloud their bright
hopes. It was so like the Whytes. They could not see anything other
than hopefully--some people think that a bad way to face life and its
troubles, but I really can't say. All I know is that when troubles do
come, these dear friends of ours meet them bravely.
"Isn't Uncle Hugo a darling?" said Yvonne. "Of course we've known
_hint_ all our lives, though we never saw Aunt Fetherston before. But
it's nearly five years since Uncle Hugo went to India, so of course we
had all to learn each other over again, as he says. He's taken such a
fancy to you, Connie. He's coming down here to stay with us as soon as
ever the milder weather really sets in; just now he's best in London.
There's no pleasure in being in the country if one can't go out."
"No, of course not," I agreed. Evey's confident tone almost made me
feel as if, perhaps, papa was wrong, and that Major Whyte _would_ get
well again after all.
But, alas! it was not so. He did seem to get better for a little, and
even papa, who was up in London again, a month or so later, and went to
see him, allowed when he came home, that he could not have believed
Major Whyte could have rallied so much. And as the spring set in early,
and the good symptoms continued, all was arranged for his coming down to
the Yew Trees; the very day and train were fixed, and we three were
nearly as pleased at the idea of seeing him again as the Whytes
themselves, when the blow fell. Something, no one could say certainly
what--it might have been a slight chill, or over-fatigue, or, perhaps
merely the pleasant excitement of the visit in prospect--something--he
was so far gone that a mere nothing was enough, papa said--brought on
his cough again fearfully. He broke a blood-vessel, I think, and there
was only time to telegraph for Captain and Mrs Whyte, and the elder
children to go to bid him good-bye before he passed away, very
peacefully and very happily, Evey and Mary told me, when they were able
to tell me about it. For it was a real and sad grief to them all, and
it was the first trouble of _that_ kind they had ever known.
"He sent his love and good-bye to you," Yvonne said; "`little Connie
Percy' he called you. And I heard him say, `but for her, things might
not have been as they are.' Yes, he was quite happy. Do you know," she
went on in a very low voice, "years and years ago Uncle Hugo was going
to be married to somebody very nice and sweet, and she died. Mother
told us--I think it was that that made him so gentle and kind, though he
was very brave too."
The children gave no thought to the difference Major Whyte's death would
make to them all in the end. I think Captain Whyte told papa all, but I
never heard or thought about it till the change actually came. That was
two years after Major Whyte's death, when poor old Mrs Fetherston died
too. She felt the shock of his death very much, for though he had not
been originally her favourite nephew, no one could have lived with him
without learning to love him. She had grown dependent on him, too, for
helping her to manage things. Altogether it was a great blow, though
now, fortunately, as things were, she had Captain Whyte instead, and for
the rest of her life she did indeed cling to him and his wife, and to
them all. But she never came down to Elmwood again. She stayed on at
Southerwold, where she went immediately after Major Whyte's death, and
one or the other, or more of the Yew Trees family were always with her.
So I never saw her again, though now and then there was a talk of her
coming to the Yew Trees.
These two years were very happy. The Whytes, though they still lived
very simply, were free from anxiety about the future, and instead of
this making them selfish, it only made them the kinder. All children, I
suppose, live a good deal in the present. I don't think I understood
this till the great change came, which made such a difference to me. I
had thought, I suppose, that things would always go on much the same.
But one day--it was only six months ago--Captain and Mrs Whyte, who had
both been at Southerwold for nearly a week, telegraphed to papa, that
old Mrs Fetherston had died; it was rather sudden at the last; and in
the telegram they asked him to go to the Yew Trees to tell the children.
I had seen them only the evening before, when there was no expectation
of such a thing.
"Give them my love, papa," I said, as he was starting, "and tell them I
am very sorry."
"They _will_ be sorry, I suppose," I added to mamma, when we were
sitting alone; "but not _very_, do you think? She was rather a
frightening old lady, though I don't mean to be unkind."
"She was very much softened of late," said mamma, but she spoke rather
absently.
"Still, mamma, it can't make them _very_ miserable--not like if one of
themselves had died," I said. "I may go to see them soon, mayn't I, and
everything be the same?"
Mamma looked at me very tenderly.
"Connie, dear," she said, "don't you understand that it must make a
great difference? Captain Whyte will be the owner of Southerwold, and
one or two other smaller places as well, I believe. He will be a very,
very rich man, and they will be very important people. I don't say it
will change their _hearts_; indeed, I am very, very sure it will not;
but they will have many new ties, and responsibilities, and duties,
and--they will have to leave us."
I stared at her. It was very silly of me not to have thought of it
before, but I just hadn't. Then I burst into tears, and hid my face on
mamma's shoulder.
"You must try not to be selfish, darling," she whispered. "Try to be my
own Sweet Content, and trust."
I did try--I have tried, and I daresay mamma thinks I have succeeded.
But in my heart I know I have not, _quite_. It all happened as mamma
had said; as it _had_ to, indeed. But it came so soon: I had not
realised that. They were all as kind and dear as they could be to the
end. Only they were very busy, and, of course, a little excited by the
change. What wonder! Who could have helped it? In their place, I am
sure, I should have been just _horridly_ selfish. And before we knew
where we were they were gone; the Yew Trees empty and shut up again. I
went through it once, just once--but never again, for when I came to
Evey and Mary's room, with the climbing roses paper on the walls, I felt
as if my heart would burst. That was six months ago. I have seen none
of them since. They write me nice letters, but lately I have not had
one--and, after all, letters are only letters. Some of them have been
abroad for part of the winter; poor Addie was ill again, and no doubt
they have new friends, and lots and lots to do. Perhaps it will be
wisest for me to remember this, and not expect ever hardly to see them
again; but--there is mamma calling me--what can it be? I must run and
see.
It was a letter from Yvonne--a letter and an _invitation_. I am to go
to Southerwold for the Easter holidays! Oh, I can hardly believe it. I
don't know if I am glad or not. I am _so_ afraid they will have grown
so grand, and that I shall feel strange and shy. Oh, my dear Evey and
Mary--if I could but have you again like last year--with your dear old
shabby tweed jackets, and the loving hearts inside them!
Southerwold, _April_ 16th, 188-.
I am _here_, at Southerwold, and oh, so happy! It is the most
beautiful, the grandest place you can imagine. They have
_everything_! But it is not the place nor the grandeur that makes me
happy. It is themselves. They are just quite, _exactly_ the same. I
will never, never, never have horrid, distrustful fancies about them
again. They met me at the station--Evey and Mary--in their own
beautiful pony-carriage, and in one moment I felt it was all right.
And just fancy--they had on the old tweed jackets!
"It has got so suddenly hot," said Yvonne, in her funny, practical way,
"that we couldn't stand our winter things; so we routed these out. They
do very well, don't they? I suppose we shall get new ones this year.
There isn't any difficulty now about such things, you see, Connie," she
added smiling.
"How pretty your jacket is, Connie," said Mary, admiringly. "Do let us
ask mother to get us ones something like it, Evey."
Dear Mary--they were all dear. They are going to show me all the things
they do--the poor people, and the schools, and everything, so that when
I come here I shall know their ways and be able to help them. For I am
to come _very_ often they say. And the week after next, dear little
mamma and papa are coming to fetch me. I shan't mind going home, for I
know now we shall never be separated for very long, and never at all _in
our hearts_.