she was always getting so red when nurse talked about flowers and
plants. At last I found out that Jane was going away altogether; and a
month or two after Christmas, nurse dressed Bobby and me one day, and
took us to church, and mamma took care of baby at home. And at church we
saw Jane with her father and mother, and I whispered to Bobby that the
strange man with them was Mr. Owen, grandmamma's head-gardener, and I
couldn't think how he came to be in our church! But when the service was
all over, nurse took us into the vestry, and told us to go and give Jane
a kiss, because she was Mrs. Owen now, and we must "say something
pretty."
It doesn't seem to do to tell little folks that sort of thing. You
remember, when Jane herself gave me that charge ever so long ago, it
didn't answer, and now there was Bobby crying and sobbing out that "Mr.
Owen shouldn't take Janie away; he was a naughty man; he didn't like
him at all!" But nobody seemed to mind this, indeed they all looked
pleased; and Mr. Owen turned round, and asked me if he should take me
back to Beecham too?
Ah, by this time, I was quite sure, and didn't hesitate at all when I
said, "No, thank you, I'd rather stay at home."
* * * * *
And now, little readers, I meant to have tumbled you off my knee, and
sent you up to bed, for I fancy my story has not kept you from getting
sleepy. But there is nursie making signs to me, as much as to say, "Go
on talking; amuse the little ones a bit longer, please, for the bath
isn't ready and the water isn't hot, and I can't have them yet."
What shall I tell you about? Oh, I know! that second visit of mine to
Beecham. It was only a very short one, so five minutes' talk will tell
you all about it.
I was a great tall girl then, and I had just left school, when
grandmamma's letter came, asking Bobby and me to come and spend a few
days at the Park with Lottie, and Harry, and Alick. I couldn't say, "No,
thank you," if I had wished to, for it was likely to be the last time
we five should meet for a long time. Harry, now a young lieutenant with
brass buttons and fair moustache, was bound on a long voyage, which
would have some fighting at the end; and Lottie was to be married in a
fortnight, and to go off to Australia; and Alick, too, was just starting
on a tour with his tutor, after which he was to go to a great college in
Germany. But there was another reason for our visit which I did not know
till I got there, though, I fancy, mamma did. Grandmamma met us with a
very tearful welcome, and it was natural for us all to feel sad as we
looked at her, so aged since we saw her last, and in her deep, deep
mourning. We couldn't help thinking of the blue sea far away, with the
soft spicy wind blowing from the beautiful coral islands over the quiet
waves, which had so cruelly sucked in dear Uncle Hugh's brave ship and
all on board. But the pleasure of meeting soon put away all sad
thoughts, and I think even grandmamma looked bright and contented as she
listened to our merry talk.
It was in the middle of the long summer days, and we rambled about
through the gardens, and orchards, and shrubberies where we had played
as little children, and laughed over the remembrance of our childish
tricks and troubles. Then there was that long talk with grandmamma, and
afterwards with Bobby, in her room. When Lottie and I found ourselves
alone together just at bed-time, how much we had to say! It seemed to me
a little difficult to talk over all her affairs, though when, after some
time, she called upon me to admire my two tall cousins, I was quite
ready to do so. Yet my own rosy, round-faced, romping schoolboy brother
was much more in my thoughts now.
I don't think I had ever known till now that my mother was grandmamma's
eldest child, so it had never struck me that, now that dear uncle was
gone, Bobby, and not Harry, would be master of Beecham Park! How strange
it did seem! I thought of the funny boy's blushing awkwardness when
grandmamma had told him, and then of his confession to me that "it was a
horrid bore, he had so meant to be a discoverer, and get lost in Africa
like Dr. Livingstone; and now, he supposed, he couldn't!" And just
before I went to sleep that night I thought of his last words about it a
few hours ago, as he threw his strong arm over my shoulder:--
"I say, Sis, it'll be ever so long first--that's one comfort!--but if
ever I do have to come and live here, you'll come too, won't you? Then
you can see after it all, you know, and then it won't be quite so bad!"
Should I? Would Beecham ever be my real home? And Jane--Jane down at the
Lodge with her three rosy, tidy little daughters. Wasn't this just what
she said years ago when she first brought me to Beecham? "What if Master
Bobby should grow up some day to find it all his own, and he the lord of
it all!"
So it had come to pass, and Beecham, dear beautiful Beecham, was to be
really _ours_!
That was a dozen years ago, my small friends; how funny it seems now!
THE END.
Simmons & Botten, Printers, 4A, Shoe Lane, E. C.
* * * * *
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