"Why?"
"She says I shall always want to be with Mummie, and never with her."
"That is unkind of Mousie. She ought to be pleased for your sake. Of
course you will be a good deal with Mummie, but it will not mean giving
up Mousie."
"I told her, Grannie, and she won't listen."
"Never mind. It will come right in time. Are your arms tired?"
Grannie was unfastening another skein, but she stopped suddenly and sat
still, listening. Sounds as of something arriving at the front door
could be heard. The drawing-room windows did not look that way.
"A motor—" Grannie said very low. And the instant thought came that it
might be her nephew, living several miles away. Had he heard ill news
and come to tell her? The weather for three days had been very stormy,
and she had lain awake at night, listening to the gale and thinking of
Jock's mother out on the stormy sea.
"It's stopping here, Grannie." Jock jumped up.
He was so full of the thought of what this might mean that he did not
notice a small peaky face just outside the nearer window, and nearly
hidden by clustering creepers—peering in with troubled black eyes. He
did not know that, when he left her, Mousie had followed him slowly
at a distance, and had ensconced herself in the wet bushes, using the
corner of the window as a peep-hole, and thus keeping watch over Jock.
The bright firelight inside the room made everything there clear to
anyone outside in twilight.
"Shall I go and see who it is?"
"One moment—wait—" said Grandma with an anxious face.
The front door was heard to open, and then followed a slight stir. The
butler said something, after which another voice spoke—the sweetest
voice in the world for those two listeners.
Grannie stood up, her face alight with joy, as the door was thrown open.
"Jock—do you hear—?"
But Jock was gone. He simply hurled himself the full length of the
drawing-room into the arms of a slight figure, just coming in. One
stifled cry broke from him, and then—silence. Nobody said a word while
that clinging clasp lasted. Only, Grannie drew near, and put her arms
round them both.
It really was Mummie herself, arriving thus without notice. She had not
sent a telegram because she knew that would mean Aunt Judith going all
the way to meet her. Kind friends on board had seen to her luggage,
and had looked well after herself, which they could easily do, since
they happened to be travelling by the same train. All this had to be
explained, when the first silence was broken.
"Jock, my darling—how you have grown! And how well and bonny you look!"
Jock at first could only hold her in a tight clutch, as if fearing to
lose her afresh. He was so radiantly glad that he could not speak. But
when once he did start talking, it was a good while before he could
stop.