A VISIT TO VEDDON WEAL
CHRISTMAS found Orris and Pippa still at Cudweed Chase, and though Jock
would have had it otherwise, he had to possess his soul in patience.
Miss Lyle spent Christmas with them, and she and Orris were busy making
the season bright to all around them.
Pippa was nearly well again, and able to take very short rides on her
beloved pony.
Orris had been up to town for two or three days, and in that time she
had made her engagement known to her friends. Dugald received her news
in gloomy silence.
"It was an evil day," he said, "when you went off to Pinestones. I bear
Mrs. Calthrop a grudge for taking you there."
"Now, Dugald, if I had never gone there, my feelings towards you would
have been just the same. Be content to be my dear cousin and friend.
You knew long ago that I could never be anything more."
"You'll turn into a mouldy frump!"
"Better that than a town gadabout!"
She saw Reyne Archer, for their visit to the Riviera had been delayed
owing to Lady Violet getting a bad attack of 'flu, and received some
news from her which astonished and delighted her. Mr. Dane had been up
to town to see them several times, and on the last occasion had asked
Reyne to be his wife.
"And mother likes him so much that she makes no difficulty about it at
all," Reyne said. "Oh, Orris, you and I in the same parish! Think how
heavenly it will be! But we are not going to be married yet. A cousin
of mine is coming to be mother's companion when I leave her. The way
has smoothed out so wonderfully, and I shall have the desire of my
heart—to be a useful worker instead of an idler; and last and best of
all, to have such a splendid man to guide and help me."
"And to love you!" Orris put in, smiling. "I am so very, very glad,
Reyne dear."
She saw many of her old friends in town, but she was quite ready to
leave it, and come back to the lonely grey house by the sea. She felt
rather guilty when she saw Miss Lyle's extreme disappointment and
regret that she was leaving her. But after a good deal of thinking, she
came down to breakfast one morning with a bright idea in her head. And
this was to suggest Miss Dashwood for the next Lady Superintendent of
Cudweed Chase.
"Of course," she said to Miss Lyle, "I don't know that she would do
it. She has an invalid sister, but she could be made very comfortable
here, if you would extend your invitation to her. You would love
Miss Dashwood. She is so clever and cultured and brimful of life and
cheerfulness! And she has given up all her beloved work so happily and
contentedly for the sake of her poor sister. I shall be truly sorry if
she leaves our village, but for her sake I should be delighted, because
it is work that she will love."
"It sounds feasible," said Miss Lyle. "Will you write to her? Is it too
far for her to come and see me?"
"I am afraid she would not leave her sister. She is never away from her
for a day. I will write at once."
Brisk correspondence ensued, but the matter was not clinched until
Orris herself went down and stayed for a few days with the Prestons.
Jock was, of course, enchanted. He wanted to consult her about several
alterations at Pinestones, and met her at the station, one bright
frosty afternoon in January, with a radiant face.
"You are very bold in venturing here," he said to her, as he drove
her to Lilac Farm in a new car in which he had just invested. "How do
you know I will let you away again? I'm just feeling that the days
are empty and useless without you. I've been wonderfully patient, I
consider."
"Now, Jock, I haven't come down here on our own business, but on Miss
Lyle's. Do you think I can persuade Miss Dashwood to make the venture?"
"I'm not approving of it. She's running, or going to run, my Rest Home,
remember. I don't want to part with her."
Orris looked grave, then she laid her hand gently on his arm.
"Don't you think I could run that for you? We shall be only changing
places."
He looked at her, laughed, then screwed up his lips.
"I want a wife to attend to me, first of all. Not to be a busybody
outside her home." Orris said nothing.
"I wish I wasn't driving," Jock said irrelevantly. "It keeps me from
doing what I want to do. Speech is too cold for my mood at present."
"Let us keep to our subject," Orris said with her quiet dignity. "I
am not going to be your slave and chattel, am I? It isn't a chaffing
matter. If I am going to be your wife, Jock, there will be many outside
bits of work that I shall like to do. You built your Rest Home. Don't
you think your wife is the person to be the secretary or treasurer of
it?"
"I think my wife will be an adorable angel, and will be able to twist
her poor inferior husband round her finger."
Then they both laughed.
"I shall be entranced for you to be boss altogether of my Rest Home, my
house, and perhaps of me."
"That I should never be," Orris said; "I know my limitations. It is
your strength and pertinacity that sometimes appals me. Shall we ever
be on different sides I wonder?"
"Our conversation is not profitable," Jock said gaily. "We will be
joyful in each other's company and let the future go hang!"
When they reached Lilac Farm, Mrs. Preston gave Orris a warm welcome.
"It's so delightful to know that you're coming soon to live amongst
us," she said. "'Twas what Tom and I always hoped, but things seemed a
bit contrary before you went away."
Jock was loath to leave.
"You're tired, sweetheart," he said, when a few minutes later he was
saying good-bye to her in the old hall, and Mrs. Preston had discreetly
left them. "I feel that the little Elf's illness took a great deal out
of you, but it brought 'me' great happiness." Then, taking her in his
arms, he said very tenderly: "I am longing to have you in my keeping.
You have always been looking after other people, and now you'll have to
take instead of give."
"I'd like to ask you something, Jock," said Orris, a little wistfully.
"I wanted to do it when you came to us at Cudweed, but I was not brave
enough!"
"Why? Are you afraid of me? Never!"
"No, but I am afraid of your cloaking your real feelings by a veneer
of—of indifference."
"Now look here, you and I are on very intimate terms now; we're going
to be one before long, instead of two. You may ask me any question you
like. I will bare my soul to you. Never hesitate to scold me, question
me, and advise me for my good. We have got to know each other through
and through!"
"Are things different with you now? Can you and I talk together of the
unseen world? Have you got your old faith back?"
Jock held her tighter in his arms, and looked into her eyes very
earnestly.
"Do you think I'd have bothered over this Rest Home, and been such
chums with Dane, if I hadn't had anything in common with him? I'm not
going to have any barriers between us, sweetheart. Your God is my God,
your faith is my faith, and your hope mine. You'll be my guardian
angel, and help me along, I know. But I've made up my mind to say, as
Joshua did: 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!'"
Orris's eyes filled with tears, which tears Jock promptly kissed away.
"I shall have to go," he said. "This is a tantalizing visit of yours,
but I invite you to tea to-morrow afternoon, just to see that my
preparations indoors are according to your liking."
"I shall love to come," said Orris.
And then they parted, and she slipped indoors again with a happy heart.
She had instinctively felt that Jock had changed, before she gave him
her answer at Cudweed. She was assured of it now, and she thanked God
in her heart for this assurance. She knew well that it would have only
spelled disaster to link her life to his unless they had been of one
mind upon the real and deep things of eternity.
The next morning she set off on her visit to Miss Dashwood, who was
both surprised and delighted to see her.
But when she unfolded her plan, Louisa Dashwood demurred at taking part
in it.
"Personally I should love to do what you want, but it is Grace who will
object. She likes, if I may say so, to be my centre, and would not like
other people to share my interest and care. Will you wait a moment? I
will call her. It is better to discuss the matter fully before her. She
likes you, and may be influenced by your wishes."
So Miss Grace came in, and, as Louisa had said, she vetoed the
proposition at once.
"I am not strong enough to move. And from what you say, it is a lonely
house in a lonely position. It is bad enough here, but we know a
few people and have the village close to us, and Mr. Dane is a very
pleasant Vicar."
"I don't think you would be lonely," Orris said, "for you would
have very pleasant people in the house, and the village is not very
far-away, and there is a low pony-chaise which Miss Lyle says she would
put entirely at your disposal. I can't tell you how lovely the sea is.
And the country round, and the air, is glorious. Miss Lyle would come
and go, and to me she is a most fascinating personality."
Grace shrugged her shoulders.
"I do not care for strangers," she said. "No, it is a plan that I for
one could not contemplate for a moment."
"But, Miss Grace, you are always complaining of this small cottage, and
you do not care for the villagers. You would have many more comforts at
Cudweed Chase."
"Are you wanting to get rid of us?" Miss Grace demanded sharply. "Is it
because you are going to live here that you want us to go?"
"Oh, Grace!" expostulated her sister, seeing Orris's hurt look. "It
is entirely on our account that Miss Coventry has come down to-day to
tell us about this. It is a hard matter, as you know, for us to make
both ends meet. If I had an extra two hundred pounds a year, and a
comfortable house to live in, do you realize how many extra comforts
you would enjoy?"
"I am feeling ill," said Grace suddenly, putting her hand to her head;
"you are agitating me. I must go and lie down."
She left the room, and her sister accompanied her. Then she returned to
Orris, who was looking disappointed and depressed.
Louisa put her hand upon her arm.
"Cheer up," she said. "It isn't easy to help us, is it? But Grace may
think it over and alter her mind. Leave it an open question for a few
days, will you? Grace hates changes, though she always says she is not
happy here. But I don't think she would be happy anywhere—it is not her
nature to be so. And sometimes she suddenly turns round and agrees to
what is proposed, after I have given up hope that she will do so."
"I should insist upon the plan if I felt it would be for her good,"
said Orris.
"No, you would not," said Louisa, smiling, "if you knew that opposition
of any kind really makes her ill. Persuasion, not force, is the only
way to deal with her."
They talked together for some time, and then Orris left, her mission
still unfulfilled. But Louisa promised to do her best to influence the
fretful invalid, and Orris went back to the farm, wondering at the
cheerful patience and serene calm of her friend.
Jock appeared directly the farm dinner was over, and he and Orris
walked over the fields together. They first inspected the new building
which was very nearly completed, and then stood together on the waste
piece of ground upon which the west wing had once stood.
"It makes me very sad," said Orris. "Why did you not build it up again?"
"The house is big enough without it," said Jock cheerfully. "I've had,
as you see, all the rubbish taken away, and we'll make this bit of
ground into a sunk rose-garden. Truefitt, my new gardener, is wild to
do it. Now come along into the house."
Orris was surprised to see how much had been done to the house when she
entered it. Fresh paint and papering, and a general clearance of old
worthless bits of furniture, and some really good bits of oak put in
their place, gave the house a new aspect altogether. He took her into
dining-room, smoking-room, and big drawing-room, and showed her the
room upstairs that he was going to make into a private sitting-room for
her.
"You must have some retreat where you'll be able to get away from me,"
he said to her lightly, and Orris assented at once.
"We can't sit in each other's pockets all day long," she said. "But I
don't think you'll ever overburden me with your society, Jock. It will
be the other way about. Yet I would not have you an idle man about the
house. Out-of-doors is your sphere, and I'm old-fashioned enough to
believe that indoors will be the sphere for me."
"It will be heaven on earth," said Jock in a low emphatic tone. "We're
going to have tea in the hall now. Will you pour out? I'll sit opposite
you and imagine we're already husband and wife."
His gay spirits infected Orris. Her dimples had free play. After tea
was over, he and she took counsel over patterns of chintz and damask,
as to the best material to re-cover the drawing-room furniture. Then
Orris was shown the contents of the powder-room, and when she came out
she said:
"I don't wonder at Pippa's infatuation for you. But you spoil her,
Jock."
"I couldn't," he said. "I only hope she'll stay with us till she grows
up."
Orris looked grave.
"I am anxious about her future, with such a mother. But I tell myself
that I have her at the most susceptible age, so I shall have faith to
believe that her character will be formed before she joins her mother
again."
Jock was loath to let her go when the time came for her to return to
the farm.
"I have all to-morrow," Orris said.
"Oh, do let us get married at once," cried Jock. "What is the good of
waiting? You don't want a regular show, do you?"
"I should like," Orris replied softly, "to creep into a little quiet
lonely church, and plight our troth before God, away from every one."
"And so should I. We'll do it. I'll get a special licence and we'll do
it before you go back to Cudweed."
"No, no! What an impulsive creature you are! Miss Lyle has determined
to give me a send-off. I have promised her to be married from her
house."
"Well, let us settle the day. I shan't let you move from this house
till you've done it!"
He was as good as his word, and though he chafed at the delay, Orris
would not leave Cudweed till the end of the following month. They
settled the day, and then he let her go. But he arranged to take her
for a ride and show her round his farm the following day.
The following morning Orris had an early visit from Louisa Dashwood.
"My dear Miss Coventry, it's done. Grace has relented, and I am
allowed to take up the post. It is Mr. Muir's doing. He came round
last night after his dinner, and simply coaxed and wheedled Grace into
acquiescence. What a power he has with his tongue! Will you be able to
withstand him in anything. I wonder?"
"I wonder that, sometimes," said Orris, smiling. "But I hope such an
emergency will not occur. I am very thankful for your news. Now I can
return to Miss Lyle with a light heart."
"At the same time," said Louisa, "may I say that I have real regret in
removing myself away from your society. We have not seen very much of
each other, but when we have met I have always benefited."
"No," said Orris; "I think you have been my benefactor. I have taken
heart again and again when I have seen your cheerful courage and
patience. We must not be parted for good. I hope sometimes you may be
able to pay us a visit."
And then, as she said, Orris returned to Cudweed with a light heart.
Miss Lyle was pleased to hear about her successor, and Pippa was
eagerness itself to hear all about "Master Jock" in his "real own home."