THE very day after Gwen’s flight into history Mr. and Mrs. Waring walked
up to the Rectory and got through their talk with the master of it.
They might not have been altogether so prompt, being still absorbed body
and soul in the skeleton, but that, not only was Gwen suffering tortures
from the state of her skin through the combined action of paint,
paraffin, and other ungents, but into the bargain she had caught a bad
and a quite abnormally noisy cold, which kept her presence _en evidence_
by fits and starts whenever she broke loose from the nursery, and which
was a weapon judiciously wielded by Mary to keep her parents well up to
the mark.
They had delivered themselves to Mr. Fellowes, and were now walking down
the Rectory drive, both looking a little pained. Mr. Waring’s disengaged
hand was pressed to his forehead and his brows were knit, and Mrs.
Waring looked as if she were engaged in a silent struggle against
disturbing thoughts.
The air was still and soft, and some stray stars had already taken
possession of the evening sky, where the little streaks of rose, left by
the sun, looked quite out of place, and felt it too, seemingly, for they
were creeping behind the hills with a soft little shiver of dismay, like
a timid guest who suddenly discovers that every soul but himself has
left.
The silence and the calm helped Mr. and Mrs. Waring, who were both
trying to throw off the consideration of minor matters and to return to
that of vital affairs. Generally so easy, like the slipping back of a
pair of seals into the water after a rugged land journey, to-night this
seemed a strangely hard task to tackle.
They often seemed to receive the same impression at the same moment, and
something or other in the bright glow of the Rectory study and in the
perfectly at-home and at-ease air of a pair of twins that the Rector’s
wife had temporary charge of, and had brought in to say good-night, had
given them a little jar which would keep on quivering.
These were not sufficiently tangible sensations for discussion, there
seemed nothing in them that these two persons could seize upon and argue
from to any purpose, so they were struggling to put them behind them.
Mr. Waring succeeded, his wife was not so fortunate.
The vague feeling was quite like a Jack-in-the-box for sudden
appearances during the next few days, and whenever it sprang up, a
little ache followed hot on the heels of it.
At last she made a supreme effort to regain her reason, and remarked
with rather deceptive cheerfulness,
“I think, dearest, we may now dismiss this matter from our minds. I am
quite willing to trust it in Mr. Fellowes’ hands, as I presume you are.
You do feel perfect confidence in him?” she questioned a little
anxiously, as Mr. Waring did not speak for a moment.
“Darling, yes!” he said with a start, “in this matter certainly yes,
this is quite within his _rôle_, I do not think we could find a wiser
helper or counsellor. And he is so thoroughly a gentleman, he so kindly
waived his theological objections when he found that on this part of the
question we had both arrived at a fixed conclusion. Yes, in the choice
of a tutor we could desire no better adviser. At the moment you spoke I
was speculating upon Fellowes from another point of view; I am really
quite astonished that a man so advanced in some phases of thought should
be so limited so—almost retrograde—in others, and above all, so
strangely content with his life, with hardly a moment in it for
undisturbed reflection, and no moment at all for any attempt at valuable
work. I cannot imagine either where he finds companionship.”
He paused to sigh. “We have so little time, love, to give to him, time
is so very much to us. Our other neighbours seem to hunt when they do
not fish and fish when they do not hunt, they can have neither time nor
strength left for intellectual culture. Then Mr. and Mrs. Fellows have,
I believe, duties; they sit on Boards and Councils and no doubt follow
other pursuits of like order, but as companions, naturally they must be
impossible. Then as to his wife, she is a comely person—she is, is she
not, dearest? I am so very poor a judge—but I do not perceive any
glimmerings of thought in her. You can better judge of her, dear, have
you ever discovered any?”
Mrs. Waring considered for a moment then she shook her head.
“I do not think I have expected any,” she said, “so indeed I have hardly
looked. I have only thought of her kindness, and of her knowledge of
children and their feeding. I am very fond of her and so very grateful,
but I have never once really talked to her.”
“I thought so—it is strange—strange. However, I am most thankful this
business is done, we may now be able to begin those papers to-night—I
look forward with much pleasure to them. Curious what very opposed views
we take on this subject—h’m, I fancy I am right, dear.”
Mrs. Waring thought not, and signified the fact by a very decided shake
of her sweet golden locks, that looked more like spun silver in the
moon’s rays.
They had now reached the great flight of steps that flanked either side
of the entrance door.
When they got to the top, by one accord they paused, and leant over the
castellated ivy-clad wall that protected the platform of granite slabs
connecting the two flights of steps, and gazed out into the evening, but
a sudden horrible sound made Mrs. Waring jump nervously, then quiver
from head to foot, and caused her husband’s brows to contract as sharply
as if there had been a spring in them.
It turned out to be Gwen scraping an old violin and coughing frightfully
all down the corridor.
“Dearest, do you think we should summon Dr. Guy?” said Mr. Waring when
they had somewhat recovered.
“Oh no, love, Mary assures me there is no danger whatever, she calls
that dreadful noise ‘a simple stomach cough’.”
“In that case we must request Mary to keep her in the nursery, such
noises are most upsetting. Pray be as quick as you can, my darling, we
might get to work at once. But surely it is not the gong I hear?”
“Love, I fear it is only too true,” cried Mrs. Waring in trembling
distress. “I had no idea of the lateness of the hour, and oh, Henry, we
were late again yesterday and the servants were quite upset. Oh, you
will be quick with your dressing, will you not?”
Then with one last little hand-squeeze she fled to her room with a
terrified glance into the solemn face of a hurt-looking footman.