They all went down to the harbour to see him off--as is the custom
when one's friends leave Sark. And when Charles Svendt had shaken
hands with Margaret and Miss Penny--and had found a touch of comfort
in the sympathetic droop of their faces--and had fancied Miss Penny's
bright eyes were at once brighter and mistier than usual--and had
thanked them again very humbly for all their kindness--he turned to
say good-bye to Graeme.
"Come away, man!" said Jock cheerfully. "I'm coming too. Meg's given
me a holiday, and I'm going to shake a free leg again in Guernsey--"
But Charles thought he saw through that.
"Don't you come on my account, Graeme"
"Not on your account at all, my boy, but the accounts of a good many
shopkeepers over there which I've got to straighten out at once, while
all the little differences are fresh in my mind. Something wrong in
nearly all of them--some over, some under--and I'm still a bit of a
business man though I do write books."
For, when Pixley went off to pack his portmanteau, Graeme had said to
his wife, "Meg dear, what do you think of my going across to Peter
Port with that young man? He'll have a bad black time all by himself.
He's holding himself in before us, but when he's alone it'll all come
back on him in a heap and he'll feel it."
And Margaret had said, "Yes, dear, go. You'll be a great comfort to
him. I am very very sorry for him."
The last flicker of the waving handkerchiefs above the sea-wall, and
their responsive wavings from the boat, had been abruptly cut by the
intervening bastion of Les Lâches, but Charles Svendt still leaned
with his arms on the rail and looked back as though he could pierce
the granite cliff and see the girls still standing there, and Graeme
stood patiently behind him.
He straightened up at last with a sigh.
"I'm glad I came," he said, "though if I'd had any idea what was going
to happen I'd have drowned myself first. It's when one's in
trouble"--as though this were a discovery of his own--"that one finds
out how kind people can be."
"Yes, trouble has its uses. I had a deuce of a time for the first few
weeks after I got here. Your dad had told me you and Margaret were to
be married very shortly, and it knocked life into a cocked-hat for
me--"
"That's what he would have liked. Do you know, Graeme, I've been
thinking that it's just possible your marriage helped to precipitate
matters with him. I don't know, of course; but if he has been juggling
her money in any way, he may have been counting on a marriage between
us to help straighten things. Then, when he heard nothing from me--"
"It's possible. But if it acted as quickly as all that, I'm afraid the
chances for Margaret's portion are pretty small."
"Gad! That would hurt me more than anything. I shall do everything in
my power--"
"I'm sure of it, my dear fellow. And you must understand that her
money--whatever it is--has never entered into our calculations in any
way. I knew nothing of it till Lady Elspeth Gordon told me, and I had
it all settled on her before the wedding took place. If it is gone we
can do without it."
And Charles Svendt, if he said nothing, thought all the more.