Ned Spencer returned alone to Hilcrest about the middle of April. In
spite of their able corps of managers, the Spencers did not often leave
the mills for so long a time without the occasional presence of one or
the other of the firm, though Ned frequently declared that the mills
were like a clock that winds itself, so admirably adjusted was the
intricate machinery of their management.
It was not without some little embarrassment and effort that Ned sought
out the Mill House, immediately upon his return, and called on Margaret.
"I left Della and Frank to come more slowly," he said, after the
greetings were over. "Frank, poor chap, isn't half strong yet, but he
was impatient that some one should be here. For that matter, I found
things in such fine shape that I told them I was going away again. We
made more money when I wasn't 'round than when I was!"
Margaret smiled, but very faintly. She understood only too well that
behind all this lay the reasons why her urgent requests and pleas
regarding some of the children, had been so ignored in the office of
Spencer & Spencer during the last few months. She almost said as much to
Ned, but she changed her mind and questioned him about Frank's health
and their trip, instead.
The call was not an unqualified success--at least it was not a success so
far as Margaret was concerned. The young man was plainly displeased with
the cane-seated chair in which he sat, and with his hostess's simple
toilet. The reproachful look had gone from his eyes, it was true, but in
its place was one of annoyed disapproval that was scarcely less
unpleasant to encounter. There were long pauses in the conversation,
which neither participant seemed able to fill. Once Margaret tried to
tell her visitor of her work, but he was so clearly unsympathetic that
she cut it short and introduced another subject. Of McGinnis she did not
speak; time enough for that when Frank Spencer should return and the
engagement would have to be known. She did tell him, however, of her
plans to go to New York later in search of the twins.
"I shall take Patty with me," she explained, "and we shall make it a
sort of vacation. We both need the change and the--well, it won't be
exactly a rest, perhaps."
"No, I fear not," Ned returned grimly. "I do hope, Margaret, that when
Della gets home you'll take a real rest and change at Hilcrest. Surely
by that time you'll be ready to cut loose from all this sort of thing!"
Margaret laughed merrily, though her eyes were wistful.
"We'll wait and see how rested New York makes me," she said.
"But, Margaret, you surely are going to come to Hilcrest then," appealed
Ned, "whether you need rest or not!"
"We'll see, Ned, we'll see," was all she would say, but this time her
voice had lost its merriment.
Ned, though he did not know it, and though Margaret was loth to
acknowledge it even to herself, had touched upon a tender point. She did
long for Hilcrest, its rest, its quiet, and the tender care that its
people had always given her. She longed for even one day in which she
would have no problems to solve, no misery to try to alleviate--one day
in which she might be the old care-free Margaret. She reproached herself
bitterly for all this, however, and accused herself of being false to
her work and her dear people; but in the next breath she would deny the
accusation and say that it was only because she was worn out and "dead
tired."
"When the people do get home," she said to Bobby McGinnis one day, "when
the people do get home, we'll take a rest, you and I. We'll go up to
Hilcrest and just play for a day or two. It will do us good."
"To Hilcrest?--I?" cried the man.
"Certainly; why not?" returned Margaret quickly, a little disturbed at
the surprise in her lover's voice. "Surely you don't think that the man
I'm expecting to marry can stay away from Hilcrest; do you?"
"N-no, of course not," murmured McGinnis; but his eyes were troubled,
and Margaret noticed that he did not speak again for some time.
It was this, perhaps, that set her own thoughts into a new channel.
When, after all, had she thought of them before together--Bobby and
Hilcrest? It had always been Bobby and--the work.