“So free we seem, so fettered fast we are.”
—ROBERT BROWNING.
Katherine could scarcely believe her eyes when, on entering the large
dining-room, she saw Daphne seated opposite Arthur Field, and beside
David Grey. Daphne, who was afraid of the morning when she had merely to
tell her story, facing her life now with an air, as fearless as it was
charming, and with an appetite, which seemed not averse to strawberries
and cream, with which Reggie had plentifully heaped her plate.
“Daphne tells me you have been out, dear,” said Lady Middleton, smiling
at her, and wondering what her name was. “_So_ clever of you! I have
always _wanted_ to get up early, _really_ early you know, and go out
into the fields to see the dawn, and _mushrooms_. It _is_ mushrooms,
isn’t it, that one finds there? Only I hate upsetting my maid, and one
must have one’s hair done. It is so easy to upset one’s maid.”
“It is quite easy to do one’s own hair,” said Daphne.
Katherine said nothing. To Lady Middleton’s casual absurdities, this
wall of silence was exceedingly difficult. She wished Daphne would not
have such awkward friends, it made one feel ridiculous, which was bad,
or serious, which was worse. Lady Middleton gave a little friendly
laugh, and glanced over the table. “Now we are all here,” she said,
“aren’t we? And I’ve got a lovely piece of news to give you. I feel
quite ‘beautiful upon the mountains.’ What do you think it is?”
Katherine felt the toast in her hand crumble. She glanced over the faces
at the table. Arthur Field looked up enquiringly. David looked down on
his plate morosely. Lady Cheston looked at David. The twins both clapped
their hands. Reggie was cutting ham at the sideboard. Daphne, with quite
a steady hand, poured more cream over her strawberries. “Our dear
Daphne,” said Lady Middleton, “and our dear David, are going to make
each other happy.”
“Oh! but that’s taking rather a lot for granted, Vera!” said Daphne,
putting down the cream jug.
Lady Cheston gave a little shriek of laughter, rushed round the table,
pecked at Daphne’s cheek, and pulled one of David’s curls. The twins
exclaimed in joyous surprise, “Oh, Daphne! Oh, David! how awfully
lovely!” This covered up the fact that the rest of the party said
nothing.
Arthur Field, after one swift glance at Daphne, grew white to the lips.
Katherine knew that she was very angry, and looked it. Reggie stopped
cutting ham.
Vera leant back in her chair satisfied. There had been reasons why she
and Lady Cheston were not very fond of each other, and now Vera was
quite ready to forgive and forget.
“Well,” said Daphne, “I think it’s frightful to have these things talked
about at breakfast, if it had been dinner now, you could have all drunk
my health, and David could have got up and thanked you. Couldn’t you,
David? The next time, Vera, that you have good tidings please announce
them upon the mountains, a dining-room is so crowded.”
“She takes it very coolly,” said Lady Cheston, in an aside to Bert
Russell.
“Why, I don’t see what there is for her to throw bouquets about,” he
said. “In my country we only congratulate the young men.”
“She’ll have £30,000 a year,” said Lady Cheston.
“You don’t say!” he replied coolly, and then added, “you forget she’ll
have him.”
“Oh, no! I don’t forget that!” said Lady Cheston.
“I say,” began Reggie, doubtfully, “it won’t stop our fishing this
morning, will it?”
“Daphne needn’t go,” said Lady Cheston sweetly.
“I am going to see my uncle,” said Daphne quietly.
Lady Middleton looked a little anxiously at Arthur Field. “I am going to
adopt you for this morning,” she said genially. “There is so much I want
to learn. We will fish farther up the stream where we can be away from
all the others.”
“Mother,” said Reggie, “you can’t fish you know, you’d only laugh. You’d
better stay here and amuse David, unless he’s going with Daphne.”
“Oh, no! he’s not going with me,” said Daphne quickly.
David bit his lip. “It seems to me you chaps are trying to arrange too
much,” he said.
Reggie paid no attention. “Miss Linton knows all the best places,” he
went on, “she’s going to take me, and the twins will go with Bert.
You’ll take them won’t you, Bert?”
“Why, I should be only too happy,” said the American smiling kindly at
the girls.
“Yes, you’d probably be _too_ happy!” shouted Lady Cheston, “if you’re
takin’ them both!”
“Well!” said Lady Middleton, smiling pleasantly, “it’s very sweet of you
to plan things out for yourselves. Lunch will be brought out to the
hollow place beyond the bridge, if it’s fine you know, and really, it
does seem,” said Lady Middleton going to the window and glancing out
over the lawn, “as if it _would_ be fine!” She looked at the sky with a
shade of warning. “I shall be exceedingly annoyed,” she added, “if it is
not.”