_MEETINGS_
"Such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour that
ballad-makers cannot be able to express it."--_A Winter's Tale._
Poor Mrs. Penn had a conscience. It had been lulled to sleep while she
lived an unwholesome life with Maria and her husband, and allowed
herself to be dominated by them. But the loss of Jamie and the visit to
Wardour Street had awakened her better nature and the feelings of a
happier time. She recalled Harold Waring's faithful words and Meta
Neale's gentle counsels, and remembered all the comfort and help which
she had found in Mrs. Beaton's friendship.
So powerfully did good emotions work within her that she suddenly
resolved to fly from Maria's companionship. The Dennetts were mortally
offended, but what did that matter? She wanted to go back to her old
haunts and be helped by the presence of those who could lift her out of
miry ways; and Mrs. Beaton and her son took compassion upon the
repentant woman, and let her come to live with them. Sometimes they made
little excursions into the suburbs, which did them all good. Mrs. Penn
became a really useful member of the household, and waited on Mrs.
Beaton with careful attention. Andrew, who had been troubled about his
mother's increasing feebleness, was no longer afraid to see her go out
of doors. Mrs. Penn was by her side, a trustworthy companion nowadays,
with a stout arm which could be safely leant upon.
July was gloriously bright, and one day the two women--Mrs. Beaton and
Mrs. Penn--had prepared themselves for a trip to Richmond, when Miss
Kilner suddenly presented herself.
"One longs to escape from London to-day," she said. "So you are going to
Richmond? I have a school-friend who lives down by the river, and I told
Miss Saxon that I should go to see her."
"Will you come with us?" Mrs. Beaton asked, brightening.
"Yes," Elsie answered; and the three went off together.
Down by the river there are old houses set deep in leafy gardens;
creepers hang drowsily in the delicious air; long aisles open upon
terraces bright with flowers. It was in an earthly paradise of this kind
that Elsie loitered away a golden afternoon; and then, when the clocks
were striking six, she went off to rejoin her companions.
She found them at the appointed meeting-place, and they all walked up
from the river-side through a lane opening into the highway of the town.
Mrs. Beaton, a little weary, moved slowly, leaning on Mrs. Penn. Elsie,
a few steps in the rear, gave herself up to one of those reveries which
so often come to us at the close of a summer day. The lights were golden
on the river. Some people were singing in a boat, and the voices floated
sweetly over the water; it was pleasant melody, but there was a faint
tone of sadness in the strain.
An open carriage and pair waited under the overhanging trees in the
lane. Leaning back lazily on the cushions was a lady, fair and still
young, with a beautiful boy by her side. The child was in high spirits;
his laugh rang out clear and fresh as Elsie drew near. He stood up in
the carriage in his pretty sailor's suit, and the low sunlight shone
into his blooming face and blue eyes. At the sight of him Mrs. Penn
stopped short and uttered a little cry.
"It's Jamie!" she exclaimed. "It's really Jamie!"
The boy knew her voice; the laugh died out on his lips in an instant; he
looked at her with a gaze half-frightened, half-defiant, and drew closer
to the lady's side.
"What is the matter, dear?" they heard her ask.
Before he could reply, before any one could speak again, a terrible
thing happened. The horses began to plunge violently, and then, as the
drowsy coachman woke with a start, they set off at a mad pace in spite
of all his efforts to control them. Down the lane they went at a wild
gallop, their thundering hoofs raising a cloud of dust, and the three
horror-stricken women caught a swift glimpse of the lady and the child
clinging to each other in a despairing embrace.
Scarcely knowing what she was doing, Elsie began to run after the flying
carriage at the top of her speed; Mrs. Penn followed her at a slower
pace, and poor Mrs. Beaton came panting behind.
Miss Kilner was slight of figure and light of foot, and eagerness seemed
to lend her wings. She was still getting over the ground at a rapid
rate, when she saw the dust-cloud vanish, and perceived that the
carriage had come to a stand-still. Was the danger, then, over? Her
heart gave a throb of passionate thankfulness as she pressed on, longing
to assure herself that Jamie was safe, and to hold him, for one brief
moment even, in her arms.
One or two watermen had come up and gathered round the panting horses.
The coachman, white and shaky, was talking and gesticulating; his
mistress, looking very fair in her faintness, had been helped out of the
carriage by a tall man with a brown face.
Elsie, as she came up breathless to this group, took in two facts at
once. Jamie was safe and unhurt, and the brown-faced man was Mr.
Lennard's friend Ronald. He looked every inch a knight, as he stood
there in his suit of fresh, white flannels, his bronzed face with a
summer glow in it, and the dark hair cropped close to his head. The
lady, in a silvery voice that faltered once or twice, was pouring out
her thanks. Elsie comprehended it all in a moment; it was Ronald who had
stopped the horses, and saved, perhaps, two lives.
"I cannot trust them again," the lady said, glancing at the handsome
chestnuts with a shudder. "We had better go home in the train."
The boy was holding her hand, and pressing close to the folds of her
dainty gown. Elsie came up to them, very pale, with a light in her eyes.
Her glance rested on the little lad, and she stretched out her hand to
him with an impulsive gesture. "Oh," she said, "it is Jamie Waring, and
I have been trying to find him for weeks and weeks! I have no right to
claim him, I know; but I have wanted him for such a long, long time. To
see him safe and well, after such a weary search----"
She broke off abruptly. The brown man was standing in front of her with
his eyes fixed on her face; he was gazing at her so earnestly,
sincerely, and wistfully that for an instant she almost lost herself.
Jamie's gaze was less sympathetic; he looked puzzled, and kept very
close to his protectress.
"I found Jamie with some organ-grinders," said the lady, recovering her
composure, and speaking in rather a cold voice. "The organ-woman was
beating him, and I stopped my carriage to interfere. They were in a
quiet road near Lee, and of course there was no policeman to be seen. I
asked the child if he belonged to these people, and he cried, 'No, no!'
and clung to me. I saw that he was not dirty and neglected; his clothes
were rather poor, but there was nothing of the tramp about him. To make
a long story short, I fell in love with you--didn't I, Jamie?--and so I
took you home with me and waited for you to be claimed, but no one ever
claimed you."
Her fair face softened as she looked down at the child, and her voice
grew tender when she spoke to him. He still stood clasping her hand and
resting his head against her dress.
"He has no relations," Elsie said. "No one has any right to take him
from you."
Mrs. Penn, flushed and half-sobbing, came up at this moment, and she,
too, extended her arms to the boy. But at the sight of her he drew
himself up to his full height and waved his hand with the majesty of a
little king. "Go away!" he said. "Go away home!"
"Oh, Jamie!" she cried; "aren't you glad to see me again?"
"No!" he answered, with another wave of the dimpled hand. "I don't love
you a bit! You let Maria beat me. I hate Maria. I won't come with you!"
For a moment no one spoke. The brown man was evidently much amused by
the little scene, and looked at the boy with undisguised approval.
"Was this child left in your charge?" the lady asked, addressing Mrs.
Penn with cold severity.
"There was no one to take him, madam," the crestfallen woman replied.
"He was living with Miss Neale, who was a lodger of mine, and she died,
quite suddenly, in my house. His father----"
"His father had deserted him." It was Mrs. Beaton who spoke. She had
reached the little group, and having but a poor opinion of her friend's
eloquence, she took up the tale herself. "But Jamie Waring is well
connected, madam; his uncle was our clergyman, the Reverend Harold
Waring, curate of St. Lucy's, in Berwick Street, and----"
"Harold Waring! Why, he was a dear old friend of mine!" Mrs. Beaton was
interrupted in her turn, and it was the man in flannels who cut her
story short. "If I had only known that Waring had left a nephew alone in
the world I should have claimed him," he went on, with a ring of
determination in his voice. "My name is Wayne--Arnold Wayne--you may
have heard Mr. Waring speak of me?"
"Yes, sir, we have," Mrs. Beaton replied. "Here is Miss Kilner, who
found your name in poor Miss Neale's manuscript. Miss Neale, sir, was
engaged to be married to Mr. Waring."
"He wrote to tell me of his engagement," said Arnold Wayne, looking at
Elsie. "What a complicated business this is! It seems that we each have
an interest in this young gentleman," he added, with a smile at the fair
lady.
"Mr. Wayne!" exclaimed Jamie's protectress, in her silvery voice. "We
were to have met at Rushbrook last October, and you didn't come. I was
staying with your cousins the Danforths. I am Mrs. Verdon."
"I'm delighted to meet you at last," he said cordially. "Mary and Lily
were always talking about you. Isn't all this extraordinary? There never
was anything like it in a three-volume novel!"
Then they both laughed with a comfortable air of old acquaintanceship,
and Elsie suddenly had a sense of being left out in the cold.