"Welcome back, dear. I've missed you badly. So have we all." Then she looked at Jack, and smiled as if his presence were the most natural thing in the world. "You have brought her home safely. That's right,"

she said. It was one of Bridgie's most lovable qualities that she never asked awkward questions, nor showed undue curiosity about the affairs of others.

Brother and sister said good-bye at the door, leaving aunt and niece alone, and, as the door closed behind them, Sylvia felt a spasm of loneliness and regret. It was hard to part from Jack with that formal shake of the hand, to feel that days might elapse before they met again, and, as she looked round the ugly little dining-room, she felt like a prisoned bird which longs to break loose the bars and fly to its mate.

It seemed impossible to settle down to the old monotonous life, and yet--and yet--how much, much worse it might have been! How thankful she ought to be! If one hope had been taken away, another had been granted in its stead. The path ahead was still bright with promise, and a sudden pity seized her for the woman whose youth was gone, and who had lost the last tie to the past. She returned her aunt's kisses with unusual affection, and roused herself to notice and show appreciation of the efforts which had been made on her behalf.

The table was laid with the best china, the red satin tea-cosy had been brought from its hiding-place upstairs and divested of its muslin bag and holland wrappings; the centre mat presented by Cousin Mary Ferguson two Christmases ago was displayed for the first time; the serviettes were folded into rakish imitations of c.o.c.ked hats.

It was half touching, half gruesome, to find the occasion turned into a _fete_, but Sylvia was determined to be amiable, and said gratefully--

"How kind of you to have supper ready for me, Aunt Margaret! I could not eat anything on the boat, but now I believe I am hungry. It all looks very good. The chickens one gets in France are not the least like the ones at home."

"They don't know how to feed them, my dear. I am glad you have an appet.i.te. I always find that when I am in trouble nothing tempts me so much as a cup of tea and a slice off the breast. Just take off your hat, and sit down as you are. Everything is ready."

Miss Munns was evidently gratified to receive an acknowledgment of her efforts, and insisted upon waiting upon her niece and loading her plate with one good thing after another; but after the meal was over there followed a painful half-hour, when Sylvia had to submit to a searching cross-questioning on the events of the past weeks.

Unlike Bridgie, Miss Munns insisted upon detail--had a ghoulish curiosity to know in exactly what words Mrs Nisbet had broken the sad news, in exactly what words Sylvia had replied, in exactly what manner the first black days had been spent. Her spectacles were dimmed with tears as she listened to what the girl had to tell, and her thin lips quivered with genuine grief; but she was still acutely interested to hear of the number of carriages at the funeral, of the meals in the hotel, and the purchase of Sylvia's mourning garments.

"You must show them to me to-morrow. I expect they are very smart-- coming from France. I always wear black, so there was not much to be done. I had the black satin taken off my cashmere dress, and folds of c.r.a.pe put in its place, and some dull tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, instead of jet, on my cape. I haven't decided about my bonnet. You must give me your advice.

Of course, I wish to do everything that is proper, but it's been an expensive year."

"Yes," a.s.sented Sylvia absently. She rose from her seat and, walking across the room, leant her elbow on the mantelpiece. There was something she wanted to say, and it was easier to say it with averted face. "Aunt Margaret, I want to ask you a question. Please tell me the truth. Shall I have any money? Was father able to provide for me? I know you are not well off, and I could not bear to be a burden to you.

If I have no money of my own, I must try to earn some."

"I should be telling you the truth, my dear, if I said that I knew less about it than you do yourself. Your father was very close about business matters--very close indeed. He was supposed to have a good business a few years ago, and was always very handsome in his ways, but he has grumbled a good deal of late, and I don't know how things will be now he is gone. He had a lawsuit with an old partner in Ceylon, which hung on a long time. I don't know if it is settled yet; and, if not, we shall have to let it drop. You can always have a home with me; but there will be nothing to spare for lawyers' expenses. Give me a bird in the hand, as I said to your father the last time he was home.

"If the worst comes to the worst, you can give some music lessons in the neighbourhood. Mrs Burton was telling me on Monday that her little boy has quite a taste--picks out all the barrel-organ tunes on the piano with one finger. You might get him as a beginning."

"Yes," a.s.sented Sylvia faintly; and to herself she cried, "Oh, Jack dear--how good of you to love me! How good of you to give me something to live for! How dreadful, dreadful, dreadful I should be feeling now if you had not met me, and made the whole world different!"

Miss Munns was watching her anxiously, fearing a burst of tears, and was greatly relieved when she turned round and showed a composed and even smiling face. "I'll find some work if it is necessary, auntie; and I'll try to help you too. You have been very good to me, and I'm afraid I have been rather horrid sometimes. I thought of it when I was away, and determined to make a fresh start if you would forgive me this time. We are the only two left, and we ought to love each other."

"I am sure I am very much attached to you, my dear. I was saying so to Miss O'Shaughnessy only to-day. I don't deny that your manner is rather sharp at times, but there's nothing like trouble for taming the spirits.

I shouldn't wonder if we got along much more happily after this. Miss Bridgie brought a little parcel for you--I mustn't forget that. It is on that little table. She told me to give it to you at once."

"What can it be, I wonder?--something I left over there by mistake, I suppose," Sylvia said listlessly, as she unfolded the paper; but her expression altered the next moment as she beheld a flat leather case, inside which reposed a miniature painting of the same face which used to smile upon her from her own chimney-piece.

Surprise held her speechless, while a quick rush of tears testified more eloquently than words to the faithfulness of the portrait. The painting was exquisitely fine and soft, the setting the perfection of good taste in its handsome severity. It seemed at the moment just the greatest treasure which the world could offer. Who could have sent it?

Sylvia reluctantly handed the case for Miss Munns's curious scrutiny, the while she opened the note which had fallen from the paper.

Bridgie's handwriting confronted her; but she had hardly time to marvel how so costly a gift could come from such an impecunious donor, before surprise number two confronted her in the opening words.

"Esmeralda told me to give you this miniature from myself, but I want you to know that it is entirely her idea and present from the beginning.

As soon as she heard your sad news, she asked me to borrow the best photograph of your father, to be copied by the same artist who painted the Major for her. She has been to see how he was getting on almost every day, till the poor man was thankful to finish it, just to be rid of her, and here it is to welcome you, dear, and, we hope, to be a comfort to you, all your life."

"Esmeralda!" echoed Sylvia blankly. It seemed for a moment as if Bridgie must be romancing, for the staid English mind refused to believe that one who had at one time appeared actively antagonistic, and at the best had shown nothing warmer than a lofty tolerance, should suddenly become the most thoughtful and generous of friends. Yet there it was, specified in black and white. Esmeralda had originated the kindly plan; she had engaged no second-rate artist, but one to whom her own work had been entrusted, and had given freely of what was even more value to her than money, her time, in order that the gift should arrive at the right moment.

Sylvia flushed with a gratification which was twofold in its nature, for here at last seemed an opening of drawing near in heart to that beautiful, baffling personality, who was Jack's sister, and might some day--oh, wonderful thought!--be her own also. It would be a triumph, indeed, if in these days of waiting she could overcome the last lingering prejudice, and feel that there would be no dissentient note when at last the great secret was revealed.

Aunt and niece hung together over the case with its precious contents, the one exhausting herself in expressions of grat.i.tude and appreciation, the other equally delighted, but quite unable to resist looking the gift horse in the mouth, and speculating in awed tones concerning the enormous cost of ivory miniatures. That jarred, but on the whole the evening pa.s.sed more pleasantly than Sylvia could have believed possible, the unexpected excitement breaking the thread of that painful cross- examination, and carrying the old lady's thoughts back to the far-off days when she and her brother had been sworn friends and playmates.

"Tell me what you used to do, auntie! It must be so nice to have someone to play with. Do tell me some of your escapades!" she pleaded wistfully, and Miss Munns shook her head, and a.s.sumed a great air of disapproval, though it was easy to see that she cherished a secret pride in the remembrance of her own audacities.

"I am afraid we were very naughty, thankless children. One day, I remember, Teddy, as we used to call him, had been very rightly punished for disobedience, and he confided in me that he intended to run away, and go to sea, as a cabin-boy. We always did everything together in those days, so of course nothing must suit me but I must go too. We got up early the next morning, and ran out into the garden, where we were allowed to play before breakfast, and then slipped out of the side door, to walk to Portsmouth.

"Portsmouth was eighteen miles away, and I was only six, and before we had walked two miles, I was crying with fatigue and hunger. Teddy had brought some bread-and-b.u.t.ter, so we sat under a hedge to eat it, and he told me we must be very nearly there. Just then up came a tramp, and stopped to ask why we were crying, and what we were doing out there in the road at that hour in the morning. 'We are going to Portsmouth to be cabin-boys,' we told him, and I can remember to this day how he laughed.

'If you are going to be cabin-boys, you won't want those clothes,' he said. 'You had better take them off, and give them to me, to change for proper sailor things.'

"We thought that a splendid idea, so he took Teddy's suit, and my frock and hat, and left us shivering under the hedge waiting his return. Of course he never came, and an hour or two later, my father came driving along to look for us, and we were taken home, and punished as we deserved. That is to say, Teddy was whipped, and I was only put to bed, for he insisted that the idea was his, and that he alone was to blame."

"Nice little Teddy!" murmured Sylvia fondly, looking down at the pictured face, which, despite grey hair and wrinkles, had still the gallant air of the little boy who shielded his sister from blame.

Having once started, Miss Munns told one story after another of her childhood's days; of the lessons which brother and sister used to learn together--a whole page of Mangnall's Questions at a time, and of the dire and terrible conspiracy, by which they learnt alternate answers, easily persuading the docile governess to take the right "turns." Thus Teddy, when asked "What is starch?" could reply with prompt accuracy, while remaining in dense ignorance of the date when printing was introduced into England, concerning which his small sister was so well informed.

Sylvia was told of the books which were read and re-read, until the pages came loose from their bindings; of the thrilling adventures of one Masterman Ready, whose stockade, being besieged by savages, it became an immediate necessity to guard the gate at the head of the nursery stairs, and to hurl a succession of broken toys at the innocent nurse, as she forced an entry; of a misguided and stubborn "Rosamond" who expended her savings on a large purple vase from a chemist's window, and found to her chagrin that when the water was poured away, it was only a plain gla.s.s bottle; and of a certain "Leila," who sojourned on a desert island in the utmost comfort and luxury, being possessed of a clever father who found all that he needed on the trees in the forest.

An hour later, when Sylvia went up to her room, it was impossible to resist drawing aside the blind to look across the road, and in an instant, another blind was pulled back, and a tall dark figure stood clearly outlined against the lighted background.

Sylvia understood that Jack had been watching for her advent, and felt comforted by his presence, and all that was meant by that waving hand.

She wondered whether she had better write to Esmeralda, or try to see her in person, but the question was decided by Pixie, who came over early the next morning to announce Mrs Hilliard's arrival in the afternoon.

"She wants to see you, and say she's sorry," she explained, and when Sylvia exhausted herself in expressions of grat.i.tude and delight, "Oh, Esmeralda would give you her skin if it would fit ye!" she said coolly.

"She's the kindest of us all when she isn't cross. Give her her way, and you may have all the rest. I've known her raise the roof on us, and appealing to every relation we owned, to get what she wanted, and then wrap it up in brown paper that very day, and post it back where it came.

I'm glad ye like it so much. Now if I'd been clever, and bought some more paints when those people wanted me, maybe I could have done it for you meself." Her face grew suddenly grave and wistful.

"When I got my telegram at school, the girls all brought me home presents from the walk--pencil-boxes, and jujubes, and a little toy rabbit that wagged its head. I don't know how it was, but they soothed my feelings! I should have liked to buy you something, Sylvia, but I don't get my wages till the end of the month, and then they are spent.

You'll excuse me, won't you, me dear, for you know I am sorry!"

"My darling girl, I don't want presents! Come to see me as often as you can, and go on being fond of me--that's all I want," cried Sylvia warmly, and Pixie brightened once more.

"There's no credit in that. It isn't as if you were nasty. I'll not be able to call on ye as often as I'd like, for I'm off to the seaside.

Mrs Wallace has taken a house on the Thames, and her cousin is coming home from the wars and a friend with him, and lots of ladies and gentlemen all staying in the house to be entertained, so they want me to go too. Of course!"

"Of course," repeated Sylvia gravely. There was something so charming in Pixie's simple a.s.sumption that everyone desired her company, that she would not for the world have tried to destroy it. "I hope you will enjoy yourself very much, dear, and come back with some colour in your cheeks, though I am afraid that particular part of the 'seaside' is not very bracing. Tell Mrs Hilliard with my love that I shall be charmed to see her this afternoon!"

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

ESMERALDA'S VISIT.

Miss Munns was greatly excited to hear of the expected visit, and busied herself taking the holland covers off the drawing-room chairs, and displaying the best antimaca.s.sars in the most advantageous position.

Sylvia longed to introduce a little disorder into the painful severity of the room, but it would have distressed her aunt if she had moved a chair out of the straight, or confiscated one of the books which were ranged at equal distances round the rosewood table, and, as it was one of her resolves not to interfere with domestic arrangements, she shrugged her shoulders resignedly, and hoped that Esmeralda might be as unnoticing of her surroundings as were her brothers and sisters.

At four o'clock a carriage drove up to the door, and Esmeralda alighted, clad from head to foot in black, as Sylvia noticed at the first quick glance. She was waiting in the little drawing-room, and scarcely was the door opened when the tall figure was at her side, and her hands were crushed with affectionate fervour. She looked up, and was startled by the beauty of the face above her, startled as even Esmeralda's brothers and sisters were at times, when as now the grey eyes were misty with tears, and the lips all sweet and tremulous.

"If I'd known--if I'd had the slightest idea he was ill, I would rather have killed myself than have behaved as I did! Oh, don't pretend you didn't notice! I was hateful to you when you were ill, too, poor creature, and my sister's guest. I told Geoff all about it. I hate telling him when I do wrong, so I did it just as a penance, and he was so vexed with me. Do you know why I spoke as I did? Did you guess the reason?"