If Mr. Dancy were aware of her close scrutiny, he took no notice of it. He leaned his arm against the wall and rested his head against it; and the thin brown hand was plainly visible, with a deep-red scar just above the wrist.

As Phillis had regarded it with sudden horror, wondering what had inflicted it, he suddenly aroused himself with an apology:

"There! it has pa.s.sed: it never lasts long. Shall we walk on? I am so ashamed of detaining you in this way; but when a man has had a sunstroke----"

"Oh, that is sad!" returned Phillis, in a sympathizing voice. "Is that why you keep in-doors so much in the daylight? at least"--correcting herself in haste, for she had spoken without thought--"one never sees you about," which was a foolish speech, and showed she took notice of his movements; but she could not betray Mr. Drummond.

"Some one else only comes out in the evening," he rejoined, rather pointedly. "Who told you I kept in-doors in the daylight? Oh, I know!"

the frown pa.s.sing from his face, for he had spoken quickly and in annoyed fashion. "This sounds like a parson's prating: I know the language of old. By the bye, did you set the clergy on my track?"

turning the blue spectacles full on the embarra.s.sed Phillis.

"I?--no indeed!" and then she went on frankly: "Mr. Drummond was at our house, and he told us that he always called on Mrs. Williams's lodgers."

"True, Miss Challoner; but how did his reverence know Mrs. Williams had a lodger?"

This was awkward, but Phillis steered her way through the difficulty with her usual dexterity.

"I mentioned to my mother that you were kind enough to see me home, and she repeated the fact to Mr. Drummond."

"Thank you, Miss Challanor; now I understand. I wonder if your mother would be very shocked if a stranger intruded upon her? but you and I must have some more conversation together, and I do not see how it is to be managed in accordance with what you ladies call _les convenances_."

"My mother----" began Phillis, demurely; and then she paused, and looked up at him in astonishment, "What, Mr. Dancy! you purpose to call on my mother, and yet you refused Mr. Drummond's visit?" for the news of Archie's defeat had already reached the Friary through Miss Mattie.

Mr. Dancy seemed rather nonplussed at this, and then he laughed:

"Ah, you are shrewd, Miss Challoner; there is no deceiving you! I have seen Mr. Drummond pa.s.s and repa.s.s often enough; and--pardon me, if he be a friend--I thought from the cut of his coat that he was prig, and I have a horror of clerical prigs."

"He is not priggish in the least," was Phillis's annoyed rejoinder.

"No? Well, appearances are sometimes deceptive: perhaps I was too hasty in my dread of being bored. But here comes your sister, I think,--at least, I have seen you together: so I am leaving you in good hands." And, before Phillis could reply, he had lifted his hat and turned away, just as Nan, whose vigilant eyes were upon him, was hurrying to join her sister.

"Oh, Phillis, was that Mr. Dancy?" she asked, in a reproachful voice, as she hurried up to her.

"Yes, Nannie, it was Mr. Dancy," returned Phillis, composedly; "and I wish I could have introduced him to you, for I believe he is coming to call on mother." And, when she had related this astounding piece of intelligence, she looked in Nan's face and laughed, and, in high good humor, proceeded to relate their conversation.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

"NOW WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER."

One fine morning in September, Mr. Drummond was standing at the back of Milner's Library, turning over the last new a.s.sortment of books from Mudie, when two gentlemen entered the shop.

Strangers were always interesting to Archie, and he criticised them under a twofold aspect--pastoral and social. In this way curiosity becomes a virtue, and a man with a mission is not without his interests in life. Hadleigh was Mr. Drummond's sheep-walk, where he shepherded his lambs, and looked after his black sheep and tried to wash them white, or, in default of that, at least to make out that their fleece was not so sable after all: so he now considered it his duty to leave off turning over the pages of a seductive-looking novel, and to inspect the strangers.

They were both dressed in tweed travelling costumes, and looked sunburnt, as though they had just returned from a walking-tour. The elder was a short wiry man, with a shrewd face and quizzical eyes; and he asked in sharp clipping voice that was not free from accent, for the last number of the local paper, containing lists of inhabitants, visitors, etc.

Meanwhile, the younger man walked about the shop, whistling softly to himself, as though he had a fund of cheerfulness on hand which must find vent somewhere. When he came opposite Archie, he took a brief survey of him in a careless, good-humored fashion, and then turned on his heel, bestowing a very cursory glance on Miss Masham, who stood shaking her black ringlets after the fashion of shopwomen, and waiting to know the gentleman's pleasure.

No one would have called this young man very good-looking, unless such a one had a secret predilection for decidedly reddish hair and a sandy moustache; but there was an air of _bonhommie_, of frank kindness, of boyish fun and pleasantry, that attracted even strangers, and Archie looked after him with considerable interest.

"Oxford cut, father and son: father looks rather a queer customer,"

thought Archie to himself.

"d.i.c.k, come here!--why, where is that fellow?" suddenly exclaimed the elder man, beginning to put on his eye-gla.s.ses very nervously.

"Coming, father. All right: what is it?" returned the imperturbable d.i.c.k. He was still whistling "Twickenham Ferry" under his breath, as he came to the counter and leaned with both elbows upon it.

"Good gracious, boy, what does this mean?" went on the other, in an irritable perturbed voice; and he read a short advertis.e.m.e.nt, written in a neat lady-like hand: "Dressmaking undertaken. Terms moderate, and all orders promptly executed. Apply to--the Misses Challoner, the Friary, Braidwood Road. Ladies waited upon at their own residences'.

What the"--he was about to add a stronger term, but, in deference to Miss Milner, subst.i.tuted--"d.i.c.kens does this mean, d.i.c.k?"

The young man's reply was to s.n.a.t.c.h the paper out of his father's hand, and study it intently, with his elbows still on the counter, and the last bar of "Twickenham Ferry" died away uncompleted on his lips; and if any one could have seen his face, they would have remarked a curious redness spreading to his forehead.

"Nan's handwriting, by Jove!" he muttered, but still inaudibly; and then he stared at the paper, and his face grew redder.

"Well, d.i.c.k, can't you answer? What does this piece of tomfoolery mean--'dressmaking undertaken--ladies waited upon at their own residences'? Can there be two families of Challoner and two Friaries?

and why don't you speak and say something?"

"Because I know as little as yourself, father," returned the young man, without lifting his head; and he surrept.i.tiously conveyed the paper to his pocket. "Perhaps this lady," indicating Miss Milner, "could inform us?"

"I beg your pardon," observed a gentlemanly voice near them; and, looking up, d.i.c.k found himself confronted by the young clergyman. "I overheard your inquiries, and, as I am acquainted with the ladies in question, I may be able to satisfy you."

"I should be extremely obliged to you if you would do so, sir,"

returned the elder man, with alacrity; but d.i.c.k turned away rather ungraciously, and his cheerful face grew sullen.

"Confound him! what does he mean by his interference? Knows them, indeed! such a handsome beggar, too,--a prig, one can see that from the cut of his clothes and beard!" And again he planted his elbows on the counter, and began pulling his rough little stubbly moustache.

"If you are referring to a mother and three daughters who live in the Friary and eke out a scanty income by taking in dressmaking, I am happy to say I know them well," went on Archie. "My sister and I visit at the cottage, and they attend my church; and, as Miss Milner can tell you, they work hard enough all the six days of the week."

"Indeed, Mr. Drummond, there are few that work harder!" broke in Miss Milner, volubly. "Such pretty creatures, too, to earn their own living; and yet they have a bright word and a smile for everybody!

Ever since Miss Phillis," (here d.i.c.k groaned) "made that blue dress for Mrs. Tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs--she is the butcher's wife, and a dressy woman, though not flashy, like Mrs. Squails--they have been quite the rage in Hadleigh. All the townspeople, and the resident gentry, and even the visitors, want their gowns made by the Miss Challoners. Their fit is perfect; and they have such taste. And----" But here the luckless d.i.c.k could bear no more.

"If you will excuse me, sir," he said, addressing his bewildered father, "I have left something particular at the hotel: I must just run and fetch it."

d.i.c.k did not specify whether it was his handkerchief, or his cigar-case, or his purse, of which he stood so urgently in need; but before Mr. Mayne could remonstrate, he had gone out of the shop. He went as far as the door of the hotel, and there he seized on a pa.s.sing waiter and questioned him in a breathless manner. Having obtained his information, he set off at a walk that was almost a run through the town, and down the Braidwood Road. The few foot-pa.s.sengers that he met shrank out of the way of this young man; for he walked, looking neither to the right nor to left, as though he saw nothing before him.

And his eyes were gloomy, and, he did not whistle; and the only words he said to himself were, "Oh, Nan, never to have told me of this!"

over and over again.

The gate of the Friary stood open; for a small boy had been washing the flags, and had left his pail, and had gone off to play marbles in the road with a younger brother. d.i.c.k,--who understood the bearings of the case at once, shook his fist at the truant behind his back, and then turned in at the gate.

He peeped in at the hall door first; but Dorothy was peeling potatoes in the kitchen, and would see him as he pa.s.sed, so he skirted the little path under the yews. And if Dulce had been at her sewing-machine as usual, she would have seen him at once; but this morning the machine was silent.

A few steps farther he came to a full stop, and his eyes began to glisten, and he p.r.i.c.ked up his ears after the manner of lovers; for through an open window just behind him, he could hear Nan's voice, sweet and musical, reading aloud to her sisters.

"Oh, the darling!" he murmured, and composed himself for a few moments' ecstasy, for no doubt she was reading Tennyson, or Barrett-Browning, or one of the poetry-books he had given her; but he was a little disappointed when he found it was prose.