Chapter IX: A Day of Sunshine

MAY soon found a settlement in which she promptly established herself. She came to see Sara as often as she could. Once when she arrived early in the afternoon, she found Sara out. So she betook herself to the nursery. Little Oliver dearly loved a romp with her, and May always had a bewitching way with children. She was in the midst of a game with him, when the door opened and Arnold appeared. He looked his astonishment.

"I came up here to find Sara. I've had tickets for a private view of pictures in Bond Street, and thought she would like to come with me. The artist is a friend of mine."

"She is out," said May, putting her hands up to her hair which Oliver had loosened in his play. "I was very disappointed to find her gone, so I came up here and Oliver is consoling me."

"Would you like to come instead?"

His tone was eager.

May looked at him and considered.

"How long will it take? I have only two hours off. I must be back at half-past five."

"Come along. We can do it."

And off they went together, and when Sara came home, she was amused, and rather pleased to hear it. It was not the last time that Arnold took May about town. He gradually lapsed into a very happy comradeship with her. And May accepted his attentions, but apparently took them as she had taken her cousin's, and thought nothing of them.

In August, Sara took Oliver again to the farm; and there they stayed for a couple of months.

May was at the Hall for a part of the time; and it was a very enjoyable time to all. Nellie Peel was a great deal with Sara. She was much softer and sweeter in manner, and was full of the little one who was to arrive two months later.

Sara heard very often from Mrs. Laird. She seemed happy and well. True was the delight of her heart. Sara wondered sometimes whether Graham would ever want anything else in his life than he had at present. He as well as his mother was devoted to his little stepdaughter.

Sara returned to town in the autumn, and May went back to her work. The winter passed quietly and happily.

Then one bright afternoon in April, Graham suddenly appeared upon the scene again. Sara was just going out when he was announced.

She welcomed him with her usual happy ease.

"Now I am not going to keep you in this lovely day," he said at once. "Have you an engagement?"

"No, I was simply going out for the good of my health," said Sara.

"Then may I come with you?"

She assented, and after a little discussion, Graham hailed a taxi, and they drove off to Kensington Gardens. Then they got out and walked. The fresh green budding trees and the bright spring flowers were always a keen delight to Sara, but to-day they seemed to be especially exhilarating. She was hearing all the Dalby news.

"I have found a house at last," said Graham. "It has only just become vacant. A Colonel Dewar has been living in it. He commands the district, and his time is up, and his successor, an unmarried man, is going to live in barracks."

"Do tell me what it is like. Is it in the country?"

"Yes, close to the moor, but in a sheltered hollow, about a mile and a half away from Jack Fleming. It is not exactly a pretty-looking house. My mother says it is not. I never know what women do consider attractive, but it has a delightful garden, and is enclosed with old red brick walls, which are for the most part covered with fruit trees."

"That sounds delicious. What does True say to it?"

"She's in the seventh heaven of delight. She has planned out all the rooms. Of course she has chosen one for you. She thinks the size of the house no disadvantage, because she says the more rooms we have, the more of our friends we can have to stay with us. The list of True's friends grows alarmingly! And they are a cosmopolitan crew, from dustmen and crossing sweepers to shopmen and policemen, and there isn't a soul with whom we come in contact that True doesn't know. She has their family histories at her finger ends!"

"Dear little True! Now describe the house."

"I have brought you a snapshot. It is a square red brick house covered with creepers in the summer. I saw it for the first time in the autumn, and the sun blinds were down over the windows, and I took a snapshot of it then."

"Shall we sit down here? It is so warm."

They took a seat in a very secluded part of the gardens. Only happy children's voices could be heard in the distance, and a far-away rumble of traffic that might be the distant roar of the ocean waves. As they sat there, the trees hid all houses, all disfiguring chimney pots, and the birds were singing ecstatically in the branches.

"We might be miles out of London," said Sara. "What a boon these gardens are! Now may I see your snapshot? Oh, what a sweet old family house! I should have lost my heart to it. It looks so truly comfortable and cheerful."

Then Graham wasted no more time.

"I have my house, Sara, but unless you become its mistress, it will be an empty house to me. I am venturing to speak to you again. Will you give me a kind answer this time?"

Sara did not look up. She understood now why the gardens had seemed so full of sunshine to-day. And she knew that this moment was going to be the most exquisite one of her life.

She just put her hand over his, and said—

"I feel I would do anything to make you happy."

He held her hand tightly, and Sara could feel the throbbing of his pulses.

"Then you are going to give yourself to me for good and all? Look up. Let me see your dear eyes."

And as Sara raised her head, she saw that Graham's stern face was illumined with radiance.

"I can hardly believe my good fortune," he said. "You know my heart has always been yours from the first day I saw you. I told Eva that. I would not let her marry me under false pretences. At that time, I felt you would never relent, that our paths would be apart all our lives. But later, when in God's infinite goodness, He brought me to the knowledge of Himself, I began to wonder whether in time I would speak to you again. And your God is my God now, Sara. There will be nothing between our spirits, and we shall have all eternity together."

And then Sara's soft grey eyes suddenly filled with tears.

"Oh, Graham, I had a hard time after I had sent you away. I can hardly believe the long waiting time is over. It seems too good to be true. I have had to stand aside, outside your life—when my heart and soul was in it."

Much more they said, and then slowly they retraced their steps home.

Sara found that her brother had just come in, so she made Graham accompany her to his smoking-room and they gave him their news together. He was not surprised.

"I knew I shouldn't keep her long when you arrived upon the scene last spring. I only wonder you've taken so long to speak."

But Sara knew that it was in honour of Eva's memory that Graham had waited more than a year to come and claim her.

He surprised her by his impatience now.

"Why should we not get a special licence and be quietly married in town within the next few days? There is nothing to wait for. We know each other through and through. We have lived in the same house together for over a year!"

"I cannot do that," said Sara. "What is to become of my small nephew? You do not realize that I shall be leaving my brother in a very awkward position. Some women might not feel they could leave him. But I place you and your wants before him. And I think that he will not be left alone for very long. But there are many arrangements that I must make!"

"Then will you do this? I have business that will keep me in town till the end of the week. Will you come back with me to Dalby for a short visit? Just to see the house, and give me an idea how you would like it decorated and furnished. It is to be your home. You have a right to advise and help me in making it beautiful for you. It will be such joy to my mother to have you with her again as a visitor."

"I think I might do that," said Sara, slowly, but light sprang into her eyes as she spoke. She knew what a joy such a visit would be to her. Then she added—

"That is, if I can leave Arnold happy and comfortable without me. I have the baby to think of, you know, but his nurse is a very responsible steady person, and would manage perfectly without me for a week or two."

Arnold was quite willing to spare his sister.

And so it came to pass that three days afterwards, Sara was journeying up North with Graham. She wondered sometimes if she were dreaming. Her happiness almost felt unreal in its intensity. Graham had not written telling his mother that she was returning. It was Mrs. Laird's birthday the following day, and he and Sara had planned her visit as a surprise.

He and Sara had a compartment to themselves. And they had so much to say to one another that Sara was quite sorry when the journey was over.

When they reached Dalby, Graham was told that his car was waiting for him. They went outside the station, and there found True sitting up in state on the front seat of the car.

"Grannie said I might come and meet you, Dad. It seems years since you went away."

Then she caught sight of Sara, and screamed with delight.

"She's going to be a birthday surprise to Grannie," said Graham.

"Oh, how loverly! Oh, Miss Darling, let me hug you. What a birthday Grannie will have! Have you brought your baby?"

"No, he is staying at home helping to amuse his daddy," said Sara. "Why, True, you are getting quite fat and rosy!"

"Ah, you wait and see me when we live in the country!" said the child dimpling with smiles. "All the wishes of my life are coming true. It's almost as good as fairyland to me, that house is! There's an orchard where a swing can be put, and there's a loft and woodshed and henhouses, and a pond for ducks. And now you've come, couldn't we all go and see the house to-morrow for a birthday treat for Grannie?"

"I really think we might," said Graham. "We'll all take a holiday, True."

The child clapped her hands. Then she looked thoughtful.

"Where are you going to hide Miss Darling till to-morrow morning? If she's a birthday present, she mustn't be given to Grannie till then."

"Do you think I ought to be made a parcel of?" asked Sara, laughing. "Wrapped in brown paper and laid on the breakfast table?"

True did not laugh.

"There's only one person who could lift you in his arms and carry you, if you were a parcel, and that is Daddy," she said gravely.

And then Graham and Sara laughed out together.

"No," said Graham, presently; "you and I will go and tell Grannie that her birthday present is waiting outside the door. That it has come overnight to be sure to be in time."

"Yes, and Grannie will go outside and find her."

True was quite excited in thinking about it.

"My birthday present will be nothing," she said, "'nothing' after this. I've got Grannie some coloured pockethandkerchers, Miss Darling. Three lovely ones with pictures on them, there's a boat on a sea on one, and a man grinding a organ on another, and a boy and a windmill on the other, and I really don't know which I like the best of them!"

"I'm sure Grannie will like them all," said Sara, comfortingly.

They reached the house. Sara looked at it with interest. Mrs. Laird had never moved from her cousin's house, and Graham had come back to her there. There was no garden in front. It faced the street, but it was at the quiet end of the High Street, and most of the traffic was lower down. The drawing-room was upstairs.

True with delighted face crept upstairs on tiptoe. Graham and Sara followed.

Then Sara stayed outside in the long narrow passage, whilst the others went into the room.

They left the door ajar, and she heard Mrs. Laird's pleased welcome. She also heard—

"And did you see my dear Sara in town?"

Then True's eager little voice—

"And Daddy's brought you such a big birthday present, Grannie, that we couldn't carry it in, and it's waiting for you outside the door."

"Oh, Graham, you have not been wasting your money on me?"

True burst into giggles of delight. She danced up and down.

"Go and fetch it in, Grannie! Fetch it in quick, quick!"

The door opened, and Mrs. Laird appeared with a puzzled smiling face.

Then she and Sara were in each other's arms.

"Oh, my dear! My dear! How I have prayed and longed for you!"

She drew her in, and when True's excitement had subsided a little, she was sent upstairs to tidy herself for tea.

Then Graham drew near, and took Sara's hand in his.

"She has only come for a very short visit now, mother, but she is going to be your daughter, and coming to us for good and all very soon."

And then Mrs. Laird was quite overcome, and began to wipe away the tears of joy that were springing to her eyes.

"I have felt lately that joy was coming to us," she said. "It has not been only the lovely spring weather. I had a strange feeling that good was on the way to us!"

She sat down in her easy-chair, and held Sara by the hand as if she could not let her go.

"Oh, Sara, I have sometimes felt that life has been an effort without you. How good God is to give you back to us!"

"Dear Mrs. Laird," whispered Sara, "my heart has been with you all the time."

When tea came in, they talked in soberer fashion. Graham sketched out plans for the next day. A picnic lunch was to be taken in the car, and eaten in the house that was to become their home. Then they could have leisure to look over it in every detail, and he would ask his builder and decorator to come out in the afternoon and discuss all necessary repairs and alterations.

Mrs. Laird was as pleased as True with the prospect. Later on, she carried off Sara to her bedroom, and there they sat and talked till nearly dinnertime.

"You are going to make my boy happy at last. If any one deserves you, I consider he does. And oh, Sara dear, he has so softened since poor Eva's death. I wonder if he has told you, as he did me, how it was her pitiful appeals to him that made him marry her? At first, he was very reticent about it, until one day when we were talking about you, I said I feared you would consider that Eva had taken your place in his affections. Then he said, with a hurt look in his eyes—

"'Oh, mother, if you had seen her stabbed to the heart by a surgeon's blunt truthfulness, if you had heard her sobs, and realized her weakness and loneliness and dread of life, lived on without a soul to cheer or speak to her, you wouldn't have wondered at my consent. She was unnerved or she would not have let me see her heart. I knew it would be but a very short time. I couldn't resist her appeals for help and comfort. And though I felt afterwards that I might have made a mistake, the time came when I saw that I had not.'

"He really was led to see things differently, Sara, through reading the Bible to his wife. You forgive him for that tragic marriage?"

"Forgive him, dear Mrs. Laird? There is no forgiveness needed. It has only shown me his chivalrous tenderness to a dying woman. He had no thought for himself, only for her. I don't believe another man in the world would have acted so!"

That was a very happy evening.

Sara was taken all over the house, and shown the wing which was devoted to clubrooms and classrooms for the colliers and their wives and children.

She asked Graham what he thought of doing with the old house.

"You will keep on the clubs and classes, will you not?"

"Most emphatically. My idea is to keep the wing of this house exactly as it stands, and put a caretaker into it. I can let off the private part of the house very easily. You see we have a car, and whenever you or my mother want to come into town, you can do so."

Then Mrs. Laird said very quietly—

"Of course we have not discussed everything yet. I am wondering if you two had not better start your married life alone. A mother and mother-in-law is not always a success in the house. And I have been living alone until lately. I can do so again."

Sara shot a quick look at Graham, who just smiled at her.

"Dear Mrs. Laird," she said, slipping her hand into Mrs. Laird's arm, "I will not marry Graham unless you live with us; and if you ask him, he will say the same. We want the rest of your life to be a blaze of sunshine. We do not want you to have the slightest shadow across your path. It will be one of my joys to see you happy. We all love each other so much, that our lives would be spoiled away from each other."

"And True and I have chosen a lovely sunny room for Grannie's sitting-room," said Graham; "so that when she wants quiet and rest, she can have it."

Then Mrs. Laird said, smiling through the tears that came so easily this evening—

"Don't you think that there will be rest and comfort wherever Sara is? She has made our happiness in the past, and she wouldn't be Sara if she does not make it still."

Graham turned to Sara with a smile.

"There!" he said. "Those are our sentiments. I can't add more, except that it will be my part to take care of you, and to try to do it as well as you take care of others!"