Chapter XI: At the Towers

"WELL, Lionel," said Charlie, looking up from his lessons one afternoon, "has he done it?"

"I should just think so," answered Lionel, walking into the room, looking very bright.

"Really put it in joint?"

"Done everything, but didn't he give me a pulling about!"

"Yes," said Alick, following him in. "I should think he did. Where's mother?"

"She did not expect you so soon," said Charlie, "and she has gone in to see Aunt Ella."

"Has she?" said Alick. "I am very glad of that."

"Then she will ask mother if I may come to see them too," said Lionel.

"Dr. Smith thinks it is quite safe now," answered Alick; "and if Aunt Ella approves, we are all to be allowed to run in and out as we used."

"We must not go too often at first," said Charlie, "or Margaret will think we are going to overrun her house like a horde of savages."

"I do not see that we need be 'savages,'" said Marian, looking up from behind the window curtain, where she was working industriously.

"I did not know you were there," exclaimed Alick, coming to her side. "Why did you not speak?"

"I thought there were plenty to talk," said Marian.

"But is not this jolly about Lionel's hand?"

"Oh, it is indeed! Alick, Aunt Greta will be so sorry to have been away when you arrived. We did not think you could possibly catch this early train, so we have ordered tea an hour later than usual."

"And we are particularly hungry," said Alick, making a face. "Father did not wait for anything when he found we could get back; and not to have something to eat for another hour and a half—I say, Lionel, what do you think of that?"

"Awful!" said Lionel, smiling.

"Can your masculine minds contemplate that there might be a possibility of shortening that period?" asked Marian, folding up her work as she spoke.

"I was afraid 'you wasn't missus' enough for that," laughed Alick, "but girls do think of things better than boys."

Marian ran off to the back regions, and the boys sauntered out into the garden, with a fairly correct idea that tea would come somehow sooner than an hour and a half.

"Molly," said Marian, "they have come back from Norwich already, and want their tea at once. How soon can you get it ready?"

"Me, miss? Well, I shan't be five minutes, and that water—I was going to do something with it, but that can wait till afterwards. It's just boiling, miss."

"All right then," said Marian; "and now while you set the cups, I will run over to Aunt Greta."

She slipped out the back way, and by a little watching of her opportunity reached The Towers' garden without the boys seeing her. She soon managed to attract her aunt's attention, and she came out of the house immediately to speak to her.

"Am I wanted, dear? There is nothing the matter, I hope."

"Oh no, auntie! Only they have come home—"

"Yes; your uncle has just stepped in to tell me; I was coming back this moment. What a pity about our tea, Marian!"

"Should you mind having it a little sooner if we can manage it?" asked Marian demurely.

"Certainly not, but I gave Molly something to do, and I expect she has used all the boiling water."

"At any rate, come in soon, auntie; for the boys are hungry. Is mother pleased about Lionel's hand?"

"Pleased! But you can guess, Marian."

"I shall not wait to hear any news now, auntie, because famished boys can't be put off. Don't you be long; and Uncle Chantry, perhaps he is hungry too."

"You are a saucy girl," said her aunt, smiling at her.

And Marian went back and congratulated herself that she got in unobserved.

She spread the white cloth; she ran backwards and forwards for bread and butter, and water-cresses, and shrimps, setting the table with the utmost taste at her command, and running out into the garden to gather one or two bits of April green which had peeped out in spite of the cold winds.

Molly, who had privately confided to Salome that she liked doing things for Miss Marian, flew about in her best style, and in less than twenty minutes from the time the boys had gone out, the tea-bell clanged forth, and Marian stood smiling in the doorway with a mischievous—

"So, after all, you're late for tea, young gentlemen."

"Are we indeed?" asked Alick.

But they bolted upstairs to prepare for the meal in a great hurry, and came down just as Mr. and Mrs. Chantry came in from The Towers at the sound of the bell.

"Well, mother," said Alick, when they had fairly begun tea, asking the question which was burning on Lionel's lips, "are we to be made free of The Towers now?"

"To-morrow," answered Mrs. Chantry, "but—"

"Oh, yes! We know we are not to come down upon them like an avalanche," said Lionel. "Auntie, we must go in, in succession one by one, at intervals of a quarter of an hour."

"That would not be at all nice," said literal Marian.

"No," said Alick with a twinkle in his eye. "I propose that I go to-morrow; then Lionel can go the next day—"

"Oh!" gasped Lionel. And then stopped himself just before he caught sight of Alick's face.

Nobody else was taken in. Charlie knew from his brother's tone that he did not mean it; besides, who had ever found Alick selfish?

"Auntie," said Marian, "we all want to see them dreadfully, but we none of us wish to push the others aside. How shall we manage it?"

"I propose—" said Alick eagerly.

"Well?" asked Mr. Chantry quietly.

But Alick had stopped. "I do not know why I should be the one to propose at all," he said; "let Lionel arrange it."

But Lionel was equally unwilling.

And at last Alick was persuaded to give out his plan, on condition that it was not necessarily accepted.

"I thought," said he, "that as it is Lionel's and Marian's mother and father who are there, they ought to have the first chance."

"You are quite right," said Mr. Chantry. "I did not interfere, because I hoped you would come to this wise settlement."

"But Alick so wants to see them all," said Lionel, "and I am willing to wait."

Charlie had become somewhat accustomed to his cousin's changed frame of mind, but he could not forbear an earnest look in his face to see if he meant what he said.

"Let it be settled then," said Mr. Chantry. "My dear, this is a very nice tea you have got ready for us. We shall do justice to it. Our hurried lunch was not too substantial."

"I told you to get the boys some coffee in Norwich, but I do believe you forgot it."

"I certainly did. Anyway, there was not time, and we could not have lost our train for the sake of it, could we?"

"I am afraid you must not thank 'me' for having this all ready," said Mrs. Chantry, glancing at Marian.

Marian laughed and blushed.

"I took upon me the office of 'missus,' as Alick calls it, while auntie was out."

"Did she scold you when she came home?" asked Alick.

Marian shook her head.

"Marian, you fulfil my idea of what a girl should be," said Alick, at which everybody laughed, till Marian was so confused that she would have given anything to run out of the room.

So the next morning, as soon it was considered not too early for Mr. Malden, his two children put on their hats, and set out across the garden.

"Hasn't old Fortescue had a holiday?" said Lionel. "I should think it would do him good. I wonder he did not go home, Marian."

"I fancy he is not friendly with his father; it seems strange, doesn't it?"

"Or he might have gone to London to his friends."

"I suppose he liked staying here best. Besides, 'friends' are different to relations; you can always be sure of a welcome at home, but with other people, it is not the same."

"Of course it isn't. I often wonder how old he is, Marian, and whether he was ever young?"

"He is not very old now, I should think, not more than twenty-eight or so. At least, that is what mother said. But he has had a great many sorrows, and that ages people more than anything. He said he would tell me all about it some day, if he could."

"Who would think, Marian, that it is only a month since you and I went grumbling into The Towers for lessons! What a month?"

"I did not grumble," said Marian, smiling a little.

"No, but I did. What a day that was! And now we are going in there, and I dread to see them all together without poor little Claude."

"Rich little Claude, you mean. I never am going to call him 'poor,' like people do, Lionel. I shall say 'dear Claude,' but not poor Claude, when he's the richest of us all."

"I see that," answered Lionel. "But, Marian, I've been thinking a great deal, you know, while my hand was bad, and when the pain kept me awake at night. And it seemed to come to me that we are not always to be thinking of dying, and going to heaven to enjoy ourselves, but we are to be busying ourselves about doing God's will 'here,' while He wishes us to stay."

Marian looked earnestly at him, her face full of joyful contentment at his words.

"Oh, Lionel, I am so glad you feel that."

"It is not so much feeling it, as proceeding to do it, that I want."

"Of course, but how shall we find out?"

"That's what I don't yet quite see. But do you remember what Salome once said about it?"

"No."

"She said it was just following on, step by step, doing each hour what seems to be the next thing."

"Oh, I remember! I remember perfectly."

"Yes, not that I noticed it at the time. But when I was thinking it over, it came to me."

They had reached the steps of The Towers; Courtenay was just coming down them.

"Here you are," he said, smiling. "You will find our dear father in his old quarters in the library; he looks as if he had never been away."

They ran in, and after a tap at the door, Lionel found himself at last by his father's side, and Marian was clasped in her mother's arms.

"I never guessed I loved you so 'very' much," she whispered.

And Lionel, bending to kiss his father's cheek, said huskily:

"I hope to be different in every way, dear father, from what I was before. Thank you for all your patience with me."

Presently Muriel and Leslie stole in to see their big brother and sister. And after that, they began to feel more at home, though all felt the gap terribly.

"May I go and see Margaret?" asked Lionel, when they had talked for a little while.

"You will find her in the dining-room; she generally sits with her mother there," said Mrs. Malden, "since we have occupied the library."

Lionel went off, and found his sister-in-law as his mother had said, reading to Mrs. Bruce.

The dining-room looked out over the drive, and had not the lovely sunny view of the sea which both drawing-room and library commanded. The room was rather cheerless, and it struck Lionel that Margaret looked "triste" in her black dress, and that her voice had lost its old bright tone.

She presented Lionel to her mother, and then said they were just going for a drive, but she had a few little domestic matters to attend to, and would return presently.

"Will you stay with my dear mother?" she asked. "Perhaps you could finish what I was reading, Lionel? I know you will be kind enough."

Lionel felt rather shy, but a sudden remembrance of "the next thing," which he and Marian had been talking about, gave him courage, and he felt a new pleasure stealing over him at already having received something to do from his Lord.

Margaret was gone; he felt somewhat at a loss what to say. Mrs. Bruce looked so handsome, so independent. But he recalled Margaret's gentle tone, as one would speak to a child, and he said pleasantly:

"Do you like this book? Shall I go on where Margaret left off?"

"If you like, my dear, but I am not at all good at remembering."

"Oh, that does not matter a bit!" said Lionel bluntly and heartily. "If you can put up with me, I shall be so glad. We'll learn it together."

Mrs. Bruce looked at him intently, but handed him the book Margaret had laid down, saying rather sadly, "I am afraid I do not know where she left off."

Lionel was hardly prepared for such an entire loss of memory, but he felt so happy in thinking he was doing something for the Master that he looked up in his companion's face quite brightly.

"Never mind! I'll go on here, and then if you don't think it's right, you can tell me."

She listened politely, but he saw her mind was intent on her own thoughts.

He would have been discouraged, only that something seemed to whisper to him, "Have not I sent thee?" He could not imagine where the words came from, but they kept on echoing through his heart like a heavenly bugle.

At last Mrs. Bruce put out her delicate white hand.

"My dear," she said, "I cannot remember your name yet, but you said something just now which made me happy, and I cannot think of it again."

"Did I?" he asked, wondering, still hearing the echo. "'Have not I sent thee?'"

"Yes; I wish you would say it again."

"I do not know what it was, but I will try to recall it."

She was silent, waiting for him to do so.

"I do not think I said anything at all," he began, sorry enough not to be able to satisfy her.

"Oh, yes you did! The others are very kind, very kind indeed, but they know so much, they are so far above where I stand; I am such a poor old woman now, and they try to teach me. They are very kind, very kind indeed, but you said something different to that—something that made me happy."

"I know now!" exclaimed Lionel. "Was it that I said you and I would learn together?"

"Yes!" answered Mrs. Bruce earnestly. "That was it. The others know I am thirsting to learn, and they try to teach me—they are 'very' kind, my dear, but they don't understand—you will suit me much better, because you want to learn too, do you not? Did you not say 'learn'?"

"Indeed I do; I want to learn of Jesus more than anything else in the world. I've been so far off, I want to come very near."

Mrs. Bruce took his hands in hers, "My dear, did anyone send you to me?"

A bright smile crossed the boy's face, but he hardly liked to answer.

"Do not be afraid to tell me," she begged.

"I have been hoping it was the Lord Jesus who sent me," he answered very low.

"I thought it was," she said, with a sigh of content like a weary little child. "I do not forget 'Him,' though I cannot remember anything else."

Lionel drew from his pocket a tiny testament, which Marian had given him long ago in their childish days. He found the place about the woman who was thirsty, and who could have her thirst quenched if she drank of that living water, and his listener sat with folded hands taking it all in. When he had finished, he looked up to see if he should go on, and at the same moment Margaret entered.

She saw her mother's rapt face, she saw Lionel's happy one, and she wondered, and was exceeding glad.

"Can he go for a drive with us?" asked Mrs. Bruce, touching Lionel's hand softly. "I do not know his name, but I like him."

"Willingly, mother dear. Lionel, will you? There is plenty of room."

Collins, the maid, had followed her mistress, and now asked Mrs. Bruce if she would like to put on her bonnet. Mrs. Bruce immediately rose from her seat, pausing at the door however to say to Lionel:

"You will come with me?"

"I should like to very much," he answered.

"I fear you will find a drive rather uninteresting," said Margaret in a low tone, "but it would be so kind, as my dear mother has asked you, Lionel."

"Do not fear that I shall be dull; I am delighted that she wishes it."

"Really, Lionel?"

"Yes, Margaret."