A happy woman
the Colonel and your mutual friend Sir Douglas Lyle for the invitation,
not me! I have nothing to do with it. But we are all agreed that a
change of air and scene will be good for you."
"Indeed? Am I such a surly brute that you look forward to my absence
with pleasure?"
"No," said Sara, calmly, "you are not surly now. You were when I first
came. But no man or woman thrives when they are left too long in the
same rut. And this is a very small corner for a man to live his life
in, year in and year out. You must remember circumstances are changing.
You have steeled and trained yourself to a life of restraint and
repression until you were almost becoming mechanical in your ways. Now
we all want to shake you out of that life. The cause and reason of it
is being removed."
"What a very poor creature I am in your sight." There was bitterness in
his tone.
"Oh, Mr. Laird, what have I said to make you think that? If you only
knew—why, you are simply a marvel to me! Don't let us misunderstand
each other to-night. But, believe me, your mother herself wants you to
go. It will bring balm to her spirit when she realizes that she is no
longer a tie to you here. And I think you will bring her the greatest
pleasure when you return with all your news. She will be so freshened
up to hear it, so interested in all that you can tell her."
"I suppose it is egotism on my part, but I should like to feel that I
shall be missed."
"Oh, we can assure you of that," said Sara, with one of her soft
laughs. "But you will not see us with long faces till you are out of
the house. Would it comfort you to know that we shall feel deadly flat
and depressed when you are really gone?"
Then Graham smiled in his turn.
"I hope you will take care of yourselves," he said; "and remember if
anything occurs to make you need a man, send for Fleming or wire for
me."
Sara nodded, and said no more.
Mrs. Laird had a few last words with her son, and there were tears in
her eyes as she wished him good-bye. But when he had driven away, she
put her hand on Sara's arm.
"I never thought that I could live in this house without him. But you
are such a tower of strength to me! And I realize now that he ought to
see more of his old friends. I have asked him to call upon a cousin
of ours who lives near the Border. She is the only relative of mine
now living. Rather an eccentric woman she used to be, but perhaps you
would not call her so. I remember I thought her very good and very
narrow, but full of good works. She simply lives for the welfare of her
tenants. There is coal on her property, and she treats the colliers in
the most marvellous way. She told me she felt responsible for every
soul amongst them. Can you imagine the sort of woman she is?"
"A very delightful sort, I should think," said Sara.
She and Mrs. Laird had a quiet but happy time together. It was a fine
autumn and they spent much of their time out of doors. Sara was very
busy tidying up the garden. She raked and swept the paths, and with
the help of Samuel made big bonfires of weeds and hedge prunings. Mrs.
Laird looked on with great interest, and suggested that they should
look over a bulb catalogue together, and send for a nice supply to
plant at once.
One day Sara was surprised by a letter from Colonel Fleming. He wrote,
he said, to ask her if she would mind asking the herb doctor to go and
see one of his dogs.
"My housekeeper," he wrote, "has told me Trust is ailing and won't eat
her food. When you are rambling over the hills, I know you will not
mind asking him to go over and have a look at her. We're having good
sport here. Graham doesn't know himself amongst so many of his old
pals. And who do you think arrived yesterday? Mrs. Jeffery! There is
quite a big house-party. Mrs. J—, I heard, asked herself. She knows
Lady Lyle, but they are not very intimate. Why is Mrs. J— making such a
dead set at Graham? She's not half good enough for him. And I shall do
my best to frustrate her efforts. This might be a cackle from some old
maid, might it not? Well—so long! My kind regards to Mrs. Laird. You
should both be up here. I'll bring Graham back heart whole if I can. I
don't cotton to Mrs. J—. Never did!
"Yours,
"JACK FLEMING."
Sara did not read this letter to Mrs. Laird, but it depressed her. She
felt annoyed with Colonel Fleming for gossiping, and yet she knew he
must have had good grounds for writing so. She went off to the herb
doctor that same afternoon, but there was a weight on her spirits which
would not lift.
"Why should it matter to me?" she asked herself impatiently. "If a
man likes a woman well enough to propose to her, nobody can stop him.
Graham won't be her 'victim.' He will do it of set deliberate purpose.
It is Mrs. Laird who will be the chief sufferer! Oh, what fools some
men are! How entirely they judge by the surface! What can he have in
common with Eva Jeffery? And how can a woman of her butterfly tastes
expect a grave-thinking man like Graham Laird to content her for life?
It will be disaster—I know it will!"
Not even the fresh mountain air could exhilarate her. She went and
returned in the same low spirits, and it was well for her that she
could not brood over her bit of news when in Mrs. Laird's company.
She forced herself to be cheerful then, and, as is often the way, she
succeeded in bringing back a certain amount of brightness into her own
soul, as she was making the effort to brighten another.
CHAPTER XI
A YOUNG VISITOR
COLONEL FLEMING was the first one to return, and he came round to see
Mrs. Laird at once.
"Graham has gone to Dalby," he informed her. "Some relative of yours
there, eh? He'll be following me in a few days' time. His change has
done him a lot of good, Mrs. Laird. He was in first-rate form, and his
shooting took the cake!"
"We are expecting him in three days' time," said Mrs. Laird. "I hope
you all enjoyed yourselves."
"Oh, it was great sport. Quite a big house-party. I told you Mrs.
Jeffery turned up."
"Not Eva?" said Mrs. Laird in astonishment.
Colonel Fleming gave a little chuckle.
"Clever young woman she is," he said.
Sara suddenly frowned at him; and her frowns were so unusual that he
gave an embarrassed cough.
"Er—well—she's a pretty young woman, Mrs. Laird, eh? And a great
favourite with some of the fellows there. She's not there now, you
know. Left when we did. We travelled part of the way together."
"How is your farm getting on?" Sara asked.
Colonel Fleming immediately plunged into a list of delinquencies on the
part of his men in his absence, and Sara kept him busy on that topic
till he went.
She accompanied him to the hall door, and said then—
"I do wish you would not mention Mrs. Jeffery in conversation with Mrs.
Laird. Don't you know that she does not like her?"
"Awfully sorry! But 'pon my word she is a minx! Do you know she's
made Graham her child's sole guardian and trustee? And such a lot of
confidential business she transacts with him! I got hold of her one day
and tried to warn her that he never would be a marrying man.
"'Such stuff to make him a trustee for your child!' I said to her. 'Why
don't you marry again and let your husband do it? Lots of chaps waiting
for you to encourage them a bit!'
"And then she looks at me with her big reproachful eyes. 'Graham is the
only relation I have in the world!' she says. 'If I can't turn to him,
whom can I turn to?'
"'Well,' I said, 'of course he'll be a single unattached man to the end
of his life—told me so the other day—so he'll have more time to give to
the business perhaps.'
"She gave a little ghost of a smile and walked away. She always walked
away from me, but I put Charlie Carter on her track—told him she had a
fat little income, and was feeling her lonely state. He admired her,
likes womanly women you know, and he haunted her steps, has got her
address at Brighton, and means to turn up there soon. My dear Miss
Darlington, I'd rather see Graham married to your Izzie than to that
young lady! There's something slimy about her! Can't help myself! I
never could cotton to her when she was here, but I dare say that's
because she didn't like me. She has a way of pleasantly ignoring
anybody that won't be of any use to her!"
"Well," said Sara, laughing, "Mr. Laird is able to look after himself,
I think, and if he is fond of her, you must stand back and let him have
his desire."
"I never will!" said Colonel Fleming, stamping upon the ground
energetically. "I've looked after him too long. Miss Darlington, Graham
is a chap who lives for other people, not himself. And those sort
want to be protected. If he thought a woman wanted him, he would give
himself away to her out of sheer cussedness of generosity! It wouldn't
matter about his life at all, only about hers. And I'm not going to see
him make a mess of his affairs as—as I've done."
His tone softened. Sara spoke very quietly.
"My dear Colonel, Mr. Laird would not be at all likely to desert his
mother or bring a wife into her house whom she would not welcome.
You say yourself that he told you he had no intention of being ever
anything but a bachelor. Does not that content you?"
"Yes, yes, of course I'm a fool, an old fool. Good-bye, take care of
yourself. You look a little fagged. Had any hill rambles lately?"
"Not many. I shall when Mr. Laird is home again."
She went indoors, thinking how good it was to have such a staunch true
friend as Colonel Fleming, and wondering uneasily if there was any
foundation for his fears. She found it difficult to soothe Mrs. Laird
when she joined her again.
"I am convinced Eva means mischief. She wants to take my son from me,
and she will make him miserable—his life will be a hell on earth with
her! It wasn't a coincidence her being included in that house-party.
She managed it all. I know her!"
This and more Mrs. Laird poured into Sara's ears, and she listened and
expostulated, but could give little real comfort.
Mrs. Laird grew feverishly anxious for her son's return, and yet when
he did come, she had actually so worried herself into a sick headache
that she was obliged to go to bed before he arrived.
But in a quarter of an hour Graham had restored her peace of mind to
her. The very look of him, the calm grave tone of his voice, and the
affectionate inquiries after her health, all brought reassurance to
her. She felt that he had at present no desire to wreck her peace and
spoil their home together.
"I'm a regular stay-at-home," he said to her, with a little smile
coming to his lips. "Do you know I have been counting the days to get
back to you! Now, I'm not going to talk much to-night. To-morrow I have
a lot to tell you about Cousin Anna. My mind is full of her at present."
Mrs. Laird turned over on her pillows with a rested heart, and went
sound asleep directly he had left her.
Sara and Graham dined together downstairs. Their conversation was
mostly on local topics, but towards the end of the meal, he looked
round the room meditatively.
"We are old and shabby," he said, "but how is it you give such an
atmosphere of bright comfort in the room in which you are? I have felt
nothing like this the whole time I have been away, and yet our quarters
at Lyle's shooting-box were most luxurious!"
Sara laughed.
"That is good to hear," she said; "I must tell your mother that. I wish
you had not come home to find her laid up. She and I have had very good
times together, and last Sunday she went to church with me!"
Graham looked astonished. Then he said quietly—
"You are a wonderful woman."
When dinner was over, Sara went upstairs to Mrs. Laird. She soon came
down to the drawing-room, and found Graham reading his newspaper there