CHAPTER IX

THE MYSTERIOUS OWNER

"And now, you amazing child, tell me all you know about Peter." Mrs. Todd let her horse trot along unguided through the dusk and settled back in her seat, with a look of amused expectation on her face.

Janet plunged into a recital of Peter's life, or at least that portion of it that she knew, and before very long the amusement changed to interest and then to pity. Mrs. Todd was a splendid listener and a very understanding woman.

"What kinds of books does he like to read?" she asked, when Janet paused for breath.

"Everything in the library," Janet told her. "He laughs just as hard at 'Alice in Wonderland' as he does over 'Robinhood and his Merrymen,' but of course he likes Robinhood best, especially the part about Little John. He likes the 'Idyls of the King' too, and he just eats up history. To-day I found him reading a stuffy old book about sheep. I think he would like to raise, or do whatever it is you do to, sheep, but of course he can't now because of Doc."

"And who is Doc?" Mrs. Todd inquired.

Again Janet explained as best she could, and this time it was Mrs. Todd's eyes that were wet.

"Hum," she said after a little pause, "perhaps sheep would be a good idea, I never thought of it myself. I'll talk to Peter about it."

Janet sighed a long, happy sigh.

"It's the most perfect fairy tale that ever came true," she said. "Of all the people in the world that I would have chosen to be the mysterious owner of the Enchanted Kingdom, you would be the first, only I simply can't understand why I never knew or why you never lived in it."

Mrs. Todd sighed too, but hers was not a happy sigh.

"My dear child," she said, "that is a very long and a very disagreeable story, but perhaps I can tell you enough of it for you to understand why I left my home and Old Chester.

"When I was not so very many years older than you, say about eighteen, your grandmother decided that I was to marry your father Tom, and my parents thoroughly agreed to the plan. Your father and I, however, did not. In fact I might say that we thoroughly disapproved. We were the very best of friends, but we were both in love with other people; Tom with your beautiful mother and I with Mr. Todd. You know quite well how your grandmother acts when anybody goes against her wishes, so I need only say that my father was just about as stubborn and they had both determined on the match. Now then! to make a very long story short, I ran away with Mr. Todd, and that made them both, your grandmother and my father--my mother, bless her dear heart, understood--very angry. Your grandmother said that I was never to enter her house again. I never did until the other day when I went with you. My father was just as severe and told me that I could never come home with my husband. Well, of course, there was never any idea of my returning without him, and so we stayed away and traveled in every country under the sun and had the happiest three years imaginable, and then he died." There was a long pause before Mrs. Todd continued her story.

"I went home after that with my baby boy and--oh, my dear child, you will think this a very dismal tale, but it's best to finish it. My baby died the next year, and I left the house, I thought, forever. It was mine for my father had died the year after my marriage and left it to me, but for so many years I had been unhappy there that I determined never to come near it again. That was thirty years ago and I have just come back.

"To-day I determined to go and see how the old place looked, I was afraid it would be in ruins. On my way I stopped in at the Simpsons and there my courage failed. So, I sent Mr. Simpson up to look at it and see if there was any chance of repairing it. I thought perhaps if it were patched up and swept out and tidied a bit it would not be as hard to return. Now I know I was a very silly and sentimental old lady, and I will go myself to-morrow morning and see about hurrying up the work of repairs. With two caretakers I am sure it has not suffered too much." Mrs. Todd stopped as shortly as she had begun and picked up the reins and chirruped to the horse, as though to say the conversation was finished now and forever.

Janet knew it was, and without quite understanding it she realized the effort it had taken to tell it. She wanted to say something to Mrs. Todd, but she knew there was nothing that could be put into words, so she sat silent for the rest of the drive. This was the second "story" she had heard that day, and the combination of the two opened up a world beyond Old Chester and gave her a sudden glimpse of life, its sorrows, its struggles, its joys and, above all, its victories. The knowledge made her restless, but it made her happy and above all expectant.

If big things happened to the Mrs. Todds and the Peters in the world, surely big things would come to her.

Mrs. Todd stopped at the garden gate of the Pages and held out her hand.

"Good night, child," she said. "Don't think too much of all I have told you, or, if you do, remember this: no matter how much sorrow there is in this old world of ours, there is never a minute of it that is not worth the living. And now, good night; go to your Enchanted Kingdom whenever you like, it is more yours now than it ever was."

Janet held the big firm hand tight, but all she could find to say was "thank you." There were a hundred questions that she wanted to ask, and she finally found the words for the most important of them all.

"Mrs. Todd," she asked softly, "did you know my mother?"

Mrs. Todd looked at her intently for a long time and then she looked at the light that always burned in Mrs. Page's room.

"Yes, my child, I did, and I loved her; but then everybody did with the exception of--" she hesitated; "no, that's not quite fair, so I won't finish. Some day, with your grandmother's permission, I will tell you all I can about her, and now hurry in and eat your dinner or Martha will be having one of her nervous spells."

Janet laughed, and squeezed Mrs. Todd's hand a little harder before she let it go.

"All right," she promised, "I just suddenly realized that I am as hungry as a bear."

Then Mrs. Todd did something that would have surprised her friends. She leaned out of the carriage and kissed Janet.

Martha was on the verge of a nervous spell, Janet found her looking out of the front hall window. She tiptoed up behind her and said "boo."

"Miss Janet, you're home at last; wherever have you been!" Martha exclaimed. "I have been worried to death over you out in that storm."

"Oh, but I wasn't out in all of it,"--Janet laughed. "I've been driving with Mrs. Todd."

"I might have known that," Martha said, exasperation written large on her face. "Ann Hitchens was always one to upset things. Here we've been living in peace for years and the minute she comes back, oh, deary me, everything's a-flutter and topsy-turvy, I wish she'd go away again, I do indeed."

"But she won't," Janet replied happily. "She is never going away again, and I am so glad I could dance."

Martha sniffed, and when Martha sniffed it was never necessary for her to put her meaning into words.

"Well, don't dance into your grandmother's room," she advised. "Walk like a little lady and go at once. She has been worrying about you all afternoon."

Contrary to all expectations, Mrs. Page had nothing to say about the lateness of the hour. She greeted Janet as usual, told her to wash her hands and eat her dinner; then she turned her face to the wall, her way of saying good night.

Janet was about to leave the room, but something made her pause at the foot of the bed.

"Grandmother," she said slowly.

"Well!" Mrs. Page sat up and looked at her.

"Grandmother," Janet began again, "I am sorry if I worried you by being out late."

"Who told you I was worried?" Mrs. Page demanded.

"Martha," Janet said.

"Martha talks too much," Mrs. Page snapped. "I was worried, but you are back now so don't talk any more about it."

Janet left the room, closing the door very softly behind her. In the hall she studied the grandfather's clock with apparent interest, but it is a question whether she saw it at all. She was realizing for the first time in her life that her grandmother was a very old lady.

Martha called her, and she went in to her dinner.