CHAPTER XIV

A VISIT TO VEDDON WEAL

CHRISTMAS found Orris and Pippa still at Cudweed Chase, and though Jock would have had it otherwise, he had to possess his soul in patience. Miss Lyle spent Christmas with them, and she and Orris were busy making the season bright to all around them.

Pippa was nearly well again, and able to take very short rides on her beloved pony.

Orris had been up to town for two or three days, and in that time she had made her engagement known to her friends. Dugald received her news in gloomy silence.

"It was an evil day," he said, "when you went off to Pinestones. I bear Mrs. Calthrop a grudge for taking you there."

"Now, Dugald, if I had never gone there, my feelings towards you would have been just the same. Be content to be my dear cousin and friend. You knew long ago that I could never be anything more."

"You'll turn into a mouldy frump!"

"Better that than a town gadabout!"

She saw Reyne Archer, for their visit to the Riviera had been delayed owing to Lady Violet getting a bad attack of 'flu, and received some news from her which astonished and delighted her. Mr. Dane had been up to town to see them several times, and on the last occasion had asked Reyne to be his wife.

"And mother likes him so much that she makes no difficulty about it at all," Reyne said. "Oh, Orris, you and I in the same parish! Think how heavenly it will be! But we are not going to be married yet. A cousin of mine is coming to be mother's companion when I leave her. The way has smoothed out so wonderfully, and I shall have the desire of my heart—to be a useful worker instead of an idler; and last and best of all, to have such a splendid man to guide and help me."

"And to love you!" Orris put in, smiling. "I am so very, very glad, Reyne dear."

She saw many of her old friends in town, but she was quite ready to leave it, and come back to the lonely grey house by the sea. She felt rather guilty when she saw Miss Lyle's extreme disappointment and regret that she was leaving her. But after a good deal of thinking, she came down to breakfast one morning with a bright idea in her head. And this was to suggest Miss Dashwood for the next Lady Superintendent of Cudweed Chase.

"Of course," she said to Miss Lyle, "I don't know that she would do it. She has an invalid sister, but she could be made very comfortable here, if you would extend your invitation to her. You would love Miss Dashwood. She is so clever and cultured and brimful of life and cheerfulness! And she has given up all her beloved work so happily and contentedly for the sake of her poor sister. I shall be truly sorry if she leaves our village, but for her sake I should be delighted, because it is work that she will love."

"It sounds feasible," said Miss Lyle. "Will you write to her? Is it too far for her to come and see me?"

"I am afraid she would not leave her sister. She is never away from her for a day. I will write at once."

Brisk correspondence ensued, but the matter was not clinched until Orris herself went down and stayed for a few days with the Prestons.

Jock was, of course, enchanted. He wanted to consult her about several alterations at Pinestones, and met her at the station, one bright frosty afternoon in January, with a radiant face.

"You are very bold in venturing here," he said to her, as he drove her to Lilac Farm in a new car in which he had just invested. "How do you know I will let you away again? I'm just feeling that the days are empty and useless without you. I've been wonderfully patient, I consider."

"Now, Jock, I haven't come down here on our own business, but on Miss Lyle's. Do you think I can persuade Miss Dashwood to make the venture?"

"I'm not approving of it. She's running, or going to run, my Rest Home, remember. I don't want to part with her."

Orris looked grave, then she laid her hand gently on his arm.

"Don't you think I could run that for you? We shall be only changing places."

He looked at her, laughed, then screwed up his lips.

"I want a wife to attend to me, first of all. Not to be a busybody outside her home." Orris said nothing.

"I wish I wasn't driving," Jock said irrelevantly. "It keeps me from doing what I want to do. Speech is too cold for my mood at present."

"Let us keep to our subject," Orris said with her quiet dignity. "I am not going to be your slave and chattel, am I? It isn't a chaffing matter. If I am going to be your wife, Jock, there will be many outside bits of work that I shall like to do. You built your Rest Home. Don't you think your wife is the person to be the secretary or treasurer of it?"

"I think my wife will be an adorable angel, and will be able to twist her poor inferior husband round her finger."

Then they both laughed.

"I shall be entranced for you to be boss altogether of my Rest Home, my house, and perhaps of me."

"That I should never be," Orris said; "I know my limitations. It is your strength and pertinacity that sometimes appals me. Shall we ever be on different sides I wonder?"

"Our conversation is not profitable," Jock said gaily. "We will be joyful in each other's company and let the future go hang!"

When they reached Lilac Farm, Mrs. Preston gave Orris a warm welcome.

"It's so delightful to know that you're coming soon to live amongst us," she said. "'Twas what Tom and I always hoped, but things seemed a bit contrary before you went away."

Jock was loath to leave.

"You're tired, sweetheart," he said, when a few minutes later he was saying good-bye to her in the old hall, and Mrs. Preston had discreetly left them. "I feel that the little Elf's illness took a great deal out of you, but it brought 'me' great happiness." Then, taking her in his arms, he said very tenderly: "I am longing to have you in my keeping. You have always been looking after other people, and now you'll have to take instead of give."

"I'd like to ask you something, Jock," said Orris, a little wistfully. "I wanted to do it when you came to us at Cudweed, but I was not brave enough!"

"Why? Are you afraid of me? Never!"

"No, but I am afraid of your cloaking your real feelings by a veneer of—of indifference."

"Now look here, you and I are on very intimate terms now; we're going to be one before long, instead of two. You may ask me any question you like. I will bare my soul to you. Never hesitate to scold me, question me, and advise me for my good. We have got to know each other through and through!"

"Are things different with you now? Can you and I talk together of the unseen world? Have you got your old faith back?"

Jock held her tighter in his arms, and looked into her eyes very earnestly.

"Do you think I'd have bothered over this Rest Home, and been such chums with Dane, if I hadn't had anything in common with him? I'm not going to have any barriers between us, sweetheart. Your God is my God, your faith is my faith, and your hope mine. You'll be my guardian angel, and help me along, I know. But I've made up my mind to say, as Joshua did: 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!'"

Orris's eyes filled with tears, which tears Jock promptly kissed away.

"I shall have to go," he said. "This is a tantalizing visit of yours, but I invite you to tea to-morrow afternoon, just to see that my preparations indoors are according to your liking."

"I shall love to come," said Orris.

And then they parted, and she slipped indoors again with a happy heart. She had instinctively felt that Jock had changed, before she gave him her answer at Cudweed. She was assured of it now, and she thanked God in her heart for this assurance. She knew well that it would have only spelled disaster to link her life to his unless they had been of one mind upon the real and deep things of eternity.

The next morning she set off on her visit to Miss Dashwood, who was both surprised and delighted to see her.

But when she unfolded her plan, Louisa Dashwood demurred at taking part in it.

"Personally I should love to do what you want, but it is Grace who will object. She likes, if I may say so, to be my centre, and would not like other people to share my interest and care. Will you wait a moment? I will call her. It is better to discuss the matter fully before her. She likes you, and may be influenced by your wishes."

So Miss Grace came in, and, as Louisa had said, she vetoed the proposition at once.

"I am not strong enough to move. And from what you say, it is a lonely house in a lonely position. It is bad enough here, but we know a few people and have the village close to us, and Mr. Dane is a very pleasant Vicar."

"I don't think you would be lonely," Orris said, "for you would have very pleasant people in the house, and the village is not very far-away, and there is a low pony-chaise which Miss Lyle says she would put entirely at your disposal. I can't tell you how lovely the sea is. And the country round, and the air, is glorious. Miss Lyle would come and go, and to me she is a most fascinating personality."

Grace shrugged her shoulders.

"I do not care for strangers," she said. "No, it is a plan that I for one could not contemplate for a moment."

"But, Miss Grace, you are always complaining of this small cottage, and you do not care for the villagers. You would have many more comforts at Cudweed Chase."

"Are you wanting to get rid of us?" Miss Grace demanded sharply. "Is it because you are going to live here that you want us to go?"

"Oh, Grace!" expostulated her sister, seeing Orris's hurt look. "It is entirely on our account that Miss Coventry has come down to-day to tell us about this. It is a hard matter, as you know, for us to make both ends meet. If I had an extra two hundred pounds a year, and a comfortable house to live in, do you realize how many extra comforts you would enjoy?"

"I am feeling ill," said Grace suddenly, putting her hand to her head; "you are agitating me. I must go and lie down."

She left the room, and her sister accompanied her. Then she returned to Orris, who was looking disappointed and depressed.

Louisa put her hand upon her arm.

"Cheer up," she said. "It isn't easy to help us, is it? But Grace may think it over and alter her mind. Leave it an open question for a few days, will you? Grace hates changes, though she always says she is not happy here. But I don't think she would be happy anywhere—it is not her nature to be so. And sometimes she suddenly turns round and agrees to what is proposed, after I have given up hope that she will do so."

"I should insist upon the plan if I felt it would be for her good," said Orris.

"No, you would not," said Louisa, smiling, "if you knew that opposition of any kind really makes her ill. Persuasion, not force, is the only way to deal with her."

They talked together for some time, and then Orris left, her mission still unfulfilled. But Louisa promised to do her best to influence the fretful invalid, and Orris went back to the farm, wondering at the cheerful patience and serene calm of her friend.

Jock appeared directly the farm dinner was over, and he and Orris walked over the fields together. They first inspected the new building which was very nearly completed, and then stood together on the waste piece of ground upon which the west wing had once stood.

"It makes me very sad," said Orris. "Why did you not build it up again?"

"The house is big enough without it," said Jock cheerfully. "I've had, as you see, all the rubbish taken away, and we'll make this bit of ground into a sunk rose-garden. Truefitt, my new gardener, is wild to do it. Now come along into the house."

Orris was surprised to see how much had been done to the house when she entered it. Fresh paint and papering, and a general clearance of old worthless bits of furniture, and some really good bits of oak put in their place, gave the house a new aspect altogether. He took her into dining-room, smoking-room, and big drawing-room, and showed her the room upstairs that he was going to make into a private sitting-room for her.

"You must have some retreat where you'll be able to get away from me," he said to her lightly, and Orris assented at once.

"We can't sit in each other's pockets all day long," she said. "But I don't think you'll ever overburden me with your society, Jock. It will be the other way about. Yet I would not have you an idle man about the house. Out-of-doors is your sphere, and I'm old-fashioned enough to believe that indoors will be the sphere for me."

"It will be heaven on earth," said Jock in a low emphatic tone. "We're going to have tea in the hall now. Will you pour out? I'll sit opposite you and imagine we're already husband and wife."

His gay spirits infected Orris. Her dimples had free play. After tea was over, he and she took counsel over patterns of chintz and damask, as to the best material to re-cover the drawing-room furniture. Then Orris was shown the contents of the powder-room, and when she came out she said:

"I don't wonder at Pippa's infatuation for you. But you spoil her, Jock."

"I couldn't," he said. "I only hope she'll stay with us till she grows up."

Orris looked grave.

"I am anxious about her future, with such a mother. But I tell myself that I have her at the most susceptible age, so I shall have faith to believe that her character will be formed before she joins her mother again."

Jock was loath to let her go when the time came for her to return to the farm.

"I have all to-morrow," Orris said.

"Oh, do let us get married at once," cried Jock. "What is the good of waiting? You don't want a regular show, do you?"

"I should like," Orris replied softly, "to creep into a little quiet lonely church, and plight our troth before God, away from every one."

"And so should I. We'll do it. I'll get a special licence and we'll do it before you go back to Cudweed."

"No, no! What an impulsive creature you are! Miss Lyle has determined to give me a send-off. I have promised her to be married from her house."

"Well, let us settle the day. I shan't let you move from this house till you've done it!"

He was as good as his word, and though he chafed at the delay, Orris would not leave Cudweed till the end of the following month. They settled the day, and then he let her go. But he arranged to take her for a ride and show her round his farm the following day.

The following morning Orris had an early visit from Louisa Dashwood.

"My dear Miss Coventry, it's done. Grace has relented, and I am allowed to take up the post. It is Mr. Muir's doing. He came round last night after his dinner, and simply coaxed and wheedled Grace into acquiescence. What a power he has with his tongue! Will you be able to withstand him in anything. I wonder?"

"I wonder that, sometimes," said Orris, smiling. "But I hope such an emergency will not occur. I am very thankful for your news. Now I can return to Miss Lyle with a light heart."

"At the same time," said Louisa, "may I say that I have real regret in removing myself away from your society. We have not seen very much of each other, but when we have met I have always benefited."

"No," said Orris; "I think you have been my benefactor. I have taken heart again and again when I have seen your cheerful courage and patience. We must not be parted for good. I hope sometimes you may be able to pay us a visit."

And then, as she said, Orris returned to Cudweed with a light heart. Miss Lyle was pleased to hear about her successor, and Pippa was eagerness itself to hear all about "Master Jock" in his "real own home."