He had to bend down for another embrace from his mother whose heart was very full as she held his bright young healthful face between her hands, though all she said was, "You have walked eleven miles and more! You must be half starved!-Anne, my dear, pray let him have something. He can eat it here."
"I'll see," said Anne, hastening away.
"Oh, don't go, Lenore," cried Frank, springing up. "Stay, I've not seen you!-Mother, how sweet of you! But I forgot! You don't know! I was only waiting till I was through."
"I understand, my dear boy."
"But how? How did you find out? Was it only that you knew she was the precious darling of my heart? and now you see and own why," cries Frank, almost beside himself with excitement and delight.
"It was Lady Tyrrell who told me," said Mrs. Poynsett, sympathizing too much with the lovers to perceive that her standpoint of resistance was gone from her.
"Yes," said Lenore. "She knew of our walk, and questioned me so closely that I could not conceal anything without falsehood."
"After she met me at Aucuba Villa?" asked Frank.
"Yes. Did you tell her anything?"
"I thought she knew more than I found afterwards that she did," said Frank; "but there's no harm done. It is all coming now."
"She told my father," said Eleonora, sadly, "and he cannot understand our delay. He is grieved and displeased, and thinks I have not been open with him."
"Oh! that will be all right to-morrow," said Frank. "I'll have it out with a free heart, now there's no fear but that I have passed; and I've got the dearest of mothers! I feel as if I could meet him if he were a dozen examiners rolled into one, instead of the good old benevolent parent that he is! Ha! Anne-Susan-Jenkins-thank you-that's splendid! May I have it here? Super-excellent! Only here's half the clay-pit sticking to me! Let me just run up and make myself decent. Only don't let her run away."
Perhaps Clio would have scorned the instinct that made a Charnock unable to enjoy a much-needed meal in the presence of mother and of love till the traces of the accident and the long walk had been removed. His old nurse hurried after-ostensibly to see that his linen was at hand, but really to have her share of the petting and congratulation; and Lenore stood a little embarrassed, till Mrs. Poynsett held out her arms, with the words, "My dear child!" and again she dropped on her knee by the couch, and nestled close in thankful joy.
Presently however, she raised herself, and said sadly, almost coldly, "I am afraid you have been surprised into this."
"I must love one who so loves my boy," was the ardent answer.
"I couldn't help it!" said the maiden, again abandoning herself to the tenderness. "Oh! it is so good of you!"
"My dear, dear daughter!"
"Only please give me one mother's kiss! I have so longed for one."
"Poor motherless child! My sweet daughter!"
Then after a pause Eleonora said, "Indeed, I'll try to deserve better; but oh! pray forgive me, if I cost him much more pain and patience than I am worth."
"He thinks you well worth anything, and perhaps I do," said Mrs Poynsett, who was conquered, won over, delighted more than by either of the former brides, in spite of all antecedents.
"Then will you always trust me?" said Eleonora, with clasped hands, and a wondrous look of earnest sincerity on her grave open brow and beautiful pensive dark blue eyes.
"I must, my dear."
"And indeed I don't think I could help holding to him, because he seems my one stay and hope here; and now I know it is all right with you, indeed it is such happiness as I never knew."
She laid her head down again in subdued joy and rest: but the pause was broken by Frank's return; and a moment after, in darted the Peri in her pink cashmere costume, with a glow transforming her usually colourless face. "Dear, dear Frank, I'm so glad!" she cried, bestowing her kiss; while he cried in amazement, "Is it Rose? Is there a fancy ball?"
"Only Aladdin's Cave. I'm just out of it; and while Jenny is keeping up games, and Edith is getting up a charade, I could dash in to see that Frank was all there, and more too. The exam, is safe, eh?"
"I trust so," said Frank; "the list will not come just yet; but I am told I am certain of a pass-indeed, that I stand high as to numbers."
"That's noble!-Now, Mrs. Poynsett, turn him out as soon as he has eaten his dinner. We want any one who can keep up a respectable kind of a row. I say, will you two do Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess? You look just like it."
"Must we go?" asked Frank, reluctantly; and there was something in the expression of his face, a little paler than usual, that reminded his mother that the young man had for the first time seen sudden and violent death that day, and that though his present gladness was so great, yet that he had gone through too much in body and mind for the revels of the evening not either to jar, or to produce a vehement reaction, if he were driven into them. So she answered by pleading the eleven miles' walk; and the queen of the sports was merciful, adding, "But I must be gone, or Terry will be getting up his favourite tableau of the wounded men of Clontarf, or Rothesay, or the Black Bull's Head, or some equally pleasing little incident."
"Is it going on well?" asked Mrs. Poynsett.
"Sweetly! Couldn't be better. They have all amalgamated and are in the midst of the 'old family coach,' with Captain Duncombe telling the story. He is quite up to the trick, and enjoys turning the tables on his ladies."
"And Camilla?" asked Lenore, in a hesitating, anxious tone
"Oh! she's gone in for it. I think she is the springs! I heard her ask where you were, and Charley told her; so you need not be afraid to stay in peace, if you have a turn that way. Good-bye; you'd laugh to see how delighted people are to be let off the lecture." And she bent over Lenore with a parting kiss, full of significance of congratulation.
She returned, after changing her dress, to find a pretty fairy tableau, contrived by the Bowater sisters, in full progress, and delighting the children and the mothers. Lady Vivian contrived to get a word with her as she returned.
"Beautifully managed, Lady Rosamond. I tell Cecil she should enjoy a defeat by such strategy."
"It is Mrs. Poynsett's regular Christmas party," said Rosamond, not deigning any other reply.
"I congratulate her on her skilful representatives," said Lady Tyrrell. "May I ask if we are to see the hero of the day? No? What! you would say better employed? Poor children, we must let them alone to-night for their illusion, though I am sorry it should be deepened; it will be only the more pain by and by."
"I don't see that," said Rosamond, stoutly.
"Ah! Lady Rosamond, you are a happy young bride, untaught what is l'impossible." Rosamond could not help thinking that no one understood it better than she, as the eldest of a large family with more rank and far more desires than means; but she disliked Lady Tyrrell far too much for even her open nature to indulge in confidences, and she made a successful effort to escape from her neighbourhood by putting two pale female Fullers into the place of honour in front of the folding doors into the small drawing-room, which served as a stage, and herself hovered about the rear, wishing she could find some means of silencing Miss Moy's voice, which was growing louder and more boisterous than ever.
The charade which Rosamond had expected was the inoffensive, if commonplace, Inspector, and the window she beheld, when the curtain drew up, was, she supposed, the bar of an inn. But no; on the board were two heads, ideals of male and female beauty, one with a waxed moustache, the other with a huge chignon, vividly recalling Mr. Pettitt's Penates. Presently came by a dapper professor, in blue spectacles and a college cap, who stood contemplating, and indulging in a harangue on entities and molecules, spirit and matter, affinities and development, while the soft deep brown eyes of the chignoned head languished, and the blue ones of the moustached one rolled, and the muscles twitched and the heads turned till, by a strong process of will explained by the professor, they bent their necks, erected themselves, and finally started into life and the curtain fell on them with clasped hands!