Part 13 (1/2)
Here Mr. Kimberly paused, looked at Minnie with an amused expression for a minute or two, and then went on--
”You look rather bewildered, and now I come to think of it, I dare say it is rather a bewildering thing to be treated like an old woman of fifty. I need scarcely have told you of this so soon--especially as you will hear of it soon enough from lips fitter to speak of it than mine, but one always feels the need of a confidante, however old he may be and young she may be.”
”And I shall be prouder of nothing than of being yours,” she returned, stroking his grey hair lovingly.
”Not even of the Presidents.h.i.+p of the Hollowmell Mission?” enquired he incredulously.
”O, Mabel is that,” she replied, her face clouding again as the thought flashed across her mind that perhaps Mabel would be that no more.
”Well, the position of arbitrator between discontented miners and their employers,” he suggested, anxious to divert her thoughts from the gloomy subject he had unwittingly touched on.
”Not even of that,” she declared, brightening a little. ”Besides, all the girls have a share in that--but to our confidences again. What of Charlie and Mona?”
”I suppose you couldn't guess?”
”I am sure I couldn't,” she a.s.serted. Then added laughingly, ”unless they've fallen in love with each other--by-the-way,” she continued, growing suddenly serious again; ”that isn't as altogether an improbable think as it looks--I remember coming to the conclusion that Charlie had fallen in love with her writing, and thinking that it was almost equivalent to falling in love with herself.”
”Well, that is just what has happened to them--though I rather think it happened before the creation of your ingenious theory. It appears they had some misunderstanding, or quarrel or something of that nature, before Miss Cameron left London, and they had never met again till he saw her along with you decorating the hall down there.”
”And they've made it up!” exclaimed Minnie, clapping her hands in her delight.
”Yes, it is settled--the girl's only nineteen, and in my opinion too young. But her father doesn't seem to think so.”
”O, that's what he was here for then,” remarked Minnie, ”I met him as I was going up to Mabel's.”
”Yes,” replied her father, smiling. ”He seems to have fully made up his mind on one point.”
”What point?”
”That there is nothing and n.o.body worth considering in comparison with his daughter, and in that conviction his wife and he seem to be completely at one.”
Minnie laughed.
”I know somebody who is pretty nearly as decided in his opinions on a similar subject,” she hinted.
”Come, now, not quite,” protested he.
”Well, he's a great deal older than Mr. Cameron, and consequently ought to have a great deal more sense.”
”And his daughter snubs him too much--I wonder if Miss Mona has as sharp a tongue?”
”I would advise you not to rouse it,” was Minnie's reply, as she flitted away.
Next day the mid-summer holidays commenced, much to Minnie's joy, for now she could sit by her friend many hours during the day, cheering her in her intervals of consciousness, and watching and soothing her at other times--thereby not only greatly aiding her slow recovery, but also rendering her aunt inestimable service in her present hara.s.sing position.
Mabel's great danger did not lie so much in the ruptured blood-vessel, as in a sharp attack of brain fever, which had followed upon her late excitement, and the slackening of the strain she had borne so long.
She was yet very far from being out of danger, but there was scarcely so much need for apprehension, and even such a slight crumb of comfort was eagerly caught at.