Part 2 (1/2)

”Thank you,” she said, ”you are so very kind. Will you tell Mr. Ambrose how thankful I am for his kind a.s.sistance? Yes, Nellie and I have had hard work in moving, have not we, dear?” She drew the beautiful child close to her and gazed lovingly into her eyes. But Nellie was shy; she hid her face on her mother's shoulder, and then looked doubtfully at Mrs.

Ambrose, and then hid herself again.

”How old is your little girl?” asked Mrs. Ambrose more kindly. She was fond of children, and actually pitied any child whose mother perhaps had foreign blood.

”Eleanor--I call her Nellie--is eight years old. She will be nine in January. She is tall for her age,” added Mrs. G.o.ddard with affectionate pride. As a matter of fact Nellie was small for her years, and Mrs.

Ambrose, who was the most truthful of women, felt that she could not conscientiously agree in calling hex tall. She changed the subject.

”I am afraid you will find it very quiet in Billingsfield,” she said presently.

”Oh, I am used--that is, I prefer a very quiet place. I want to live very quietly for some years, indeed I hope for the rest of my life. Besides it will be so good for Nellie to live in the country--she will grow so strong.”

”She looks very well, I am sure,” answered Mrs. Ambrose rather bluntly, looking at the child's clear complexion and bright eyes. ”And have you always lived in town until now, Mrs. G.o.ddard?” she asked.

”Oh no, not always, but most of the year, perhaps. Indeed I think so.”

Mrs. G.o.ddard felt nervous before the searching glance of the elder woman.

Mrs. Ambrose concluded that she was not absolutely straightforward.

”Do you think you can make the cottage comfortable?” asked the vicar's wife, seeing that the conversation languished.

”Oh, I think so,” answered her visitor, glad to change the subject, and suddenly becoming very voluble as she had previously been very shy. ”It is really a charming little place. Of course it is not very large, but as we have not got very many belongings that is all the better; and the garden is small but extremely pretty and wild, and the kitchen is very convenient; really I quite wonder how the people who built it could have made it all so comfortable. You see there are one--two--the pantry, the kitchen and two rooms on the ground floor and plenty of room upstairs for everybody, and as for the sun! it streams into all the windows at once from morning till night. And such a pretty view, too, of that old gate opposite--where does it lead to, Mrs. Ambrose? It is so very pretty.”

”It leads to the park and the Hall,” answered Mrs. Ambrose.

”Oh--” Mrs. G.o.ddard's tone changed. ”But n.o.body lives there?” she asked suddenly.

”Oh no--it is in Chancery, you know.”

”What--what is that, exactly?” asked Mrs. G.o.ddard, timidly. ”Is there a young heir waiting to grow up--I mean waiting to take possession?”

”No. There is a suit about it. It has been going on for forty years my husband says, and they cannot decide to whom it belongs.”

”I see,” answered Mrs. G.o.ddard. ”I suppose they will never decide now.”

”Probably not for some time.”

”It must be a very pretty place. Can one go in, do you think? I am so fond of trees--what a beautiful garden you have yourself, Mrs. Ambrose.”

”Would you like to see it?” asked the vicar's wife, anxious to bring the visit to a conclusion.

”Oh, thank you--of all things!” exclaimed Mrs. G.o.ddard. ”Would not you like to run about the garden, Nellie?”

The little girl nodded slowly and stared at Mrs. Ambrose.

”My husband is a very good gardener,” said the latter, leading the way out to the hall. ”And so was John Short, but he has left us, you know.”

”Who was John Short?” asked Mrs. G.o.ddard rather absently, as she watched Mrs. Ambrose who was wrapping herself in a huge blue waterproof cloak and tying a sort of worsted hood over her head.