Part 25 (1/2)
”I am as well without tea. And I have a ma.s.s of business to get through yet.”
”You are not as well without it,” cried Miss Corny, ”and I don't choose you should go without it. Take off your bonnet, Barbara. He does things like n.o.body else; he is off to Castle Marling to-morrow, and never could open his lips till just now that he was going.”
”Is that invalid--Brewster, or whatever his name is--laid up at Castle Marling, still?” exclaimed Barbara.
”He is still there,” said Mr. Carlyle.
Barbara sprang up the moment tea was over.
”Dill is waiting for me in the office, and I have some hours' work before me. However, I suppose you won't care to put up with Peter's attendance, so make haste with your bonnet, Barbara.”
She took his arm, and they walked on, Mr. Carlyle striking the hedge and the gra.s.s with her parasol. Another minute, and the handle was in two.
”I thought you would do it,” said Barbara, while he was regarding the parasol with ludicrous dismay. ”Never mind, it is an old one.”
”I will bring you another to replace it. What is the color? Brown. I won't forget. Hold the relics a minute, Barbara.”
He put the pieces in her hand, and taking out a note case, made a note in pencil.
”What's that for?” she inquired.
He held it close to her eyes, that she might discern what he had written: ”Brown parasol. B. H.”
”A reminder for me, Barbara, in case I forget.”
Barbara's eyes detected another item or two already entered in the note case: ”piano,” ”plate.”
”I jot down the things as they occur to me, that I must get in London,”
he explained. ”Otherwise I should forget half.”
”In London? I thought you were going in an opposite direction--to Castle Marling?”
It was a slip of the tongue, but Mr. Carlyle repaired it.
”I may probably have to visit London as well as Castle Marling. How bright the moon looks rising there, Barbara!”
”So bright--that or the sky--that I saw your secret,” answered she.
”Piano! Plate! What can you want with either, Archibald?”
”They are for East Lynne,” he quietly replied.
”Oh, for the Carews.” And Barbara's interest in the item was gone.
They turned into the road just below the grove, and reached it. Mr.
Carlyle held the gate open for Barbara.
”You will come in and say good-night to mamma. She was saying to-day what a stranger you have made of yourself lately.”