Part 82 (2/2)

”I guess you're right,” said Maurice Capper gravely. ”We make our little bids for happiness, but it helps one to remember that the issue lies with G.o.d.”

She gave him a smile of understanding. ”'He knows about it all--He knows--He knows,'” she quoted softly. And Capper went his way, taking with him the memory of a woman who still ploughed her endless furrow, but with a heart at peace.

CHAPTER XX

THE PROMOTION OF THE QUEEN'S JESTER

”My!” said Mrs. Errol. ”Isn't he just dear?”

There was a cooing note in her deep voice. She sat in the Dower House garden with her grandson bolt upright upon her knees, and all the birds of June singing around her.

”Isn't he dear, Anne?” she said.

Anne, who was dangling a bunch of charms for the baby's amus.e.m.e.nt, stooped and kissed the sunny curls.

”He's a lord of creation,” she said. ”And he knows it already. I never saw such an upright morsel in my life.”

”Lucas was like that,” said Mrs. Errol softly. ”He was just the loveliest baby in the U.S.A. Everyone said so. Dot dearie, I'm sort of glad you called him Luke.”

”So am I, mater dearest. And he's got Luke's eyes, hasn't he now? Bertie said so from the very beginning.” Eagerly Dot leaned from her chair to turn her small son's head to meet his grandmother's scrutiny. ”I'd rather he were like Luke than anyone else in the world,” she said. ”It isn't treason to Bertie to say so, for he wants it too. Where is Bertie, I wonder? He had to go to town, but he promised to be back early for his boy's first birthday-party. It's such an immense occasion, isn't it?”

Her round face dimpled in the way Bertie most loved. She rose and slipped a hand through Anne's arm.

”Let's go and look for him. I know he can't be long now. The son of the house likes having his granny to himself. He never cries with her.”

They moved away together through the sunlit garden, Dot chattering gaily as her fas.h.i.+on was about nothing in particular while Anne walked beside her in sympathetic silence. Anne was never inattentive though there were some who deemed her unresponsive.

But as they neared the gate Dot's volubility quite suddenly died down.

She plucked a white rose, to fill in the pause and fastened it in her friend's dress. Her fingers trembled unmistakably as she did it, and Anne looked at her inquiringly. ”Is anything the matter?”

”No. Why?” said Dot, turning very red.

Anne smiled a little. ”I feel as if a bird had left off singing,” she said.

Dot laughed, still with hot cheeks. ”What a pretty way of putting it!

Bertie isn't nearly so complimentary. He calls me the magpie, which is really very unfair, for he talks much more than I do. Dear old Bertie!”

The dimples lingered, and Anne bent suddenly and kissed them. ”Dear little Dot!” she said.

Instantly Dot's arms were very tightly round her. ”Anne darling, I've got something to tell you--something you very possibly won't quite like. You won't be vexed any, will you?”

”Not any,” smiled Anne.

”No, but it isn't a small thing. It--it's rather immense. But Bertie said I was to tell you, because you are not to be taken by surprise again. He doesn't think it fair, and of course he's right.”

<script>