Part 21 (1/2)
”Jeannette suggested it,” said he, with something in his voice which his listener could not quite a.n.a.lyze. ”She put it up to me to come over while they should be staying in Devons.h.i.+re, and join their house party.
At first I said I couldn't, but the more I thought of it the more it seemed possible to get over there for a fortnight anyhow. The plan was not to tell you, and to surprise you by walking in on you.”
Georgiana stared at him, as well as she could see him through the fervid twilight. ”Jimps! Why, how could you get away?”
”There's never a time when it's easy to get away,” he admitted; ”but everything's in full sail now for the summer, and just lately I've succeeded in getting hold of an awfully competent man who could run things for the month well enough. Anyhow, of course I was dippy at the thought of going and--I promised her I would if I could manage it. I've never had the chance to travel much, and it suddenly struck me that I didn't have to deny myself every possible thing. But, of course, now that you're back----”
”But that makes no difference!” she cried quickly, ”Why should it?
Jeannette asked you because she wanted you. Of course you must go, if you really can get away.”
”She never would have asked me if you hadn't been going. And it was only an afterthought then. If I hadn't gone on for that last hour it wouldn't have occurred to her.”
”It occurred to her to wish it, because she said so more than once to me the day I was there. But she didn't dream you could do it. I don't know why we should all consider you a fixture, for your father is much stronger than mine and it couldn't harm him at all to spare you for a little. Of course, you must go, Jimps! When will you start?”
”Do you honestly want me to go, George?” He seemed to be scanning her face through the dimness.
”I should be a selfish thing enough if I didn't,” she protested.
He was silent for a minute; then he said: ”To be frank, I wrote last night for a berth on a s.h.i.+p that sails in two weeks. Jeannette warned me not to delay, the travel is so heavy this time of year. I talked it over with my father and he seemed pleased at the idea. You can imagine I felt a bit dizzy this morning when I heard you hadn't sailed. I didn't believe it at first.”
”Never mind, you will go just the same--and all the more. It's a pity somebody shouldn't carry out the plan, and you've had less fun than I, for you've been at home longer since college. Go, Jimps, and take the goods the G.o.ds provide.”
She maintained this spirit throughout the ensuing fortnight, in spite of his evident effort to make her acknowledge that she would feel her own disappointment the more for his going. When he came over to say good-bye he found her apparently in the gayest of spirits; and she gave him such a friendly send-off that he went away marvelling in his heart at the ways of young women, and the ways of Georgiana Warne in particular.
CHAPTER XVIII
”STEADY ON!”
On the day following the departure of James Stuart for England, while the two literary workmen were hard at it in the old manse study, the July weather having mercifully turned decidedly cooler for a s.p.a.ce, the village telegraph messenger, a tall youth with a shambling gait, appeared with a message for Mr. Jefferson. Georgiana brought it to him, and waited to know whether there was a reply.
She saw the message--evidently a long one--twice read, and noticed a peculiar lighting of the grave face which had bent over it. Mr.
Jefferson wrote an answer, briefer than the message received, and himself took it to the waiting boy. When he returned he sat down and began to put in order the papers on which he had been working.
”I have another trade, as you have guessed,” he said to Georgiana. ”It seems necessary for me to go away and work at it for a few days, perhaps a fortnight. It is fortunate for me that you are here, for I should not have felt that I ought to leave your father, and yet I should hardly have been able to refuse the call of that message.”
”Then I am very glad,” she returned, ”that I am here. Can you leave me work to do?”
”I am afraid not, beyond that already laid out for to-day. Won't you rest while I am gone? This is vacation time for most people, you know.”
She shook her head. ”With only father to look after I shall have little enough to do.”
”You won't--forgive me!--go up into that blistering attic and make rugs?
I hope not!” She felt that he was looking keenly at her.
”Why should you hope not? I am one of the people who must be busy to be contented. How soon do you go, Mr. Jefferson?”
”On the noon train.” He looked at his watch. ”I have an hour to make ready. No, don't go. I will come back when I am ready, and we will put things in shape to leave, so that we shall know exactly where to take them up again.”