Part 38 (2/2)

'Show me? No; if rockets are so perilous I shall have nothing to do with them. Stand still, Cedric! Just tell me about Ada. Is there much harm done?'

'Her face is scorched a good deal, but they say it will soon be right.'

'I am glad--we will send to inquire to-morrow, but I cannot come--ha, ha! a new infernal machine. Good-bye, Friar Bacon.'

Away he went, and Maurice stood looking after him with complacent disdain. 'There they go, Cedric and Rotherwood, equally well provided with brains! What is the use of talking science to either?'

It was late when he reached the house, and his two sisters shortly came down to tea, with news that Adeline was asleep and Phyllis was going to bed. The accident was again talked over.

'Well,' said Emily, 'I do not understand it, but I suppose papa will.'

'The telling papa is a bad part of the affair, with William and Eleanor there too,' said Jane.

'I do not mean to speak to Phyllis about it again,' said Emily, 'it makes her cry so terribly.'

'It will come out fast enough,' sighed Maurice. 'Good-night.'

More than once in the course of the night did poor Phyllis wake and cry, and the next day was the most wretched she had ever spent; she was not allowed to stay in the nursery, and the schoolroom was uninhabitable, so she wandered listlessly about the garden, sometimes creeping down to the churchyard, where she looked up at the old tower, or pondered over the graves, and sometimes forgetting her troubles in converse with the dogs, in counting the rings in the inside of a foxglove flower, or in rescuing tadpoles stranded on the broad leaf of a water-lily.

Her sisters and brothers were not less forlorn. Emily sighed and lamented; Adeline was feverish and petulant; and Jane toiled in vain to please and soothe both, and to comfort Maurice; but with all her good-temper and good-nature she had not the spirit which alone could enable her to be a comfort to any one. Ada whined, fretted, and was disobedient, and from Maurice she met with nothing but rebuffs; he was silent and sullen, and spent most of the day in the workshop, slowly planing sc.r.a.ps of deal board, and watching with a careless eye the curled shavings float to the ground.

In the course of the afternoon Alethea and Marianne came to inquire after the patient. Jane came down to them and talked very fast, but when they asked for a further explanation of the cause of the accident, Jane declared that Maurice said it was impossible that any one who did not understand chemistry should know how it happened, and Alethea went away strongly reminded that it was no affair of hers.

Notes pa.s.sed between the New Court and the vicarage, but Mr. Devereux was feeling the effect of his yesterday's exertion too much to repeat it, and no persuasion of the sisters could induce Maurice to visit him.

CHAPTER XXII: THE BARONIAL COURT

'Still in his eyes his soul revealing, He dreams not, knows not of concealing, Does all he does with single mind, And thinks of others that are kind.'

The travellers were expected to arrive at about seven o'clock in the evening, and in accordance with a well-known taste of Eleanor's, Emily had ordered no dinner, but a substantial meal under the name of tea. When the sound of carriage wheels was heard, Jane was with Adeline, Maurice was in his retreat at the Old Court, and it was with no cheerful alacrity that Emily went alone into the hall. Phyllis was already at the front door, and the instant Mr. Mohun set foot on the threshold, her hand grasped his coat, and her shrill voice cried in his ear, 'Papa, I am very sorry I blew up the gunpowder and burnt Ada.'

'What, my dear? where is Ada?'

'In bed. I blew up the gunpowder and burnt her face,' repeated Phyllis.

'We have had an accident,' said Emily, 'but I hope it is nothing very serious, only poor Ada is a sad figure.'

In another moment Mr. Mohun and Eleanor were on the way to the nursery; Lilias was following, but she recollected that a general rush into a sickroom was not desirable, and therefore paused and came back to the hall. The worst was over with Phyllis when the confession had been made. She was in raptures at the sight of the baby, and was presently showing the nurse the way upstairs, but her brother William called her back: 'Phyllis, you have not spoken to any one.'

Phyllis turned, and came down slowly in her most ungainly manner, believing herself in too great disgrace to be noticed by anybody, and she was quite surprised and comforted to be greeted by her brothers and Lily just as usual.

'And how did you meet with this misfortune?' asked Mr. Hawkesworth.

'I banged the door, and made it go off,' said Phyllis.

'What can you mean?' said William, in a tone of surprise, which Phyllis took for anger, and she hid her face to stifle her sobs.

'No, no, do not frighten her,' said Claude's kind voice.

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