Part 28 (1/2)

'Mamma will think we have gone quite far enough, thank you, uncle,' said the sage Gillian, 'and I think Fergus had better come too.'

'That he had,' said Jasper. 'Fancy him over Peat Hill.'

'He'll be left behind to be picked up as we come back,' said Wilfred.

'No, no, no! I can keep up better than you can, Wil! Take me, Uncle Regie.' The little boy was so near a howl that good-natured Colonel Mohun's heart was touched, and he consented to let him come on, though Jasper argued, 'You'll have to carry him, uncle.'

'No, I'll make you, master! Tell your mother not to wait luncheon for us, Gillian; we'll pick up something somewhere.'

'Hurrah!' cried Wilfred and Fergus, to whom this was an immense additional pleasure.

The girls turned away into the lane, Valetta indulging in an outrageous grumble. 'Why should Dolores have come out to spoil everything?'

Dolores did not speak.

'Just our one chance,' sighed Mysie, 'and perhaps we should have seen the fox.'

'We may do that yet,' said Gillian; 'he may come this way.'

'I don't care if he does,' said Valetta. 'I wanted to see them draw the copse. I believe Dolores did it on purpose to spoil our pleasure.'

'Don't be so cross, Val,' said Mysie. 'She can't help being tired.'

'Why did she come, then, when n.o.body wanted her?'

'For shame, Val,' said Gillian, 'you know mamma would be very angry to hear you say anything so unkind.'

'It's quite true, though,' muttered Valetta.

'Never mind, Dolly, dear,' said Mysie, shocked. 'Val doesn't really mean it, you know.'

'Yes, she does,' said Dolores, shaking her comforter off; 'you all do! I wish I had never come here.'

Mysie tried in her own persevering way to argue again that Val was only put out, and disappointed at having to turn back, to which Valetta, in spite of Gillian's endeavour to silence her, added, 'So stupid of her to come out! What did she do it for?'

Dolores, who hardly ever cried, was tired into crying now. 'You grudge me everything; you wouldn't let me speak one single word to Uncle Regie, and kept bothering about! I'll never do anything with you again! I won't.'

'Did you want to speak to Uncle Regie?' asked Mysie.

'To be sure I did! He is my uncle, that I knew ever so long before you did, and you never let him speak to me.'

'Mrs. Halfpenny always put us on the high chair, with our faces to the wall when we were jealous,' remarked Valetta.

'But did you want to say anything to him in particular?' said Mysie, revolving means of contriving a private interview.

'That's no business of yours! I wish you would let me alone!' broke out Dolores, in a fretful fright lest any one should guess that she had anything on her mind.

'To make up stories of us, of course,' growled Valetta, but Gillian here interposed, declaring with authority that if she heard another word before they reached the paddock gate, she should certainly tell mother how disgracefully they had been behaving. When Gillian said such things she kept her word. Besides, by way of precaution, she marched down the muddy middle of the road, with Dolores limping along the footpath on one side, and Val as far off as possible on the border of the ditch, on the other; the more inoffensive Mysie keeping by her side. They were all weary, and Dolores was very footsore also, by the time they reached home, at the very moment that the two Misses Hacket appeared coming up the drive. Lady Merrifield, having the day before invited the elder, as the purchases needed to be looked over, and preparations set in hand, and she did not then know that her brother was coming.

Dolores scarcely knew whether she was glad to see Constance. She had many doubts and qualms about that cheque. And if she had spent any quiet time alone with her uncle, she might have laid enough of her trouble before him to get some advice or help; but to ask for an interview, especially when 'everybody' thought it was to make complaints, was too uncomfortable and alarming; and she was inclined to escape from thought of the whole subject altogether by taking action quickly.

Gillian gave her uncle's message about not waiting; the dirty boots were taken off in the hall, and Constance followed her friend up to her room to take off her things.