Part 60 (2/2)

”You will, Suzette?”

”Yes, dear.”

”We shall be happy,” said Sophy softly, with a note of wonder in her voice.

It really seemed strange to have the prospect of being happy--permanently, comfortably, without fear; the prospect of happiness, not s.n.a.t.c.hed at intervals, not broken by terror, but secure and without apprehension.

Tom Courtland pressed his little children to him. Where were the reproaches he had imagined, where the shame he had feared? They were annihilated by love and swallowed up in gladness.

”We do love you so!” whispered Lucy.

Vera actually screamed in happiness.

”Oh, Vera!” said Suzette, rather shocked.

That set them all laughing, the little girls, Tom, presently even Suzette herself. They were all laughing, though none of them could have told exactly why. Their joy bubbled over in mirth, and the sound of gladness was in the house. Tom Courtland held his head up and was his own man again. Here was something to live for, and something to show that even his broken life had not been lived in vain. The ghosts of the past were there; he could not forget them. But the clasp of the warm little arms which encircled him would keep their chilling touch away from his heart. Freed from torments that he had not deserved, rescued from pleasures that he had not enjoyed, he turned eagerly to the delights of his home which could now be his. His glad children and kindly Suzette were a picture very precious in his eyes. Here were golden links by which the fragments of his life could be bound together, though the fractures must always show--even as the scar would show always on Sophy's brow, however much her lips might smile or her eyes sparkle beneath it.

They were roused by a voice from the door.

”It's not hard to tell where you all are! Why, I heard you at the bottom of the stairs! What a hullabaloo!”

John Fanshaw's bulky figure stood there, solid and bowed with weight and his growing years. He looked on the scene--on the happy little folk in their gloomy black frocks--with a kindly smile, and the mock reproof of his tone hid more tenderness than he cared to show.

”Papa's come back--back to stay!” they cried exultantly. ”Isn't that splendid, Mr. Fanshaw?”

”I hoped I should find you here, Tom; but I came to call on Miss Bligh.”

”I hope you'll always find her here too,” said Tom.

Suzette was flattered, and fell to blus.h.i.+ng again. She was acutely grateful to anybody who wanted her. She took such a desire as a free and lavish gift of kindness, never making out any reason which could account for it.

”I'm only too happy to stay if--if I can be of any use,” she murmured.

John sat down and made one of the party. They all chattered cheerfully till the time grew late. Sophy, still treated as an invalid, had to go to bed. She kissed John, who held her closely for a moment; then threw herself in Tom's arms, and could hardly be persuaded to let him go.

”I shall write to Mr. Imason and tell him you've come back,” she whispered as a great secret. ”He was so kind to Lucy and Vera when---- You know, papa?”

Tom pa.s.sed his hand over her flaxen hair.

”Sleep quietly, darling,” he said.

For quiet and peace were possible now.

There had been no expectation that Tom would be home to dinner; and though Suzette a.s.sured him that something could easily be prepared (and that homely sort of attention was new and pleasant to Tom), he accepted John Fanshaw's invitation to take pot-luck with him. They walked off together, rather silent, each full of his own thoughts. They did not speak until they had almost reached John's door.

”That's the sort of sight that makes a man wish he had children,” said John slowly.

”I've often wished I had none. Poor Harriet!”

”But you're glad of them now?”

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