Part 33 (2/2)

said Caroline; ”already these little people have enough toys to stock a shop.”

It amused her to watch Rupert Haverford pack up and tie and direct as she commanded. He was so deliberate in all he did. Camilla would have lost her patience very quickly, but Caroline liked his slow ways. His parcels were so neat.

Every now and then he stole into the bedroom to see if Baby was still sleeping.

”I was rather anxious about her,” she said to Haverford, ”for Dennis has told me that she gets very heavy colds at times, and she seemed really rather feverish to-night.”

As he remembered the interview with his mother the day before, he found himself looking every now and then with real interest at Caroline.

”I can't think why you want to bother about Caroline Graniger. I gave her a fair trial,” Mrs. Baynhurst had said fretfully; ”but she is a fool, and I hate fools. Give me a knave any day in preference to a fool!”

There seemed to be nothing foolish, or weak, or hesitating about Caroline as he saw her, but in the hours that had followed on his visit to his mother, he had been able to fill in the empty s.p.a.ces that she had left, and he seemed to understand all at once why it was that Octavia Baynhurst had set herself so resolutely against Caroline, both as a little child and a growing girl.

Undoubtedly there had been an old and bitter feeling rankling in her heart for Gerald Baynhurst's sister.

It was inevitable that the love the man had evidently lavished on his sister had been a source of resentment and misery to such a woman as his wife.

On Caroline, the helpless child, therefore, had the acc.u.mulation of this bitter anger and jealousy been poured out.

He broke the silence after a long and busily filled pause.

”My mother has a new secretary,” he said, and as their eyes met they both smiled. Caroline found his face very attractive when he smiled.

”I saw her. She is middle-aged and very alarming looking. It is my impression that my mother is going to be managed for the first time in her existence. You will be well avenged, Miss Graniger.”

When all the little parcels were made ready, and they filled the table, he got up.

”Well, I suppose I ought to go downstairs again. You are very cosy here. I am so glad the children are not in London this dismal weather.”

Before going he asked permission to look at Betty and Baby as they slept. When he rejoined Caroline he said--there was a very tender look in his eyes--

”I feel quite important to-night, for now I have three wards; those two tiny souls and yourself, and if one can go by tradition, the life of a guardian is not entirely free from anxiety.”

”I don't require a guardian,” said Caroline. But she said it shyly, not sharply. ”I have always taken care of myself, and I am sure I can do it now.”

”I am afraid that argument does not move me,” he answered, and with a smile he held out his hand and said, ”Good night.”

When he was gone Caroline sat down and thought about him. She felt sorry for him.

”I do wish she had come,” she mused to herself. ”I wonder why she did not? He looks miserable when he is not talking. I should like him to have a happy Christmas; he certainly has helped to give me one, and I expect I am only one of hundreds.... I remember last year how his mother grumbled at all his charities; I little thought then that he and I should be together for this Christmas! So everything is coming with a rush,” Caroline mused on. ”To-night I discover that I actually had a mother and a father, and now I have a guardian,” and then she laughed outright, ”and of course Cuthbert Baynhurst is my cousin! That sounds funny! How pleased he will be!” She reverted again to the subject of Camilla later on. ”Will she come to-morrow? Oh, surely yes!... She _could_ not let Christmas go without seeing the children!”

And on the morrow, when every one was at church, except Caroline and Baby, who certainly was not quite her usual brisk little self, Mrs.

Lancing arrived.

She went up at once to the nursery, flung off her furs, and sat down and took her Baby in her arms.

”She is not really ill, is she?” she queried anxiously.

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