Volume I Part 22 (1/2)

”Cynthy! ? Mis' Plumfield wants to know if that is Mr.

Carleton?”

”Yes. ”

”Well, she'd like to see him. Ask him to walk into the front room, she says.”

Cynthy upon this showed the way, and Mr. Carleton walked into the same room where a very few days before he had been so kindly welcomed by his fine old host. Cold indeed it was now, as was the welcome he would have given. There was no fire in the chimney, and even all the signs of the fire of the other day had been carefully cleared away; the clean empty fireplace looked a mournful a.s.surance that its cheerfulness would not soon come back again. It was a raw disagreeable day; the paper window-shades fluttered uncomfortably in the wind, which had its way now; and the very chairs and tables seemed as if they had taken leave of life and society for ever. Mr. Carleton walked slowly up and down, his thoughts running perhaps somewhat in the train where poor little Fleda's had been so busy last night; and wrapped up in broadcloth as he was to the chin, he s.h.i.+vered when he heard the chill wind moaning round the house and rustling the paper hangings, and thought of little Fleda's delicate frame, exposed as Cynthia had described it. He made up his mind it must not be.

Mrs. Plumfield presently came in, and met him with the calm dignity of that sorrow which needs no parade, and that truth and meekness of character which can make none. Yet there was nothing like stoicism, no affected or proud repression of feeling; her manner was simply the dictate of good sense, borne out by a firm and quiet spirit. Mr. Carleton was struck with it; it was a display of character different from any he had ever before met with; it was something he could not quite understand. For he wanted the key. But all the high respect he had felt for this lady from the first was confirmed and strengthened.

After quietly receiving Mr. Carleton's silent grasp of the hand, aunt Miriam said,

”I troubled you to stop, Sir, that I might ask you how much longer you expect to stop at Montepoole.”

Not more than two or three days, he said.

”I understood,” said aunt Miriam, after a minute's pause, ”that Mrs. Carleton was so kind as to say she would take care of Elfleda to France, and put her in the hands of her aunt.”

”She would have great pleasure in doing it,” said Mr.

Carleton. ”I can promise for your little niece that she shall have a mother's care so long as my mother can render it.”

Aunt Miriam was silent, and he saw her eyes fill.

”You should not have had the pain of seeing me to-day,” said he gently, ”if I could have known it would give you any; but since I am here, may I ask, whether it is your determination that Fleda shall go with us?”

”It was my brother's,” said aunt Miriam, sighing; ? ”he told me ? last night ? that he wished her to go with Mrs. Carleton ? if she would still be so good as to take her.”

”I have just heard about her from the housekeeper,” said Mr.

Carleton, ”what has disturbed me a good deal. Will you forgive me, if I venture to propose that she should come to us at once. Of course we will not leave the place for several days ?

till you are ready to part with her.”

Aunt Miriam hesitated, and again the tears flushed to her eyes.

”I believe it would be best, ” she said, ? ”since it must be ?

I cannot get the child away from her grandfather ? I am afraid I want firmness to do it ? and she ought not to be there ? she is a tender little creature ?”

For once self-command failed her, ? she was obliged to cover her face.

”A stranger's hands cannot be more tender of her than ours will be,” said Mr. Carleton, his warm pressure of aunt Miriam's hand repeating the promise. ”My mother will bring a carriage for her this afternoon, if you will permit.”

”If you please, Sir, ?since it must be, it does not matter a day sooner or later,” repeated aunt Miriam ? ”if she can be got away ? I don't know whether it will be possible.”

Mr. Carleton had his own private opinion on that point. He merely promised to be there again in a few hours, and took his leave.

He came, with his mother, about five o'clock in the afternoon.

They were shown this time into the kitchen, where they found two or three neighbours and friends with aunt Miriam and Cynthy. The former received them with the same calm simplicity that Mr. Carleton had admired in the morning, but said she was afraid their coming would be in vain; she had talked with Fleda about the proposed plan, and could not get her to listen to it. She doubted whether it would be possible to persuade her. And yet ?

Aunt Miriam's self-possession seemed to be shaken when she thought of Fleda; she could not speak of her without watering eyes.

”She's fixing to be sick as fast as ever she can,” remarked Cynthia, dryly in a kind of aside meant for the audience; ?