Part 28 (2/2)
Mordaunt thought the remark was characteristic The wheel-tracks could hardly be seen on the fine turf, but Bernard disliked untidiness When they reached the sheltered bench and Mordaunt sat down Bernard looked up and asked: ”Where have you been?”
”I was at Whitelees”
”I expect you had so to talk about just now You and Janet Halliday understand each other well I don't know if you are confidants or accomplices”
”Perhaps we have made a few innocent plots,” Mordaunt adenerally been for the advantage of the family”
Bernard nodded ”Well, I suppose your objects are soh I doubt if you always see far enough But I wondered whether you had gone to Langrigg It's possible Janet has ine hi subject for experiments”
”You mean he's not co and would sooner reserve ave hiainst hi to feel you're sometimes just However, I want to form an opinion Write and ask hi Perhaps you know?”
”I do know Ask his friends You o to hiht note; you have so”
Mordaunt said he would write He was used to Bernard's bitter huht it advisable that he should see Jiet a jar, but one could not tell The old man was capricious and hard to understand
”Didn't Evelyn join the party that went to welcoht of Janet's! Do you kno he iive me her confidence,” said Mordaunt, as shortly as he durst
Bernard's eyes twinkled ”Was it necessary? With your talent, one ought not to find it difficult to read a girl's mind”
”I haven't always found it easy,” Mordaunt rejoined
”Well, I suppose Evelyn is really a worow up,” Bernard remarked ”Besides, she has an adet cramped in this confounded chair”
Mordaunt set off and on his way to the house carefully skirted a spot where a tree had been uprooted and the turf relaid To his surprise Bernard ht across!”
They crossed the freshly-sodded belt and when Mordaunt stopped on the terrace Bernard said: ”It will not be your job to roll out our tracks”
”I thought it would bother you if I went across,” Mordaunt replied
Bernard gave him a sour smile ”I well know my relations' views about my character and in the ine their rules are mine Probably you have not felt it would be a relief to plow through things, without bothering about the marks you left”
”No,” said Mordaunt, ”I don't think I have felt this”
”You're a logical fellow,” Bernard rejoined ”Well, for the most part, I have been a slave to my notions of efficiency and order since I was a boy; but at tis rebelled Then I, so to speak, ran loose and broke things, like the rest of mankind Moreover, I'm not repentant when I look back on the short-lived outbreaks They gave me some satisfaction; after all, the Dearham blood is what Canadian Jim would probably call red I don't knohat color yours is, unless you like to think it blue”