Part 16 (2/2)
Delia looked at it in silence a moment. There was something in its dignity, its restfulness, its touch of austerity which challenged her.
She said abruptly--”I want to speak to you please, Mr. Winnington. May we shut the door?”
Winnington shut the door of his sister's room, and returned to his guest. Delia had turned very white.
”I hear Mr. Winnington you have reversed an order I wrote to our agent about one of the cottages. May I know your reasons?”
”I was very sorry to do so,” said Winnington gently; ”but I felt sure you did not understand the real circ.u.mstances, and I could not come and discuss them with you.”
Delia stood stormily erect, and the level light of the October afternoon streaming in through a west window magnified her height, and her prophetess air.
”I can't help shocking you, Mr. Winnington. I don't accept what you say. I don't believe that covering up horrible things makes them less horrible. I want to stand by that girl. It is cruel to separate her from her old father!”
Winnington looked at her in distress and embarra.s.sment.
”The story is not what you think it,” he said earnestly. ”But it is really not fit for your ears. I have given great thought and much time to it, yesterday and to-day. The girl--who is mentally deficient--will be sent to a home and cared for. The father sees now that it is the best. Please trust it to me.”
”Why mayn't I know the facts!” persisted Delia, paler than before.
A flash of some quick feeling pa.s.sed through Winnington's eyes.
”Why should you? Leave us older folk, dear Miss Delia, to deal with these sorrowful things.”
Indignation blazed up in her.
”It is for women to help women,” she said, pa.s.sionately. ”It is no good treating us who are grown up--even if we are young--like children any more. We intend to _know_--that we may protect--and save.”
”I a.s.sure you,” said Winnington gravely, ”that this poor girl shall have every care--every kindness. So there is really no need for you to know. Please spare yourself--and me!”
He had come to stand by her, looking down upon her. She lifted her eyes to his unwillingly, and as she caught his smile she was invaded by a sudden consciousness of his strong magnetic presence. The power in the grey eyes, and in the brow over-hanging them, the kind sincerity mingled with the power, and the friendliness that breathed from his whole att.i.tude and expression, disarmed her. She felt herself for a moment--and for the first time--young and ignorant,--and that Winnington was ready to be in the true and not merely in the legal sense, her ”guardian,” if she would only let him.
But the moment of weakening was soon over. Her mind chafed and twisted.
Why had he undertaken it--a complete stranger to her! It was most embarra.s.sing--detestable--for them both!
And there suddenly darted through her memory the recollection of a certain item in her father's will. Under it Mr. Winnington received a sum of 4,000 out of her father's estate, ”in consideration of our old friends.h.i.+p, and of the trouble I am asking him to undertake in connection with my estates,”--or words to that effect.
Somehow, she had never yet paid much attention to that clause in the will. It occurred in a list of a good many other legacies, and had been pa.s.sed over by the lawyers in explaining the will to her, as something entirely in the natural course of things. But the poisonous thought suggested itself--”It was that which bribed him!--he would have given it up, but for that!” He might not want it for himself--very possibly!--but for his charities, his Cripple School and the rest. Her face stiffened.
”If you have arranged with her father, of course I can't interfere,”
she said coldly. ”But don't imagine, please, Mr. Winnington, for one moment, that I accept your view of the things I 'needn't know.' If I am to do my duty to the people on this estate--”
”I thought you weren't going to live on the estate?” he said, lifting his eyebrows.
”Not at once--not this winter.” She was annoyed to feel herself stammering. ”But of course I have a responsibility--”
The kindly laugh in his grey eyes faded.
”Yes--I quite admit that,--a great responsibility,” he said slowly. ”Do you mind if I mention another subject?”
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