Volume Iii Part 8 (2/2)

”Grace, it is very foolish of me to forget that you and I have always thought differently about dress and other things. Of course, if I do manage to carry out my plan, you must have clothes and things; if I can arrange it all I will arrange it quite comfortably for you; but you must be patient, dear.”

”I hate the conditional tense,” said Grace, and then, as she brightened a little, she said, cheerfully--”I believe you will manage it, and you are really a great darling.”

”There is one thing more, one caution I want to give you, Grace. Will you be careful about your health? You are marvellously well just now, but you know yourself, dear, how delicate you are. If you do not take care you will be in a sick room again.”

”Oh! please don't croak and be horrid now you are just beginning to be nicer again.”

”Poor Grace!” said Margaret, with a little sigh.

She went to her own room, and, drawing her chair near the window, sat down to think over the plan she had made. She was resolved to be indebted to no one. If her sister went to London the necessary money should come from no one but herself.

She opened her despatch-box, and looked through her papers. She wanted to find the address of the publisher who had expressed his appreciation of her writing in so substantial a manner.

She looked in vain. She could find it nowhere. Then she recollected that Sir Albert Gerald had carried out all the arrangements for her, and that she had corresponded through him.

She had no hesitation in writing to him since he was a friend now and only a friend. The tragedy of her child's death had blotted out the remembrance of what had been, and she had pa.s.sed through so much trial, she was so much changed, that she never for one moment doubted but that the change would be equal as regarded him. Her letter was direct, simple, and free from all allusion to her sorrow. She said she wanted to be put into direct communication with the friendly publisher--then she added, ”I want to make some money. This may surprise you, as I believe I am supposed to be very rich, but I think you will understand that money must come in an acceptable way or be rejected. I do not intend using the money which has been left me for myself, and I want, if possible, to owe it to no one but myself.”

Then she waited patiently.

In her letters to Mrs. Dorriman she wrote fully about her own plans. ”I wish to start certain things, to see and judge for myself, and to use the money, which has come to me, for helping little children and others.

When I have arranged everything, may I come to you and Uncle Sandford. I shall not be very poor because I believe I have it in my power to make money. I have already done so, but Grace cannot go to Scotland. As soon as I can arrange it for her, she is going to London to stay there with some one, at any rate, for a time.”

Mrs. Dorriman read this letter with the most intense satisfaction.

Margaret had grown very dear to her, and in her letter she gave Mr.

Sandford the name he had always wished to hear from her. The fact of her offering to come back must show him how completely she had forgiven him.

Ever since that marvellous revelation about Inchbrae, Mrs. Dorriman's manner to her brother had been both tender and affectionate. She tried to prove that her forgiveness was complete, and she could not understand why, now this burden was off his mind, he still made allusion to a weight there.

Often when he came in and she rose to greet him she caught him watching her as though something was still between them, and that helpless feeling of not being able fully to understand pressed upon her again.

He came in one day, looking tired, and she saw that he sank wearily into his chair.

Tea was there, and she gave him some, and made one of those trivial remarks people are apt to make when wandering thoughts are the order of the day.

”Anne, I do not think Margaret will care to come here,” he said suddenly, ”and you think so too.”

Mrs. Dorriman's delicate face flushed a little. ”Margaret offers to come,” she said after a little pause.

”I find business tires me more and more,” he said, as it seemed to her, irrelevantly.

”I am sorry,” she answered, looking a little anxiously in his direction.

”Why should we not all go to your house,” he asked, as though putting the plainest and simplest question in the world.

”To Inchbrae! Oh, brother!” This sudden suggestion filled her with such intense happiness that she could get no further.

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