The Old Pincushion Part 20

She chose a key and opened the other door. It led into a fair-sized room. All round three sides were large cupboards; one or two big cases stood on the floor, and at one side were two strongly-made wooden chests.

'The linen is in those cupboards,' Miss Clotilda went on, 'and the best china near the window. In those boxes there are some new blankets and counterpanes that Mrs. Wynne never saw. They had just been ordered. And those are the two plate chests. Nearly all the silver is laid away.'

Kathie looked at Neville.

'Best and every-day silver all together?'

'Oh, no,' said Miss Clotilda. 'The _best_ is in this one,' and she touched it; 'the other was only brought up here for greater security when Mrs Wynne died, and I had to stay on here alone with Martha. Now, what shall I show you first, children? The china, perhaps, would please you the most?'

'No, thank you, aunty,' said Neville and Kathleen; 'please show us the best silver first.'

Miss Clotilda looked a little surprised.

'Well, I daresay, it _is_ interesting,' she said. 'There are some very curious old things.'

She chose another key as she spoke, and in another moment the lock, which was an excellent one, though very old, was opened. Inside, the chest was divided into several compartments, all lined with green baize; all filled with every kind of silver articles, carefully enveloped in tissue paper.

'You may lift out a tray at a time,' his aunt said to Neville; 'it is astonis.h.i.+ng how many there are, and what that box will hold.'

Neville obeyed, indeed he did more than obey; he went on lifting out tray after tray, and placing them in rows on the floor.

'Stop, my dear boy,' said Miss Clotilda, 'let us look at one at a time.

You will cover the floor with them--and'--

'Let me take all out,' said Neville. 'I want to get to the bottom of the box. I know how to put them back again.'

Miss Clotilda said no more. Kathie and Philippa came to Neville and peered into the chest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'THAT IS ALL,' SAID NEVILLE.]

'That is all,' said Neville. He had grown very pale again, but his aunt did not notice it.

Kathie leant over and felt at the bottom.

'It is soft down here,' she said. 'Is there nothing underneath, aunty?'

'There is a thin cus.h.i.+on. The baize is lined with cotton-wool,' Miss Clotilda replied. 'Some of the trays are the same.'

But Kathie kept feeling about.

'Neville,' she whispered, 'try if you can't pull up one corner. It seems loose. I'll keep aunty from looking.'

She turned to Miss Clotilda, who was already unwrapping some of the papers, with some little question about their contents. Neville bent down over the chest without speaking.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Suddenly he gave a sort of smothered cry, and the little girls looking round saw that he held something in his hand--two things indeed--two packets, not very thick, but long and flat, both sealed and both labelled in clear writing--the one 'Various papers, inventories, &c., to be looked over by David and Clotilda Powys,' and the other--oh, the other!

'My last Will and Testament.'

Neville could not speak. Kathie flew forward.

'Tell her!' he half whispered.

_How_ they told her they could not afterwards recollect. The wits and perceptions are strangely sharpened on some occasions. I suspect very little 'telling' was required, though of course when their aunt had somewhat recovered from the first overwhelming surprise and joy, she was deeply interested in the history of the sheet of paper, and touched by the children's thought for her.

Some hours of suspense had still to be endured, for Miss Clotilda would not open the precious packet except in presence of the lawyer, and Neville was sent off at once to Boyneth to telegraph for him to Hafod, and to beg him to come at once. He came that very afternoon, and then indeed all doubts were set at rest. All proved to be as had been expected, and as Mrs. Wynne had always led her relations to believe would be the case. Everything was provided for, n.o.body was forgotten; the legacy which Mr. Wynne-Carr had reason to look for was to be his, so that no ill-feeling would be caused to any one.

'Yes, it is most fair and satisfactory in every particular,' said Mr.

Price, the lawyer, 'if only my respected friend, Mrs. Wynne, had been less obstinate and eccentric in insisting on keeping the doc.u.ment in her possession! What trouble it would have saved!'

'But,' said Kathie, whom even Mr. Pryce's presence did not overawe, 'I don't think we should have cared about it at all as much as we do if we had never known what it was to lose it;' and in this Miss Clotilda and Neville, and Philippa, who seemed to have become quite one of them, agreed, though as for Mr. Pryce's opinion I cannot take upon myself to answer.

He was honestly delighted, however, and went off that evening laden with directions of all kinds, among them a telegram to be despatched to India at once, 'regardless of expense':--

'From Clotilda Powys, to Captain Powys, 200th regt.

'Will found. All right. Arrange to come home as soon as possible.'

Those, I think, were the words it contained.

'And oh, aunty,' said Kathie, dancing with delight, 'just _fancy_ what papa and mamma will think when they read it. Phil, why don't you look happy? What are you so grave about?'

The little girl blushed.

'I don't mean to be selfish,' she said, 'but--I would so like to go on making my pincus.h.i.+on. You know I've only about ten days more to make it in.'

'Of course you shall, my dear,' said Miss Clotilda. 'Selfis.h.!.+ No indeed, that you are not. And but for you, I do not believe we should ever have found the will at all.'

Philippa looked intensely pleased.

'I always had a feeling it was in the house,' she said. 'And then my dream was very queer. But it wasn't much good, for it was such a muddle.'

'Dreams generally are,' said Miss Clotilda. 'No, I wasn't thinking of your dream. It was your wis.h.i.+ng to make something for your mother in the first place'--

'And our going to Dol-bach and seeing the pincus.h.i.+on there, and our travelling with the farmer, and my seeing the old ones in the cupboard--_that_ came of my not posting the letter to aunty, so that our trunks hadn't come, and aunty had to open the cupboard to get out a night-gown for me--and--and--oh, dear, how strange it seems! Really as if it was a good thing I forgot to post the letter.'

Miss Clotilda could not help smiling.

'Don't let that encourage you to think carelessness of any kind "a good thing," my dear Kathie,' she said, 'even though good does sometimes come of ill.'

'And it was a _sort_ of carelessness that caused all the trouble, you see. If the old lady--old Mrs. Wynne--had only looked at the paper before she put it in the envelope, there wouldn't have been any, would there?' said Philippa, in her little prim way.

'Poor Mrs. Wynne!' said Miss Clotilda. 'She would have been the last to wish to cause any of us any trouble.'

'Well, all's well that ends well, aunty,' said Neville cheerily. 'We have nothing but nice and jolly things to think of now. Do let us talk about how soon papa and mamma can possibly get home.'

'All's well that ends well,' as Neville said, and what is more, when 'all is well,' there is very little to tell about it. Sooner almost than could have been hoped for came a telegram in reply from Captain Powys, announcing the date at which he and the children's mother and little sister might be expected.