Quicksilver Part 95

Helen was silent for a moment or two, and then she moved toward the door.

"Where are you going!" said the doctor sharply.

"To make preparations, and warn Mrs Millett. He must have a good box of clothes and linen."

"To be sure, of course," said the doctor. "Get whatever is necessary.

It is the right thing, my dear, and the boy shall go at once."

The doctor was so energetic and determined that matters progressed very rapidly, and the clothes and other necessaries increased at such a rate in Dexter's room that most boys would have been in a state of intense excitement.

Dexter was not, and he avoided the house as much as he could, spending a great deal of time in the garden and stables.

"So they're going to send you off to school, eh, Master Dexter?" said Peter, pausing to rest on his broom-handle.

"Yes, Peter."

"And you don't want to go? No wonder! I never liked school. Never had much on it, neither; but I know all I want."

"Hullo!" said a voice behind them; and, turning, Dexter saw Dan'l standing behind him, with the first dawn of a smile, on his face.

Dexter nodded, and began to move away.

"So you're going off, are yer!" said Dan'l. "Two floggings a day for a year. You're in for it, youngster."

"Get out," said Dexter. "They don't flog boys at good schools."

"Oh, don't they?" said Dan'l. "You'll see. Well, never mind! And, look here, I'll ask master to let me send you a basket o' apples and pears when they're ripe."

"You will, Dan'l!" cried Dexter excitedly.

"Ay: Peter and me'll do you up a basket, and take it to the station. Be a good boy, and no more Bob Dimsted's."

Dan'l chuckled as if he had said something very funny, and walked away.

"Here, don't look dumpy about it, my lad," said Peter kindly. "'Tain't for ever and a day."

"No, Peter," said Dexter gloomily, "it isn't for ever."

"Sorry you're going, though, my lad."

"Are you, Peter!"

"Am I? Course I am. A man can't help liking a boy as can fight like you."

Matters were growing harder for Dexter indoors now that his departure was so near. Mrs Millett was particularly anxious about him; and so sure as the boy went up to his room in the middle of the day, it was to find the old housekeeper on her knees, and her spectacles carefully balanced, trying all his b.u.t.tons to see if they were fast.

"Now I'm going to put you up two bottles of camomile tea, and pack them in the bottom of your box, with an old coffee-cup without a handle. It just holds the right quant.i.ty, and you'll promise me, won't you, Master Dexter, to take a dose regularly twice a week!"

"Yes; I'll promise you," said Dexter.

"Now, that's a good boy," cried the old lady, getting up and patting his shoulder. "Look here," she continued, leading him to the box by the drawers, "I've put something else in as well."

She lifted up a layer of linen, all scented with lavender, and showed him a flat, round, brown-paper parcel.

"It's not a very rich cake," she said, "but there are plenty of currants and peel in, and I'm sure it's wholesome."

Even Maria became very much interested in Master Dexter's boots and shoes, and the parting from the doctor's house for the second time promised to be very hard.

It grew harder as the time approached, for, with the gentleness of an elder sister, Helen exercised plenty of supervision over the preparation. Books, a little well-filled writing-case and a purse, were among the things she added.

"The writing-case is for me, Dexter," she said, with a smile.

"For you?" he said wonderingly.

"Yes, so that I may have, at least, two letters from you every week.

You promise that?"

"Oh yes," he said, "if you will not mind the writing."

"And the purse is for you," she said. "If you want a little more money than papa is going to allow you weekly, you may write and ask me."

It grew harder still on the morning of departure, and Dexter would have given anything to stay, but he went off manfully with the doctor in the station fly, pa.s.sing Sir James Danby and Master Edgar on the road.

"Humph!" grunted the doctor. "See that, Dexter!"

"I saw Sir James laugh at you when he nodded."

"Do you know why!"

Dexter was silent for a few minutes.

"Because he thinks you are foolish to take so much trouble over me."

"That's it, Dexter," said the doctor eagerly. "So, now, I'll tell you what I want you to do."

"Yes, sir?"

"Show him that I'm right and he's wrong." Dexter looked a promise, for he could not speak just then, nor yet when they had pa.s.sed through London that afternoon, reached Longspruce station, and been driven to the Reverend Septimus Mastrum's house, five miles away among the fir-trees and sand of that bleak region.

Here the doctor bade him "Good-bye," and Dexter, as he was standing in the great cold hall, felt that he was commencing a new phase in his existence.

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

PETER CRIBB SEES A GHOST.

Helen rang the bell one evening and Maria answered the summons.