In the Mist of the Mountains Part 35

"But," she said, pus.h.i.+ng back the cheque gently--"I can only accept four guineas of this--that is the most my story would have earned. The rest your name commanded!"

"Nonsense, nonsense," he said, "that _Review_ always pays well, this is your own cheque, fairly earned; remember I have deprived you of all the glory of the story. For I know Wilkie too well to be able to hope that he will condescend to explain such a mistake in his columns."

So Miss Bibby, dazzled, tucked the bit of pink paper away in her little basket.

"And now," said Hugh, "will you just see if the children have enough to eat?"

"Oh dear, oh dear," said Miss Bibby, fluttering up, "I really had forgotten them for the moment. I--I hope they have not made themselves ill."

When she had obtained doubtful satisfaction on this point and turned her head again towards Hugh, she found him in the act of tossing all her packets of eatables one after the other over the edge of the rock where the water went plunging down to yet another fall.

"Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted Lynn, who had seen the act, "now she'll have to eat some of our lovely things."

"Have a lawberry, Miss Bibby, go on," Max enjoined, his little mouth full of the delicious fruits and red juice dripping down his tunic.

"I--I--" began Miss Bibby.

But Hugh calmly tucked her hand in his arm and led her to the children's table. "I am taking you into dinner, madam, and I insist that you eat everything I put before you."

And she did--or almost. Hugh let the children revel as they liked in the good things, and a.s.sured their anxious guardian that he had chosen the lunch expressly from the point of view of suitability for the delicate digestions of children. And he laid down the maxim that appet.i.te was the safest guide in the world, and when it said "More" no one but a b.u.mble would say it nay.

He ate excellently himself; he uncorked the champagne, and insisted upon her joining him with it; the sparkling stuff filled all her veins with fire. She ate chicken and found that it was good--and very good. She ate of other delicacies with which he plied her plates and found all her system rejoiced. In very truth she had lately pushed her diet theory so far that she was in a state of semi-starvation. She laughed, she chatted gaily, she made as entertaining a companion for that little lunch at the foot of the Fall as a man need wish to have. Hugh stared at her in amaze once or twice; it was as if a white tightly-closed rosebud had suddenly blossomed into beautiful bloom.

"Happiness," said Hugh to himself, "that is all she needs, and the independence and responsibilities of a home of her own."

The merry lunch progressed; the talk fell upon the author's own books--and other books. Again Hugh was surprised--and delighted--at the lady's discrimination and genuine culture. It was difficult to realize that any one who wrote so atrociously could think and speak so well.

"It's like Kate's bicycle," he said to himself, "a single woman must break out somewhere. The probabilities are, if she had a home of her own, that she would never want to touch a pen again."

Round and round the subject hovered his thoughts; this gentle, quiet companion for the autumn of his life--the thought was singularly attractive--infinitely more so than the thought of Dora or Bee that had always possessed also an element of distraction alarming to a man of staid habits.

He looked at her with new eyes.

She saw the look and drooped and flushed beneath it.

Then down came Kate, panting and puffing, but quite genial.

"A nice way to treat your guests, Sir," she said, "do you know you have been away an hour? I don't know what Dora and Bee can think of you."

"By George," said Hugh, "I had forgotten their very existence!"

"Well," said Kate, sinking comfortably on a seat, "others have not been so forgetful. Two young men have arrived and have been helping us to eat up the picnic. I have forgotten their surnames, but the girls call them Charlie and Graham. Medical students, I find, who decided not to attend lectures, but to take a run up here for the day. Clears the brain, they told me. Heard at the hotel that their friends were at the Falls, so just ran down in the hope of stumbling across them. Stumbled across them in the 'Lovers' Nook.'"

"Ah," said Hugh, "and do the little girls seem pleased to see them?"

"Well," said Kate, "all I can say is one of them, Bee to be exact, has a ring on her finger that she did not start the day with. I discovered this by the painful efforts she made at lunch to hide it. And I expect by this time Dora's finger can keep Bee's company. They are plainly very masterful young men, and I fancy had determined that the mountain trip should settle their hearts as well as clear their brains."

"Ah," said Hugh, "I am delighted. I'll go up presently and drink their healths--if there's a bottle of champagne left. Any more news your end of the world?"

"Yes," said Kate, and calmly helped herself to some jelly, "Effie has developed whooping cough while you have been away."

"Oh, oh!" said m.u.f.fie, jumping with joy, "may we go up and play with them now?"

"Look here," said Hugh, "I protest. This is too staggering. I may not know as much of medicine as this Charlie and Graham you speak of, but I do know a germ's got to be incubated. There simply has not been time."

"Oh, yes," said Kate. "I have dragged it from Florence that they foregathered purposely some time ago with the laundress's little boy who has the same complaint, but since it did not seem to have communicated itself to them they made another trial to-day. Well, Edith will have to leave the hotel now and take a cottage for them."

The little Lomaxes were dancing with delight. Only Max was a little quiet. Teddie Gowan did everything a little better than he, Max, could do; it would be insupportable if Teddie were able soon to brag that he whooped louder than Max.

"Praps mine will get worser again," he said hopefully.

"See here," said Kate, "I must go back before much longer. Miss Bibby and I will pack up, Hugh, and you stay quietly at the tree ferns and mind the children."

"No," said Hugh gently, "you and the children pack up, K, and I will mind Miss Bibby."

A delicate wave of colour pulsed over the woman's face.

THE END.

Butler & Tanner The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

WORKS BY ETHEL TURNER

(MRS. H. R. CURLEWIS)

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME.

THE STOLEN VOYAGE.

"Miss Ethel Turner is Miss Alcott's true successor. The same healthy, spirited tone is visible, which boys and girls recognized and were grateful for in 'Little Women' and 'Little Men,' the same absence of primness, and the same love of adventure."--_The Bookman._

A WHITE ROOF TREE.

Ill.u.s.trations by A. J. Johnson and others.

"It is a charming picture of young life, painted as the auth.o.r.ess knows how to depict it. She has a fresh and tender touch indeed, which has singled her out as the happy successor of Miss Alcott, and won for her the golden opinions of her juvenile readers. Her charming new story cannot but multiply her young friends, and enable them to pa.s.s many more delightful hours under the witchery of her spell."--_The Leicester Post._

MOTHER'S LITTLE GIRL.