“I appreciate his taking thought for the successor,” said Rachel.
“But would a woman like that sort of thing to be done about another woman?” said Sir Percy.
“Sir Percy, I am afraid you have very little idea of the attitude of the ladies to one another,” said Dominic, with heaving shoulders.
“He only knows that of one lady to another,” said Rachel, “and it has misled him.”
“Well, but now, about Dufferin?” resumed Sir Percy. “A nice fellow, an able fellow, a man of family. What is he about, getting into muddles fitter for other people than for him? What does he get from making parsons afraid of slurs and all of it?”
“We are not able to limit our dealing to a world constituted just as we should like it, Sir Percy. We lawyers have to find that out.”
“Well, well, but Bellamy’s wife?” said Sir Percy. “Why shouldn’t some other woman do for him?”
“Well, perhaps he thinks himself the judge of that,” said Dominic, again with doubtful laughter. “Or, conceivably the lady constituted herself the judge. I shall be seeing Dufferin to-night, but possibly I could hardly venture to put that question to him!”
“To-night? Oh, to-night? You are to be with him to-night, Spong, about some of it? Well, now, wouldn’t any other night have done for him?”
“Sir Percy,” said Dominic, a flush creeping over his face, “the truth is, I could not bear the prospect of my own empty fireside. His being my neighbour in the town enables me to direct my steps homewards, without immediately taking the plunge that looms ahead of me.” He ended with a considerate smile.
“Nor the prospect of our fireside either,” said Rachel. “Of course the horror of the thought leaks out, Percy and me sitting opposite each other, with the shadows gathering and no memories in common, since old people live in their youth.”
“You would be justified on your side, Lady Hardisty, in allowing a horror to leak out of any more of my company. I am conscious of showing the effort with which I respond to the kindness I would not be without. And such inconsistency demands banishment.”
He rose smiling, and held out his hand, seeming to summon self-control to achieve a conventional bearing.
“Here is Polly, come in time to say good-bye,” said Rachel. “Polly, you did not know that Dominic was here, did you?”
“I think, Lady Hardisty,” said Dominic with a conscious smile, “that Miss Polly would be taken aback by the idea of such an elderly person as I must appear to her, being possessed of a Christian name, much more being called by it.”
“Polly does not expect older people not to have names, or not to be called by them,” said Rachel. “She knows they do not give up everything. And I thought you and Polly were the same age. That is the stage I have got to.”
Dominic took his leave of Polly with a smile that did not comment on this, in deference to her point of view.
Sir Percy returned from attending him to the door.
“Well, now the poor fellow, Rachel! Does he have to be chasing about after everybody to-day?”
“I suppose he does; the urge of our natures is strong.”
“Because I should have thought any kind of fireside was better than none.”
“All kinds may be better still,” said his wife.
Dominic was approaching the fourth fireside afforded him since his wife’s burial.
“Well, Dufferin,” he said, sinking down into a chair, “I have found my old friends very warm-hearted to a man in his first desolation. I have been deeply touched. I have had it brought home to me what kind hearts there are in the world.”
“That is sometimes brought home. What would have been brought home to me, if I had been your shadow? They must have talked about something even to you.”
“They spoke of you, Dufferin, with great respect and affection, and with deep concern for the position in which you find yourself. That is all I can say.”
“You might have had better entertainment. You may have it soon. Camilla will be here in a moment, and you can see the play at first hand.”
Dominic made a movement back into his chair, and his cigar wavered in his grasp.
“She won’t hurt you,” said Dufferin, giving him a glance. “You came, knowing that her mother’s house was a hundred yards away. You may have come because you knew it. You wouldn’t have been the first. And it is as good a reason as my being your wife’s third cousin. There is her voice on the stairs.”
Dominic flushed and laid his cigar aside.
“Antony, Mother thought it undignified of me to come. She can’t understand that if we had relied upon her supervision, we could not have arrived where we are. If she had known Mr. Spong was to be our chaperon, she would have sped me with a light heart.”
Dominic had drawn himself to his feet, offering this homage to womanhood in any condition.
“I believe Mr. Spong would insult me if I were a man.”
“Mrs. Bellamy, you are not a man.”
“The exactitude of the lawyer! No, keep your easy chair, Mr. Spong; you must be tired to death to-day. I will take my seat on Antony’s knee.”
Dominic glanced at Dufferin’s position of hand and limb, just allowing himself to follow his experience.
“I don’t believe Mr. Spong hates me after all,” said Camilla, regarding him. “He can hate the sin but love the sinner.”
“I hope, Mrs. Bellamy, that that is a true word spoken in jest.”
Camilla leaned back and laughed.
“I think, Dufferin,” said Dominic, gathering himself together as if he bethought himself, “that my presence here can be dispensed with during Mrs. Bellamy’s visit.”
“Oh, you think?” said Camilla. “Well, I should not act until you are sure. A lawyer knows it does not do to go on guess-work.”
“What am I to understand from that?” said Dominic, smiling at Dufferin.
“That you are indispensable,” said Camilla.
“Dufferin, am I to yield to pressure?” said Dominic.
“Oh, sit down, Spong,” said Dufferin.
Dominic sat down.
Chapter VII
“Well, My Dear Matthew, so you have given your support to our little service this morning. It isn’t often that you hear your father doing what is in him to start the day for you all. I might be a cipher in the house in the morning for all you know of me. I was glad indeed to see you there. It gave me heart for what I was doing. I felt I did it better. Well, did you think anything of my way of getting along?”
“I can hardly give an opinion, Father. I am not present often enough to have a standard.”
“Well, I hope you will be in the future. I trust it is the beginning of an era for your mother and me, when we see all our sons before us at the altar we raise in our house. For it is a right and seemly thing—”
“Godfrey, one moment while I ask you whether you will have tea or coffee,” said his wife.
“—a right and seemly thing for young men and maidens, for old men, for men and children—”
“Godfrey, a word about which you will have!”
“Oh, well, tea or coffee then. Coffee, coffee! — a right and seemly thing for us all, lovely, of good repute—”
“Buttermere, take the dishes from Sir Godfrey and give them to Mr. Matthew.”
“—lovely and pleasant in the sight of all who see it—” Godfrey raised his arms to facilitate the proceeding, lost the thread of his thought, glanced across at the dishes as they were discovered, and set to his conclusion as if his stages were complete. “For where two or three are gathered together—”
“My dear, there is a moment for everything. Just now we are having breakfast.”
“Oh, my dear, what? Am I annoying you already? Well, I will stop talking and let us all sit in silence. I will not burden you with what is in my mind.”