Dominic followed the butler with an air of being both accustomed and entitled to such ministrations.
“The water is hot, sir,” said Buttermere, standing by the open door, and producing the impression that for many people he would have turned the tap.
“Oh yes, yes, thank you, I can manage very well,” said Dominic, hastening to forestall the services to which he was used.
“Luncheon will be served in a minute, sir,” said Buttermere, glancing at the guest as he left him.
“This is a very well appointed house,” said Dominic in an easy tone, as he came slowly to the table. “Mrs. Calkin, I have not had the privilege of meeting you since the occasion when we rejoiced that our hostess was to resume the place we associate with her hospitality. Miss Griselda, I may congratulate you on your transition to a less important seat. I claim to know you well enough to assume it is a matter for congratulation.”
“Even with your experience as a lawyer,” said Geraldine.
“Miss Dabis, I still have remaining to me some belief in the soundness of my fellow creatures.”
“I shall not try to say how thankful I am to see you in your place again,” said Agatha in a low tone to Harriet. “It is a thing that is simply better not attempted.”
“I agree, Mrs. Calkin, that it would be to court certain failure,” said Dominic, leaning forward earnestly.
“I suffered the last time I was here,” Agatha continued to Harriet, “in seeing the superficial sameness and knowing the essential difference. There must be much that you have to put right, now you are in the general’s place again. You have all my sympathy with the demands of your position.”
“They have not begun to trouble me yet,” said Harriet. “I have to resolve never to let them again. I am simply in great happiness in being in my home with my husband and children.”
“Will you have the working party at your house again now?” said Geraldine. “It has been most exciting lately with the garments for the play. We have had all kinds of odd, agitating things to accomplish. I always seem to get masculine habiliments for my portion! I don’t know why they should be assigned especially to me.”
“It seems to be going too well where it is, for us to think of change,” said Harriet. “I hope your sister can continue to hold it.”
“Whatever is thought best by everyone, is what I should like,” said Agatha.
“Then keep it, Mrs. Calkin, keep it,” said Godfrey. “My wife must not do as much as she used. She will come in and join you sometimes.”
“We have done what we could to fill your place to Gregory,” said Agatha, turning to Harriet, as if modestly to change the subject. “He has been in, I think, whenever he has known I should be by myself. I hope you find he has not suffered as much as you feared?”
“I have not found yet how much any of them has suffered,” said Harriet, sending her eyes round her children’s faces, and keeping them on Gregory’s. “I trust none of them too much; I think not. I know what kindness you have shown us.”
“I hope you will let Gregory keep up his intercourse with us? I should be sad, really genuinely sad”—Agatha paused for impartial apportionment of feeling—“to see it broken. I feel there is something I can give him, that I think he will tell you I have given.”
“He probably will not, as you have given it,” said Harriet smiling. “And Gregory does what he chooses in his friendships. You have found that he does.”
“No. No. I daresay he will not speak of it. I think you are subtler than I am there. I think he will not.”
“Sir Percy and Lady Hardisty!” said Buttermere.
“Harriet, we have come without being asked, because you have not asked us. We should not do such a thing without a reason. We supposed our welcome went without saying, as that was the way it went. Yours goes so much without, that I should be nervous lest Percy should speak, if that was his tendency.”
Rachel’s voice grew hurried and helpless, and she withdrew her eyes from Harriet’s face.
“Rachel!” said Godfrey. “After all you have done for us in Harriet’s absence, it cannot be said in mere words that you should have been here to enhance her homecoming. But our thoughts have been so engrossed with her, that they have hardly got outside our four walls. Our other friends would not be with us to-day, if they had not thought of it themselves, if they had not shown us the same kindness that you are showing.”
Dominic looked down at his bread and fingered it, and Agatha raised a face that cordially confirmed this account of her position.
“Percy has come to drive me over. He did not think he was wanted. Johnson is ill, and Percy will have sympathy with people he employs, though it spoils the old-world atmosphere that is the point of him. I have come to have coffee with you in your own room, Harriet. I have had my luncheon, so you cannot have the rest of yours. Percy had better have it; he wants it, as I hurried him over his.”
“No, no, don’t get up, my dear,” said Sir Percy, as Griselda would have relieved him of the duties of her mother’s place. “An old man can make himself useful. Mrs. Calkin, you will allow me? Mrs. Calkin, Buttermere.”
“Well, come upstairs with me, Harriet. Percy will look after them all,” said Rachel, moving and talking quickly to cover the meeting. “I shall be glad of some of your coffee. Our coffee is poison; cheap things are; I can’t help the vulgarity of truth. I might have brought some of it for your guests. I can’t conceive why you didn’t think of it, instead of giving all your attention to yourself. Why, Harriet, my little one, what is it?”
Harriet had flung herself into Rachel’s arms and broken into weeping.
“Haven’t you really had the fit of crying that goes with coming home? I thought people just crossed the threshold and burst into tears. Of course I understand; it was Buttermere. Your emotions have had no outlet.”
“Rachel, my husband and children! They can do without me. That is why I have not sent for you; I have not had the heart. I have come home to find they can live with me away.”
“Of course they can. What else were they to do? You must not force people to do things, and then complain of their doing them.”
“I should not mind it. They had to get used to my being away. They could not help it, though they did it easily. I should not even mind their going against what I wished for them, though it was almost from the moment I left them. Their lives are their own.”
“It was not from that moment. You did not see that one,” said Rachel. “And what is it you do mind?”
“I know the moment would have been one by itself,” went on Harriet, raising her face and smiling sadly. “But it was followed by few others of its kind. It is not that I would think of it; it would only be thinking of myself. But I see them with new eyes, Rachel, my husband and children, whom I feel I have not dealt fairly by. I understand it was because of me, because I tried them beyond their strength, that they broke away when I was gone.”
“Well, if they had a reason, and one you can understand! And it sounds a dreadful thing for you to do, dear.”
“Godfrey is led like a child,” said Godfrey’s wife. “I feel now that I always knew it. I would not mind his spending too much; he never had a business brain; and I can put things straight. But he gives up the whole trend of his life at the touch of a hand. I would not speak of his supporting what we have set ourselves against; things are not wrong because we are against them; we will say they are not wrong. But his whole attitude to serious things is blurred and easy. He has been made what he is, first by his parents, then by his wife, and now by his friends and his children.”
“Poor Godfrey! You do all take advantage of him. We seem to be the only people who do not. I claim that he shows no trace of my influence or Percy’s. But that is not what you mean.”