of a change for Phil? We must talk it over when Iget back. I have a few pounds by me that I have managed to gettogether, and I am determined to spend them on her."
Philippa's eyes glistened when her mother read aloud her brother'sletter, but though she smiled, her face was a little sad.
"I know what would be best," said Evelyn, "if only we were sure ofDuke's coming next month! I am to let Mr Gresham know whenever it isquite settled; then he will invite us to Merle, and on the way there, atleast we will _make_ it the way there, Duke, and Phil, and I will stay afew days in London, and I shall choose two or three of the prettiestdresses you ever saw, for you, Phil." But Philippa did not respond tothe proposal.
"I count that I have had my holiday," she said. "I enjoyed the visit toDorriford exceedingly, and I shall enjoy having Charley more thananything. Don't ask me to leave home again. Mamma," with an appeal inher voice that was new to the self-reliant Philippa, "you won't, willyou?"
"Nobody will want you to do anything you don't like, my dear child," hermother replied, reassuringly. "That would be a strange use to make ofpoor Charley's thoughtfulness."
And Philippa's face grew calm again; she could depend upon "mamma."
"Besides," said Evelyn, "you needn't work yourself up about a thing thatmay not come to pass for ever so long. Duke _may_ not get home tillnext year. And I think it's not very nice of you, Phil, to be solugubrious about a plan I only thought of for your sake. You mightunderstand that I would like to do something to--to make up a little, asit were, for all you went through for me."
Evelyn's voice grew tremulous, and her pretty eyes were dewy as shefinished speaking. In a moment Philippa was kneeling beside her--herarms flung round her sister in a close embrace.
"Evey dear, you might understand," she whispered. "Mamma does. I havegot nervous about it all. But don't think me ungrateful. I shall bequite right again soon, and it will be so nice to have Charley at home.He will cheer us up; he always does, and I am sure Duke _will_ get backbefore Christmas, at the very latest."
Evelyn kissed her in return, and the little cloud melted. StillPhilippa felt very glad when her brother's arrival brought a diversionand a still stronger certainty that the Wyverston travesty wouldhenceforth be allowed to sleep in peace.
How _very_ rarely, how "almost never," do things turn out as we havepictured them to ourselves? How the misfortunes which we foresee andprepare to face disappear; how wholly unexpected difficulties andcomplications weave themselves about our unwary feet till we scarcelydare to risk a step! "If we had but known," "if I had had any idea ofthis happening," "ifs" without end, and better disregarded.
The unexpected came to Philippa Raynsworth this winter, though notaltogether in painful guise, and she found, as so many of us do, thatshe had expended fears and misgivings in quite unnecessary directions.
Charles Raynsworth was the eldest of the family, and the only plainmember of it. He had none of Philippa's graceful stateliness, norEvelyn's charm of manner and appearance, some traces and promise of allof which were to be found in the two younger boys--handsome Hugh andblue-eyed Leonard. But no one of the five brothers and sisters was moreloved and trusted by the other four than the insignificant-looking headof the party. For the insignificance began and ended with his outwardappearance; he was far above the average in every other direction;intellectually gifted and possessing, in addition to undoubted talent,the "genius" of perseverance and steady application; honest andstraightforward like all his family, unselfish and with a power ofsympathy unusual in a man. No wonder that "Charley's" home-coming wasthe best of good news.
And for a day or two the pleasure of all being together again shed arosy hue over everything. Charley was in such request that he hadscarcely time to think. If he were not closeted with his father in thestudy, he was button-holed by his mother in the drawing-room; if he werenot in the thick of the boys' pets--feathered, guinea-pigs, and all therest of them--admiring, advising, and doing his best to make sense ofHugh and Leonard both talking at once, he was pretty sure to be in thenursery, with Bonny riding on his shoulder, or listening to Evelyn'smaternal raptures over baby Vanda's attempts at conversation. It wasnot till he had been some days at home that he one morning waylaid hismother and drew her out to the front of the house for a stroll up anddown the gravel drive.
"You are not busy, are you, mother?" he said. "You have got yourcook-interviewing and all that sort of thing over for the day, haven'tyou? I want a talk with you without being interrupted, as we always arein the drawing-room, and in the afternoon it is even worse. Next week Imust buckle to work regularly; but for these two or three days I havebeen giving myself time to settle down."
It was a mild day--"mild for November," as one so often hears people saywhen that maligned daughter of the year is with us, forgetting how veryoften the early days of the month are altogether charming.
"Shall I get you a shawl?" Charles Raynsworth went on, but his mothernegatived the proposal.
"I am not the least cold," she said, "and if we keep at this side of thehouse it is always sheltered. What is it, dear, that you want to talkabout? Nothing wrong?" and a slight furrow of anxiety made itself seenbetween her eyebrows. For the moment, unreasonable though it was, afear startled her that possibly--_could_ it be?--was Charley going totell her that Philippa's escapade had come to his ears?
But her son's first words reassured her.
"Don't look so startled and anxious, mother," he said, eagerly. "No, ofcourse it's nothing wrong. I only want to take the bull by the horns,so as to prevent anything wrong coming to pass. Mother, I don't thinkmy father is looking well--one notices looks, you see, dropping in amongyou all from the outside, as it were. And once the idea struck me itmade me watch him; no, he is not what he was last year, I am quite sureof it. He is overdone. I can see that he has been working too hard."
Mrs Raynsworth drew a long breath. This was not what she had feared,but it startled her. She grew rather pale.
"Charley!" she said.
"Don't looked so appalled, mother," he said, reassuringly. "I have notthe least fear of there being anything seriously wrong; if I _had_ had,of course I should have done something else--spoken to a doctor or to myfather himself before frightening you. But I am perfectly sure it isoverwork only; he should have a holiday--a holiday and a change. Andthat brings me to the second head of my discourse. Phil isn't lookingwell, either. I believe the two of them have been buried in that studyfar too much and for far too long together. I should have been here athome some months ago, but it was impossible, so there is no use goingback upon that. What I want now--"
But Mrs Raynsworth interrupted him.
"I daresay you are right about your father," she said; "but as toPhilippa, I don't know; she has had some change this autumn. There wasthe visit to Dorriford, you know, which she enjoyed very much, and--"
But in his turn Charles interrupted, fortunately so, perhaps, for MrsRaynsworth was beginning to feel very guilty.
"A week," he said, "a week or ten days at most--what's that? Oh, no,she needs much more thorough change than that sort of thing. She hasgrown nervous, mother, that is what I have noticed, for it is so unlikeher. She changes colour for nothing and starts if one opens the doorsuddenly. No, I am sure I am right about them both, and this is what Iwant you to help me to manage. Father and Phil should go abroadtogether this winter for three or four months. They would enjoy itthoroughly. Phil has never been out of England, and father can take herover some of the old ground he knows so well. It would be new life tohim. Phil is so intelligent, you see, and would enter into all thatinterested him," and Charley's commonplace greenish-grey eyes lighted upwith eagerness till they looked almost beautiful. He was nearlybreathless, as he stopped short in the path and stood facing his mother.
She could not but be infected to some extent by his enthusiasm, but MrsRaynsworth was eminently practical.
"My dearest boy!" she exclaimed. "Yes, I agree with you; noth
ing couldbe more delightful for both your father and Philippa," and as she namedher younger daughter there flashed through her mind the special benefitto the girl of such a complete change of life and surroundings at thepresent time; "nothing," she repeated, "could be better. But, Charley,you forget--the ways and means!--and your father's work. We shouldnever persuade him to leave it."
"He need not do so; at least, I mean to say, it need not suffer," saidthe young man. "I have gone into all that part of it already since Icame, without my father's finding it out. He can quite well leave hiswork
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