Part 8 (1/2)
”And you are going to Cornwall, now?” said Gregory, patting Victor's head.
”Yes; I go to-morrow,” said Miss Woodruff in a gentle voice.
”Have you friends there?” Gregory asked, ”and books? Things to amuse you?”
”We see the rector and his wife and one or two old ladies now and then.
But it is very remote, you know. That is why my guardian loves it so much. She needs the solitude after her rus.h.i.+ng life. But books; oh yes; my guardian has an excellent library there; she is a great reader; I could read all day, in every language, if I wanted to. As for amus.e.m.e.nt, Mrs. Talcott and I are very busy; we see after the garden and the little farm; I practice and take Victor out for walks.”
She had quite mastered her emotion and Gregory could look up at her frankly. ”Isn't there something I could send you,” he said, ”to help to pa.s.s the time? Magazines? Do you have them? And sweets? Do you like sweets?” His manner was half playful and he smiled at her as he might have smiled at a young school-girl. If only those wide braids under the little cap had been hanging over her shoulders the manner would have been justified. As it was, Gregory felt with some bewilderment that his behaviour was hardly normal. He was not in the habit of offering magazines and sweets to young women. But his solicitude expressed itself in these unconventional forms and luckily she found nothing amiss with them. She was accustomed, no doubt, to a world where such offerings pa.s.sed freely.
”It is very kind of you,” said Miss Woodruff. ”I should indeed like to see a review now and then. Mr. Drew is writing another little article on my guardian, in one of this month's reviews, I did not hear which one; and I would like to see that very much. But sweets? No; when I like them I like them too much and eat too many and then I am sorry. Please don't send me sweets.” She was smiling.
”What do you like to eat, then, that doesn't make you sorry--even when you eat a great deal?”
”Roast-beef!” she said, laughing, and the tip of her tongue was caught between her teeth. He was charmed to feel that, for the moment, at least, he had won her from her sadness.
”But you get roast-beef in Cornwall.”
”Oh, excellent. I will not have roast-beef, please.”
”Fruit, then? You like fruit?”
”Yes; indeed.”
”And you don't get much fruit in Cornwall in winter.”
”Only apples,” she confessed, ”and dried apricots.”
He elicited from her that nectarines and grapes were her favourite fruits. But in the midst of their talk she became suddenly grave again.
”I do not believe that you had a single word with her after I came!”
His face betrayed his bewilderment.
”Tante,” she enlightened him. ”But before then? You did speak with her?
She had sent you to look for me?” The depths of her misconception as to his presence were apparent.
”No; it was by chance I saw you,” he said. ”And I didn't have any talk with Madame von Marwitz.” He had no time to undeceive her further if it had been worth while to undeceive her, for Mrs. Forrester, detaching herself from the larger group of bereaved ones, joined them.
”I can't give you a lift, Gregory?” she asked. ”You are going citywards?
We are all feeling very bleak and despoiled, aren't we? What an awful place a station is when someone has gone away from it.”
”Mrs. Forrester,” said Karen Woodruff, with wide eyes, ”he did not have one single word with her; Mr. Jardine did not get any talk at all with Tante. Oh, that should have been managed.”