The Shadow of Ashlydyat Part 50

George made a show of laughing at her anxiety. "I and Verrall have strolled into the places and watched the play," said he. "We have staked a few coins ourselves--not to be looked upon as two churls who put their British noses into everything and then won't pay for the privilege. I lost what I staked, with a good grace; but as to Verrall, I don't believe he is a halfpenny out of pocket. Mrs. Verrall must have been quarrelling with her husband, and so thought she'd say something to spite him. And my wife must take it for gospel, and begin to fret herself into a fever!"

Maria drew a long, relieved breath. The address was candid, the manner was playful and tender: and she possessed the most implicit faith in her husband. Maria had doubted almost the whole world before she could have doubted George G.o.dolphin. She drew his face down to hers, once more whispering that he was to forgive her for being so silly.

"My dearest, I have been thinking that we may as well go on to-morrow.

To-day, that is: I won't tell you the time, if you don't know it; but it's morning."

She knew the time quite well. No anxious wife ever sat up for a husband yet, but knew it. In her impatience to be away--for she was most desirous of being at home again--she could take note of the one sentence only. "Oh, George, yes! Let us go!"

"Will you promise to get a good night's rest first, and not attempt to be out of bed before eleven o'clock to-morrow morning, then?"

"George, I will promise you anything," she said, with a radiant face.

"Only say we shall start for home to-morrow."

"Yes, we will."

And, somewhat to Mr. Verrall's surprise, they did start. That gentleman made no attempt to detain them. "But it is shabby of you both to go off like this, and leave us among these foreigners, like Babes in the wood,"

said he, when Maria was already in the carriage, and George was about to step into it.

"There is nothing to prevent you leaving too, is there, Mr. Verrall?"

asked Maria, leaning forward. "And what did you and Mrs. Verrall do before we came? You had been 'Babes in the wood' a fortnight then."

"Fairly put, young lady," returned Mr. Verrall. "I must congratulate you on one thing, Mrs. George G.o.dolphin: that, in spite of your recent indisposition, you are looking more yourself to-day than I have yet seen you."

"That is because I am going home," said Maria.

And home they reached in safety. The land journey, the pleasant sea crossing--for the day and the waters were alike calm--and then the land again, all grew into things of the past, and they were once more at Prior's Ash. As they drove to the Bank from the railway station, Maria looked up at the house when it came into sight, a thrill of joy running through her heart. "What a happy home it will be for me!" was her glad thought.

"What would Thomas and old Crosse say, if they knew I had dipped into it so deeply at Homburg?" was the involuntary thought which flashed across George G.o.dolphin.

Quite a levee had a.s.sembled to meet them. Mrs. Hastings and Grace, Bessie and Cecil G.o.dolphin, Thomas G.o.dolphin and Mr. Crosse. Maria threw off her bonnet and shawl, and stood amidst them all in her dark silk travelling dress. There was no mistaking that she was intensely happy: her eye was radiant, her colour softly bright, her fair young face without a cloud. And now walked in the Rector of All Souls', having escaped (nothing loth) from a stormy vestry meeting, to see Maria.

"I have brought her home safely, you see, sir," George said to Mr.

Hastings, leading Maria up to him.

"And yourself also," was the Rector's reply. "You are worth two of the shaky man who went away."

"I told you I should be, sir, if you allowed Maria to go with me," cried gallant George. "I do not fancy we are either of us the worse for our sojourn abroad."

"I don't think either of you look as though you were," said the Rector.

"Maria is thin. I suppose you are not sorry to come home, Miss Maria?"

"So glad!" she said. "I began to think it very, very long, not to see you all. But, papa, I am not Miss Maria now."

"You saucy child!" exclaimed Mr. Hastings. But the Rector had the laugh against him. Mrs. Hastings drew Maria aside.

"My dear, you have been ill, George wrote me word. How did it happen? We were sorry to hear it."

"Yes, we were sorry too," replied Maria, her eyelashes resting on her hot cheek. "It could not be helped."

"But how did it happen?"

"It was my own fault; not _intentionally_, you know, mamma. It occurred the day after we reached Homburg. I and George were out walking and we met the Verralls. We turned with them, and then I had not hold of George's arm. Something was amiss in the street, a great heap of stones and earth and rubbish; and, to avoid a carriage that came by, I stepped upon it. And, somehow I slipped off. I did not appear to have hurt myself: but I suppose it shook me."

"You met the Verralls at Homburg?" cried Mrs. Hastings, in surprise.

"Yes. Did George not mention it when he wrote? They are at Homburg still. Unless they have now left it."

"George never puts a superfluous word into his letters," said Mrs.

Hastings, with a smile. "He says just what he has to say, and no more.

He mentioned that you were not well, and therefore some little delay might take place in the return home; but he said nothing of the Verralls."

Maria laughed. "George never writes a long letter----"

"Who's that, taking George's name in vain?" cried George, looking round.

"It is I, George. You never told mamma, when you wrote, that the Verralls were with us at Homburg."

"I'm sure I don't remember whether I did or not," said George.

"The Verralls are in Wales," observed Mr. Hastings.

"Then they have travelled to it pretty quickly," observed George. "When I and Maria quitted Homburg we left them in it. They had been there a month."

Not one present but looked up with surprise. "The impression in Prior's Ash is, that they are in Wales," observed Thomas G.o.dolphin. "It is the answer given by the servants to all callers at Lady G.o.dolphin's Folly."

"They are certainly at Homburg; whatever the servants may say,"

persisted George. "The servants are labouring under a mistake."

"It is a curious mistake for the servants to make, though," observed the Rector, in a dry, caustic tone.

"I think the Verralls are curious people altogether," said Bessy G.o.dolphin.

"I don't know but they are," a.s.sented George. "But Verrall is a thoroughly good-hearted man, and I shall always speak up for him."

That evening George and his wife dined alone. George was standing over the fire after dinner, when Maria came and stood near him. He put out his arm and drew her to his side.

"It seems so strange, George--being in this house with you, all alone,"

she whispered.

"Stranger than being my wife, Maria?"

"Oh, but I have got used to that." And George G.o.dolphin laughed: she spoke so simply and naturally.

"You will get used in time to this being your home, my darling."