Beechcroft at Rockstone | Page 2

and to read among the
telegrams---
'COLOMBO, Sept. 3rd. 'Lieutenant-General Sir Jasper Merrifield,
G.C.B., has been thrown from his horse, and received severe injuries.'
She despatched this paper to her sister by a special messenger, whom
she had captured by the way, and was soon after in the train, knitting
and pondering.
At Silverton station she saw the pony carriage, and in it her niece
Gillian, a girl not quite seventeen, with brown eyes showing traces of
tears.
'Mamma knew you would come,' she said.
'You have heard direct, of course.'
'Yes; Claude telegraphed. The horse fell over a precipice. Papa's leg
and three ribs are broken. Not dangerous. That is all it says; and
mamma is going out to him directly.'
'I was quite sure she would. Well, Gillian, we must do the best we can.
Has she any plans?'

'I think she waited for you to settle them. Hal is come; he wanted to go
with her, but she says it will cost too much, and besides, there is his
Ordination in Advent.'
'Has she telegraphed to your uncles?'
'To Beechcroft and to Stokesley; but we don't quite know where Uncle
Reginald is. Perhaps he will see the paper.'
Gillian's tears were flowing again, and her aunt said---
'Come, my dear, you must not give way; you must do all you can to
make it better for your mother.'
'I know,' she answered. 'Indeed, I didn't cry till I sat waiting, and it all
came over me. Poor papa! and what a journey mamma will have, and
how dreadful it will be without her! But I know that it is horrid of me,
when papa and my sisters must want her so much more.'
'That's right---quite right to keep up before her. It does not sound to me
so bad, after all; perhaps they will telegraph again to stop her. Did
Claude ask her to come out?'
'Oh no! There were only those few words.'
No more could be learnt till the pony stopped at the door, and Hal ran
out to hand out his aunt, and beg her privately to persuade his mother to
take him, or, if she would not consent to that, at least to have Macrae,
the old soldier-servant, with her---it was not fit for her to travel alone.
Lady Merrifield looked very pale, and squeezed her sister close in her
arms as she said---
'You are my great help, Jenny.'
'And must you go?'
'Yes, certainly.'

'Without waiting to hear more?'
'There is no use in losing time. I cannot cross from Folkestone till the
day after to-morrow, at night. I must go to London to-morrow, and
sleep at Mrs. Merrifield's.'
'But this does not seem to me so very bad.'
'Oh, no, no! but when I get there in three weeks' time, it will be just
when I shall be most wanted. The nursing will have told on the girls,
and Jasper will be feeling weary of being laid up, and wanting to take
liberties.'
'And what will you be after such a journey?'
'Just up to keeping him in order. Come, you have too much sense to
expostulate, Jenny.'
'No; you would wear yourself to fiddle-strings if you stayed at home. I
only want you to take Hal, or Macrae.'
'Hal is out of the question, I would not interfere with his preparation on
any account. Macrae would be a very costly article; and, moreover, I
want him to act major-domo here, unless you would, and that I don't
dare to hope for.'
'No, you must not, Lily; Ada never feels well here, nor always at
Brighton, and Emily would be too nervous to have her without me. But
we will take as many children as you please, or we have room for.'
'That is like you, Jenny. I know William will offer to take them in at
home, but I cannot send them without Miss Vincent; and she cannot
leave her mother, who has had a sort of stroke. Otherwise I should try
leaving them here while I am away, but the poor old lady is in no state
for it---in fact, I doubt her living long.'
'I know; you have been governess by yourself these last weeks; it will
be well to relieve her. The best way will be for us to take Mysie and

Valetta, and let them go to the High School; and there is a capital
day-school for little boys, close to St. Andrew's, for Fergus, and Gillian
can go there too, or join classes in whatever she pleases.'
'My Brownie! Have you really room for all those?'
'Oh yes! The three girls in the spare room and dressing-room, and
Fergus in the little room over the porch. I will write to Fanny; I gave
her a hint.'
'And