Helbeck of Bannisdale, vol 1 | Page 4

entrance awaiting her, surveyed both dog and mistress with equal disapproval.
But the dusk was fast passing into darkness, and it was not till the girl came into the brightness of the hall where her stepmother was already sitting tired and drooping on a settle near the great wood fire, that Helbeck saw her plainly.
She was very small and slight, and her hair made a spot of pale gold against the oak panelling of the walls. Helbeck noticed the slenderness of her arms, and the prettiness of her little white neck, then the freedom of her quick gesture as she went up to the elder lady and with a certain peremptoriness began to loosen her cloak.
"Augustina ought to go to bed directly," she said, looking at Helbeck. "The journey tired her dreadfully."
"Mrs. Fountain's room is quite ready," said the housekeeper, holding herself stiffly behind her master. She was a woman of middle age, with a pinkish face, framed between two tiers of short grey curls.
Laura's eye ran over her.
"You don't like our coming!" she said to herself. Then to Helbeck--
"May I take her up at once? I will unpack, and put her comfortable. Then she ought to have some food. She has had nothing to-day but some tea at Lancaster."
Mrs. Fountain looked up at the girl with feeble acquiescence, as though depending on her entirely. Helbeck glanced from his pale sister to the housekeeper in some perplexity.
"What will you have?" he said nervously to Miss Fountain. "Dinner, I think, was to be at a quarter to eight."
"That was the time I was ordered, sir," said Mrs. Denton.
"Can't it be earlier?" asked the girl impetuously.
Mrs. Denton did not reply, but her shoulders grew visibly rigid.
"Do what you can for us, Denton," said her master hastily, and she went away. Helbeck bent kindly over his sister.
"You know what a small establishment we have, Augustina. Mrs. Denton, a rough girl, and a boy--that's all. I do trust they will be able to make you comfortable."
"Oh, let me come down, when I have unpacked, and help cook," said Miss Fountain brightly. "I can do anything of that sort."
Helbeck smiled for the first time. "I am afraid Mrs. Denton wouldn't take it kindly. She rules us all in this old place."
"I dare say," said the girl quietly. "It's fish, of course?" she added, looking down at her stepmother, and speaking in a meditative voice.
"It's a Friday's dinner," said Helbeck, flushing suddenly, and looking at his sister, "except for Miss Fountain. I supposed----"
Mrs. Fountain rose in some agitation and threw him a piteous look.
"Of course you did, Alan--of course you did. But the doctor at Folkestone--he was a Catholic--I took such care about that!--told me I mustn't fast. And Laura is always worrying me. But indeed I didn't want to be dispensed!--not yet!"
Laura said nothing; nor did Helbeck. There was a certain embarrassment in the looks of both, as though there was more in Mrs. Fountain's words than appeared. Then the girl, holding herself erect and rather defiant, drew her stepmother's arm in hers, and turned to Helbeck.
"Will you please show us the way up?"
Helbeck took a small hand-lamp and led the way, bidding the newcomers beware of the slipperiness of the old polished boards. Mrs. Fountain walked with caution, clinging to her stepdaughter. At the foot of the staircase she stopped, and looked upward.
"Alan, I don't see much change!"
He turned back, the light shining on his fine harsh face and grizzled hair.
"Don't you? But it is greatly changed, Augustina. We have shut up half of it."
Mrs. Fountain sighed deeply and moved on. Laura, as she mounted the stairs, looked back at the old hall, its ceiling of creamy stucco, its panelled walls, and below, the great bare floor of shining oak with hardly any furniture upon it--a strip of old carpet, a heavy oak table, and a few battered chairs at long intervals against the panelling. But the big fire of logs piled upon the hearth filled it all with cheerful light, and under her indifferent manner, the girl's sense secretly thrilled with pleasure. She had heard much of "poor Alan's" poverty. Poverty! As far as his house was concerned, at any rate, it seemed to her of a very tolerable sort.
* * * * *
In a few minutes Helbeck came downstairs again, and stood absently before the fire on the hearth. After a while, he sat down beside it in his accustomed chair--a carved chair of black Westmoreland oak--and began to read from the book which he had been carrying in his pocket out of doors. He read with his head bent closely over the pages, because of short sight; and, as a rule, reading absorbed him so completely that he was conscious of nothing external while it lasted. To-night, however, he several times looked