That Stick | Page 9

my plan,' she added, sitting down again. 'I know
how it all is left. This new man is to have enough to go on upon, so as
not to be too beggarly and bring the title into contempt. He is only
coming for to-morrow, having to wind up his business; but I shall stay
on till he comes back, and settle what to do with the things here. Adela
and I have our choice of them, and don't want to leave the place too

bare. Then I shall sell the London house, and all the rest of the
encumbrances, and set up for myself.'
'Not with Adela?'
'Oh no; Adela means to stick by the old place, and I couldn't do that for
a constancy--oh no,' with a shudder.
'Does she?' in some wonder.
'Her own people don't want her. The Arlingtons are with her now, but I
fancy she would rather be sitting with us--or alone best of all, poor dear.
You see, she is a mixture of the angel that is too much for some people.
How she got it I don't know, not among us, I should think, though she
came to us straight out of the schoolroom, or I fancy she would never
have come at all. But oh, Lettice, if you could have seen her how
patient she has been throughout with my father, reading him all about
every race, just because she thought it was less gall and wormwood to
her than to me, and going out to the stables to satisfy him about his dear
Night Hawk, and all the rest of it. When she was away for that fortnight
over poor little Michael, I found to the full what she had been, and then
after that, back she comes again, as white as a sheet, but all she ever
was to my father, and more wonderful than all, setting herself to
reconcile him to the notion of this new heir of his--and I do believe, if
my father had not so suddenly grown worse, she would have made us
have him up to be introduced--all out of rectitude and duty, you know,
for Adela is the shyest of mortals, and recoils by nature from the
underbred far more than we do. In fact, I rather like it. It gives me a
sensation. I had ten times rather this man were a common sailor, or a
tinker, than just a stupid stick of a clerk!'
'Then Adela means to stay at the Dower House?'
'Yes, she has rooted herself there by all her love to her poor people, and
I fancy, too, that she does not want to bring Amice up among all the
Arlington children, who are not after her pattern, so she intends to bear
the brunt of it, and not leave Northmoor, unless the new-comers turn
out unbearable.'

'She goes away with her brother now.'
'Oh yes, she must, and Lord Arlington is fond of her in a way! Can't
you stay on with me, Lettice?'
'I wish I could, my dear Birdie, but I am anxious about Mary; I don't
think I must stay later than Sunday.'
'Yes; you are too devoted a mother for me to absorb. Never mind, you
will be in London, and I shall soon be within reach of you. You are a
comfortable person, Lettice.'
CHAPTER V
THE PEER
Poor Miss Lang! After all her care that her young pupils' heads should
not be turned by folly about marriage and noblemen, the very event she
had always viewed as most absurdly improbable had really occurred,
and it was impossible to keep it a secret; though Miss Marshall did her
very best to appear as usual, heard lessons with her accustomed
diligence, conducted the daily exercises, watched over the instructions
by masters, and presided over the needlework. But she grew whiter,
more pinched, and her little face more mouse-like every day, and the
elder girls whispered fancies about her. 'She had no doubt heard that
Lord Northmoor had broken it off!'--'A little poky attorney's clerk, of
course he would.'--'Poor dear thing, she will go into a consumption!
Didn't you hear her cough last night?'--'And then we'll all throw
wreaths into her grave!'--'Oh, that was only Elsie Harris!'--'Nonsense,
Mabel, I'm sure it was her, poor thing. Prenez garde, la vieille
Dragonne vient.'
That Lord Northmoor was to come back by the mail train was known,
and Miss Lang had sent a polite note to invite him to afternoon tea on
the Sunday. The church to which he had been for many years devoted
was a district one, and Miss Lang's establishment had their places in the
old parish church, so there was not much chance of meeting in the
morning, though one pupil observed to another that 'she