Janet's Love and Service Part 88

"And who is the lady? Is it anyone we know about? Roxbury," repeated Mr Snow, with a puzzled look. "But it seems to me I thought I heard different. I don't seem to understand."

He looked anxiously into the face of his wife as though she could help him.

"That's not to be wondered at," said she, smiling. "It seems Miss Graeme herself has been taken by surprise. But she is well pleased for all that. Harry has been in no great hurry, I think."

"But that ain't just as I understood it," persisted Mr Snow. "What does Rose say? She told me this afternoon, when we were riding, something or other, but it sartain wa'n't that."

"It could hardly be that, since the letter came when you were away, and even Miss Graeme knew nothing of it till she got the letter," said Mrs Snow, with some impatience.

"Rosie told me," went on Mr Snow. "Here she is. What was it you were telling me this afternoon about--about our friend here?"

"Oh! I told you a great many things that it would not do to repeat,"

and though Rose laughed, she reddened, too, and looked appealingly at Graeme.

"Wasn't Roxbury the name of the lady, that you told me was--"

"Oh! Uncle Sampson! Never mind."

"Dear me," said Mrs Snow, "what need you make a mystery out of such plain reading. Miss Graeme has gotten a letter telling her that her brother Harry is going to be married; and what is there so wonderful about that?"

"Just so," said Mr Snow. He did not understand it the least in the world, but he understood that, for some reason or other, Mrs Snow wanted nothing more said about it, so he meant to say no more; and, after a minute, he made Rose start and laugh nervously by the energy with which he repeated, "Just so;" and still he looked from Graeme to Mr Millar, as though he expected them to tell him something.

"Harry's letter gives the news, and that is all," said Graeme.

"But I cannot understand your surprise," said Mr Millar, not to Mr Snow, but to Graeme. "I thought you must have seen it all along."

"Did you see it all along?" asked Mr Snow, looking queer.

"I was in Harry's confidence; but even if I had not been, I am sure I must have seen it. I almost think I knew what was coming before he knew it himself, at the very first."

"The very first?" repeated Graeme. "When was that? In the spring?

Before the time we went to Mrs Roxbury's, on the evening of the Convocation?"

"Oh! yes! long before that--before Miss Rose came home from the West.

Indeed, I think it was love at first sight, as far as Harry was concerned," added Mr Millar, with an embarra.s.sed laugh, coming suddenly to the knowledge of the fact that Mr Snow was regarding him with curious eyes. But Mr Snow turned his attention to Rose.

"What do _you_ say to that?" asked he.

"I have nothing to say," said Rose, pettishly. "I was not in Harry's confidence."

"So it seems," said Mr Snow, meditatively.

"I am sure you will like her when you know her better," said Mr Millar.

"Oh! if Harry likes her that is the chief thing," said Rose, with a shrug. "It won't matter much to the rest of us--I mean to Graeme and me."

"It will matter very much to us," said Graeme, "and I know I shall love her dearly, and so will you, Rosie, when she is our sister, and I mean to write to Harry to-morrow--and to her, too, perhaps."

"She wants very much to know you, and I am sure you will like each other," said Mr Millar looking deprecatingly at Rose, who was not easy or comfortable in her mind any one could see.

"Just tell me one thing, Rose," said Mr Snow. "How came you to suppose that--"

But the question was not destined to be answered by Rose, at least not then. A matter of greater importance was to be laid before her, for the door opened suddenly, and Hannah put in her head.

"Where on earth did you put the yeast-jug, Rose? I have taken as many steps as I want to after it; if you had put it back in its place it would have paid, I guess. It would have suited _me_ better, and I guess it would have suited better all round."

Her voice betrayed a struggle between offended dignity and decided crossness. Rose was a little hysterical, Graeme thought, or she never would have laughed about such an important matter in Hannah's face. For Hannah knew her own value, which was not small in the household, and she was not easily propitiated when a slight was given or imagined, as no one knew better than Rose. And before company, too!--company with whom Hannah had not been "made acquainted," as Hannah, and the sisterhood generally in Merleville, as a rule, claimed to be. It was dreadful temerity on Rose's part.

"Oh! Hannah, I forgot all about it."

But the door was suddenly closed. Rose hastened after her in haste and confusion.

Mr Snow had been deeply meditating, and he was evidently not aware that anything particular had been happening, for he turned suddenly to Mr Millar, and said,--

"I understood that it was you who was--eh--who was--keeping company with Miss Roxbury?"

"Did you think so, Miss Elliott," said Charlie, in some astonishment.

"Mr Snow," said his wife, in a voice that brought him to her side in an instant. "You may have read in the Book, how there is a time to keep silence, as well as a time to speak, and the bairn had no thought of having her words repeated again, though she might have said that to you."

She spoke very softly, so that the others did not hear, and Mr Snow would have looked penitent, if he had not looked so bewildered. Raising her voice a little, she added,--

"You might just go out, and tell Hannah to send Jabez over to Emily's about the yeast, if she has taken too many steps to go herself; for Miss Rose is tired, and it is growing dark;--and besides, there is no call for her to go Hannah's messages--though you may as well no' say that to her, either."

But the door opened, and Rose came in again.

"I can't even find the jug," she said, pretending great consternation.

"And this is the second one I have been the death of. Oh! here it is.

I must have left it here in the morning, and wee Rosie's flowers are in it! Oh! yes, dear, I must go. Hannah is going, and I must go with her.

She is just a little bit cross, you know. And, besides, I want to tell her the news," and she went away.

Mr Snow, feeling that he had, in some way, been compromising himself, went and sat down beside his wife, to be out of the temptation to do it again, and Mr Millar said again, to Graeme, very softly this time,--

"Did you think so, Miss Elliott?"

Graeme hesitated.

"Yes, Charlie. I must confess, there did, more than once, come into my mind the possibility that Harry and his friend and partner might find themselves rivals for the favour of the sweet little Amy. But you must remember, that--"

But Charlie interrupted her, eagerly.

"And did--did your sister think so, too? No, don't answer me--" added he, suddenly rising, and going first to the window to look out, and then, out at the door. In a little Graeme rose, and went out too, and followed him down the path, to the gate, over which he was leaning.

There was no time to speak, however, before they heard the voices of Rose and Hannah, coming toward them. Hannah was propitiated, Graeme knew by the sound of her voice. Mr Millar opened the gate for them to pa.s.s, and Graeme said, "You have not been long, Rosie."

"Are you here, Graeme," said Rose, for it was quite dark, by this time.

"Hannah, this is Mr Millar, my brother Harry's friend and partner."

And then she added, with great gravity, according to the most approved Merleville formula of introduction, "Mr Millar, I make you acquainted with Miss Lovejoy."