"I shall be able to answer that question better later on, Mariquita," he said quietly. "It depends on--circ.u.mstances! But, so far as I can see, these journeys must form an important part of my life; I must come and go, and as there will necessarily be a certain amount of danger involved, you needn't speak of it in public at present. It will be time enough to tell the others, when I am about to start, for they will then have so much less time to worry. I tell you now because--because I always _did_ tell you all my plans, I suppose. It's an old habit."

"And you know that I am too sensible to worry. I promise to be duly anxious when the time comes, but I really can't agitate myself about lions' jaws in an English lane, or feel apprehensive of any more savage a.s.sault, than we shall receive at the vicarage if you persist in dawdling along at this rate! It's very kind of you to make an exception in my favour, but it's an honour I could have done very well without.

It's a poor thing, I must say, to come home from India, and have old friends begging you to settle down among them, and then immediately turning round and saying, 'I'm off to Africa!' as if your presence in the same hemisphere was more than they could bear. You are a champion wet blanket, Rob! Your items of good news are calculated to drive your friend into melancholy madness. I hope Mellicent's disclosures will be of a more agreeable nature, or I shall be sorry I came out at all."

"I _do_ love to see you in a temper, Mariquita. You are a capital little spitfire. Go on abusing me, do! You can't think how I enjoy it!" returned Rob promptly; which request, needless to say, was sufficient to seal Miss Peggy's lips until the vicarage gate was reached.

Two eager faces appeared pressed against a window, and Mrs Asplin and Mellicent hurried out into the hall to greet their visitors and escort them into the schoolroom with an air of suppressed excitement. Tea was laid on the centre table in the old-time fashion which Peggy approved, and the vicar was standing before the empty grate, trying to look dignified and proper, with the most comical expression of amus.e.m.e.nt twitching his long lean face and twinkling out of his eyes.

"What do you think?" began Mrs Asplin tragically, seating herself in state in an old armchair and endeavouring to keep up an imposing front, despite the fact that the absence of the fourth castor sent her tilting first to one side and then to the other. "_What_ do you think we have got to show you in the drawing-room?"

"What do you think? What do you think?" echoed Mellicent all in one breath; and the two visitors glanced at each other in mischievous amus.e.m.e.nt. These dear, simple-minded people so intensely enjoyed their little mysteries and excitements that it would be cruel indeed not to indulge them. Rob ruffled his locks and frowned bewilderment, while Peggy rolled her eyes to the ceiling and cried:

"I've _no_ idea, but don't tell; let me guess it! Animal or mineral?"

"Animal."

"Fine or superfine?"

"Not fair! Not fair! You can only put questions that can be answered by 'Yes' or 'No.'"

"How strict you are, to be sure! Well, then, is it mineral? No!

Vegetable? No! Animal? Yes! Ornamental? It _must_ be ornamental, or you wouldn't be so proud of it!"

Mellicent and her mother looked at one another and queried with uplifted eyebrows. The girl formed a vigorous "No!" The woman smiled indulgently and said:

"I think it is! I think it is _very_ pretty!" and the vicar could throw no further light on the subject than to say that he agreed with both.

"It is useful then?" queried Peggy next; but this question fared no better than the first.

"Not a bit," cried Mellicent. "It used to be, or, at least, _part_ of it did, but now it can do nothing at all but just--"

"Be careful, dear! You will give them a clue. Oh yes, I think we can say it is useful. Its general characteristic is usefulness, and it will soon settle down again into its old ways."

Peggy turned to Rob with a gesture of despair, and then started afresh on a different tack.

"Is it an article in general use? Do you find one in every house?"

"No, no!"

"In our house?"

Giggles from Mellicent, reproving glances from her father, a decided "No!" from Mrs Asplin.

"In Rob's house?"

"N-ot at present!"

"Could you have more than one in any house at the same time?"

Flutters of consternation and alarm--mysterious chuckles of laughter.

"You _could_, but one at a time is enough for most people. Two or three would be rather embarra.s.sing!"

"Especially in a small house, because where should we sit in the evening? There would be no room for us!" said Mellicent meaningly, at which mysterious reply the listeners grew more mystified than ever.

"It must be _very_ large!" they murmured thoughtfully. "What can it be?

We shall never guess, so we might as well give it up at once and let you tell us. What _is_ the wretched thing?"

"It's not wretched at all! It is very, very happy! It is--take hold of your chair, Peg, and hold tight! It is--_An Engaged Couple_!"

"A _wh-wh-what_?" Peggy let her muscles slacken and leant back, limp and shapeless, against the cushions, while Rob, in his turn, gave a whistle of amazement.

"An engaged couple! Oh, I say! Has that deep old Rex stolen a march on us behind our backs, and brought his _fiancee_?"

"No, indeed! Nothing of the sort! Rex has no sweetheart except his old mother. I'd be delighted if he had--that's to say, if he could find a girl worthy of him, but I've never seen her yet. Guess again, dears!

You are very hot, but it's not Rex."

"Rosalind!" was Peggy's first thought; but no, it could not be Rosalind.

That, of course, was impossible, while Oswald was already a married man, and Mellicent obviously out of the question. Who could it be?

Peggy mentally summoned before her every member of the old merry party, and hazarded yet another suggestion.

"Not Fraulein? Good old Fraulein, come back from Germany with a long- bearded professor in her train?"

"Not Fraulein, no, but the professor might apply. Nearer home, child!

You have not guessed every member of the family yet. You have not thought of--"

"Esther!" screamed Peggy, and instantly read confirmation in the smiles of a.s.sent. "It is! It is! Esther and the man with the dusty coat!

Oh, how lovely! How perfectly, deliciously lovely and quaint! Not an old maid, after all, but the first to be engaged and married! Oh, Esther, Esther! Who would have thought it? Who would have believed that you could condescend to such foolishness?"

"Ha! ha! ha!" guffawed Rob, in rolling, subterranean laughter. "What a joke! I'll have something to say to Miss Esther on this subject! She must be made to realise the inconsistency of her conduct. What about the ladies' school?"

"Is she fond of him? Is he fond of her? When did it happen? When did they come? How did they break it to you? Did they walk in together, hand in hand, and kneel down before you, so that you could say, 'Bless you, my children,' in approved stage fashion?"

"Yes, they did," cried Mellicent gushingly. "At least, if they didn't, it was almost as good. She was coming home over Sunday, you know, and he met her in town, and--and _asked_ her, you know, and then he got into the train, and intended to go as far as the first station, and he went on and on, until suddenly here they were, and father and mother and I were standing on the platform to receive them. And _she_ got out and _he_ got out, and they looked so silly and she said, 'M-m-my friend, Professor Reid,' and he tried to shake hands with mother three separate times over, and couldn't find her hand, he was so horribly embarra.s.sed, and then we all drove home in the most horrible silence, and came into the drawing-room, and Esther went crimson in the face, and said, 'Father and mother, I want to tell you--Professor Reid has asked me--I have per- omised to be his wife,' and he sc.r.a.ped his feet on the floor and blurted out funny short sentences, three words at a time, 'Love her dearly,'

'Feel much honoured,' 'Object of life,' 'Make her happy,' and mother said, 'Oh, my dear child, I am so glad! I am so thankful for your happiness!' and set to work and cried all the rest of the evening, and father wriggled about in his coat and looked horribly uncomfortable, and said, 'Hum--hum--hum. Come into the study, and have a smoke!'"

"My dear Mellicent! You have a most uncomfortable memory! Your capacity for unimportant detail is truly astounding!" cried the vicar protestingly; but Mellicent's description had been received with so much interest by the visitors that the snub had but little effect. She proceeded to enlarge on the appearance, manner, and eccentricities of the brother-to-be, while Peggy gasped, gurgled, and exclaimed with a fervour great enough to satisfy the most exacting of gossips.

"I never, no, never, heard anything so exciting. Did she tell you that I met them in London? I remarked on the condition of his coat--inches thick in dust, I do a.s.sure you, and she was haughty, and gave me to understand that he had something better to do than brush his clothes. I hope she won't bear me a grudge for my indiscretion. It will be a lesson to me not to make personal remarks for the future. Dear, dear me, how I do long to peep in at the drawing-room window! Do you think they would mind very much, if they looked up and saw my face flattened against the pane? When are we going to see them, and to what cla.s.s of engaged couples do they belong? Proper? Mediocre? Gushingly loving?"

"H'm!" deliberated Mellicent uncertainly. "He calls her, 'My dear.' If I were engaged, and a man called me 'My dear,' I should break it off on the spot; but I believe he likes her all the same. He kept handing her the b.u.t.ter and cruet at breakfast every other minute, and he jumps up to open the door for her, and asks if she doesn't feel the draught. And as for her, she perfectly scowls at you if you dare to breathe in his presence. She thinks he is the most wonderful man that ever lived."

"Quite right too! I mean to be very proud of him myself; for he is to be my own son. I don't know him yet, but from all we have heard I am sure it will be easy to take him into our hearts. Peggy dear, we have a quarter of an hour before tea, and we must not disturb the poor dears until then, so come into the garden and have a walk round with me. We haven't had a chat to ourselves for an age of Sundays."

No, Peggy reflected, this was quite true; but there had been reasons why she, at least, had avoided _tete-a-tete_ interviews, and she had believed that Mrs Asplin would be even more anxious than herself to leave the dreaded subject untouched. Such, however, was evidently not the case, for no sooner was the garden reached than she burst into impetuous speech.

"Oh, Peggy, child, isn't this delightful? Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it just the most wonderful and unexpected answer to my prayers? Here have I been troubling my foolish head about what was to become of all these dear people when I was not here, and now this smooths every difficulty away. It troubled me to think of my dear girl working for herself, and finding the fight grow harder and harder as the years pa.s.sed, as all women must, and of Austin left to Mellicent's scatter-brained care; but you see I might have had more faith, for my fears were needless Esther's home will be a stronghold for the family, and Professor Reid is so congenial in his tastes that Austin will find unending interest in his society. Of course they could not live together, but you know the vicar has decided that he cannot keep on his parish much longer, as he is not strong enough to do justice to the work, and when the break comes it would be delightful if he and Mellicent could take a little house near Esther in Oxford, where they could see her constantly and have the benefit of her wise advice. It would be a great thing for 'Chubby,'

too, for she has as much worldly wisdom as a baby, and indeed her dear father is little better. It's no wonder I am pleased, is it, Peggy, when I think of all that this engagement means?"