Rosalind spoke with a guileless sweetness of manner, and nothing could have been more innocent than the expression of her eyes; nevertheless Peggy suspected that a deliberate intention to annoy lurked behind the amicable manner, for it was evident that there was no more sympathy than of old between the brother and sister. She flushed indignantly, and was about to make a heated reply, when two tall figures appeared in the doorway, and waved an eager greeting. The older of the two was none other than Hector Darcy himself--(Tiresome creature! to put in an appearance at such an inopportune moment!)--and Arthur was his companion, looking well, what Arthur always _did_ look in his sister's eyes--the handsomest and most distinguished man in the room. Peggy had seen him earlier in the evening, but through all the embarra.s.sment of meeting Hector with his sister's words still ringing in her ears, she was acutely conscious of every detail of his meeting with Rosalind; her little rustling movement of agitation, the flash in his eyes, above all, the eloquent silence with which hand met hand. Alas, poor Arthur! no need to wonder any longer if he cared, with that look on his face, that tell-tale light in his eye! After the first quick glance his sister averted her eyes, as from something sacred, and poured out a flood of rapid, inconsequent talk to the new-comer. Hector was unaffectedly delighted at the meeting, and became unusually lively, as he retailed items of information about different pa.s.sengers on board the steamer, whom he had met since his return to England, while Peggy in her turn had her own little histories to add to the store.

"You remember the old lady in the alpaca dress who called me a 'restful influence'? It appears she is the head of the millinery department in one of the Calcutta shops, and was on her way to Paris to study fashions. We ran across her in a restaurant there, and she told us all about it, and offered to get my hats at wholesale prices. I thanked her kindly, but taking note of the fact that she was wearing a purple toque with tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of crimson and green, politely but firmly refused."

"I should think so, indeed! Terrible old person! How you ever endured her as you did, I cannot understand. Remember young Chamberlain?

Handsome fellow with big nose and square shoulders. I met him the other day in Piccadilly with a brand-new wife. Married the week he came back, after seven years' engagement. Introduced me to his wife with as much side as if no one had ever been married before!"

"How sweet of him! He was a really nice man. He always went into the services on Sunday, and joined ira the hymns, instead of lolling about at the other end of the deck, like many of the men. He had some friends travelling second-cla.s.s, too, and wasn't a bit ashamed of it, but used to go and see them regularly. I hope he will be very, very happy. Was she pretty?"

"Not an atom! Might have been once on a time, perhaps, in the prehistoric ages, but she is too pale and faded nowadays. By no means in her first bloom, I a.s.sure you."

"Well, she has lost it in waiting for him, so he would be a mean wretch if he liked her any the worse. _Such_ a joke! You remember that fat old man with the crimson face who was so furious with little Miss Muir when she spoke against Gladstone? He jumped up and down like a Jack in the Box, and said he was 'surprised, madam, that any one of your intelligence, madam, should be so blinded by prejudice, madam--' You remember how we looked on from afar, and christened him 'A Study in Scarlet'? Well, two days ago, mother had a letter from Miss Muir herself, and they are going to be married in August! It seems he never rested until he converted her to his own views, and then he was so pleased with her for agreeing with him that this is the result. She seems so happy, poor old dear, and says that though hot-tempered he has a warm and loving heart. I notice that people with especially violent tempers always take refuge behind the plea of loving hearts! Whom else have you seen?"

"I had an invitation to call upon the Sh.o.r.es, and went on Sunday week.

Miss Eveline was in greater form than ever. I am sure you would have liked to see her."

Peggy shrugged her shoulders viciously.

"K-r-r-eature! Don't allude to her in my presence, please. No one shall hear me breathe a word about a member of my own s.e.x, but of all the miserable, contemptible, mean little wretches that ever breathed, she was the worst! I'll _never_ have anything to say to a girl who snubs her own mother before strangers, and makes fun of her poor old father, because he has given her a better education than he had himself.

One day he was talking to me about the view, and enjoying himself so much--he really was a most affable old man--when she happened to come up and overhear him say something about the 'Hopen haspect!' She shrugged her shoulders and smiled at me, and I turned a basilisk countenance upon her and glared, lit-er-ally gl-ared with anger." Peggy turned her head with a delighted remembrance of her own severity, then once more softened into smiles.

"Any news of my _dear_ friend, General Andrews? You have seen him, of course? Did he ask for my address?"

"I am afraid not. I really can't remember that he did."

Peggy sighed.

"He promised me a tiger skin," she said sorrowfully, "and a bra.s.s tray, and some carved ivories, and a dressing-gown, and an elephant's foot!

The elephant's foot was to be mounted for me, and he gave me the choice of how it was to be done, and said he would take it to a skilful man. I think he must have killed a whole herd of elephants, for he promised a foot to every girl on board. He was a most promising creature, and his intentions were admirable. I am sure that at the time he meant all he said, and I can't blame him for his forgetfulness, for my own memory is at times sadly defective."

She glanced roguishly in Rob's face as she concluded, as if recalling past mishaps, and he smiled in return, but in a strained, unnatural fashion which she was quick to notice. Rob knew none of the people of whom she had been talking with his brother, and could enter into none of the jokes which were a.s.sociated with their names. It was only natural, therefore, that he should feel debarred from the conversation.

Peggy drew a long breath of dismay. What a strange world it was, and how differently things turned out from what one expected! To think that at this first meeting it should be _Rob_ who was left out in the cold, and not Hector; Rob who stood aside and was silent, Hector who laughed and talked with the ease of intimate friendship! It gave her a miserable feeling of self-reproach that it should be so; and yet how was she to blame? The situation had arisen naturally enough.

She gave a little movement of impatience, and her thoughts went off at a tangent, while in appearance she was still listening attentively to Hector's reminiscences.

Rosalind and Arthur were whispering together with longer pauses between the sentences than is usual in the converse of friends. She was smiling into his face in her sweetest, most winsome manner, but he did not look happy. His face wore the same troubled, fighting expression which his sister had noticed on the evening of her arrival in London.

Hector's complacent serenity stood out in soothing relief at once from Arthur's strain and Rob's moody silence, for moody Rob looked indeed, with his closed lips and heavy brows. A vivid remembrance flashed into Peggy's mind of a schoolboy, raising his head from a microscope and scowling darkly at some unhappy wight who had incurred his displeasure, and with the remembrance a wild longing to be a school-girl again, in short frocks and pigtail, a sc.r.a.p of a school-girl who could swing herself on to the table to pinch his arm, or mimic each gesture as it came, pulling her own sleek locks into an imitation of his s.h.a.ggy crop, and scowling so darkly that, against his will, he was forced into laughter. Many a time in the days gone by had she smoothed the "black dog" off Rob's back in some such fashion; but now the age of propriety had dawned, and it was not permitted to take such liberties.

"I'm a lady growed, and I'll act according," said Peggy to herself; "but dear, dear me, what a handicap it is! He would enjoy it so much, and so should I. Well, at least I can say I want to go upstairs, and then we can have another nice talk. I haven't said half or a quarter of what is in my mind."

She rose from her seat, turning towards Rob to claim his escort; but before she had time to speak, Hector's arm was thrust forward, and Hector's voice protested eagerly:

"Let me take you. I have so much to tell you yet. Take my arm, and let me pilot you through the crowd."

Peggy stood hesitating and uncertain between the two tall brothers.

"But--" she began feebly, and then looked at Rob, waiting for him to finish the sentence.

So far Rob had made no protest, but the moment he met that glance, there came a sudden flash to the eye, a straightening to the back, which made a startling transformation in the aspect of the dreamy student.

As he stood thus, he was as tall as Hector himself; the rugged strength of his face made him an even more imposing figure.

"But Peggy came down with me," he said firmly, "and it is my place to take her back."

"Nonsense, my dear boy. You have had your talk. It's my turn now.

Peggy and I have a great many things to say to each other, and--"

"Plenty of opportunities ahead in which to say them. To-night will not be your only meeting. Take my arm, Peggy," said Rob sternly; and Peggy gasped and took it, and marched away meek and blushing, conscious to the very curls on her neck of the amazed disgust with which Hector watched her retreat.

Outside, in the corridor, her eyes met Rob's, and she made a little grimace of alarm.

"_Now_ you have done it! How furious he looked!"

"Serve him right," said Rob lightly. "And I'll do it again the very next time he comes interfering between you and me! There are some things, Mariquita, that a fellow can _not_ be expected to stand!"

Peggy gave a happy little trill of laughter. After all, there were some good points about being grown-up. At that moment she had no hankering whatever for the days of pigtails and pinafores!

CHAPTER NINE.

Rob went back to The Larches next day, faithful to a decision expressed to Peggy at the reception.

"I have seen you now, Peg," he said, "and have gratified my curiosity, so I shall go back to my work and the country, until such time as you deign to shed the light of your presence upon us. It's no use staying here, for you will be up to your ears in engagements all day long, and I'm never fit to speak to in London, in any case. I hate and detest the place, and feel in an abominable rage the whole time I am here."

"How strange--and I love it! I made father take me for a drive on the top of a City omnibus the other day, and it was just thrilling. I love the roar and rush and bustle, and the feeling that one is in the very centre of the world, and that inside those big bare buildings, and among those jostling crowds, the greatest men in the world are at work, making literature--making kingdoms--making history! I look at the different people as they pa.s.s, and wonder who they are, and what they are doing and feeling and thinking. It's like a big, wonderful puzzle, which one will never, never be able to solve, but which keeps one enthralled and wondering all the same."

Rob's dark face softened tenderly as he looked at the little figure sitting so erect by his side, with the flush of excitement on her cheeks, and her young eyes aglow with enthusiasm.

"Or a story-book?" he said gently. "You used always to compare life to a story-book, Peggy, and comfort yourself in tribulation by the reflection that it would all work out right in the third volume. Well, _you_ find your most interesting chapters in the City, and I find mine under the hedges in a country lane. It's all a matter of taste, but you have as much right to your opinion as any one else."

"Oh, but I love the country, too," cried Peggy quickly. "You know I do!

We want to have our home in the country, and I intend to have the most beautiful garden in the county. I have never yet seen a garden which came up to my ideal, and I mean to show how things should be managed, and to enjoy myself ever so much in planning it out. All the same, it must be near town, so that we can run up when we feel inclined. People first, and Nature second--them's my sentiments! I could not be happy separated from my fellow-creatures."

Rob smiled in a patient, forbearing manner.

"Women are by nature gregarious. They can't help themselves, poor things! Whatever they do, they need an audience. It's no satisfaction to them to possess anything, unless they can show it off to a so-called friend and make her green with envy. 'What is the good of a nice house?

No one sees it!' That is Rosalind's cry, when by any chance we are without visitors for a week at a time. 'What is the use of wearing pretty clothes? n.o.body sees them!' The idea of enjoying a thing for itself alone is unattainable to the feminine mind."

"Don't be superior, please! It's so easy to sneer and be sarcastic at other people's expense. I could scorch you up at this moment if I chose, but I refrain. Snubbing is a form of wit which has never made any appeal to my imagination," cried Peggy grandiloquently, and Rob chuckled to himself with delighted appreciation.

"Bravo, Mariquita! Score for you! I hide my diminished head. Look here, though, I've got an idea which I present as a peace-offering. If you don't succeed in getting a house near town, what do you say to Yew Hedge, in our neighbourhood? It's to be sold, and you used to admire it in the old days, I remember. It's a quaint, old-fashioned place, with a drawing-room out of which you could make great things; six acres of land, and some fine trees. Altogether you might do worse, and although it is further in the country than you wish, there are several human creatures in the neighbourhood who would be delighted to welcome you!"

"Rob, you admirable person! You have the most delightful ideas! Yew Hedge! I have never been inside the house itself, but I remember peeping over the hedge and admiring the grounds, and it would be just scrumptious to be near you all. I'll speak to father about it at once, and it will be a comfort to have something in the background, to keep up our spirits if our search continues to be as unsuccessful as it is at present."

Another week's house-hunting proved the truth of Peggy's words, for if it had not been for the thought of Yew Hedge, the wanderers would have begun to think that there was no resting-place for them within their native land. House after house was visited, and house after house proved unsuitable or, in those rare instances when all requirements were fulfilled, so far beyond Colonel Saville's purse as to transform perfection into aggravation, pure and simple. It seemed as though Fate were shutting every avenue in order to advocate the claim of Yew Hedge; but, though Peggy secretly rejoiced over the fact, she could not induce Arthur to share her feelings.