Part 9

"Then let me command you to go away," said Toney laughing, "for Aunt Dove won't like me to leave you, and those poor people will find themselves thrown from the frying-pan into the fire. Mr. Russell will want to tabulate them so minutely."

The Honourable Edward rose quite willingly. He was afraid of seeing more of Toney's "friends" arriving, and in any case he could not very conveniently make love to the heiress in this formal drawing-room.

"If I obey you now, tell me when I may come again?"

"Oh, whenever you like, there's sure to be something going on in the tabulating line for some time to come." Toney's laugh was catching.

"But I may be rewarded with a talk with you, apart from the genteel beggars," he said cheerfully.

"It's all very well laughing at beggars, but if one has nothing one does strange things. Do you know when I first came here I was a beggar, and not at all genteel, Aunt Dove would tell you--and I was glad to make a whistle for five shillings!"

"Was it a successful whistle?"

"I rather think it was! I believe it was owing to it that General Stone left me his money. Now do say good-bye, please."

"_Au revoir_ then, Miss Whitburn, I prefer saying that---- Mother, I really think----" Lady Southbourne always obeyed her son and rose immediately.

"So delighted to have seen you not looking a bit tired after your delightful party," she said to Toney, keeping her hand affectionately in her lavender kid, "I wish we could stay longer---- Now why not come over and spend a few days at the Towers? Wouldn't that be delightful, Edward?"

"It would indeed!"

Toney shook her head.

"Afraid I can't, thanks; besides, I shouldn't know what to do, and at Aldersfield I've got heaps waiting to be settled."

"Of course we mustn't be selfish," said Lady Southbourne, not taking any notice of Toney's reason for not going to the Towers!

At last they were off, followed by the most gracious remarks of Lady Dove as Toney flew back to her own room.

There she found not only Dr. and Mrs. Harris, Mr. and Miss Smith, and Captain Grant, but also Lewis and Mrs. Faber assisting the visitors to make a square meal; whilst Mr. Russell was tabulating them, every now and then making a dart at one of the individuals to get special answers.

"This is nice! How kind of you, Mr. Waycott. Lady Southbourne and the Honourable Edward took so long to go I had to give him a hint."

"Oh, Toney! what did you say?" said Mrs. Faber.

"Why I asked him to go and he went. It's better to speak honest, isn't it?--Dr. Harris, have some more veal pie. Our cook is just perfect at veal pies."

Dr. Harris said he didn't mind if he did have some more, but at that moment Mr. Russell made a dart at Miss Smith.

"What is the date of your birth, Miss Smith?"

Now Miss Smith's age was a hid treasure, and to be asked to dig it up in this public way was more than she could bear. She blushed a vivid purple.

"It's of no consequence whatever, Mr. Russell," she said. "I really have forgotten my birthday." Mr. Russell went back and put down "birthday forgotten."

"But the year?" he asked again, feeling his whole _raison d'etre_ depended on that date.

"Let me see--What year were you born, brother?"

Mr. Smith blinked very often as he answered, wishing to spare his sister.

"I think I had better send you these particulars--if there is--any good to be got by them."

"Oh, never mind," said Toney, seeing the difficulty. "Mr. Russell, please put 'Uncertain.' It isn't easy to remember, if you are asked suddenly how old one is, is it, Mr. Waycott?" Lewis was stifling a smile.

"I am six-and-twenty, I know, because Aunt Honoria keeps my birthdays and announces my age every year."

"Your relative knows that a man does not mind," said Dr. Harris, "but ladies have rooted objections to telling their age." He bowed to Miss Smith, and Miss Smith giggled softly.

Toney saw the motor drive up, and seized the occasion to dash away. She soon returned.

"Now you shall all be driven to the station, when you are ready, and I do hope you won't regret your journey. It's been so very, very nice, seeing you. Just on the day, too, that I have taken the farm."

By the time they were squeezed into the big motor their faces were wreathed with smiles, especially when Toney had thrust an envelope into each of their hands, murmuring something about "Just to pay the journey." The deaf gentleman opened it publicly, and nearly dropped the five pound note, then nearly all tumbled out again to say "Thank you," but at a sign from Toney Jim flew off as if pursued by the furies.

*CHAPTER XVI.*

*UNEXPECTED NEWS.*

"Oh, Toney, what did you give them?" asked Mrs. Faber, when they all returned to Toney's sitting-room. "Wasn't it a pity to----"

"Now Chum is against me. It was only five pounds each, as they had to pay the journeys--Mr. Waycott, you are the only one who understands."

"I'm delighted you say so, but--in what way do I show my superior wisdom?" said Lewis smiling.

"You don't think that money is a little china god that has to be handled carefully."

"I suppose we all have crooked ideas of money," he said, conscious that he didn't care much about these wayfaring beggars; certainly not at all as Toney did.

"They shouldn't have been so impatient," said Plantagenet Russell, turning over his big book. "I had only reached the letter H, but I'll send a card at once to all the rest, or we shall have daily processions."

"Well, I'm very glad they came, for now you see with your own eye, Mr. Russell, that my poor clergy, doctors, sailors, and relations of the above, do exist!" They all laughed.

"Of course they exist, Miss Whitburn, but if they had been properly careful and hard-working they wouldn't now be out of elbows. And Miss Smith was so ridiculous about her age!"

"She was a bit jibby about it, wasn't she? but I expect she had a lover somewhere, and she doesn't like to let it out."

"Oh, Toney, you are too romantic--you always were," said Mrs. Faber.

"Anyhow, you can't complain of deaf Captain Grant. He looked so cheerful, and did not want to hide his age."

Plantagenet turned over to the letter G in his book.

"Here he is; Grant, Charles, Captain. Lost hearing and work. Very small income, age sixty, only poor relations, references."

"Of course they sound uninteresting as tabulated folk. I'm sure St. Francis never tabulated people! There's a lovely story of one of the brothers, who was nursing a leper, being told to go fifteen miles off, and not liking to leave his patient, took him up on his back from dawn to sunrise all the way, and no one could believe he could have done it in the time, so everybody was awfully astonished."

"I'm thankful there are no lepers in England now, Miss Whitburn," said Mr. Russell in his drawling voice; "I'm rather afraid you might wish me to carry one of them fifteen miles if you sent me on a message. Couldn't do it, I assure you!"

The idea made them all laugh.

"I must go back now," said Lewis, "and, short of lepers, what can I do to help you?"

"I really think we must all help to answer the letters if you will come to-morrow morning; Mr. Russell has composed a short note asking for all particulars."

"Age and pedigree! Well, Russell, I'll turn up and help to-morrow," said Lewis, nodding towards the secretary.

"There's the bell," exclaimed Mrs. Faber. "I expect Lady Dove will want her novel. Henry says I must come home to-morrow. I do hope Miss Grossman will be well enough to come down."

"I'll find time, if she is not, Chum, dear. You are such an angel! You are just like Santa Clara; isn't she, Mr. Russell?"

"I'm not acquainted with Santa Clara," he answered, "but I shall be quite willing to do anything I can for Lady Dove, Mrs. Faber, when my labours are lessened."

Toney went off with Lewis, she felt she must have a stretch after her anxieties.

"I'm so happy about that land," she exclaimed, as the two crossed the park in the twilight, "that I can't feel upset even! I shall write to my architect to-night. You do seem to make everything straight."

"Do I?" said Lewis in a low voice. Was it ever going to dawn on Toney why he tried to make everything straight? At present he feared she credited him with pure love of humanity. If only he dared speak; but, no, that money stood in the way. How he hated fifty thousand a year!

"Yes, you do; and that's why, when I have any plan, I always think first of you. Dear Chum is so afraid of doing wrong, and Uncle Evas is so just--straight-ahead-going, that a secret is really no use at all with him! He blurts it out at the most inconvenient moment! He is a dear old duck all the same! He sits up all night, or did, to write my business letters because Aunt Dove couldn't bear to see him do it. Well, but that's not what I wanted to ask you about."

"Any more stray sheep, Toney? They're pretty thick on the ground as it is!"

"I hope they are all in the fold to-night, but I want to talk about Jeanie and Maud Hamilton. I know you would like them to have something nice and so you can best help me."

"My dear Toney, they wouldn't like being tabulated," said Lewis laughing.

"No, of course not. I wish Mr. Russell had not that craze; however, Pups used to say, 'every man knows what crutch suits him best.' I never quite knew what he meant, but I do now: Mr. Russell finds that big book his crutch."

"But what about the Hamiltons? You know Aunt Honoria and I are always delighted to have them with us. My Uncle Hamilton was an easy-going spendthrift, and never thought what would happen when he died, so when he departed this life, they said he had quietly eaten more than half his capital."

"I daresay he helped other people, so that's just the reason why other people should take care of his children. Jeanie loves music and wants to go to Vienna, I heard her say so, and Maud--Maud is nice, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is vastly improved."

"Yes, and she is what Aunt Dove calls a 'real lady.' Of course she looked hard at me when she said it! She meant I wasn't, and I'm not, I know I wasn't born that way---- Well, I want somehow to give Maud a good time and Jeanie too at Vienna. I want to pay all their masters and expenses, and how is it to be managed without letting them know it?"

"Toney, you really mustn't---- Besides, there's no way of doing it."

"Yes, there must be some uncle in Australia or Africa, or Klondike, that would send them three hundred pounds."

"I don't know of any such individual. Yes, by the way, there is an old cousin in the Argentine, from whom they expect a legacy. I believe he is a penniless rascal, but they paint him with a coat of gilding and call him, 'dear Cousin Seaton.'" They laughed together like two good comrades.

"He'll do! Mr. Staines, who is very understanding, will get someone to send it from the Argentine, and that will be true. 'Three hundred pounds from a friend in the Argentine for musical training in Germany,' and they'll jump to conclusions!"

"And you want me to abet you in the falsehood?"

"Of course. You will have to belong to the 'poor little disciples,' as St. Francis liked his brothers to be called, and they had to do all sorts of queer commissions."

"Did the 'poor little disciples' have to swallow bare-faced deceptions?"

"I think so, for they couldn't have liked all they had to do and yet they said they did! It is a farce, isn't it? Oh, good-bye, there's Uncle Evas coming, and I'll just walk back with him. He's a little down to-day. Guess he's had to make head against a breeze. He's quite ready for a 'poor little disciple.'"

Lewis could not help laughing. Something in Toney carried all before her, because she never let self get into her plans. Sir Evas brightened up as he met his niece.

"Hulloa! where are you two going? I've had a day among the farms. There's a lot of repairs to be done and they think I must see them all myself."

"So you should, uncle! Tell you what, we'll just titivate them all up and you'll have no more trouble for years."

"My dear Toney! It's much better done by degrees, doesn't drain the property so much."

"We'll do it now, uncle, and all at once. You always say, 'make hay while the sun shines,' and that's what I am doing."

"Toney has been making hay with a vengeance to-day, Sir Evas," and Lewis told the history of the _avant garde_.

"My dear girl, the house will be besieged! You see, Lewis, what a mistake the General made," said Sir Evas laughing, "did your aunt---- Ehem--bear it well?"

Toney shook her head.

"It shan't happen again, uncle. We'll tabulate hard to-morrow. It all comes of tabulating! Now pretend you know nothing about it. Where ignorance is bliss. Good-bye, Mr. Waycott, and thank you awfully much. Now, Uncle Evas, we must quick trot home, it's Chum's last evening. Remember to be very nice and grateful to her. She's done a lot of hard work you know."

"So have we all, Toney! However, I'll compose a speech on the way home. Good night, Waycott, hope you don't want speeches."

Lewis surreptitiously watched them going off. It seemed like the last ray of evening sunshine disappearing in the woods. Why should he bother about the money? Why? Then he shook his head. Everyone would say he had married Toney's fifty thousand. His pride rebelled and even a perfectly clear conscience could not conquer it.

"There's a lovely moon so we shan't be benighted," said Toney, taking her uncle's arm.

"I say, Toney, we mustn't be late for dinner," he said walking quicker. He was trying to brace himself to hear the story of the _avant garde_, and this time he knew it would not be accompanied with laughter.

"Isn't dinner a bother? Meals in general too. Brother Juniper, that's the one who didn't speak for six months and played see-saw with the children--well, he once was left alone and he was told to see he cooked some food when the others returned, and he agreed, but when they were gone he thought it was a lot of trouble so much food cooking, so he went begging for food and made a big fire, and borrowed big pots and put all the food he got into it. Fowls with their feathers on, and eggs with their shells, and the fire was so big that he had to tie a plank on his body to get near the pots. Then at last he rang the bell and all the brothers came, expecting great things, and he said, 'Eat well, for I have cooked enough for a fortnight, and then we can all go to prayer and think no more about food.'"

"I hope they enjoyed it!" said Sir Evas absently. He was thinking of his wife.

"It says so quaintly that, 'there is not a pig in all the land of Rome so famished as to have eaten it!' But he got a wigging from the General!"

This chimed in with Sir Evas' thoughts.

"I daresay he deserved it! Fowls with their feathers on can't be very digestible."

"Anyhow he was right about the time we waste over our meals! Do you know, uncle, you are rather like Brother Amazialbene."

"Good heavens, what a name! Didn't your Brother shorten it ever?"

"No, you see they had time then. Anyhow, he possessed the virtues of patience and obedience, for if he were beaten for the whole day long, he would never murmur nor complain with a single word!"

"I don't think I should take the beating so easily! But I want to say, Toney, that you are giving away your money right and left rather too freely. There's moderation in all things, my dear child."

"Dear old ducky. It's just perfect to hear you! I'm only afraid of not being able to get rid of it all, but I mean to try."

"You must remember--Ehem--if you were to marry, of course your husband would help you to get rid of a good lot!"

Toney turned the conversation and the two who so well understood each other appeared in the Aldersfield drawing-room just as Lady Dove was telling Mrs. Faber to leave off as it was time to dress.

"Oh, there you are! Well, I do think, Evas, that you might have returned to tea. Has Antonia told you of the terrible inroad we have had? If----"

"Yes, yes, it was a mistake--but they didn't do any harm, did they?"

"Lewis Waycott and Edward Lang were here happily, and were very good-natured. By the way, I have had Mrs. Kenward here, and I have heard some news about him, which of course I have been expecting."

"Indeed, what's that?" said Sir Evas, pleasantly relieved that the storm was blowing over, whilst Toney leant against the door and listened.

"Lewis is going to marry his cousin Maud. It is private as yet, but quite understood."

"Good gracious! Strange we have not heard it!"

"Oh, you men have no eyes. At the party I saw them constantly smiling at each other, and Mrs. Hamilton said very pointedly something about young people fancying no one saw their inclinations. I guessed her meaning. Well, she has been working that way for some years, she means to feather her nest well, but of course it's a pity!"

Without knowing what he was doing, Sir Evas turned towards Toney, and to his surprise he found her gone.

"Well," he said, "I always thought he liked Toney! But it's no use meddling with such things."

Upstairs Toney was sitting on her window-sill with Trick in her arms. She had locked her door, and for the first time in her life there was no smile on her lips at the thought of Lewis Waycott.

"Oh, I am glad, I must be glad that he will be happy," she said to herself, "but I wish he had told me himself, though she is a nice girl and will sort of do all he wishes." Then she laid her head against Trick's face and whispered, "Trick, Trick, you'll not leave your mistress, will you, dear? You're all I've got of my very own."

*CHAPTER XVII.*

*STUCK IN A BOG.*

After great events there is always a certain feeling of flatness, and it must have been that which made Toney somewhat silent and plunge at times into the tabulating work with furious energy. Lewis Waycott came every morning and, to everybody's surprise, the Hon. Edward often turned up too. It really was amusing to see the self-made secretaries each in front of a book and a pile of letters, whilst Plantagenet Russell indolently "bossed the show," as Toney remarked. Before he had worked long Edward Lang's labours were transmuted into conversation, and he always found an excellent excuse for luring Toney out into the park or the garden; strange to say, Toney did not seem to object, and left Lewis and Plantagenet at their task without too many apologies. The feeling of needing a good stretch came upon her, and though she would have preferred solitude, Edward Lang's thirst for information served her purpose. When Lewis was gone, however, then she returned to the tabulating work with increased energy, and the Hon. Edward's wishes could not drag her away. She said to herself she missed her chum, and that the world was a bit awry without her sweet sympathy, but she manfully fought against these feelings, flying to her "Little Flowers" for strength when she felt extra depressed. She liked reading about Brother John, of Alverina, who had entered the Order as a boy, "But seeing that God careth with tender care for His children, giving them at divers times, now consolation, and now tribulation, now prosperity, and now adversity, according as He seeth they have need thereof, for to continue in humility, or for to kindle more in them desire for heavenly things," Brother John remained without the light and love of God, and this so afflicted him that he took to running hither and thither about the woods, till at last he had a vision of Christ and after many entreaties, the gift of divine grace returned to him.

"All work and no play, Toney, will make you dull, a day's hunting will do you a world of good," said Sir Evas one day. "I'll come with you, and Colon wants exercise. The meet is at the Towers."

Toney looked up quickly.

"It's you, uncle, who want to hunt, but of course I'll come. Mr. Waycott will help Mr. Russell to-day, and perhaps a good blow will clear away my cobwebs. We're getting so puzzled as to who's the most needy and deserving, that we seriously think of raffling them."

"I hope Waycott won't give up his hunting for your beggars, Toney. Anyhow, we'll start early to-morrow."

It was a real joy to see Toney hunting; she sat her horse as if she were part and parcel of the steed and certainly there was perfect sympathy between them. The county gentlemen, who now and then spoke hard words about some of the Dianas of the hunting field, were lost in admiration as they saw Toney's seat, and Sir Evas felt immensely proud of the praises bestowed upon his niece. That this young huntress was an heiress added to the admiration, and Toney found herself surrounded with a little court of followers, foremost among them was, of course, Edward Lang. He meant to try his luck to-day, and was therefore delighted at seeing her at the meet, but how was he to find his opportunity?

Toney looked as if cobwebs were swept away judging by her face as she and Sir Evas joined the meet, indeed, she looked a perfect picture as she and Colon impatiently waited to be off though talking to Edward Lang.

"Colon is nearly perfect. Uncle Evas bought him when he became my guardian, and I don't think there is a better judge of horses in all England."

"That is a rare talent. You'll lunch here of course, Miss Whitburn?"

"I think we shall need fortifying. Oh, now they're off! I feel as if we should fly over everything."

And, indeed, it looked like it, for Toney and Colon were soon flying across country in grand style. Sir Evas presently gave up trying to keep up with her, five-barred gates were not for him now, though in his youth he had been a mighty hunter.

"Look at Miss Whitburn taking that hedge! By jove!" exclaimed one of the young men.

"Did you see her take that wide ditch? It was magnificent, and there's no show-off; it's just because she and her thorough-bred forget everything that it's so splendid."

Edward Lang even had not been able to keep up with Toney, but you can't make a proposal flying over a gate, so he comforted himself with thinking,

"Australia ought to be proud of having reared her; anyhow, a girl who rides like that can be trusted not to give way to too many fads."

No need to describe a hunting morning in that county, it has all been done before, and best by those who have themselves known the full excitement of a splendid run. To Toney it seemed to give new life and happiness, but she never was too much excited to forget that this was only an interlude. She and her father had had many a day's hard riding, and he had taught her so young that the word or feeling of fear did not even enter into her composition; and, besides this, Colon was a thoroughbred to be proud of. He understood the run as well or better than she did, and seemed endowed with miraculous powers of clearing everything that came in his way, whilst a soft pat from a loving hand was reward enough. It must be owned that though the masculine gender applauded, some of the hunting ladies were somewhat jealous.

"Of course," said a pretty girl to Edward Lang, "if you get a thorough-bred like that you can do anything, it depends on the horse." Her own was evidently a hack of moderate powers.

He shook his head.

"I fear it isn't all the horse, Miss Symons; Miss Whitburn has a superb seat."

"They say she was originally a circus rider," answered Miss Symons; "that accounts for her splendid seat, doesn't it?"

The Honble. Edward winced a little. He meant to propose to-day and this remark affected him disagreeably. Would his wife have to live down these queer reports?

"I never heard that report," he said smiling, "but if I had been the owner of the circus I would not have let Miss Whitburn leave me. Her father was a doctor in Australia."

"Oh, Australia! They are queer people there! Descendants of convicts, aren't they?"