A whole chapter just with grown-up people, and not a very pleasant chapter at that! For one, I had a deal rather be with certain little friends of ours up at Windsor, but we cannot go yet a while; and having seen the little Berkshire cottage turned inside out, as it were, there is nothing for it but to wait and see it put to rights again. Besides, when all is said, Ted is Harold’s brother, so that, scapegrace or no, we ought not to deliberately turn our backs, at a time too when matters have reached a crisis, and one wonders how they will go with him. But fortunately they went far better than even the doctor dared to hope, and with the morning came consciousness, and all the dazed bewilderment as well, of one who finds himself in wholly new surroundings, with no idea whatever of how he came there. Everybody was early astir in the cottage, and quite ready to forget the anxiety and excitement of the night in the doctor’s glad assurance that the young gentleman certainly was not “done for.” As for the other young gentlemen, who had been allowed to sleep off their indisposition in Mrs. Hartley’s best room, it was agreed between the doctor and Harry Allyn that the sooner they took their departure the better. Breakfast for two was therefore first made ready, and the young fellows, who had gotten up and dressed—somewhat against their will, it must be confessed—finally took their seats at the places set for them. Martha, who had no notion of waiting on such sorry customers, was careful to place everything within arm’s reach on the table and then to disappear, and the meal was eaten in silence, with no one in the room save the doctor, who kept pacing up and down in a manner that was intended to expedite their departure. The two fellows seemed to realize that they were considered responsible for the whole unhappy affair; indeed, the doctor had told them so pretty plainly, and they were themselves rather anxious to be off and away from such an accusing and uncomfortable atmosphere.
“I suppose the old lady ought to be paid something,” said one of them, pushing back his chair.
“You can’t very well pay for such trouble as you have given,” said the doctor curtly. “It might not be out of the way though for you to thank Mrs. Hartley for the night’s shelter and your breakfast,” but Mrs. Hartley was nowhere to be found—indeed, to all appearances the cottage was quite deserted; and, accompanied by the doctor, they made their way out of the house and down the lane. Not a word was spoken until they reached the road, and then Dr. Arnold, stopping squarely in front of them, said: “I have one thing to say to you two fellows, and that is this—that you are not to tell a living soul of last night’s adventure. You have deliberately set about to entrap and disgrace two men vastly your superiors, but so far as in me lies I am going to do all in my power to free them from your clutches and save them from the scandal of this thing, and if I hear of its becoming known through you I’ll—”
“There isn’t any use in your threatening us like that,” interrupted the older, his heavy face glowing angrily. “We’ll tell as much or as little as we like.”
“Hadden,” said the doctor sternly, “I know more of your history than you think. You were mixed up in a more shameful scrape than this not long ago up at Nuneham, and if you and your friend here do not keep close-mouthed about this whole affair, I will tell some of the Oxford officials just what I know as sure as my name is Joseph Arnold. Does that alter the case any?”
“Yes, rather,” drawled the other with cool effrontery; and knowing he had scotched his man, the doctor turned on his heel, and the two men started off in the direction of the Nuneham station, neither sadder nor wiser, it is to be feared, for the lesson of the night’s experience. No sooner had these two unwelcome guests vanished from the precincts of the little cottage than Mrs. Hartley reappeared from some mysterious corner and Martha from another, and preparations were at once put forward for the most inviting breakfast the little house could command. Notwithstanding the wretched company in which they had been found, Mrs. Hartley was confident that her remaining guests were surely “gentlemen;” and as, in addition to this, no one through all the countryside was as widely loved and honored as Dr. Arnold, was not there occasion for elaborate preparation? All this, of course, involved considerable delay, which Chris and the doctor would have gladly foregone; but it gave Harry Allyn a sorely coveted opportunity for an early talk with Mrs. Hartley.
“Is your mistress in the kitchen?” he asked of Martha, who was arranging some sweet peas in a celery glass as a decoration for the table.
“Yes, Mr. Allyn,” very respectfully, for in the mind of the little maid, as in the mind of all the others, there was the conviction that this Mr. Allyn had very little in common with the company in which he had been found. “Shall I call her for you?” she added.
“Would there be any harm in my going in there?” as though he were entreating a favor of a queen.
“Not a bit in the world, Mr. Allyn;” and thus reassured Harry at once made his way into the sunny and spotless little kitchen.
Mrs. Hartley was so preoccupied in giving the final stirring to a golden mixture in a great yellow bowl that she did not hear Harry as he came toward her, and so gave a little start when he spoke.
“Martha told me it would be all right,” he explained.
“Oh, yes, certainly,” quickly recovering herself, “you’ll excuse me if I go right on.”
“You never can know, Mrs. Hartley,” he said, taking his stand at the end of the table, and leaning a little wearily against the wall at his back, “how mortified I am about what has happened, and how sorry that we should have put you to all this trouble; and the bother of it is, Mrs. Hartley, it isn’t over yet. The doctor says Ted will not be able to get about for two or three weeks at least. Do you think”—a world of entreaty in his voice—“you can ever manage to keep him as long as that?”
“Yes—I think—I can,” but very slowly and thoughtfully, as though half afraid of promising more than she could perform.
“It will be a great care for you, Mrs. Hartley.”
............