Bertram seemed to be a little comforted; and then I told him of a plan for Miles,—that he should be, for a time at least, our under-gardener.
"How good of you and father! That's capital!" he said. "Miles is a jolly boy!"
"You and we owe him much," I said.
"Yes, it was so plucky of him. I wonder we didn't both get killed,— it was such a thundering big rock, you know," declared Bertram, oddly trying to seem indifferent the moment he was able to master himself. And then there was a sigh. "Doesn't it seem horrid that he should have saved me from being hurt, and that I should have brought all this upon them!"
So then we had to go through it all again, and I had to comfort him afresh.
However, I think the idea of Miles working under old Nichols did him most good, by diverting his thoughts into a new channel. He was able soon to wonder what old Nichols would say, and to laugh at the thought of our aged retainer's probable grumpiness.
Not that Nichols was really so old. I suppose he was under fifty-five at that time, though anybody would have taken him for sixty-five at least. He was stooping and slow, grey and wrinkled. He had been a member of our household for twelve years, and of my father's household for fifteen years before that; so Nichols was entirely one of us, and he never hesitated to show what he thought.
The possibility of his "grumpiness" had occurred to me already. Nichols knew that we intended to get help for him; and he was not at all gratified, even while perfectly well aware that he could not do all the work alone. Our Ermespoint garden was more than twice as large as our former garden, and Nichols was becoming each year less capable of hard work. Still, having done alone for us during so many years, it was perhaps not surprising that he disliked the notion of any interloper.
My husband was so busy next day that I undertook to explain to Nichols about the new arrangement. He listened solemnly, his under lip protruding, and his shaggy eyebrows drawn together.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, when I stopped, and he said no more.