So they talked the night away, drifting gradually from the unpleasant initial subject to Ulfar’s plan of travel and 172 the far-off prospect of his return. And in the gray, cold dawn he bade them farewell, and they watched him until he vanished in the mists rolling down the mountain. Then they kissed each other,—a little, sad kiss of congratulation, wet with tears; they had won their desire, but their victory had left them weeping. Alas! it is the very condition of success that every triumph must be baptized with somebody’s tears.
This event, beginning in such a trifle as an almost accidental visit of Aspatria to the vicar, was the line sharply dividing very different lives. Nothing in Seat-Ambar was ever quite the same after it. William Anneys, indeed, quickly perceived and acknowledged his fault, and the reconciliation was kind and complete; but Aspatria had taken a step forward, and crossed clearly that bound which divides girlhood from womanhood. Unconsciously she assumed a carriage that Will felt compelled to respect, and a tone was in her voice he did not care to bluff and contradict. He never again ordered her to remain silent or 173 to leave his presence. A portion of his household authority had passed from him, both as regarded Aspatria and Brune; and he felt himself to be less master than he had formerly been.
Perhaps this was one reason of the growing frequency of his visits to Frostham. There he was made much of, deferred to, and all his little fancies flattered and obeyed. Will knew he was the most important person in the world to Alice Frostham; and he knew, also, that he only shared Aspatria’s heart with Ulfar Fenwick. Men like the whole heart, and nothing less than the whole heart; hence Alice’s influence grew steadily all through the summer days, full to the brim of happy labour and reasonable love. As early as the haymaking Will told Aspatria that Alice was coming to Seat-Ambar as its mistress; and when the harvest was gathered in, the wedding took place. It was as noisily jocund an affair as Aspatria’s had been silent and sorrowful; and Alice Frostham, encircled by Will’s protecting 174 arm, was led across the threshold of her own new home, to the sound of music and rejoicing.
The home was quickly divided, though without unkind intent. Will and Alice had their own talk, their own hopes and plans, and Aspatria and Brune generally felt that their entrance interfered with some discussion. So Aspatria and Brune began to sit a great deal in Aspatria’s room, and by and by to discuss, in a confidential way, what they were to do with their future. Brune had no definite idea. Aspatria’s intents were clear and certain. But she knew that she must wait until the spring brought her majority and her freedom.
One frosty day, near Christmas, as Brune was returning from Dalton, he heard himself called in a loud, cheerful voice. He was passing Seat-Ketel, and he soon saw Harry Ketel coming quickly toward him. Harry wore a splendid scarlet uniform; and the white snow beneath his feet, and the dark green pines between which he walked, made it all the more splendid by their 175 contrast. Brune had not seen Harry for five years; but they had been companions through their boyhood, and their memories were stored with the pleasant hours they had spent together.
Brune passed that night, and many subsequent ones, with his old friend; and when Harry went back to his regiment he took with him a certainty that Brune would soon follow. In fact, Harry had found his old companion in that mood which is ready to accept the first opening as the gift of fate. Brune found there was a commission to be bought in the Household Foot-Guards, and he was well able to pay for it. Indeed, Brune was by no means a poor man; his father had left him seven thousand pounds, and his share of the farm’s proceeds had been constantly added to it.
Aspatria was delighted. She might now go to London in Brune’s care. They discussed the matter constantly, and began to make the preparations necessary for the change. But affairs were not then arranged 176 by steam and electricity, and the letters relating to the purchase and transfer of Brune’s commission occupied some months in their transit to and fro; although Brune did not rely upon the postman’s idea of the practicability of the roads.
Aspatria’s correspondence was also uncertain and unsatisfactory for some time. She had at first no guide to a school but the advertisements in the London papers which Harry sent to his friend. But one night Brune, without any special intention, named the matter to Mrs. Ketel; and that lady was able to direct Aspatria to an excellent school in Richmond, near London. And as she was much more favourably situated for a quick settlement of the affair, she undertook the necessary correspondence.
Will was not ignorant of these movements, but Alice induced him to be passive in them. “No one can then blame us, Will, whatever happens.” And as Will and Alice were extremely sensitive to public opinion, this was a good consideration. 177 Besides Alice, not unnaturally, wished to have the Seat to herself; so that Aspatria’s and Brune’s wishes fitted admirably into her own desires, and it gave her a kind of selfish pleasure to forward them.
The ninth of March was Aspatria’s twenty-first birthday; and it was to her a very important anniversary, for she received as its gift her freedom and her fortune. There was no hitch or trouble in its transfer from Will to herself. Honour and integrity were in the life-blood of William Anneys, honesty and justice the very breath of his nostrils. Aspatria’s fortune had been guarded with a super-sensitive care; and when years gave her its management, Will surrendered it cheerfully to her control.