The two weeks the squire had specified went its daily way, and Josepha received no letter from her brother, but at the time appointed he knocked at her door promptly and decidedly. Josepha had trusted him. She met him in warm traveling clothes, and they went away with a smile and a perfect trust in each other. Josepha knew better than to ask a man questions. She let him talk of what he had seen and heard, she made no inquiries as to what he had done, and when they were at Market Harborough he told her he had slept every hour away except those he spent in The House. “I felt as if I niver, niver, could sleep enough, Josepha. It was fair wonderful, and as it happened there were no night sessions I missed nothing I wanted to see or hear. But tha knows I’ll hev to tell Annie and mebbe others about The House, so I’ll keep that to mysen till we get all together. It wouldn’t bear two talks over. Would it now?”
“It would be better stuff than usual if it did, Antony. Thou wilt be much missed when it comes to debating.”
“I think I shall. I hev my word ready when it is the right time to say it, that is, generally speaking.”
Josepha’s visit was unexpected but Annie took it with apparent enthusiasm, and the two women together made such a fuss over the improvement in the squire’s appearance that Josepha could not help remembering the plaintive remarks of her brother about being too much cared for. However, nothing could really dampen the honest joy in the squire’s return, and when the evening meal had been placed upon the table and the fire stirred to a cheering blaze, the room was full of a delightful sense of happiness. A little incident put the finishing touch to Annie’s charming preparation. A servant stirred the fire with no apparent effect. Annie then tried to get blaze with no better result. Then the squire with one of his heartiest laughs took the apparently ineffectual poker.
“See here, women!” he cried. “You do iverything about a house better than a man except stirring a fire. Why? Because a woman allays stirs a fire from the top. That’s against all reason.” Then with a very decided hand he attacked the lower strata of coals and they broke up with something like a big laugh, crackling and sputtering flame and sparks, and filling the room with a joyful illumination. And in this happy atmosphere they sat down to eat and to talk together.
Josepha had found a few minutes to wash her face and put her hair straight, the squire had been pottering about his wife and the luggage and the fire and was still in his fine broadcloth traveling suit, which with its big silver buttons, its smart breeches and top boots, its line of scarlet waistcoat and plentiful show of white cambric round the throat, made him an exceedingly handsome figure. And if the husbands who may chance to read of this figure will believe it, this good man, so carefully dressed, had thought as he put on every garment, of the darling wife he wished still to please above all others.
The first thing the squire noticed was the absence of Dick and Faith.
“Where are they?” he asked in a disappointed tone.
“Well, Antony,” said Josepha, “Annie was just telling me that Dick hed gone to Bradford to buy a lot of woolen yarns; if so be he found they were worth the asking price, and as Faith’s father is now in Bradford, it was only natural she should wish to go with him.”
“Varry natural, but was it wise? I niver could abide a woman traipsing after me when I hed any business on hand.”