"It is long, but we shall do it in less time than if we were to have gone direct by sea, and certainly I did not relish the voyage over the turbulent Bay of Biscay at this time of year."
A glimpse of France as they were whizzed along, a night and a day in Paris, a few hours in quaint old Rouen, full of the spirit of Jeanne d'Arc, a glimpse of Dieppe, a quiet night trip to Newhaven and there were England and Sussex, with Chichester not too far away.
It was Chichester which called them, and for which town of heavenly peace they immediately started. They found quiet lodgings in the Southgate and settled down again, Anita curious, interested, excited; her mother reminiscent, wistful, pensive.
"England in primrose time," murmured Mrs. Beltrán, looking out of their window upon a garden gay with spring flowers. "All the banks and sunny hillsides will be covered with them. We shall go out to gather them and have bowlfuls upon our tables all the time while they last."
"What is the first thing we shall do?" inquired Anita, arranging her Spanish books on the mantel.
"We shall begin to make inquiries for Pepé. I shall send for Ernest Kirkby. He will know the clergy here. He will interest those who can help us, and then I shall put an advertisement in the paper. Already I have written to my Aunt Manning to tell her we were coming. No doubt she will be here soon with her granddaughter, Lillian."
"Where do they live? Far from here?"
"No, they happen to be quite near, at a little place called Borton. We have another cousin at Rye, somewhat farther off. Her name is Emily Oliver. I think she has three children, a son and two daughters, one quite a little girl, the other older. I have never seen them. Then farther away still, in London, are other cousins, children of my mother's brother whose name was Henry Fuller."
The next day appeared Lillian Manning. She had walked over from Borton, meant to walk back and thought nothing of it. She was a tall, fresh-colored, breezy girl with eyes of a true turquoise—not sapphire—blue, fair hair, a humorous mouth and rather a large nose. She brought her dogs with her, a Pommeranian and an Airedale, and arrived quite early while Anita and her mother were still at breakfast. She came into the little sitting-room bringing a breath of spring with her, and greeted her cousins in a manner half boyish, ordering her dogs to lie down and laying her whip across her knees when she seated herself.
"I'm too early, aren't I?" she exclaimed. "But Granny was so anxious I should come, and I wanted to see you myself, and ask you to come over for tea this afternoon, so I started off before Granny was up."