Then a whimsical sparkle came into his eyes.
"We didn't do so badly for ourselves, did we? Your Cousin Lucy seems to think that I score most. What do you think?"
"I think," said Anstice, rising, "that you had better get ready for dinner. You look as if you need it."
She left the room, and after she had gone, Justin drew a long breath.
"Malcolm is right. She's a beautiful creature. And I have been a selfish brute. She has done wonders for me and mine. I am in my soul grateful. I wonder if I shall have the courage to tell her so?"
Then he too made a move, and went up to his room. Brenda was there unpacking his things.
"It seems like old times to see you here," he said to her; "the house is getting shipshape at last, eh?"
"Oh, sir, it is a happy house now! I never could have believed anybody could have come and put us all to rights in such a lovely way as Mrs. Holme has. The little girls be changed entirely. And there's been no fear or force used—just love and persuasion."
Justin congratulated himself afresh upon the present state of things. He arrived down to dinner in the best of spirits. Anstice faced him from one end of the long table. She had changed her gown and was wearing a soft grey chiffon tea-gown with a bunch of violets on her shoulder. They talked pleasantly together, Anstice giving him all the local news, and he telling of his stormy voyage home.
"I really thought at one time, I should never see the shore," he said. "Would you have cared much, I wonder, if the ocean had claimed me?"