"I am criticizing my wife. Wondering about this particular glamour in her composition. Do you know, madam, that Miss Dunstan actually held a long conversation with me in the smoking-room this morning? It was when you were completing our packing, and she told me things that have been simmering in my brain ever since."
"Tell me about them."
Rowena moved towards the library fire as she spoke, and seated herself on an old carved log-box in the wide chimney-corner. Her husband followed her.
"She was talking about you; asked me if I knew what was your power over your fellow-creatures. She made me realize, as I never have before, that you have a distinct gift in reaching out and winning people's confidence. She told me that Lady Bampford poured out her soul to you 'on the sly.' Her words, of course. Is this true?"
"Partly, I suppose. Poor thing! She has so longed for children, and her only little girl died of cholera in India at the age of two. She doesn't like England, and has a twin sister married in South America. She wants to go back there, but her husband's appointment is up. I'm afraid he wasn't quite a success out there. He has not much reticence or dignity, has he?"
"The woman appeared to be an iceberg to me. Miss Dunstan said you had thawed her, and would never leave go of her once you had taken hold. Is that true?"
"Di is so ridiculous; she only heard Lady Bampford beg me to write to her, and I have a confession to make: I asked her to pay us a visit some time next summer." Rowena looked up anxiously into her husband's face as she spoke. But he did not frown; only smiled.
"I guessed as much; and the little widow is to come too, is she not?"
"Mrs. McClintock? Oh, Hugh, my heart ached for her. Do you know that her husband was a really good man? She used to laugh at him for his religion, she told me; but now she's just longing to be like him, so that she may join him again. She has been drawn into these spiritualistic circles in town, and has been rather disillusioned. Says her husband did appear one day, or his form did, but his words were so unlike him that she believed some other spirit must have personated him. I would love to see more of her."
"Of course, that's what Miss Dunstan said, and Graeme has always been your devoted pupil, and even Norris argued for a good hour with you on the Divinity of the Bible. How is it that you attract them all so? I repel them. Miss Dunstan says I ought to open my house every summer to worn out disillusioned worldlings. She says you would make a cure of them all. She calls you 'The Society Shepherdess.' I begin to see that I have been a stumbling block in your path. And so, Rowena my darling, I am going to give you carte blanche to have as many visitors as you like, for short or long visits, in winter or in summer, or all the year round. And I'll help you and back you up as much as I can, for I see now that this is the work that has been given to you to do, and which very few others can do."