"No, no," the Major said hastily. "We will see, as you say. Why shouldn't we go on as we have done all these years? And I won't have those guns moved. I have told her so. We've been very good friends, little Sid, have we not? We shall pull together all right."
But when he had gone Sidney went away to her room and had a good cry.
She knew that the old days were gone, and would never come back again; that nothing would ever be the same when Mrs. Norman came to live in their midst.
And then she poured out her soul in prayer, and rose from her knees with a bright and steadfast spirit. "I will make father happy anywhere. I must. If it were not for his feelings, I would set to work at once to find a fresh home. But he will break his heart, if he has to leave this. God knows about it, and He loves dad better than I do. I will trust Him to do what He sees best. And meanwhile we shall have a very happy fortnight together."
Jockie kept Sidney bright at this juncture. She was always popping in at unexpected times and giving her news of Chuckles, or of the village, and no one could be in her presence long without being infected by her spirit of mirth. She learnt to be very silent on the subject of the absent bride and bridegroom, for she saw her outspoken remarks were neither palatable to Sidney nor her father, and, as she wisely remarked to Monica:
"Now the thing is done, it's no good to sit down and moan about it. We must all grin and bear it."
Gavine had said very little in her letters about her mother. She wrote to Sidney long details of her work, and said she was very happy.
"Yet the work would not have made me happy," she wrote; "there is so much that is depressing and disheartening. But after that wonderful talk I had with you, I see things so differently. And I really do feel now that one's Foundation is the only comfort in life. When I visit the sick, and realise how little I can relieve their pain, I know I can tell them of the certain cure for their weary, sin-stained souls. And hope, glad hope, of our good time by and by, is better than any doctor's tonic."
Sidney kept up a brisk correspondence with her, for she felt that she had been brought into touch with her to help her. And Gavine wrote to Jockie that "Miss Urquhart's letters were like 'angels' messages.'"
The fortnight flew by, and then came the arrival of the bride and bridegroom.