"I have never urged you before, Sidney, because of your dear father; but now your way seems clear. After all, I am your nearest relation in this county. I may be able to help you about getting a small house if you are still determined to live alone; you certainly will help me. As one gets older, one feels less equal to bearing the strain and anxiety alone. You are the only one I can talk to about my husband and boy, and you don't know what your sympathy and companionship will be to me."
Sidney arranged to go. The evening before she went she spent in tidying the Admiral's desk. Her uncle crept into the room almost stealthily.
"Sid," he said dejectedly, "is it too late now to beg you to change your mind? Our happy old days have slipped away, but I would do all I could to make you comfortable, if you stayed with us. You don't know what this house is without you! You used to be fond of your old uncle. Are you going to cast him off altogether?"
There was something so pathetic in his eyes that Sidney almost cried. She put her hand on his shoulder caressingly.
"Dear Uncle Ted, you know I am fond of you still, but I am quite sure I do not add to your happiness by staying here. I shall be in the neighbourhood, and will often pop in and see you."
He gave almost a groan.
"I am being justly punished, but I was a blind fool! I never meant to oust you and poor Vernon. I'll never hold up my head again, Sid. But one thing I've done: I've ordered those guns back to where they were taken from, and there they shall stay till my time comes to quit! I can assert myself sometimes, but it's confoundedly hard!"
Sidney kissed him. Her heart ached for him as she saw what a cipher he was in his own house. And though she could not tell him so, she knew that his wife resented her talking much with him alone.
Mrs. Urquhart showed the only impatience she ever showed anyone towards her husband. Sidney saw that there was no love to help her to endure his bachelor ways; she had no real interest in his workshop. Her one idea was to fill the house with company; and company of any sort the Major thoroughly disliked. They had hardly any tastes in common.
The Major spent half his days wandering through the house looking for Sidney, and this was why Sidney was anxious to leave. She knew the only chance for the ill-matched couple to draw closer to one another was to leave them alone. As long as there was a third person, the breach would widen between them; for the Major was perplexed and frightened by his wife's masterful methods, and avoided being with her. Her manner was now coldly civil to him; her sweet graciousness was only for outsiders. If she by chance said a kind word, the poor old Major would become almost hilarious with joy; then a little curl of his wife's upper lip would send him shrinking into his shell again. And he could not understand why he should not seek Sidney's society in preference to his wife's. When the time came for her to leave for Thanning Towers, he accompanied her to the gate.