Mr. Egerton caught the look.
"Yes," he said, "we can give you food, and perhaps a bed: I don't know; Helen will tell you. For the rest, you must be content with what your cousins here are used to. It is late, too late for you to go on to-day, I fear; but you can escape to-morrow."
He turned and walked away, leaving Villiers in great dismay.
"What does he mean, Cousin Clarice? Is he angry? Shall I go away as soon as I have eaten?"
"Oh no, no!" she cried, earnestly. "He does not mean that. He is mortified, because everything here is so unlike what you are used to,—but you don't mind that, do you? We will do our best to please you. Oh, do stay!"
Villiers was more flattered by her entreaties than he would have been, had he been aware that the thought in her mind was, "Surely he could help Guy; this may be the opportunity we have been waiting for."
Guy and Clarice proved excellent entertainers, and Villiers made a hearty meal, and chatted away as if he had known them all. Privately, he concluded that their mother must have been a lady, and that Guy had only been digging for his amusement.
A loud halloa! from the river made them all look that way; and there was the old flat-bottomed boat coming across with Helen and Aymer. Guy sprang down the hill to help Helen to land.
"Ah, the old boat," said Clarice. "It makes me think of the day I met with my accident; I've never been in her since."
"Was it an accident? I mean, is that why you cannot get off your sofa?" with a doubtful glance at the contrivance on which she lay.