She got him to the farm, the doctor, who happened to be in the village, bound up his arm, a fly was procured, and he set off for home, Virginia, who had left her horse at the farm, by his side. By the time they had gone, half-way, his accident now being known, a neighbour's motor-car was sent to meet him, and in it they performed the rest of the journey. But he refused to allow Virginia to send a telegram. "It'll only upset 'em," he said, "and there's nothing the matter with me now."
And that was why he arrived in on his wife and daughters and himself brought the news that there was nothing to make a fuss about.
CHAPTER XXVIII
PROPERTY
It may be imagined that the high favour in which Virginia was now held was extremely gratifying to Dick. "I knew you could do it if you tried," he said, smiling down on her, his arm round her shoulder, "and, by Jove, you've done it to some tune. He wouldn't have any one else now for a daughter-in-law, if I were to offer him his pick of the royal princesses of Europe."
"He's an old dear," said Virginia. "You didn't give me in the least a true picture of his character."
Dick laughed. He could afford to let this feminine charge go by. "He wants me to talk business with him this evening, after dinner," he said. "But he wants to talk to you again first, in spite of the fact, that he's been talking to you nearly all day. Mind you keep calm, my girl. We're not going to throw up our job yet awhile. If he wants us here he'll have to wait for us."
Virginia went up with Mrs. Clinton to the big room, in the big bed of which the Squire was sitting propped up with pillows, in a camel's-hair dressing-gown, the seams of which had been slit up and tied again over his bound-down arm.
"Ah, here you are," he said in his usual hearty tone. "Nina, I want a word or two with Virginia. She'll call you when she goes."