“Oh, well, I am happy and proud to adopt his daughter—especially since I have none of my own.”
He paused, and stared down into the fire; his companion well knew that this was the one grief of his married life. Tom loved children, and was ever the most popular and entertaining guest at their dances and amusements; he longed to hear the patter of quick little feet up and down The Holt’s uneven passages. Doodie, his wife, had never shared this craving—the whole County was, so to speak, her child. Possibly she would not have objected to a fine clever boy, who excelled at games and was a brilliant success as a prize-winner, but a large family of daughters—no, thank you! Her husband, on the contrary, had a particular partiality for girls. Often, as he smoked a solitary pipe in the fire-light, with half-closed eyes, he seemed to see a golden-haired darling, the daughter of his dreams, sitting on the hearth-rug, or standing by the window. And here to-day, had actually come to him, the realisation of his visions!
“I do hope—I do hope——” he began, then hesitated.
Mrs. Hesketh raised her dark discontented eyes to his, and murmured an interrogative “Yes?”
After a momentary struggle between inclination and discretion, he continued, “Between you and me, Maudie,” lowering his voice to a whisper, “I hope to goodness that Doodie will take to her!”
CHAPTER II
IT must be admitted that November is not an auspicious month for a stranger to make acquaintance with the English country; the trees are bare and leafless, the fields empty and uninteresting, and what can be said for monotonous, muddy roads, cold frosty mornings, and long dark nights?
However, Letty speedily settled into her awarded niche, and endeavoured to make herself at home. She soon became acquainted with the dogs and horses, with her uncle’s little fads, and her aunt’s peculiarities, duly appeared at church, was presented to the parson’s afflicted wife, and made a state call upon Mrs. Hesketh. Also, she did her utmost to be useful; but her well-meaning efforts were not always successful. For instance, with respect to arranging flowers, the schoolgirl had no experience, her vases looked ragged, or in clumps; she lacked the ‘airy, fairy’ touch of an expert—but that, no doubt, would come. Then as to dusting the valuable old china; here again she was something of a failure. In handling a cherished blue plate, it slipped through her fingers as a thing alive, rolled defiantly along a stone passage, and subsided in a dozen pieces. Although Mrs. Fenchurch had picked this up for sevenpence in a village inn, it was a good specimen, and she showed her displeasure and annoyance plainly—in fact so plainly, that Letty wept! However, day by day the new-comer improved; she helped her aunt to feed the fowls, and date and pack the eggs for sale, assisted in the greenhouse, brushed and exercised the dogs, and took an humble and subordinate part in Mrs. Fenchurch’s numerous and absorbing occupations.