‘Foolish child, no; but I shall be there to-night or to-morrow.’
‘You are going to Sutton?’
‘Yes; and, as I told you, I trust to you to write such a letter as to make her feel comfortable. Well, what’s the use of having a governess, if you don’t know how to write a letter?’
‘Yes, Mervyn, I’ll write, only I must hear from you first.’
‘I hate writing. I tell you, if you write—let me see, on Wednesday, you may be sure it is all over.’
‘No, Mervyn, I will not be so impertinent,’ said Phœbe, and the colour rushed into her face as she recollected the offence that she had once given by manifesting a brother’s security of being beloved. ‘It would be insulting her to assume that she had accepted you, and write before I knew, especially after the way you have been using her.’
‘Pshaw! she will only want a word of kindness; but if you are so fanciful, will it do if I put a cover in the post? There! and when you get it on Wednesday morning, you write straight off to Cecily, and when you have got the notion into my mother’s understanding, you may write to me, and tell me what chance there is of Beauchamp.’
What chance of Beauchamp! The words made Phœbe’s honest brow contract as she stood by the chimney-piece, while her brother went out into the hall. ‘That’s all he cares for,’ she thought. ‘Poor mamma! But, oh! how unkind. I am sending him away without one kind wish, and she must be good—so much better than I could have hoped!’
Out she ran, and as he paused to kiss her bright cheek, she whispered, ‘Good-bye, Mervyn; good speed. I shall watch for your cover.’
She received another kiss for those words, and they had been an effort, for those designs on Beauchamp weighed heavily on her, and the two tasks that were left to her were not congenial. She did not know how to welcome a strange sister, for whose sake the last of the Mervyns was grudged her own inheritance, and still less did she feel disposed to harass her mother with a new idea, which would involve her in bewilderment and discussion. She could only hope that there would be inspiration in Mervyn’s blank cover, and suppress her fever for suspense.