“You will,” said Mysie. “Mamma is going to ask her to come, for Phyllis says there is no one that Bernard cares for so much. She was his own companion sister.”
“Magdalen might have the little cornstalk,” said Valetta.
“Well,” said Mysie, “it is rather funny to have two—what shall I say?—willow widows, and a child that is neither of theirs! How will they settle it?”
Magdalen had heard from Agatha on the first evening of the arrival of the sister, and the probability of the identification of little Lena’s father with the Henry Merrifield of her former years, and she was deeply touched by the bestowal of her name—so much that Nag avoided saying more, but only kissed her and went to bed.
The Merrifields discussed the subject dispassionately.
Sir Jasper recollected what his brother had written to him of his anxieties and disappointment in his son Henry, and of his absconding from Manitoba, since which time all trace of him had been lost, except in the restoration to the two brothers in Canada. To the surprise and indignation of Sir Jasper, there had been no attempt to follow it up.
“If my poor brother Edgar had done anything of the kind,” said Bernard, “none of us would have rested.”
So far as they could put recollections together this act of restitution must have been made soon after the connection with Fulbert Underwood began, perhaps at the time of the wife’s death. If there had been another letter, as Sister Angela thought, it was more recent, certainly within the last two years.
Captain Samuel Merrifield, of Stokesley, had been on a voyage for four years, and had not long been at home. His wife had been charged with the forwarding of the letters that she thought of immediate interest, and there was an accumulation of those that had been left for his return, as yet not looked over.
Of course, Sir Jasper impelled him to plunge into these, and by and by one came to light, which Mrs. Merrifield had taken “for only some Australian gold mines,” and left to wait, especially as it was directed to his father instead of himself.