“I must say,” added Bernard, “that I should think it little short of murderous to take that unlucky child from the one woman who understands her up into the bleak north at this time of year.”
“Decidedly!” added Sir Jasper. “Miss Underwood deserves every consideration in dealing with the child who has been always her sole charge.”
Wherewith he changed the conversation by a question about Stokesley; but he held to his dictum when alone with his nephew, and as he was the only person for whose opinion Captain Sam had any respect, it had its effect, though there was a sense that he might be biassed by his son-in-law and his herd of womanfolk, and that he did not partake Mrs. Samuel Merrifield’s dislike to the very name of Sister or of anything not commonplace.
Angela obtained Dr. Dagger’s opinion to reinforce her own and Lady Merrifield’s, and the Captain was obliged to give way so far as to consent to Magdalen, as he insisted on calling her, being allowed to remain at Arnscombe till after Easter, when her aunts were to fetch her to Coalham, there to send her to the kindergarten.
After Angela’s period of raging against law and lawyers and all the Stokesley family, and being on the verge of impertinence to Captain Merrifield, she submitted to the prospect more quietly than her friends had dared to hope. Lance had almost expected her to deport her charge, parrot and all, suddenly and secretly by an Australian liner, and had advised Bernard, on a fleeting meeting at Bexley, to be on his guard if she hinted at anything so preposterous; but Bernard shook his head, and said Angel was more to be trusted than her elders thought. “Waves and storms don’t go over us for nothing, I hope,” he said.
And he found himself right on his return. Angela had bowed her head to the inevitable, and was quietly trying to prepare her little charge for the change, accustoming her to more discipline and less petting. When Angela proposed to walk over to Clipstone with her brother on his return, and the whine was set up, “Let me go, Sister,” it was answered, “No, my dear, it is too far for you. You must stay and walk with Paula.”
“I want to go with Sister.”
“You must be a good child, and do as Sister tells you. No, I can’t have any fretting. Paula will show you how to drive your hoop. Keep her moving fast, Paula, don’t let her fret and get cold.”
And Angela actually detached the clinging hand, and put it into Paulina’s, and, holding up her finger, silenced the burst of weeping, though tears sprang to her own eyes as she resolutely turned away, and, after running out and shutting the back gate after her, put her arm with a clinging gesture into Bernard’s.
“That’s right!” he said, pressing her hand.