“Oh, yes, Alvar is here, of course, and we started together; but we met Virginia in the lane, and then—I thought I would come and find you. How lovely it all looks!”
“Ah, more to your taste than Mentone?”
Cherry laughed. “My taste was always a prejudiced one,” he said; “but Mr Stanforth and I were very jolly at Mentone, especially when Jack joined us. How did Alvar get on up here by himself at Christmas?”
“He got on very well here—if by here you mean Elderthwaite. As for Oakby, he attended all the dinners and suppers and meetings and institutions like a hero. But I suspect he and his tenants still look on one another from a respectful distance.”
“All, they won’t be able to resist him next week, he’ll look so picturesque in his yeomanry uniform. We shall have a grand meeting.”
“The volunteers keep the ground, I understand?” said the parson.
“Yes, myself included. There doesn’t seem to be much for them to do, and they wished me to come very much. Then, you know, we have had a grand explanation about Jack’s affairs, and granny and Nettie have got Gipsy with them; so Sir John found out that the pictures wanted Mr Stanforth, and he is coming down. Then Jack couldn’t resist, and managed to get a couple of days’ leave. So the only thing to wish for is fine weather. But I am not forgetting,” continued Cherry, in a different tone, “that here you have all had a good deal of trouble.”
“Well,” said the parson, “it was a great break up and turn out; and I’m bound to own your brother was a great help in getting through it. Julia, she is gone off to Bath, and writes as if she liked it; and I was very glad that Virginia should stay here with me for the present. Mr Wilson has taken the place for his son, and it is being put in order. But all in the old style, you know, Cherry,” said the parson, with a wink, “no vulgar modernisms.”
“Fred Wilson’s a very nice fellow,” said Cherry.
He had sat down on the wall by the parson, and now, after a pause, began abruptly,—