With agitated movements she began to push the jars as far back on their shelves as they would go, thrusting them out of sight and danger like a hen protecting her chickens. She closed the door with a bang, and snapped the lock with a click; and then, normal again with the shutting away of the threatened treasure, turned to Dolly, smiling.
“Ay, well, we’ll talk about that later, when we’ve got things settled. Now I’m wanting my tea. Fill kettle and boil it, will you, while I set the cloth?... We’re taking this over seriously,” she added, with a laugh, “and forgetting it’s just pretence!”
Dolly laughed, too, not only in polite recognition of the assumption with which they had started out, but because she felt relieved. There had been a strong feeling of tension in the air as they stood before the cupboard, and she was glad to get away from it. For the first time it crossed her kindly, unthinking little mind that things might have been better conducted, that afternoon....
But she was soon at her ease again when they were seated at their meal, pleasantly conscious, as they kept telling each other, laughing, how well they had earned it. Her confidence returned, which had so nearly been shattered by the episode of the jam, and she let herself babble freely. Mattie found herself listening with interest to local gossip, and giving fervent attention to the local scandals. Hitherto she had never cared a rap what happened in the hamlet, and could only conclude that this was one of the many changes which had come upon her to-day.
She had sworn to herself that she would not mention Canada again, but before they were half-way through the meal she had broken her intention. By the time she had poured the second cups of tea she was gone abroad, taking an interested Dolly with her. Seated at a cottage tea-table, they were yet gold-seekers and explorers, game-hunters in the Rockies, and adventurers shooting the rapids. Their lungs were braced by the air of the Strong Country, and its distances lightened their eyes. The wind that blows over the prairies filled and freshened the little room.
“I’d a dream about it, last night,” Mattie said presently, reverting to that solemn and lovely subject a little shyly. “I was There, just as I’m here now, and with none of that nasty crossing. I saw the places and the folks and the insides of the houses.... And everything was as nice as could be, in spite of your cousin Jessie!”
With her own lips she had invoked the demon of the situation, and instantly it was at grips with her. Dolly, dashed by the sense of insecurity which had alarmed her before tea, had kept a guard on her tongue as soon as Canada was mentioned. But now Mattie, of her own accord, had raised that guard, and she rushed in briskly.
“Jessie wouldn’t know a nice spot if it up and told her about it,” she said gaily. “She was always a wet blanket.... But they’ll get the surprise of their lives when they hear you’re coming, Mrs. Kirkby. Jessie says they’ve all of ’em given up hopes of it long ago.”
A sudden quiet seemed to fall and envelop Mattie, a quiet which spread and spread and travelled over the kitchen. After a long moment—“Who told her they’d given up hope?” she enquired, stilly.
“Ellen told her herself,” Mrs. Machell replied, uneasily conscious that the tension was returning. “‘Father’ll be getting past it, is what she says, and I reckon so will Mother.’ She’s a grand plan now for coming over to you instead. She’s just breaking her heart, Jessie says, to get back again over here.... She talks of bringing little Sally with her when she comes, and leaving her if you want her. She’ll be a help to you, she says, now you’re beginning to get on; and Sally’s as keen as mustard to come and live with Granny.”