"Ah—Miriam," he said, with a queer kind of cough.
"She's knocked him all of a heap," Rupert told himself vulgarly as he carried the bag upstairs, and once more he wished he knew what his mother had been like.
CHAPTER VI
At supper, Uncle Alfred was monosyllabic, and the Canipers, realizing that he was much shyer than themselves, became hospitable. Notya made the droll remarks of which she was sometimes capable, and Miriam showed off without fear of a rebuke. It was a comely party, and Mrs. Samson breathed her heavy pleasure in it as she removed the plates. When the meal was over and Uncle Alfred was smoking placidly in the drawing-room, Helen wandered out to the garden gate. There she found John biting an empty pipe.
After their fashion, they kept silence for a time before Helen said, "Would it matter if I went for a walk?"
"I was thinking of having one myself."
"He won't miss you and me," she said. "May I come with you, or were you going to Brent Farm?"
"I'm not going there. Come on."
The wind met them lightly as they headed towards the road. The night was very dark, and the ground seemed to lift itself before them and sink again at their approach.