CHAPTER XVI
AT “THE WATERMAN’S ARMS”
A measure of argument arose between Abel Hayman and his wife, master and mistress of “The Waterman’s Arms.” He had held that to receive Medora and Kellock was quite impossible, while she took a contrary opinion, and her word was law.
“Morals is morals, and business is business,” said Mrs. Hayman, “and I know Jordan Kellock by reputation, and his reputation is all it should be. Dingle will get a bill of divorcement and they’ll be married according to law; and if they don’t come to us, they’ll go to the ‘Ring of Bells,’ so enough said.”
Mr. Hayman relented at sound of “The Ring of Bells,” and was ready to welcome the guests when they arrived.
It seemed strange to Medora, who had passed the little inn by the bridge so many times, to enter the door and find it her home for a season. It was a cool and restful spot, and the private rooms, facing the stream, were removed some way from the bar. A yellow rose straggled over the face of the building and in the garden were old world flowers, now pushing up to renewed life—columbines and bleeding hearts, orange lilies and larkspurs.
Medora arrived weary, and Kellock, to his own surprise, proved nervous and found himself wishing very heartily that his first day at work was ended. He knew not what might be in store for him, and Medora, who was not in a happy mood, had, in the train, deplored the fact that they were returning. Nothing would have disappointed her more than not to do so; yet she meant it at the moment when she said it, for who does not often contradict his own deep-seated desire and side, as it were, against himself at some passing whim from within, or inspiration from without?
When she found all her clothes and possessions waiting for her, Medora fell very silent, and Jordan puzzled to know how they should have come there.
“I told my mother where we were going to stop,” she explained, “but, of course, I never said nothing about my clothes. I didn’t regard them as mine no more—nor yet the ornaments.”
“They meant well. You needn’t wear them.”