She might have known that I wanted to hear when Mr. Faulkner was expected to return; but she never mentioned him, and something withheld me from making a direct inquiry.
Then aunt went away, and I began to make myself tidy, feeling that the house seemed strangely quiet and empty after the cheerful bustle of home, and oppressed by the thought of the days before me. I had now been at 'Gay Bowers' for about six months, and the time had passed swiftly enough, but I looked forward with some dread to the remainder of my sojourn there.
Yet how lovely the dear old garden was looking as the sun declined! I stepped from my window on to the top of the porch. The boxes which bordered it were planted with mignonette, amid which some fuchsias and geraniums in pots made a brilliant show. There was just room for me to sit in a little low chair in the space thus enclosed, and in the warm days I often sat there to read or sew. Alan Faulkner used to call this spot my "observatory," since from it I could survey the front garden and see all that passed the house on the road that descended from the common to the village. I had not stood there many moments when I perceived Jack Upsher spinning down the hill on his bicycle. He took off his cap and waved it gleefully as he caught sight of me. At the gate, he alighted, and there was nothing for it but I must go down and talk to him.
"Oh, Nan, it is jolly to see you again!" he cried as I ran out. "I am glad you've come back, and isn't it nice that most of the others have taken themselves off? It will seem like the good old times before the 'paying guests' came."
"Aunt Patty would hardly consider it nice if all her guests departed," I said. "However, Miss Cottrell is with us again, and father has come down with me to-day, so we are not quite without society."
"I know. The governor and I are coming in to see him this evening," he said; "so then we'll have some tennis, Nan, and you shall tell me all you have been doing since you departed in such imprudent haste without any luggage. I heard how you rode into town on that occasion. You will please not to say anything to me in the future on the subject of 'scorching.'"
What a boy he was! We had a sharp war of words for a few minutes, and then he rode off, convinced that he had got the better of me. Though he did not dare to say so, I could see that Mr. Faulkner's absence afforded him gratification. It was very strange. I never could understand what made him dislike the Professor so much.
I took an early opportunity of congratulating Miss Cottrell on her engagement, and received in response such an outburst of confidence from her as was almost overpowering. With the utmost pride she exhibited her betrothal ring, on which shone a magnificent diamond, almost as big as a pea.
"It frightens me to think what it must have cost," she said, "yet you see he has so much money that he hardly knows what to do with it, for he is naturally a man of simple tastes and habits."
"So I imagine," I said, "or he would hardly have been happy so long here with us. Paulina helps him to spend his money. He must be glad to have found some one else on whom he may lavish gifts."