"Yes," Sir Richard replied briefly; and his little interrogator was quite satisfied.
Dick was very subdued during the remainder of his visit that day. When the time came for him to return to No. 8 Fore Street, Mrs. Compton and Ruth had been home for more than an hour; but Lionel had not reappeared upon the scene. Dick wondered if he had gone away to fire off the blunderbuss, or if he was ashamed to face him after the way he had spoken of his mother.
Ruth accompanied her cousin as far as the lodge gates, and then went back to the Manor House whilst Dick turned towards Holton. His way led through lanes which lay between rich pasture-lands where feathery meadow-sweet grew in the lush hedgerows, scenting the air with its heavy perfume. The sun was setting like a ball of fire behind the hills, promising a hot day on the morrow, and over all hung the hush of coming night.
Dick had been much upset that day, and he had started from the Manor House depressed in spirits; but he had not gone far before the peace and beauty of the early autumn evening stole into his heart; and he fell to thinking of next year, when he hoped his parents would be coming home. He dwelt on the joy of his reunion with them, and forgot the passionate pain which had filled his heart at the thought of his grandfather's hatred for his mother. Then he looked up at a turn in the lane, and saw Aunt Mary Ann coming to meet him with a welcoming smile upon her happy face, and he quickened his pace to a run, crying,—
"Oh, Aunt Mary Ann, how good of you to come to meet me! Oh, I have such a lot to tell you!" —and he poured into her attentive ears the story of his interview with his grandfather in the picture-gallery subsequent to Lionel's cruel speech.
[CHAPTER XVI]
LIONEL'S ACCIDENT
MISS Warren was so overcome when she found that Dick had learnt the cause of the ill-feeling between his father and grandfather that the pretty colour left her cheeks, and she sat down on a moss-covered bank beneath a hazel-bush by the hedge-side, whilst the tears ran down her face. "Oh, my dear," she cried, "what a wicked, cruel boy your cousin must be to deliberately wound you like that! I am glad Sir Richard heard what he said, though—very glad! It does people good to hear the truth about themselves sometimes!"
"But grandfather doesn't hate mother, he doesn't indeed!" Dick interposed eagerly. "He seemed so sorry Lionel spoke like that! I think he is very lonely and unhappy. He wishes father was coming home sooner than next year, and he said he should like bygones to be bygones. What did he mean, Aunt Mary Ann?"
"Did he really say that?" Miss Warren asked, greatly astonished. "Then he must mean to forgive your father for—for—Oh, Dick, it's no good our trying to keep it from you any longer? It was your father's marriage that offended Sir Richard!"