But Vivian saw what Mr Maxwell meant more clearly.
‘I believe you are in earnest, sir, and that you have asked father and mother to let us go and do lessons with you,’ he cried, clasping his friend’s hand in his excitement. ‘Oh, I hope they will let us go; you don’t know how I dread going home.’
‘Gently, gently, old fellow,’ said Mr Maxwell, as he noted Vivian’s quivering lips. Any sudden excitement was apt to bring on severe attacks of headache, which still caused anxiety to the little boy’s friends, for they showed that the bad effects of the long period of strain which he had passed through were not completely gone. ‘The fact is, I have arranged matters with your father and mother, and you are both going to keep me company for the next year or so, and do lessons with me. And, unless you very much want to go home first, we think it better that you should go straight to Cornwall with me next week. Do you like the plan, eh?’
‘I think it splendid, sir,’ said Ronald, feeling all at once that he was raised to the status of a public school boy; for was not living and doing lessons with a private tutor quite as good as being at school? While Vivian only squeezed Mr Maxwell’s hand very tightly, and whispered so softly that no one else could hear, ‘It is the new beginning you told me about, isn’t it, sir?’ And although the words were vague, Mr Maxwell knew what he meant.
‘But had we better not go home for a day or two?’ asked Ronald after a pause. ‘Will we not be rather in the way when you are settling your things in the Rectory? You told us that all your things were packed up, and that you would not have them sent down from London until you were there to see to them yourself.’
‘Ha, you luxurious fellow!’ laughed Mr Maxwell, ‘so you are afraid that you will arrive to find nothing but bare boards, and perhaps one plate and one cup amongst us. Well, for your comfort, I may tell you that the Rectory is furnished already, and I have only my books and pictures to arrange, and I shall expect you to help me with those.’
‘Oh, I didn’t mean that,’ said Ronald; ‘for even if the house hadn’t been furnished, Vivi and I could have roughed it; but I thought perhaps we might be in the way just at first. You will have such a lot to see to when there is no lady’—— And here he stopped and grew red, feeling that it was not very polite to allude to Mr Maxwell’s bachelor ways.
But the clergyman only laughed.
‘So you think that I would need a wife to arrange my belongings, or a sister, eh, Ronald? Well, I am sorry I have neither; but a very charming lady has promised to go down and get things ready for us—a lady and a dear little girl.’
Something in his voice made both boys look up.