‘Just look at poor Monarch’s kennel,’ he went on. ‘It is a good thing that Isobel doesn’t know that he is dead; it might vex her. I heard her calling out to him as I passed her door just now. I expect she thinks that she is playing with him.’
‘And he is dead and buried,’ said Vivian, and then he shivered. That was his doing, as well as the rest.
Ronald looked at him anxiously. ‘Come nearer the fire,’ he said. ‘You have stood there until you are cold, and it is dreary looking out now that the sun is gone. I wish Mary or some one would come and light the gas.’
It was five o’clock, and they were having tea when the carriage came back. The table looked just as it had done at the same time a week before, for Mary, anxious to make things as cheerful as possible, had been generous with cakes and jam.
‘It is just a week ago to-night since you came,’ said Ralph, as the wheels stopped, and a subdued bustle was heard in the hall, then he stopped abruptly as the contrast between that night and this struck him, and for a moment nobody spoke except Mary, who suddenly woke up to the fact that it was time that somebody was asking for more tea.
Dr Armitage must have gone right upstairs with Uncle Walter, for no one came near the schoolroom for nearly half-an-hour, and when the door opened at last it was not he who came softly in, but his wife; and at the sight of her dear sweet face her two boys realised all at once how long it was—a whole week—since they had seen her, and wondered how they could have stayed away from her so long.
‘Oh mother!’ cried Ronald, jumping up in surprise and pulling her down beside him on his seat; and then for a moment he could say no more, but could only squeeze her hand; while Vivian, much to every one’s astonishment, turned his face away from the table and burst into a torrent of loud, frightened sobs.
‘Hush, Vivian!’ said his father, who had come into the room unnoticed along with Mr Osbourne. ‘You must control yourself, my boy; we cannot have a noise like that here.’
But his mother had stretched out her hand and drawn him gently to her.