So Frances led the way, and the pair walked soberly to the little house which had become to both a cherished home.
Jim waited at the back-door while his sister went to look for her mother and brother, and finding them both in the study, sharing the window-seat, and the task of snipping gooseberries, ran back to summon the “head of the family”.
All the responsibility of headship was in the lad’s countenance as he entered the study in his sister’s wake. He stood silent while Frances, in brief fashion, explained the situation; but something in her stepson’s look caught and held Mrs. Morland’s attention, and made her suspect that a tragedy might underlie Jim’s unusual calmness. She could not guess how hard he had striven to reach the degree of composure necessary to satisfy his stepmother’s ideal of good breeding.
“Yes, I’ve something to tell,” he said, when Frances paused, “and I hope it will mean a real difference to you all. I had no right to look forward to such a chance as I have had given me, and I know you’ll wonder at it too—”
“James,” interrupted Mrs. Morland, with an acute glance, “you don’t look as though the chance were altogether welcome.”
“That’s what I told him,” said Frances brightly. “He pretends to bring good news, but I believe he’s a deceiver.”
Jim flushed slightly, and hung his head. “You must please forgive me,” he murmured, “if I seem ungrateful and selfish. Indeed, I want to see how everything’s for the best. I’ll be quick now, and tell my news. You know Tom Lessing has a fine place in Australia, and is making money fast. He has a lot of hands, and seems to pay them well; and he gives every one of them a share in his profits over and above their salaries. Tom is very kind, and—you’ve all been good and kind to him, for which we both thank you.”
Though Jim spoke earnestly, there was an aloofness in his manner which touched all his listeners, and reminded them, with keen shame, what scanty cause he had, even now, to feel himself one of them. Frances impulsively moved a step nearer him, and stopped, overcome by the constraint she could not disguise; Austin sprang to his brother’s side, and pressed affectionately against him. Jim gently held him off, as though the lad’s caresses threatened his own self-control; but his hand kept the boy within reach, and once or twice passed tenderly over Austin’s tumbled curly head. If Mrs. Morland ever had doubted her stepson’s love for her children, the suspicion from that moment died away.
“Because he is kind, and because you have been good to him,” continued Jim, “Tom has given me a chance. He has offered to take me back with him to Australia, and to find me a good place as one of his overseers. He says I’d soon learn enough to be of use, and he’d help me to get on. I should have two hundred and fifty a year; and as I’d live with him, he’d give me board and lodging too. So, since I shouldn’t want much for clothes, I could send nearly all my earnings home; and there would be grandfather’s money as well, and we would sell the smithy. I’ve been thinking you might have a little house in Woodend, and the children would go to school again, and by and by Austin would go to college. I hope you would be very happy.”
The speaker’s lips trembled for just a second, in evidence of full heart and highly-strung nerves. Then Jim, with courageous eyes, looked across the room for comments and congratulations.