The settling in of all these things was an interest and delight to the children, and Mrs. Wilton was glad for their sakes that it was so.
Mrs. Pryor could not be brought to admire anything. She was incredulous as to the identity of the fair, graceful, smiling girl in the picture with the pale, careworn widow lady who sat beneath it. As to the poor gentleman, he might have been good-looking, but he was not fit to hold a candle to the doctor. But she had been used to such beautiful pictures at her dear departed lady's house—nothing could look much after them. Her bitterest shafts were hurled against the devonport, to make room for which an old mahogany what-not had to be removed: "A clumsy thing, and yet all gim-cracky, with a lot of little drawers—no use to anybody. She hoped she was not expected to dust all them things, for she just honestly said she wasn't going to do it."
But at last all was settled down, and except for the standing grievance of Puck, peace was proclaimed. Puck had made a pretence of living at the shop, but this stratagem did not avail for long. He was continually rushing to and fro, and was oftener at Elm Cottage than at the baker's shop; but Mrs. Pryor thought more highly of him than at first, for he waged war against a large cat that Mrs. Pryor had convicted of killing a canary, and still occasionally dared to haunt the back premises to look for another victim! Puck's growls succeeded so well, that Mr. Tom contented himself with sitting on the low red-brick wall, with his back raised to a level with his head, and his tail swelled to the size of the boa Mrs. Pryor wore round her throat in winter.
Her son Frank, who left most of the conversation necessary to his wife, was heard to say, at the end of the first week of the Wiltons taking up their abode at Elm Cottage: "We live and learn. If any one had told me my mother would take children as lodgers, and those children with a little dog at their heels, I shouldn't have believed them. We shall see her with a monkey from the 'Zoo' next."
Lady Monroe was not slow to fulfil her promise of calling on her old friend, bringing Eva with her; and it so happened that Mrs. Loftus Wilton, Louise, and Kate arrived on the same day. The little square drawing-room was filled; and Hans and Carl, rushing up to the room where Salome sat with her old music portfolio and her manuscript, shouted out,—"Two carriages full of people are come to see mother. Go down, Salome."
"Ada is there," Salome said, telling the children not to talk so loud; and then she looked ruefully at her inked forefinger, and wished she had mended the crape on the skirt of her dress before she put it on that day.
"Miss Wilton—Miss Salome—my dear, do make haste; your mamma will be so pressed and worried. There's Mrs. Doctor Wilton, with a train of black silk long enough to reach from here to the gate almost. Do make haste, Miss Salome, my dear. If there isn't another knock! Dear me, I can't abide answering the door; it has never been my business." And Stevens bustled down, exhorting the children not to peep through the banisters, and signing to Salome to follow her, she disappeared to answer the door to Mr. and Mrs. Atherton. But happily Mrs. Atherton had seen the two carriages at the gate, and was just giving the cards to Stevens, saying she would come again, when Salome appeared.
"We hear your mother has visitors," said Mrs. Atherton, in one of those voices which ring with the clear sweetness of truth,—the voice which is so different from the "put on" or company voice, or the voice which regulates itself to the supposed requirements of the moment. "We will come again very soon. I hope your mother is pretty well?"
"Yes, thank you," said Salome. "Won't you come in?"
"No; we are near neighbours at the vicarage," Mr. Atherton said. "We were your predecessors here," he said with a smile; "so we know the rooms will not hold large levees. I want to know your brothers. I saw two elder ones at church with you on Sunday. If they care for cricket, we have a game going on every Saturday in the field above the church."