So Tor went, and Maud was left alone; and in the afternoon, when she had seen him off upon the coach, she drove to the Merediths, and dismissed the carriage, so that she might spend some time with the blind man and his daughter.
Tor had been a little less frequent in his visits since the strange proposition on behalf of his daughter which Mr. Meredith had made to him about ten days before; and his journey to Yorkshire and this sudden call to Germany explained his absence most satisfactorily.
‘Alone, Maud?’ said Mr. Meredith, as he heard the girl’s step in the room. ‘I thought you would have surely brought Philip with you to-day.’
‘I have just taken Phil to the coach. He sent me to explain matters to you. Phil has to go to Germany to see his friend, who is ill. I’m afraid he will be gone a whole week.’
‘Gone away again!’ echoed Mr. Meredith, in a tone of disappointment. ‘Why, we have not seen anything of him for five whole days!’
‘He has been in Yorkshire, you know, on his friend’s business, and only came back the night before last. Then, to-day came another letter, which sent him tearing off again. I’m afraid his friend is a sad plague to him just now—though, of course, he owes ever so much to him.’
‘A good friend—a good brother,’ said Michael Meredith, with his slow satisfied smile. ‘Such a man will make a good husband, too—eh, Maud?’
‘Do you mean Phil, Uncle Michael? Oh yes; I should think he would make the best husband in the world. He is so good and kind and considerate to everyone. But I don’t much fancy he means to get married—not yet, at any rate.’
‘Ah, Maud, sisters are not always their brothers’ confidantes on such subjects.’
Maud looked rather nettled.