“H’m! That place agrees with most mothers that agrees with their young daughters,” said she dryly. “And as for Miss Davison’s work, she’s having a good long holiday, I guess, just now!”
“Doesn’t she come backwards and forwards to town from the Priory?”
“Oh, yes, she does, now and then; but she must be clever if she can do much work during the short time she’s away! However, I won’t take up your time, Mr. Buckland, if you’re busy. I’m sorry you can’t say more to set my mind at rest about the girl. But, anyhow, I hope you’ll come down and see us again. We’re always glad to see our friends, you know, and there’s generally a good many of them down there, and we give them a good time, as you know. Good-bye.”
She shook hands with him and went away, refusing to let him accompany her as far as the door, where she said that she had a cab waiting.
Her visit made Gerard uneasy, as it confirmed some of his fears. He felt little doubt that the mother was anxious about her sons’ gambling propensities, and that her sharp eyes had discovered that there was some mystery about the woman whom she, at least, looked upon as her younger son’s fiancée.
The visit of the old lady left him in a state of great confusion of mind. He did not know quite how things stood at the Priory, whether the engagement was definite, in spite of Rachel’s promise, or whether she was waiting, as she had said she would do, for Mr. Van Santen’s appearance.
And he could not tell how much Mrs. Van Santen really knew about Miss Davison, and whether she was concealing the full extent of her suspicions, in order to learn more if she could.
He wished that he could get another opportunity of conversing with Rachel herself; and he resolved, in spite of his knowledge that he would find the experience a trying one, upon going down to the Priory again, as Mrs. Van Santen had invited him to do, on the very next Sunday.
The weather had changed since his last visit; the evenings had become chilly; and the card-playing was carried on with more zest than ever in consequence.
Otherwise the essential features of the hospitality offered were the same. Cora sang; Delia went from group to group, with ready tact and charm smoothing over gaps in the conversation, and introducing to each other such people as she thought would find each other’s conversation congenial. Mrs. Van Santen was the same homely, dear old soul as ever, pouring out tea and coffee with energy, and plaintively telling her sons she wished they had something better to do than play cards morning, noon, and night. While the brothers played poker and bridge assiduously, and Rachel, as handsomely dressed as ever, but with a face paler than before, took rather a background position, and seemed listless and languid, and anxious to avoid Gerard.