“Serge!”
He stepped in. Minna rushed away, and he heard her calling all over the house:
“Serge has come! Serge has come!”
There was a pattering of feet on the stairs, a banging of doors, and presently Gertrude, Mary, Mrs. Folyat and Minna came down upon him. He caught his mother up in a great hug and squeezed the breath out of her, and she stood talking and crying while he kissed Gertrude and Mary on the cheek and Minna full on the lips.
Mrs. Folyat led the way to the dining-room, and he sat at the table and they round him, and they devoured him with their eyes. He looked from one to the other. He thought that Gertrude looked sly, Mary plain, but he liked the mischief in Minna’s eyes, and she had a wide friendly grin and a dimple in her cheek. His mother was so much older than he had imagined her and he wanted to tease her out of it. She was wearing a white woollen shawl, and she had shoved her spectacles up on to her forehead when Minna broke in upon her reading. The room was dark and rather oppressive and none of the windows were open.
Minna lit the gas and pulled down the blinds.
“Well!” said Mrs. Folyat, “you have taken us by surprise.”
“I meant to,” replied Serge. “I went to St. Withans first. I didn’t know you’d gone. I walked on here.”
“Walked!” This came from Mary.
“Yes. It’s a nice cheerful hole you’ve come to live in.”