As soon as they were seated in the carriage, lady F—— explained that Waldie was so much out of spirits, and looked so wretchedly ill, that his wife was bent on getting him from home. She was sure he must have overworked himself at business, and he did not attempt to account for his depression in any other way.
“You had better take them down to Weston with you,” said lord F——. “It will be a comfort to you to have your sister with you till I can join you.”
“None whatever,” said Letitia, smiling. “While you are a man of business, I will not be a woman of pleasure. I will stay in town till you can introduce Weston and me to each other.”
And Letitia would hear nothing about the heat, the emptiness of the town, the solitude to which she would be doomed while her husband was being initiated into his office. In town she would stay while her husband remained; and so it was settled, as this happened not to be one of the points which his lordship had fixed unalterably within himself.
“There is papa!” exclaimed the eldest child, quitting her stand at the carriage window, and clinging to her aunt’s neck, as soon as they entered the sweep which led up to Mr. Waldie’s door.
“Yes; it is your papa. I wonder what brings him home so long before dinner to-day.”
Waldie had been standing with his hands in his pockets, gazing on vacancy, till the sound of the carriage wheels roused him. When he saw who was come, he appeared suddenly busy among his shrubs, and turned his back towards the house door.—Maria appeared, with a smile; but there was discomposure under it.
“Go and tell papa, my dear. He did not see the carriage. Go and ask him to come in.”
But the child for once was slow to obey. She clung closer to her mamma the more she was bid to go.
“We will go together,” said Letitia, leading the way to where Waldie was half buried among the shrubs. When he could no longer pretend not to see them, he came forward and shook hands; but his countenance was black as night. His anxious wife busied herself in pointing out how grievously the Portugal laurels were blighted.