‘So I should fancy. He knows the country almost as well as his mistress does, and has such wonderful presence of mind, as to make him invaluable in any emergency.’
‘Well, I think he has the presence of mind, at any rate, to know when help was nigh.’
‘Say, rather, the power of lung to invoke that help when it was afar off. You don’t know what a long way I rode back, summoned by that unearthly yell of his.’
Eleanor laughed. ‘Poor William!’ she said.
‘Ah, I do admire William. Do you see, he knows we are talking about him, and the children are beginning to be suspicious too. I believe William fears we are going to ask him to act as guide to some place. Would you mind my catechising him a little on the geography of the district? It would keep him up to the mark, you know, and would be such a useful thing for the children as well.’
‘Please don’t, Mr. Langstroth. You will make me look ridiculous before them all.’
‘If I have seen you looking ridiculous, and if William has seen you looking ridiculous,’ said Michael, ‘as we certainly did, you know, on a never-to-be-forgotten occasion, what can it matter if a set of children and their mother see the same thing?’
‘Oh, nothing, perhaps,’ was the sweet reply. ‘But are you sure you did not look a little ridiculous too? And if Effie once had her confidence in your infallibility shaken——’
‘That is true. Like the villains in novels, you have a power over me, through the innocent ones whom I love. I will keep silence this time, but take care how you provoke me too far.’
‘Do not be so childish.’