“Father,” he said presently, “as I have to stay in England, of course I would rather be with Aunt Daisy than with any one else, and I think this is a very pretty place indeed. But you don’t know how frightfully I wish I was going to India with you. Don’t you wish you could take me, father?” asked Arthur a little wistfully.
“My dear little boy, I wish it so much, that it is one of the things it is better not to think about. And then, you know, you must always look on the bright side of things, and there are plenty of bright sides for you. Just think of all the bright sides I have been showing you. Now, let us have some breakfast, or really, auntie, I shall be late.”
But before Mrs. Estcourt moved, she said in a very low voice, and as if she did not think any one else heard her—
“There is not always a bright side to look at.” For she was thinking that all the brightness had been taken away from her life’s story. Would not Arthur’s mother have said, “If there is none anywhere else, look to where the Lord Jesus waits to bless you, saying, ‘Your heart shall rejoice;’ and then the light of His love would make the shadiest life shine with a summer gleaming?”
Arthur’s appetite seemed really gone this morning, and his aunt’s attention was too much occupied with anxiety about his father’s comfort for the journey, to notice that he was eating hardly anything; and in the midst of his trouble the thought came across Arthur’s mind that it was a very good thing he was not hungry, as he felt a great deal too shy to help himself.
Presently there was the sound of carriage wheels on the gravel outside. “Now,” said Mrs. Estcourt, starting up, “there is the carriage, Ronald; I knew it would be here before you were ready.”
“Well,” said Mr. Vivyan quietly, “you know one of us would have to be ready first, and I would rather the carriage waited for me than I for it. Besides, I am quite ready. Now, my dear sister, expend your energies in seeing if my luggage is all right.”
Then Arthur and his father were left alone.
“Now, my darling boy,” Mr. Vivyan said, “come here. I want to speak to you, and to say good-bye.”
So Arthur came closer to his chair, and his father put his arms around him, and took his hand in his.