“It’s all much too wonderful to be true!” she said. “Even now, I feel as if I may wake up at any minute!”
“It’s wonderful. But it’s not my idea of a quiet wedding,” gibed Fayre, looking round the crowded hall. “The whole village of Keys and all the tenants seem to have migrated from the North to wish you luck!”
“Aren’t they pets? It never occurred to me that they would dream of coming so far, but Father received a sort of deputation, headed by Gunnet, to ask if they might be present. Gunnet said that, after what had happened, he’d take it as a kindness if he might be allowed to attend! They’re all going back by the night train. There are some old friends waiting to see you upstairs. Even Dr. Gregg has turned up. I asked him, though I didn’t think it was much in his line, and he said that, as he’d be in London anyhow on business, he’d be very pleased to look in. Do go and be kind to him; he looks so miserable and he’s already been quite rude to Father, just to show that he isn’t shy!”
“I’m glad you’re not going too far away from them all,” said Fayre. “Bill tells me that the farm is finished. It sounds charming.”
Leslie had resigned his tenancy of the farm near Galston and built a comfortable, roomy house on some farm-land on the Staveley estate. After what had happened he had not cared to take Cynthia to the ill-fated house up the lane nor had he wished to settle down in the immediate vicinity of his mother-in-law. The Staveleys had been glad to have Cynthia as a neighbour and, Fayre suspected, had done a good deal towards giving Leslie a good start in his venture.
“It’s lovely and the land’s gorgeous. John’s simply delighted. You’re going to be our first guest, Uncle Fayre. Promise you’ll come soon!”
Hatter Fayre’s face grew a shade pinker than usual.
“I’ll come with pleasure, on one condition,” he said.
His voice seemed suddenly to have grown curiously hoarse and unmanageable.
“You can make any conditions you like, so long as you come,” was Cynthia’s cheerful rejoinder. “You don’t want to bring that horrid old bicycle with you, do you?” she finished, struck by a sudden suspicion.