These ideas of Uncle Robert’s were little pleasing to the gentle but unwise mother.
Philip, in his wisdom, disapproved of them all!—his mother, his uncle, and Colonel Lane. But he was tolerant to them, he told himself, for “they had good intentions!”
CHAPTER XIX
COLONEL LANE GOES OFF GUARD
Philip Barrimore did not have to undergo the annoyance of sitting at table with the man who had dared to want to marry this young man’s mother—not, at any rate, on the occasion of Dan Webster’s arrival at Hawk’s Nest.
Colonel Lane had sent round a letter to Mrs. Barrimore to apologize and to explain.
“My dear Friend,” it began, “the last of my old comrades—Colonel Henderson—is dying at Dulwich, and he has expressed a wish to see me. You will understand that I am going at once, and kindly forgive me for breaking my engagement with you to-night under the sorrowful circumstances. Poor Henderson has been on his back for years, and has characteristically hidden himself, being poor. Indeed, I had thought he must be dead! Now he has sent for me, and I shall remain with him, if he desires it, to the end.
“Will you, dear friend, be so sweet as to take Phyllis into your home till I return? She does not get on well with Mrs. Ransom—and—there are other reasons. With you, I shall feel sure my child will be safe.”
The letter ended conventionally, but for all that to Mrs. Barrimore it was a love-letter.
“He trusts me—he flies to me always as a refuge,” she told herself, and her kind eyes were bright with tears.
It did not occur to this simple, loving woman that there might be danger for Phyllis within the haven of her home.