“If you don’t mind, dear! I want to see Maud. She was out when I left the other day, you remember, and I can’t feel that I am really received into the family until Maud has given me her blessing.”
“Just as you wish, of course. It does seem a pity to stay indoors when the weather is so glorious!” assented Lilias readily. Though inwardly annoyed that she should have appeared more anxious than Ned for an extension of their tête-à-tête, she was far too proud to show her vexation. Nothing could have appeared more ready or more natural than the manner in which she rose from her seat and slipped her hand through Agatha’s arm; but even while she smiled and chatted she was registering a vow to punish Mr Ned on the first opportunity.
Out in the garden Maud sat, busying herself with the teacups and nerving herself to face the dreaded moment, as footsteps approached nearer and nearer her seat.
“Maud!” cried Ned, and gripped her hand with affectionate fervour, “I was longing to see you. It seemed too bad going away without a word from you the other day. We have so much to say to one another!”
“Yes, indeed; but meantime I must pour out the tea! Are you going to make yourself useful and hand round the cups?” replied a laughing, self-possessed voice, which Maud hardly recognised as her own. It was easier to play a part than she had expected: the looking forward had been worse than the reality; and, as she met her mother’s smile and Nan’s approving glance, she even began to feel a dreary pride in her own composure. Lilias had seated herself between two of her sisters, an intentional revenge for the slight which she considered herself to have received, and Ned was therefore left free to devote himself to his old friend.
“Of course you saw—you knew what was coming,” he whispered confidentially, when the general conversation made it possible to exchange a quiet remark. “I realised that I gave myself away by my awkwardness and stupidity whenever she was present, but I was powerless to prevent it. And you were so good to me, Maud, always doing your best to help and make things easy. I can never be grateful enough for your friendship. I am so thankful to feel that you are at home still. It seems an assurance of safety; for you’ll look after her, and see that she gets into no danger through all this long year of waiting.”
He looked at her appealingly, and she gave a forced little laugh.
“Oh yes, I’ll ward off the beasts of prey. There are so many, you know, roving about this sleepy place. She will meet so many dangers!”
“Don’t laugh at me! I can’t help being anxious. She is so young and child-like, and there are dangers everywhere. Illness, accident, infection. I shall think of them when I am far away, and worry myself to death. But you are a bulwark of strength, Maud, and if you will take her in charge—”
Maud laughed again. It seemed so ridiculous to think of any of her sisters promising to take Lilias in charge! Lilias, the most cool-headed, independent, and self-confident member of the family. She was infinitely more capable of taking care of the whole family than the family was of influencing her movements; but Ned could not be expected to realise as much, and he was obviously wounded by the absence of expected sympathy.