“It’s rather early to make plans, mater. Things will arrange themselves. Elma and I will always try to make you happy,” said Geoffrey, bluntly.
He, too, had risen, and stood by his mother’s side; flushed, triumphant, a little shamefaced at the remembrance of his late emotion; but transparently and most radiantly happy. “I’ll do all in my power to be a good son to you, and to Mrs Ramsden also if she will allow me!”
He was the first of the three to remember the existence of the little woman in the background; the little woman who was sobbing into her handkerchief, shedding bitter tears because, forsooth, her daughter had secured the biggest match in the country-side, and was about to become a Greville of Norton Manor!
Chapter Twenty Five.
The parental summons arrived ten days after the date of Elma’s formal engagement, and at the expiration of the seventh week of Cornelia’s sojourn in England. There it was for all the world to see;—short, authoritative, and to the point. Circumstances had altered Poppar’s plan. His visit to Europe must be postponed, he desired his daughter to return home by the first possible boat. Useless to exclaim, to argue, to condemn. The command had gone forth; implicit obedience must ensue.
“Will you feel badly when I’m gone, Aunt Soph?” Cornelia asked after the news had been broken. She looked wistfully into the spinster’s face, and felt herself answered as she noted the involuntary momentary hesitation which preceded the reply.
“It will naturally be a disappointment to me to miss seeing my brother, but I hope the pleasure is only deferred. I am glad to have had an opportunity of making your acquaintance, my dear, though the time is so curtailed.”
“Yes, I guess we’ve fixed-up an acquaintance right enough!” said Cornelia, quietly. Seven weeks, or seven years—what did it matter? She and this woman could never become friends. Time counts for nothing in the intercourse of souls. An hour may reveal a kindred spirit; no years can bridge some gaps. Elma would remain a life-long friend, Guest a life-long memory, but her kinswoman, the nearest on earth with the one exception of her father, must for ever be a stranger.