That week we dined in Upper Brook Street. Miss Deveen, Mr. Brandon, the new Rector, and I; and two strange ladies whom we did not previously know. Mr. Brandon took Anne in to dinner; she put me on her left hand at table, and told me she and Sir Robert hoped I should often go to see them at Bellwood.
“My husband has taken such a fancy to you, Johnny,” she whispered. “He does rather take likes and dislikes to people—just as I know you do. He says he took a great liking to me the first time he ever spoke to me. Do you remember it, Johnny?—you were present. We were kneeling in the parlour at Maythorn Bank. You were deep in that child’s book of mine, ‘Les contes de ma bonne,’ and I had those cuttings of plants, which I had brought from France, spread out on newspapers on the carpet, when Sir Robert came in at the glass-doors. That was the first time he spoke to me; but he had seen me at Timberdale Church the previous day. Papa and I and you walked over there: and a very hot day it was, I remember.”
“That Sir Robert should take a liking to you, Anne, was only a matter of course; other people have done the same,” I said, calling her “Anne” unconsciously, my thoughts back in the past. “But I don’t understand why he should take a liking to me.”
“Don’t you?” she returned. “I can tell you that he has taken it—a wonderful liking. Why, Johnny, if my little baby-girl were twenty years older, you would only need to ask and have her. I’m not sure but he’d offer her to you without asking.”
We both laughed so, she and I, that Sir Robert looked down the table, inquiring what our mirth was. Anne answered that she would not forget to tell him later.
“So mind, Johnny, that you come to Bellwood as often as you please whenever you are staying at Crabb Cot. Robert and I would both like it.”
And perhaps I may as well mention here that, although the business which had brought Mr. Brandon to London was concluded, he did not go home. When that event would take place, or how long it would be, appeared to be hidden in the archives of the future. For a certain matter had arisen to detain him.
Mr. Brandon had a nephew in town, a young medical student, of whom you once heard him say that he was “going to the bad.” By what we learnt now, the young fellow appeared to have gone to it; and Mr. Brandon’s prolonged stay was connected with this.
“I shall see you into a train at Paddington, Johnny,” he said to me, “and you must make your way home alone. For all I know, I may be kept here for weeks.”
But Miss Deveen would not hear of this. “Mr. Brandon remains on for his own business, Johnny, and you shall remain for my pleasure,” she said to me in her warm manner. “I had meant to ask Mr. Brandon to leave you behind him.”