“The cheque?” said Rowland, in a low tone of astonishment, with an anxious glance at his wife.
“Oh, yes,” said Marion, in her clear notes, “you need not speak low, papa, as if that would do any good: for everybody knows just quite well what it all was about.”
“You seem to know more than I do, Marion,” said Rowland; “therefore, perhaps, you will be good enough to expound the matter to those, who have given you the information, in your own way.”
“Yes, papa,” said Marion, with charming docility: “but I could do that better,” she added, “if you would answer my question: for if it’s just your kindness, like the man in the parable, that’s one thing: but if it’s cleared up, that’s another—and I would like to know.”
“I am sure it will please Marion, James,” said Mrs. Rowland, “to be assured that it has been cleared up, and that both her hints to me and to you have been of use. I am not sure,” she said, with a laugh, “that Eddy was very grateful to you for suggesting that he would know.”
“Oh, you told him it was me!” said Marion. Her eyes, which were dancing in their sockets with curiosity and excitement, were clouded for a moment. “Well!” she said, after a pause, “I am not minding. It was quite true.” She put her hand on Mrs. Rowland’s knee, and leant forward eagerly. “Was it yon man?” she asked.
“What have you to do with it,” cried her father, “you little——! You never lifted a finger for your brother, so far as I know.”
“It would not have been becoming,” said Marion, with dignity, “if I had put myself forward. And how did I know that you would have liked it, papa? I just was determined that I would not commit myself: for if he had never come back it would always have been a comfort to you that you had one that made no fuss. But when mamma consulted me, I gave her the best advice I could, and when you consulted me, I just told you what I thought. And it appears,” said Marion, taking them in with an expressive glance, “that it has all been for the best.”
“It has been entirely for the best,” said Evelyn, “and you could not have done better for us if you had meant it.” Mrs. Rowland was but a woman, and she did not forgive her stepdaughter for the suggestion which had cost her husband so many troubled hours. They drew up to the door at this moment to the general relief, but Evelyn could not refrain from a final arrow. “You will be glad to know that nobody has come to any harm,” she said.
But Marion was not sensitive to that amiable dart. She clutched her stepmother’s dress to hold her back. “Was it yon man?” she said, “and did he get clear away after all?”