“Oh, but you will be at Leeds, so it won’t make much difference. But I do not want to be parted from Aunt Catherine and the girls: there is a great deal to arrange. Perhaps, before you go, I shall be able to tell you that things are settled. Anyhow, good-bye till Tuesday.” And then he nodded to her in a friendly way, and Mattie returned to her fireplace refreshed and comforted.
Archie and Grace came in presently, bringing another current of cold air with them. They both looked bright and happy, as though they had enjoyed their walk. Grace’s pale cheeks had the loveliest tinge in them.
“Have we left you too long alone, Mattie dear?” she asked, as she took the cup of tea offered her. “How cosy this dear old room looks! and what a beautiful fire!”
“Sir Harry has been emptying the coal-scuttle!” laughed Mattie. “What a pity you missed him, Grace! he has been so amusing.”
Grace smiled incredulously:
“Why, that great big Sir Harry Challoner whom you introduced this morning! my dear Mattie, I am sure he could never be amusing. I was not greatly prepossessed with him.”
“Mattie’s geese are all swans. I don’t think much of him myself,” broke in Archie, in a satirical voice. “I like quality better than quantity. He is so big, I am sure his brains must suffer by comparison. Now, there is Frere.”
“Oh, yes, we met Mr. Frere!” interrupted Grace, eagerly; “and Archie and he had such a talk: it was delightful only to listen to it. I liked his ideas on ecclesiastical architecture, Archie.” And then followed an animated discussion between the sister and brother, about a book of Ruskin’s that they had both been reading. Mattie tried to follow them; but she had not read Ruskin, and they soon left her miles behind; indeed, after the first few minutes they seemed to have forgotten her existence; but somehow Mattie did not feel so forlorn as usual.
“Come, now, I call that hard,” a sympathizing voice seemed to say in her ear. Sir Harry’s genial presence, his blunt, kindly speeches, had done Mattie good: he had called her Cinderella, and made the fire blaze for her, and had coaxed her in quite a brotherly manner to tell him her little troubles and Mattie felt very grateful to him.
So she stared into the fire wistful and happy, while the others talked over her head, and quite started when she heard her own name. 315