When Ida came down her father was already at the table with his book
open at his elbow, and he scarcely looked up as she went to her place.
Now, as a rule, she gave him an account of her rides and walks, and
told him about the cattle and the progress of the farm generally, of
how she had seen a kingfisher or noticed that the trout were rising, or
that she had startled a covey of partridges in the young wheat; to all
of which he seemed scarcely ever to listen, nodding his head now and
again and returning often to his book before she had finished speaking;
but to-day she could not tell him of her morning walk and her meeting
with Stafford Orme.
She would have liked to have assured him that he had done Sir Stephen
an injustice in thinking him guilty of buying the Brae Wood land in an
underhand way, but she knew it would be of no use to do so; for once an
idea had got into Mr. Heron's head it was difficult to destroy it. For
the first time in her life, too, she was concealing something from him.
Once or twice she tried to say: "Father, the gentleman who was fishing on the river was Sir Stephen
Orme's son; I have met him two or three times since, and he has asked
me to meet him to-morrow;" but she could not.
She knew he would fly into one of the half-childish passions in which
he could not be persuaded to listen to reason, and that he would insist
upon the breaking off of her acquaintance with Mr. Orme; and there was
so much pain in the mere thought of it that her courage failed her. If
she were not to meet him, or if she met him, and told him that she
could not remain with him, must not speak to him again, it would be
tantamount to telling him that she did not believe his father was
innocent; and she did believe it. Though she knew so little of Mr.
Orme, she felt that she could trust him.
So she sat almost silent, thinking of what Jessie had told her, and
wondering why Stafford Orme should leave the gay party at the Villa to
ride with her. Once only in the course of the meal did her father
speak. He looked up suddenly, with a quick, almost cunning, glance, and
said: "Can you let me have some money, Ida? I want to order some books.
There's a copy of the Percy 'Reliques' in the catalogue I should like
to buy."