It was not until Saturday that she dared to go to the Rectory. It was
early in the afternoon, just as the Collect Class was gathering in the
dining-room. She had forgotten it, she told Mary, as she closed her
umbrella on the door-step. "Can I wait in the study?" she asked,
uncertainly;--there was time to go back! The task of telling part of
the truth to this mild old man, whose eye was like a sword, suddenly
daunted her. She would wait a few days.--she began to open her
umbrella, her fingers blundering with haste,--but retreat was cut off:
Dr. Lavendar, on his way to the dining-room, with Danny at his heels,
saw her; she could not escape!
"Why, Mrs. Richie!" he said, smiling at her over his spectacles. "Hi,
David, who do you suppose is here? Mrs. Richie!"
David came running out of the dining-room; "Did you bring my slag?" he
demanded.
And she had to confess that she had not thought of it; "You didn't
tell me you wanted it, dear," she defended herself, nervously.
"Oh, well," said David, "I'm coming home to-morrow, and I'll get it."
"Would you like to come home?" she could not help saying.
"I'd just as lieves," said David.
"Run back," Dr. Lavendar commanded, "and tell the children I'm coming
in a minute. Tell Theophilus Bell not to play Indian under the table.
Now, Mrs. Richie, what shall we do? Do you mind coming in and hearing
them say their Collect? Or would you rather wait in the study? We
shall be through in three-quarters of an hour. David shall bring you
some jumbles and apples. I suppose you are going to carry him off?"
Dr. Lavendar said, ruefully.
"Oh," she faltered in a sudden panic, "I will come some other time,"
but somehow or other, before she knew it, she was in the dining-room;
very likely it was because she would not loosen the clasp of David's
little warm careless hand, and so her reluctant feet followed him in
his hurry to admonish Theophilus. When she entered, instant silence
fell upon the children. Lydia Wright, stumbling through the catechism
to Ellen Dale [Illustration: "Dr. Lavendar," said Helena, "in regard
to David."] who held the prayer-book and prompted, let her voice trail
off and her mouth remain open at the sight of a visitor; Theophilus
Bell rubbed his sleeve over some chalk-marks on the blackboard;--"I am
drawing a woman with an umbrella," he had announced, condescendingly;
"I saw her coming up the path,"--but when he saw her sitting down by
Dr. Lavendar, Theophilus skulked to his seat, and read his Collect
ever with unheeding attention.