Page:The Lark - E Nesbit, 1922.djvu/122

Rh for the place to be made nice for us, and then forgotten about it? We found it all ready for us, and the looking-glass and the jug and basin"—she swung open the door of the further cupboard as she spoke—"and all the beautiful jugs and vases. The other cupboard opened at her touch, confirming her words. "And the new tap by the front door—all so convenient and so lovely. And we did think it so frightfully nice of you; and we have been so grateful and thought about you such a lot—and wished you luck, and that you might find whatever you were looking for in Spain. You are absent-minded, you know. You must have ordered it, and forgotten, Do try to remember. And don't be so cross," she added, with a sudden inspiration of courage, "because we really haven't done anything to deserve it."

"I apologise for having doubted a lady's word," said Mr. Rochester with blighting courtesy, "but my position is a difficult one. The age of miracles is past. And I know that I did not give any such order as you suggest, because I remember perfectly a sudden sense of remissness which overcame me between Tours and Bordeaux, just because I had not given such an order. I wondered how you would get on, and whether you would have to disarrange Hope Cottage in order to make the garden room possible even as a living-room for part of the day."

All the while, through his talking and their own, they had been listening for the footfall of Mr. Dix. And now at last it sounded on the gravel. They were almost grateful. They felt that they could trust Mr. Rochester not to scold them before Mr. Dix. And if only Mr. Dix would not talk about his prison life. ..

"I'm rather early, I'm afraid," said the newcomer apologetically, "butHullo, uncle!"

Again it was not Mr. Dix. It was the younger Mr. Rochester.

"You are just in time to solve a trifling mystery for us," said his uncle, when the little bustle of greetings had died down. "Can you suggest any way in which the chairs and