She was not afraid or perturbed, as she had been
about meeting Alison--she had done with confession--but she was grave,
and preoccupied with it. She bade me look out for him and bring him to
her in the library. "You must leave us alone, and we'll join you at tea
in the garden afterwards. Take care that Margaret is there when we
come."

Nothing can be known of what words passed between them, but Jenny gave a
general description of their conversation--it was not a long one,
lasting perhaps fifteen minutes. "He met me as if he'd never met me
before, he talked to me as if he'd never talked to me before. He was a
most courteous new acquaintance, hoping that our common interest in the
pair would be a bond of friendship between us. I followed the same
line--and there we were! But I couldn't have done it of myself. I tried
to thank him for that--that sort of message you gave me from him. The
first word sent him straight back into the deepest recesses of his
shell--and I said, 'Come and see Margaret.'"

"Oh, you'll make better friends than that some day." I had no strong
hope of my words coming true.

"You seem to have got nearer to him than I ever could. His shield's up
against--Eleanor Lacey! But he was kind to Margaret, wasn't he?"

Yes, he had been kind to Margaret. He took her hand and looked in her
eyes, then gravely kissed her on the forehead. "We must be friends,
Margaret," he said. "I know how much my boy loves you, and you are going
to take his mother's place in my family." There was the same curious
quality of careful deliberation as usual--the old absence of any touch
of spontaneity--the same weighing out of just the right measure; but he
was obviously sincere. He looked on her young beauty with a kindly
liking, and answered the appeal in her eyes by taking her hand between
both his and pressing it gently. Margaret looked round to Jenny with a
smile of glad shy triumph. Amyas came and put his arm through his
father's.

"We three are going to be jolly good friends," he said.

Far more stately was the next ceremonial--the one that was, by my
stipulation, to follow a few days later; yet I am afraid that we at
Breysgate did not take Lady Sarah's coming half so seriously as she took
it herself. She had disapproved of us so strongly before there was--to
her knowledge at least--any good ground for disapproval that her later
censures, however well-grounded, had lost weight. Sinners cannot take
much to heart the blame