M

CHAPTER XVI.

MEETINGS.

RS. BROOME opened the door of the Cottage in answer to a sharp ring, about four o'clock, and was surprised to see Lord Maintree.

'Dear me, your lordship! This is an unexpected treat; and I need not ask how you are, for you look so wonderfully well. The ladies have driven over to the Court. They started soon after luncheon to pay your lordship a visit. But do come in and wait a few minutes; the carriage won't be long, and if you will allow me, I will bring you some coffee.'

Mrs. Broome poured forth her speech with great rapidity, and gave Lord Maintree no opportunity of speaking. She opened the drawing-room door to usher him in, and was advancing to the fire to pull Miss Ponsonby's arm-chair to the hearth-rug, when she started back with a scream. 'Dear bless me! what is it? Why! I declare it's that Miss Elfrida; whatever is she doing?"

'Stop!' said Lord Maintree, advancing; 'do not wake her roughly. She has been in danger this afternoon, and shown great courage,-I know all about it. Get the coffee ready, and bring me a cup, Mrs. Broome, as soon as possible. No, I say,' as Mrs. Broome stooped over the prostrate figure, 'do not wake her suddenly. Poor child, poor child!' he said, as Mrs. Broome, constrained, she scarcely knew why, to obey Lord Maintree at once, as every one did, hurried from the room to do his bidding. Lord Maintree stood, leaning with one arm on the chimney-piece, looking down on Elfrida with eyes of deepest pity. One arm was thrown back against the low, wide footstool, and her head rested on it. The other hand, tied up in Jack's handkerchief, hung at her side. As the firelight flickered on the outline of the girl's face, the expression was sad and troubled, not like a child's face, he thought; and again he said, aloud this time, 'Poor child! she is sleeping the sleep of exhaustion!'

Lord Maintree's voice seemed to reach Elfrida's dreamland, though Mrs. Broome's had failed to do So. She moved, raised her head, and, looking up, saw the same face bending over her as had looked down from the old oak tree. She started into an upright position, and exclaimed, 'Where am I? Oh, I remember now.'

'Why, Elfrida,' Lord Maintree said, 'you and I have met in a strange way for the first time. Here, let me help you up, and put you into this nice easychair. Poor child! what have you done to your hand?'

'Nothing; it's only a scratch. But my arm is rather stiff, I think ;-and where is my hat?'

'On the floor, where I found you,' Lord Maintree said, with a low, pleasant laugh.

'Pick it up, please, before my aunts come home; and would you mind putting that bright poker straight? I poked the fire with it by mistake; it's never used, you know.'

'There, is that right?' Lord Maintree said, picking up the battered hat, and replacing the bright poker, laughing as he did so. 'What a mistake it is to have things only to look at!' he said; 'but I know my good cousins are rather addicted to it.'

'Do you know how Daisy is?' Elfrida asked.

'She was not hurt, only frightened with the shock, and she is put to bed at the Court. Who came home with you?'

'No one; I would not let Jack come,-I did not want him.'

'Well, we may all be very grateful to you; your courage and self-possession saved the child's life.'

'It was nothing,' Elfrida said; 'and you saved us both. I did think, just at the last, that the branch would crack or my hand slip, and then I must have gone down with Daisy in that black pool. It looked so dark and so black. It would not have mattered much about me, you know; but if Daisy had been drowned, it would have been dreadful for her father and mother and Lily. There is no one who would miss me or care, except Pops.'

'Who is Pops?'

'My stepfather. He is gone to India, and I write to him once a-month and tell him everything I can. think of.'

And now Lord Maintree turned suddenly, as the door opened gently, and Mrs. Meredith came in, followed by Mrs. Broome and the coffee. 'My dear child!' she exclaimed, 'we wondered where you had gone. Let me see your hand?' she continued, unfastening Jack's clumsy knot. 'Oh, we must bathe it well, and it will soon be better. Elfrida, thank God you had strength given you to be so brave.'

Lord Maintree now came forward. Mrs. Meredith, who was kneeling by Elfrida's side as she leaned back in the arm-chair, started up. A bright rosecolour on her cheeks heightened her beauty, as Lord Maintree held out his hand, 'I did not expect to see you here; it is a great pleasure.'

'You know what it must be to me to see you,' she said in a low voice. 'I can never forget what you did for me.'

'That is an old story,' he said. 'How long is it since poor Meredith died?'

'A year,' was the brief reply; 'I must tell you about it some day.'

'Do you know him, Mrs. Meredith? Do you know him, then?' Elfrida said, sitting up.

'Yes,' Lord Maintree replied, ‘Mrs. Meredith and I have met before. Ah, here come "the Cousins," as the children at the Court always say. I think I am in duty bound to go and meet them.'

He left the room, and as he did so, Elfrida,

looking up at Mrs. Meredith, saw that her eyes were dim with tears. 'What is it?' she asked ; 'why does the sight of him make you sad?'

'Lord Maintree brings back my past to me,' Mrs. Meredith said; 'he was the best friend my husband ever had, and saved him once.'

'From drowning?'

'From a danger worse than drowning,' was the reply. And now there was a great buzz of voices in the little corridor, and Miss Adelaide's shrill treble was heard above Miss Ponsonby's deeper and more sonorous tones. 'We little expected to see you here; it was very good of you to come. We must have crossed each other on the road,' Miss Ponsonby said; for, of course, our first thought was to come and pay our respects to you.'

'This has been a very unfortunate affair, Mrs. Meredith,' Miss Ponsonby said. 'The young people ought never to have been allowed to set foot on the pond.'

The tone was one of rebuke, and Elfrida rose on the defensive at once. 'It was nobody's fault, Aunt Dorothy, - certainly not Mrs. Meredith's. Daisy is as deaf as a post; and how could she hear any one call her?'

'Hush, Elfrida! Your cousin will be shocked to hear you speak in that way. Mrs. Meredith, will you be so good as to take Elfrida to her room, and help her to go to bed? That is the safest plan. I have asked Mr. Clarke to go to the Court, and look in here on his way home.'