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Page 64
"How my mother and Isabel will delight in you," he said; "and the squire!
You are precisely the girl to take his fancy. We'll go over and see them
as soon as we can, won't we, Clover?"
Clover listened delightedly to all these schemes, but through them all,
like that young Irish lady who went over the marriage service with her
lover adding at the end of every clause, "Provided my father gives his
consent," she interposed a little running thread of protest,--"If papa is
willing. You know, Geoff, I can't really promise anything till I've talked
with papa."
It was settled that until Dr. Carr had been consulted, the affair was not
to be called an engagement, or spoken of to any one; only Clover asked
Geoff to tell Clarence all about it at once.
The thought of Clarence was, in truth, the one cloud in her happiness just
then. It was impossible to calculate how he would take the news. If it
made him angry or very unhappy, if it broke up his friendship with Geoff,
and perhaps interfered with their partnership so that one or other of them
must leave the High Valley, Clover felt that it would grievously mar her
contentment. There was no use in planning anything till they knew how he
would feel and act. In any case, she realized that they were bound to
consider him before themselves, and make it as easy and as little painful
as possible. If he were vexatious, they must be patient; if sulky, they
must be forbearing.
Phil opened his eyes very wide at the pair sitting so coseyly over the
fire when at last he came in.
"I say, have _you_ been here all the evening?" he cried. "Well, that's a
sell! I wouldn't have gone out if I'd known."
"We've missed you very much," quoth Geoff; and then he laughed as at some
extremely good joke, and Clover laughed too.
"You seem to have kept up your spirits pretty well, considering," remarked
Phil, dryly. Boys of eighteen are not apt to enjoy jokes which do not
originate with themselves; they are suspicious of them.
"I suppose I must go now," said Geoff, looking at his watch; "but I shall
see you again before I leave. I'll come in to-morrow after I've met my
man."
"All right," said Phil; "I won't go out till you come."
"Oh, pray don't feel obliged to stay in. I can't at all tell when I shall
be able to get through with the fellow."
"Come to dinner if you can," suggested Clover. "Phil is sure to be at home
then."
Lovers are like ostriches. Geoff went away just shaking hands casually,
and was very particular to say "Miss Carr;" and he and Clover felt that
they had managed so skilfully and concealed their secret so well; yet the
first remark made by Phil as the door shut was, "Geoff seems queer
to-night, somehow, and so do you. What have you been talking about all the
evening?"
An observant younger brother is a difficult factor in a love affair.
Two days passed. Clover looked in vain for a note from the High Valley to
say how Clarence had borne the revelation; and she grew more nervous with
every hour. It was absolutely necessary now to dismantle the house, and
she found a certain relief in keeping exceedingly busy. Somehow the
break-up had lost its inexplicable pain, and a glad little voice sang all
the time at her heart, "I shall come back; I shall certainly come back.
Papa will let me, I am sure, when he knows Geoff, and how nice he is."
She was at the dining-table wrapping a row of books in paper ready for
packing, when a step sounded, and glancing round she saw Clarence himself
standing in the doorway. He did not look angry, as she had feared he
might, or moody; and though he avoided her eye at first, his face was
resolute and kind.
"Geoff has told me," were his first words. "I know from what he said that
you, and he too, are afraid that I shall make myself disagreeable; so I've
come in to say that I shall do nothing of the kind."
"Dear Clarence, that wasn't what Geoff meant, or I either," said Clover,
with a rush of relief, and holding out both her hands to him; "what we
were afraid of was that you might be unhappy."
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