Changing Winds. St. John G. Ervine
He had finished a game of cards with Mary and then Mary had gone off to bed. She had kissed her mother and Ninian, and then she held out her hand to him and said "Good-night, Quinny!" and he said "Good-night, Mary!" and held the door open for her so that she might pass out.
"Let's go out in a boat to-morrow," she said. "We'll go to the Smugglers' Cave...."
"Yes, let's," he answered.
When she had gone, Mrs. Graham called him to her. "Come and sit here," she said, pointing to a footstool at her feet. Ninian was trying to solve a chess problem and was deaf to the whole world....
"I suppose you didn't like to see the fish being gutted, Henry?" Mrs. Graham said.
He glanced up at her quickly. He had not spoken of his feeling to any of them because he was ashamed of it. "It's namby-pamby of me," he had said to himself. He flushed as he looked up, fearing that she must despise him for his weakness, and he almost denied that he had had any feeling at all about it; but he did not deny it. "I couldn't bear it, Mrs. Graham," he said quickly in a low voice. "I felt I should be ill if I stayed there any longer!"
"I used to feel like that," she said, patting his shoulder, "but you soon get used to it. The fishermen aren't really cruel. They are the kindest men I know!"
Ninian, having failed to solve his chess problem, got up from the table and stretched himself and yawned.
"I'm going to bed, Quinny," he said. "Are you coming?"
Henry rose and shook hands with Mrs. Graham. "Good-night," he said.
"Good-night, Henry!" she replied. "I hope you'll sleep well." And then she turned to kiss Ninian, who pushed a sleepy face against hers.
8
In the morning, there were fried plaice for breakfast, and Henry ate two of them.
"These are some of the fish you saw on the beach last night," said Mrs. Graham.
"Oh, yes," said Henry, reaching for the toast, and swallowing a mouthful of the fish. "And jolly nice, too!"
THE THIRD CHAPTER
1
He stayed at Boveyhayne until the time came to return to Rumpell's, and the holiday passed so quickly that he could not believe that it was really over. They had picnicked in the Smugglers' Cave and on Boveyhayne Common where the gorse was in bloom, and Henry had plucked whinblossoms to dye Easter eggs when he found that the Grahams did not know that whinblossoms could be used in this way. "You boil the blossoms and the eggs together, and the eggs come out a lovely browny-yellow colour. We always dye our eggs like that in the north of Ireland!" And on the day they picnicked on Boveyhayne Common, Mrs. Graham took them down the side of the hill to the big farm at Franscombe and treated them to a Devonshire tea: bread and butter and raspberry jam and cream, cream piled thick on the jam, and cake. (But they ate so much of the bread and butter and jam and cream that they could not eat the cake.) And they swam every day.... Mary was like a sea-bird: she seemed to swim on the crest of every wave as lightly as a feather, and was only submerged when she chose to thrust her head into the body of some wave swelling higher and higher until its curled top could stay no longer and it pitched forward and fell in a white, spumy pile on the shore. She would climb over the stern of a rowing-boat and then plunge from it into the sea again, and come up laughing with the water streaming from her face and hair, or dive beneath Ninian and pull his feet until he kicked out....
And then the last evening of his visit came. The vicar of Boveyhayne and his wife were to dine at the Manor that night, and so they were bidden to put on their company manners and their evening clothes. Ninian grumbled lustily when he heard the news, for he had made arrangements with a fisherman to "clean" a skate that evening when the trawlers came home. "I bet him thruppence I could do it as good as he could, and now I'll have to pay up. Beastly swizz, that's what it is!" he said to Henry in the stable where he was busy rubbing down Peggy, although Peggy did not need or wish to be rubbed down. "I think Mother ought to give me the thruppence anyhow!..."
After dinner, Ninian and Henry and Mary had contrived to miss the drawing-room, whither Mrs. Graham led the Vicar and his wife, and they went to the room which had been the nursery and was now a work-room, and lit the fire and sat round it, talking and telling tales and reading until the time came for Mary to go to bed.
"We're going soon, too!" said Ninian. "We've got to get up jolly early to-morrow, blow it! I hate getting up early!"
Henry yawned and stretched out his hands to the fire. "I wish I weren't going to-morrow," he said, half reflectively.
"So do I," Mary exclaimed.
She was sitting on the floor beside him and he turned to look at her, a little startled by the suddenness of her speech.
"I wish you weren't going," she said, sitting up and leaning against him as she was accustomed to lean against Ninian. "It's been great fun this Easter!"
Ninian caught hold of her hair and pulled it. "He isn't a bad chap, old Quinny," he said. "Soft-hearted, a bit!"
"Shut up, Ninian!" Henry shouted, punching him in the ribs.
But Ninian would not shut up. "Blubs like anything if you kill a rabbit or anything. He eats them all the same!"
Mary put her hands over Ninian's mouth. "Leave Quinny alone, Ninian," she said. "He's much nicer than you, and I do think it's horrid of you to go gutting fish just for fun. The fishermen have to do it, else we wouldn't get any breakfast, and of course plaice are very nice for breakfast...."
"Yahhh!" yelled Ninian.
"Well, anyhow," she continued, "Quinny's much nicer than you are. Aren't you, Quinny?"
"No, he isn't," Ninian asserted stoutly. "I'm ten times nicer than he is!"
"No, you're not...."
Henry, embarrassed at first by Mary's admiration, plucked up his spirits and joined in.
"Of course, I'm nicer than you are, Ninian," he said. "Anybody could see that with half an eye in his head!"
"All right, then, I'll fight you for it," Ninian replied, squaring up at him in mock rage.
"I'll box your ears for you, Ninian Graham!" said Mary, "and I won't let Quinny fight you, and Quinny, if you dare to fight him, I shan't like you any more...."
"Then I won't fight him, Mary. She's saved your life, Ninian," he said, turning to his friend.
"Yahhh!" Ninian shouted.
"I'll get up very early to-morrow morning," said Mary, as she prepared to leave them, "and perhaps mother'll let me drive to Whitcombe with you to see you off!"
"No," Ninian objected, "we don't want you blubbing all over the platform!..."
"I shan't blub, Ninian. I never blub!..."
"Yes, you do. You always blub. You blubbed the last time and made me feel an awful ass!" he persisted.
"Well, I shan't blub this time, or if I do, it won't be about you.... Anyhow, I shall get up early and see Quinny off. I like Quinny!..."
Ninian pointed at Henry, and burst out laughing. "Oh! Oh, he's blushing! Look at him! Oh! Oh!!"
"Shut up, Ninian, you ass!" said Henry, turning away.
Mary went over to him and took hold of his arm. "Never