Norah looked appealingly to
Miss Garth, who at once led the conversation back to the more trivial
subject of Mr. Vanstone's return. "We have all been wondering," she
said, with a significant look at Magdalen, "whether your father will
leave Grailsea in time to catch the train--or whether he will miss it
and be obliged to drive back. What do you say?"
"I say, papa will miss the train," replied Magdalen, taking Miss Garth's
hint with her customary quickness. "The last thing he attends to at
Grailsea will be the business that brings him there. Whenever he has
business to do, he always puts it off to the last moment, doesn't he,
mamma?"
The question roused her mother exactly as Magdalen had intended it
should. "Not when his errand is an errand of kindness," said
Mrs. Vanstone. "He has gone to help the miller in a very pressing
difficulty--"
"And don't you know what he'll do?" persisted Magdalen. "He'll romp with
the miller's children, and gossip with the mother, and hob-and-nob with
the father. At the last moment when he has got five minutes left to
catch the train, he'll say: 'Let's go into the counting-house and
look at the books.' He'll find the books dreadfully complicated; he'll
suggest sending for an accountant; he'll settle the business off hand,
by lending the money in the meantime; he'll jog back comfortably in the
miller's gig; and he'll tell us all how pleasant the lanes were in the
cool of the evening.
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