somehow or other lady o'gara found it difficult to get stella to herself in the days that followed. there were times when she almost thought that stella deliberately kept away. sir shawn had often said, rallying his wife, that mary never saw further than her own nose. she was a little bewildered about the young people. terry and eileen seemed to have quarrelled. eileen found occupations that kept her in her own room. she had suddenly developed a desire to make herself a coat and skirt, and lady o'gara had gone in many times, to find her pinning and fitting on the lay-figure which occupied the centre of the room, surrounded by all manner of snippets and pieces.
this ridiculous pre-occupation of eileen's gave lady o'gara something she did not complain of. she had more of her son than otherwise she would have had. terry had never looked for better companionship than his mother's, but he grumbled about eileen nevertheless.
"she used to be always ready to come anywhere," he said. "i know i can't always have you, because father needs you so much. we have always torn you in pieces between the two of us. i asked eileen to come out shooting on the bog with me and she wouldn't. she just opened her door and i saw a horrid thing, an indecent thing that pretended to look like a woman's body, taking up the middle of her room."
"it's for fitting dresses on, you ridiculous boy!" lady o'gara said laughing.
"it gave me a shock. a horrid, stuffed thing. i shall not be able to look at eileen again without seeing that. why does she want to make her dresses? can't your maid do it? industry in eileen is quite a new thing. not that she's half as good a companion on the bog as you are, darling. i've always had to carry her over the pools. she said she couldn't jump."
lady o'gara's face at this frankness was a study.
"she's so helpless. not like a country girl, at all. you remember that day with the bull. she left stella to be gored by the bull and expected to be admired for it."
there was certainly a change in terry's attitude towards eileen. lady o'gara sighed, because of what she knew was in her husband's mind rather than for any disappointment in herself. eileen was not her ideal wife for terry.
"eileen will go with you all right," she said. they were standing in front of the house on the gravel-sweep. "i've just told her she was injuring her complexion by staying indoors. she has gone to put on her hat. i did not like to tell her that margaret mckeon lamented to me that eileen was cutting out that beautiful foxford tweed so badly. we'll go and rout out stella. she has not been over here for five days."
terry's face lit up.
"i don't know why stella's out with me," he said. "she is always hiding behind your skirts or mrs. comerford's when i am about and want to talk to her."
his mother looked at him, with the yearning tenderness of the woman who would give all the world to her beloved man if she only might.
"you like stella?"
"yes: she's a little darling. don't you?"
"i am very fond of stella. perhaps … she thinks … you like eileen very much?"
after all, if her boy wanted stella, why should even his father's preferences prevail? she had surprised a glance in stella's eyes when they rested on terry for a brief moment before they quickly veiled themselves. the child had something southern in her. so, for the matter of that, had terry. she was fond of eileen, but, simple as she was, she had not had eileen with her pretty constantly for many years without being aware of a certain shallowness in the girl. the blood under the fair skin ran thinly, coldly.
his face lit up with such a light that she was alarmed at what she had done. what would shawn say if he knew? but, after all, shawn had married where he loved. why should not the boy have the same felicity? stella had been pushing her small soft way into mary o'gara's heart. she knew now that eileen could never have been the little daughter she wanted.
"you think she would mind that?" his eyes leaped at her.
she felt like one who had burnt her boats. she would not look before or behind. shawn was wrong, she said vehemently to herself. eileen was not the girl for terry.
"i will tell you a secret, terry," she said. "the first evening you came back, in the drawing-room before dinner, there was something that might have passed for a love-scene between you and eileen. your father opened the door and withdrew. then he discovered that stella had come downstairs before him and was playing with the dogs in the hall by the dying fire. he supposed that she had surprised that scene before he did."
oh, poor shawn! what a use she was making of his confidence! but men never knew about their sons as mothers did. she would give anything, except her own soul, to procure terry the joy he desired. and it was a good joy. she loved stella. of course, she would be very good to eileen, but she did not want eileen for a daughter-in-law. shawn did not look very deeply. he had hardly considered eileen except as something pretty and gentle, who was pleasant in the house and sang him moore's melodies of evenings in a small sweet voice. he missed her when she returned to her own people.
"i was an idiot for a second," the boy said, shamefacedly. "i don't suppose you understand, mother, but men are like that. eileen can be very alluring when she likes and…"
"don't tell me any more. i can imagine," lady o'gara said and laughed, a laugh which had a certain shyness in it.
"then we fell out over the cat and dog," he said. "eileen was rather rude. perhaps i was a little rough with cleopatra, but she had scratched shot's nose. you know what shot is! it was an entirely unprovoked attack. i believe i did say that cleopatra should be sent to the cats' home."
eileen appeared at this point, coming with an unwilling air. it was true that her staying within-doors so much had not improved her looks. she had not a very good circulation at any time. that, or her mood, had given her rose and white a dull, leaden look. her discontented little face was lifted towards the dappled sky. it was really a beautiful day of autumn. there was a little wind, and the last yellow leaves on the branches tinkled like so many small golden cymbals. a pale gold sun was going low amid oceans of amber touched with rose, and above dappled clouds were floating as though the day was february.
"it is so cold," said eileen, and shivered. "i don't see how margaret can get on without fitting me. she had made up such a nice fire in my room. i cannot see why any one wants to go out in such weather."
"oh, come along, you little grumbler!" lady o'gara said with her infectious gaiety. "come for a good trot. i know what will happen to you: you'll get chilblains if you sit by the fire in cold weather. your hands will be dreadful to look at, and your feet will be a torture."
eileen looked down at her feet and then at her hands, childishly. she had very pretty feet and hands.
"they are all right so far," she said.
"you and terry had better race each other to the bridge," lady o'gara said. "i want to see the colour in your face, child."
"come along," said terry, and caught at eileen's hand. half-unwillingly she ran with him, but when lady o'gara caught up with them, eileen was laughing and panting.
"this wretched son of yours," she said, "has run me off my feet."
"and you look the better for it," lady o'gara answered, her brown eyes merry and her cheeks dimpling like a girl's. "we are going for stella, to bring her back to tea. she has not been near us for some days."
"oh!" eileen had gone back to the chilly voice. "she doesn't want to come. she finds us rather dull, i think."
lady o'gara laughed.
"i don't believe any one could find us dull," she said merrily, "least of all stella."
"oh well, i suppose i'm not telling the truth," eileen said huffily. "all i know is she asked me the last time i saw her if terry ever brought any of his brother-officers home with him."
terry's candid face clouded over ever so slightly; while his mother remarked that, of course, three was an awkward number for games. they wanted another man. she believed she had been talking about it.
"you might ask major evelyn," she said to terry. "it is still possible to have golf when there is fine weather."
"i wonder if he would come?" terry said ingenuously. "think of a second-lieutenant like me asking a swell like evelyn! why, his decorations make a perfect breastplate when he chooses to put them on. not that it is a matter of choice. he only does it when he can't help it. he did so splendidly in south africa."
"i dare say he'd condescend to come," lady o'gara said. "few sportsmen can resist the castle talbot duck-shooting."
"do ask him," said eileen, becoming animated. "two's company, three's none. everything is lop-sided without a second man."
"i'll ask him, of course," terry said. "but i don't suppose he'll come. it is like a kid in the lower school asking a prefect to tea. he may come—for the grub. on the other hand he may give the kid a kicking for his impudence."
after all, they had not to go as far as inch. they met stella exercising her dogs about half a mile from her own gates. she would like to come to tea if she might first take the dogs home and leave word as to where she had gone.
to lady o'gara's mind she looked small and unhappy as soon as the flush had faded which came when she saw them. she clung to lady o'gara, and could not be detached from her. the dogs, surrounding her, made a barrier between her and terry, who, at first, kept as close to her as he could, leaving eileen to walk the other side of lady o'gara.
but stella did not seem to have much to say to him. she was too engrossed with the dogs and with his mother to spare him a word. the eager light which had come to his eyes when he had first caught sight of her faded. his candid face was overcast. she had been keeping him at arms-length ever since he had come back.
his mother watched him with a comprehension which was half tender amusement, half compassion. he was becoming a little sullen over stella's persistent disregard of him. she watched the set boyish mouth, the pucker of his forehead—her baby. terry had always had that pucker for perplexity or disappointment. why, he had had it when the first down was on his baby head, as soft as a duckling's.
the road grew narrow. he began to lag behind, to veer towards eileen.
"is it worth while for us all to go on to inch?" he asked in his discontented young voice. "supposing eileen and i go on by the river, while you and stella take back the dogs! they wouldn't follow me or i'd offer to go home with them. it must be nearly a mile to the house from the gate."
"i've a better way than that," lady o'gara said on a sudden impulse. she had taken stella's cold little hand in hers, and it made a mute appeal. she was sure stella was unhappy, poor little motherless child. the two poor children, fretting and worrying each other about nothing at all! her comprehending, merry, pitiful gaze went from one to the other young face.
"suppose eileen and i walk back. you'll overtake us before we get home. you two are such quick walkers."
eileen's lips opened as though to protest. her face had brightened at
terry's suggestion. she closed them again in a tight snap.
"i never can see the good of walking about wet roads," she said crossly. "it must be nice to live in a town, where there are dry pavements, and people, and shops."
a robin rained out his little song from a bough above her head, and behind the trees the sky broke up into magnificence—the sun looking from under a great dun cloud suffused with his rays, while all below him was a cool greenish bluish wash of sky, tender and delicate.
"you would not find that in a city, eileen," lady o'gara said, pushing away gently stella's cold little hand that seemed to cling to hers.
"make her trot, terry," she said. "her hands are cold as little frogs, like the child's hands in herrick's 'grace for a child.'
"cold as paddocks though they be,
still i lift them up to thee
for a benison to fall
on our meat and on us all."
she saw the sudden rush of joy to her son's face and she was a little lonely. she felt that she was no longer first with terry.
