Then she shut the door and fled away.

CHAPTER XVII

SABINA AND ABEL

Now was Raymond Ironsyde too busy to think any thought but one, and though distractions crowded down on the hour, he set them aside so far as it was possible.  His betrothal very completely dominated his life and the new relation banished the old attitude between him and Estelle.  The commonplace existence, as of sister and brother, seemed to perish suddenly, and in its place, as a butterfly from a chrysalis, there reigned the emotional days of prelude to marriage.  The mere force of the situation inspired them and they grew as loverly as any boy and girl.  It was no make-believe that led them to follow the immemorial way and glory only in the companionship of each other; they felt the desire, and love that had awakened so tardily and moved in a manner so desultory, seemed concerned to make up for lost time.

Arthur Waldron was not so greatly astonished as they expected, and whatever may have been his private hopes and desires for his daughter, he never uttered them, but seeing her happiness, echoed it.

“No better thing could have happened from my point of view,” he declared, “for if she’d married anybody else in the world, I should have been called to say ‘good-bye’ to her.  Since she’s chosen you, there’s no necessity for me to do so.  I hope you’re going on living at North Hill, and I trust you’re going to let me do the same.  Of course, it would be an impossible arrangement if you were dealing with anybody but me; but since we are what we are in spirit and temper and understanding, I claim that I may stop.  The only difference I can see is this:  that whereas at present, when we dine, you sit between Estelle and me, in future I shall sit between Estelle and you.”

“Not even that,” vowed the lover.  “Why shouldn’t I go on sitting between you?”

“No—­you’ll be the head of the house in future.”

“The charm of this house is that there’s no head to it,” said Estelle, “and Raymond isn’t going to usurp any such position just because he means to marry me.”

But distractions broke in upon their happiness.  Ernest Churchouse fell grievously ill and lacked strength to fight disease; while there came news from Knapp that the farmer was tired of Abel and wished him away.

For their old friend none could prolong his life; in the case of the boy, Raymond decided that Sabina had better see him and go primed with a definite offer.  Abel’s father did not anticipate much more trouble in that quarter.  He guessed that the lad, now in his seventeenth year, was sufficiently weary of the land and would be glad to take up engineering.  He felt confident that Sabina must find him changed for the better, prepared for his career and willing to enter upon it without greater waste of time.  He invited the boy’s mother to learn if he felt more friendly to him, and hoped that Abel had now revealed a frame of mind and a power of reasoning, that would serve to solve the problem of his career, and finally abolish his animosity to his father.