PART III

I

Down by the River Wye, among plum-trees in blossom, Noel had laid her baby in a hammock, and stood reading a letter: 

“My dearest Nollie, “Now that you are strong again, I feel that I must put before you my feeling as to your duty in this crisis of your life.  Your aunt and uncle have made the most kind and generous offer to adopt your little boy.  I have known that this was in their minds for some time, and have thought it over day and night for weeks.  In the worldly sense it would be the best thing, no doubt.  But this is a spiritual matter.  The future of our souls depends on how we meet the consequences of our conduct.  And painful, dreadful, indeed, as they must be, I am driven to feel that you can only reach true peace by facing them in a spirit of brave humility.  I want you to think and think—­till you arrive at a certainty which satisfies your conscience.  If you decide, as I trust you will, to come back to me here with your boy, I shall do all in my power to make you happy while we face the future together.  To do as your aunt and uncle in their kindness wish, would, I am sore afraid, end in depriving you of the inner strength and happiness which God only gives to those who do their duty and try courageously to repair their errors.  I have confidence in you, my dear child.  “Ever your most loving father, “Edward Pierson.”

She read it through a second time, and looked at her baby.  Daddy seemed to think that she might be willing to part from this wonderful creature!  Sunlight fell through the plum blossom, in an extra patchwork quilt over the bundle lying there, touched the baby’s nose and mouth, so that he sneezed.  Noel laughed, and put her lips close to his face.  ’Give you up!’ she thought:  ’Oh, no!  And I’m going to be happy too.  They shan’t stop me: 

In answer to the letter she said simply that she was coming up; and a week later she went, to the dismay of her uncle and aunt.  The old nurse went too.  Everything had hitherto been so carefully watched and guarded against by Thirza, that Noel did not really come face to face with her position till she reached home.

Gratian, who had managed to get transferred to a London Hospital, was now living at home.  She had provided the house with new maids against her sister’s return; and though Noel was relieved not to meet her old familiars, she encountered with difficulty the stolid curiosity of new faces.  That morning before she left Kestrel, her aunt had come into her room while she was dressing, taken her left hand and slipped a little gold band on to its third finger.  “To please me, Nollie, now that you’re going, just for the foolish, who know nothing about you.”