It so happened that the whole course of the girl’s life was affected by the mere fact that Lady Mactavish and her elder daughter had accepted an invitation to stay with friends in the country, and that Minnie had been busy with her trousseau, and, having a particular friend of her own staying with her, quite declined to be troubled with the society of a little girl fresh from school.
Sir Matthew not caring to vex his daughter when he was so soon to lose her, answered Mrs. Hereford’s second request graciously, little guessing that in so doing he was signing the death-warrant of his selfish hopes and schemes.
He beamed approvingly on Evereld when she appeared in the drawing-room on the evening of her return.
“Come, that is a refreshing sight for a jaded city man,” he said, stroking her rosy cheek caressingly. “Never mind, Evereld, we are all going holiday-making now, and will forget all cares and troubles. Have you seen our route, my dear?”
“No,” said Evereld, “I’m longing to see it.”
She could not help reflecting that the months since the Easter holidays had wrought a very decided change in Sir Matthew, he looked worn and harassed, and as though he were longing for rest. He seemed, too, more fussy and dictatorial than ever, and Evereld’s heart sank at the prospect of travelling with him, for she knew that travelling is the great test of character. After the merry talk and the bantering discussions and the hot but always good-tempered arguments to which she had grown accustomed during the last fortnight, the talk which prevailed on various vexed questions, seemed highly distasteful.
“I really think,” pleaded Lady Mactavish, in her grumbling voice, “that considering how very soon Minnie’s marriage will be following our return it would be most advisable to take at least one maid with us. There are so many little things Greenway could be getting forward with if she were at hand.”
“Yes, Papa,” urged the bride-elect. “It will be a most awful nuisance if we have no maid with us.”
“If you think you will always have a maid, my dear, to dance attendance on you when you are married, you will find you are mistaken. The wife of an officer in a marching regiment has to learn to be independent, I assure you. And as to taking a maid to Switzerland I shall not hear of such a thing. You would find her a trouble in the hotels, useless on the steamers, and upset by the long journeys. Why Evereld will be wanting to take her old nurse next!”