Early that morning before the sun had risen, when the light was still grey in the coming dawn, Robinette was awakened by a bird that called out from a tree close to her open window, every note like the striking of a golden bell. She jumped up and looked out, but the little singer, silenced, had flown away. Instead, she caught sight of a figure stealing across the lawn towards the side door which opened from the library. Even in the dim light she could distinguish that it was Carnaby, Carnaby with something in his hand. What he carried she could not quite make out, but the sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled up above his elbows in a fatally business-like way, and he walked with an air of stealth.
"What mischief can that boy have been up to at this time of day?" thought Robinette as she lay down again, but she was too sleepy to wonder long.
She forgot all about it until she saw Carnaby at the breakfast table some hours later. Sometimes the gloom of that meal--never a favorite or convivial one in the English household, and most certainly neither at Stoke Revel--would be enlivened by some of the boy's pranks. He would pass over to the sideboard, pepper-pot slyly in hand, and Rupert, whose meal at this hour consisted of grape-nuts and cream, would unaccountably sneeze and snuffle over his plate.
"Bless it, Bobs!" his tormentor would exclaim tenderly. "Is it catching cold? Poor old Kitchener! Hi! _Kitch!_ _Kitch!_" (like a violent sneeze) and the outraged Rupert would forget grape-nuts and pepper alike in a fit of impotent fury. But this morning the dog fed in peace and Carnaby never glanced at him or his basin. Robinette, looking at the boy and remembering where she had seen him last, noticed that he was rather silent, that his cheeks were redder than common, and that under his eyes were lines of fatigue not usually there.
"What were you doing on the lawn at four o'clock this morning?" she began, but checked herself, suddenly thinking that if Carnaby had been up to mischief she must not allude to it before his grandmother.
No one had heard her. The meal dragged on. Robinette and Lavendar talked little. Miss Smeardon was preoccupied with the sufferings and the moods of Rupert. Mrs. de Tracy alone seemed in better spirits than usual; she was talkative and even balmy.
"The work at the spinney begins to-day," she observed complacently, addressing herself to Lavendar and alluding to the rooting up of an old copse and the planting of a new one--an improvement she had long planned, though hitherto in vain. "The young trees have arrived."
"But where is the money to come from?" enquired Carnaby suddenly, in a sepulchral tone. (His voice was at the disagreeable breaking stage, an agony and a shame to himself and always a surprise to others.) His grandmother stared: the others, too, looked in astonishment at the boy's red face.
"I thought it had all been explained to you, Carnaby," said Mrs. de Tracy, "but you take so little interest in the estate that I suppose what you have been told went in at one ear and out at the other, as usual! It is the sale of land at Wittisham which makes these improvements possible, advantages drawn from a painful necessity," and the iron woman almost sighed.
"There won't be any sale of land at Wittisham,--at least, not of Mrs. Prettyman's cottage," said Carnaby abruptly.
"It is practically settled. The transfers only remain to be signed; you know that, Carnaby," said Lavendar curtly. He did not wish the vexed question to be raised again at a meal.
"It _was_ practically settled--but it's all off now," said the boy, looking hard at his grandmother. "Waller R. A. won't want the place any more. The bloomin' plum tree's gone--cut down. The bargain's off, and old Mrs. Prettyman can stay on in her cottage as long as she likes!"
There was a freezing silence, broken only by the stertorous breathing of Rupert on Miss Smeardon's lap.
"Repeat, please, what you have just said, Carnaby," said his grandmother with dangerous calmness, "and speak distinctly."
"I said that the cottage at Wittisham won't be sold because the plum tree's gone," repeated Carnaby doggedly. "It's been cut down."
"How do you know?"
"I've seen it." Carnaby raised his eyes. "I cut it down myself," he added, "this morning before daylight."
"Who put such a thing into your head?" Mrs. de Tracy's words were ice: her glance of suspicion at Robinette, like the cold thrust of steel. "Who told you to cut the plum tree down?"
"My conscience!" was Carnaby's unexpected reply. He was as red as fire, but his glance did not falter. Mrs. de Tracy rose. Not a muscle of her face had moved.
"Whatever your action has been, Carnaby," she said with dignity--"whether foolish and disgraceful, or criminal and dangerous, it cannot be discussed here. You will follow me at once to the library, and presently I may send for Mark. A lawyer's advice will probably be necessary," she added grimly.
Carnaby said not a word. He opened the door for his grandmother and followed her out; but as he passed Robinette, he looked at her earnestly, half expecting her applause; for one of the motives in his boyish mind had certainly been to please her--to shine in her eyes as the doer of bold deeds and to avenge her nurse's wrongs. And all that he had managed was to make her cry!
For Robinette had put her elbows on the table and had covered her eyes with her hands. As he left the room, Carnaby could hear her exclamation:--
"To cut down that tree! That beautiful, beautiful, fruitful thing! O! how could anyone do it?"
So this was justice; this was all he got for his pains! How unaccountable women were!
Lavendar awaited some time his summons to join Mrs. de Tracy and her grandson in what seemed to him must be a portentous interview enough, trying meanwhile somewhat unsuccessfully to console Mrs. Loring for the destruction of the plum tree, and exchanging with her somewhat awe-struck comments on the scene they had both just witnessed. No summons came, however; but half an hour later, he came across Carnaby alone, and an interview promptly ensued. He wanted to plumb the depth of the boy-mind and to learn exactly what motives had prompted Carnaby to this sudden and startling action in the matter of the plum tree.
"Had you a bad quarter of an hour with your grandmother?" was his first question. Carnaby, he thought, looked subdued, and not much wonder.
The boy hesitated.
"Not so bad as I expected," was his answer. "The old lady was wonderfully decent, for her. She gave me a talking to, of course."
"I should hope so!" interpolated Lavendar drily.
"She jawed away about our poverty," continued Carnaby. "She's got that on the brain, as you know. She said that this loss of the money--Waller R. A.'s money, she means, of course--is an awful blow. She _said_ it was, but it seemed to me--" Carnaby paused, looking extremely puzzled.
"It seemed to you--?" prompted Lavendar encouragingly.
"That she wasn't so awfully cut up, after all," said Carnaby. "She seemed putting it on, if you know what I mean." Lavendar pricked up his ears. Mrs. de Tracy's intense reluctance to sell the land recurred to him in a flash. To get her consent had been like drawing a tooth, like taking her life-blood drop by drop. Could it be that she was not very sorry after all that the scheme had fallen through, secretly glad, indeed? It was conceivable that this was Mrs. de Tracy's view, but her grandson's motive was still obscure.
"Why did you do it, Carnaby?" Lavendar asked with kindness and gravity both in his voice. "You have committed a very mischievous action, you know, one that would have borne a harsher name had the transfers been signed and had the plum tree changed hands."
"But then I shouldn't have done it--you--you juggins, Mark!" cried the boy. "I've no earthly grudge against Waller R. A. If he'd actually bought the tree, it would have been too late, and his beastly money--"
"You need the money, you know," remarked Lavendar. "Remember that, my young friend!"
"It would have been dirty money!" said Carnaby, with a sudden flash that lit up his rather heavy face with a new expression. "You and Cousin Robin have been jolly polite when you thought I was listening, but _I_ know what you really thought, and the kind of things you were saying to one another about this business! You thought it beastly mean to take the cottage away from old Lizzie in the way it was being done, and sheer robbery to deprive her of the plum tree without paying her for it. I quite agreed with you there, and if I felt like that, do you think I could sit still and let the money come in to Stoke Revel--money that had been got in such a way? What do you take me for?" Lavendar was silent, looking at the boy in surprise. "Oh," continued Carnaby, "how I wish I were of age! Then I could show Cousin Robin, perhaps, what an English landlord can be! I mean that he can be a friend to his tenants, and kind and generous as well as just. As it is, Cousin Robin will go back to America and tell her friends what selfish brutes we are over here, and how jolly glad she was to get away!"
"Mrs. Loring will carry no tales, I am sure," said Lavendar. "But tell me, my dear fellow, did you imagine that Mrs. Prettyman would be a gainer by your action?"
"Well, why not?" answered the boy. "Didn't you tell me yourself that Waller R. A. wouldn't look at the cottage without the tree? What's to prevent the old woman living on where she is? Do you think there'll be a rush of new tenants for that precious old hovel? Go on! You know better than that!"
"But the tree, Carnaby, the plum tree!" cried Lavendar. "My young Goth, hadn't you a moment's compunction? That beautiful, flowering thing, as your cousin called it; could you destroy it without a pang?"
"The _tree_?" echoed Carnaby with unmeasured scorn. "What's a tree? It's just a tree, isn't it?"
"A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more!"
quoted Mark, despairingly.
"Well; and what more did he expect of a primrose, whoever the Johnny was?" asked the contemptuous Carnaby.
"At any rate," commented Lavendar, "it isn't necessary to search as far as Peter Bell for an analogy for your character, my young friend! You are your grandmother's grandson after all!"
"In some ways I suppose I can't help being," answered Carnaby soberly, "but not in all," he added, and suddenly turning red he fumbled in his pocket and produced a coin which he held out to Lavendar. "It's only ten bob," he said apologetically, "and I wish it was a jolly sight more! But please give it to old Mrs. Prettyman to make up a bit for the loss of her plums. Daresay I'll manage some more by and by. Anyway, I'll make it up to her when I come of age.--I'm nearly sixteen already, you know. Be sure you tell her that!"
But Lavendar refused to take the money.
"Mrs. Prettyman is provided for, my boy," he said. "She has become your cousin's especial care. You need have no fear about that. The poor old woman is very happy and will have a cottage more suited for her rheumatism and her general feebleness than the present one. But I think your cousin will understand your motives and believe that you meant well by old Lizzie in your little piece of midnight madness."
"Though I was a bit rough on the plum tree!" said Carnaby, with a broad smile.
"You think it's a laughing matter?" Lavendar asked indignantly. "I wish you had my father to deal with, and Waller R. A.! It's all very well for you."
But Carnaby only laughed. The blood was still hot in his veins, and the joy of his night's adventure. Mark told him that he and Mrs. Loring were crossing the river at once to see for themselves the extent of his mischief and what effect it had had upon old Mrs. Prettyman. Carnaby observed with diabolical meaning that as he had not been invited to join the party, he would make himself scarce. Gooseberries, he said, were very good fruit, but he wasn't fond of them; so he lounged off with his hands in his pockets. Suddenly he turned. "See here, old Mark! You'll speak a word for me with Cousin Robin, won't you? It's hard on me to have her hate me when I was trying to do my best to please her."
"She won't hate you; she couldn't hate anybody," said Lavendar absently, watching first the door and then the window.
"You say that because you're in love with her! I've a couple of eyes in my head, stupid as you all think me. You can deny it all you like, but you won't convince me!"
"I shan't deny it, Carnaby. I am so much in love with her at this moment that the room is whirling round and round and I can see two of you!"
"Poor old Mark! Do you think she'll take you on?"
"Can't say, Carnaby!"
"You're a lucky beggar if she does; that's my opinion!" said the boy.
"Put it as strong as you like, Carnaby," Lavendar answered. "You can't exaggerate my feelings on that subject!"
"If you hadn't fifteen years' start of me I'd give you a run for your money!" exclaimed Carnaby with a daring look.
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