“And now,” Jen said impressively, “we shall have the Abbey all to ourselves again!”
Joan looked at her and smiled. “The Abbey has done its proper work, and the aged and infirm, and the very young, have been helped to make a fresh start. You and I are left to carry on at home,” she agreed contentedly.
CHAPTER XXXII
THE BABES IN THE WOOD ARRIVE
To Jen’s great delight, Jandy’s letter about the voyage arrived at half-term. She was spending the long week-end at the Hall, so she enjoyed it with Joan and Joy.
“All went well,” Janice wrote. “We had no difficulties. As I hoped, Boniface took to his bunk and stayed there; he wasn’t very ill, but he was appalled by the size of the ship and the sight and sound of the sea, and he felt safer in bed. Lavinia was poorly for one day; then I made her get up, and once she went on deck she was all right. She loved it and enjoyed every minute—wanted to explore the ship, and could hardly take her eyes off the waves. She really was quite a jolly companion; her interest and delight in everything were so keen. And, by the way, she was talking much better before she escaped from my clutches. I kept on at her, pulling her up all the time—and she was eager to ‘talk right’, as she put it, before she reached her father.
“We had a good voyage, quick and easy; no gales. Second class wasn’t at all bad; I quite enjoyed it. Less fuss than in the first. At Montreal the relations met us, and I liked them all. Boniface’s Annie seemed rather a dear, and she was so pleased to see her father! She brought the eldest grandchild with her, a fine boy of five, and Boniface’s pride in his descendant was touching.
“Lavinia was nervous of her dad, but that didn’t last long. He came himself, with one of her brothers, and I liked them very much indeed. They thanked me too; I felt myself getting hotter and hotter, with all the gratitude that was floating in the air! They said again that they hadn’t meant to neglect Lavinia; they had thought she was happy at King’s Bottom, and they couldn’t see any way to get her to them, unless one of them came to fetch her, and that, I gathered, wouldn’t have been easy, for the farm keeps them very busy. They are delighted to have her now. And I think they were pleased with her; they kept looking at her, as if they hadn’t expected her to be so big, or so good-looking, or something. Her dad said she was very like her mother, so perhaps that was what he was thinking. She was shy, but she looked very pretty. I felt I was handing over something quite worth while! And there are two little half-sisters, called Molly and Bess, so Lavinia will be really useful. Her delight, when her father told her, was pathetic. She has been lonely; now she feels she has a family of her own.
“Then at last I was able to go off with Uncle Jim and Aunty. They really are awfully pleased to see me. I’m glad, now, that I came. They’ll help me with the rest of the journey. It won’t be difficult, they say, and it will be quite thrillingly interesting.
“Take care of yourselves, you dear people. I hope I shall see you all again some day. Give my love to Mrs. Watson and the Abbey; I expect you’re enjoying having it to yourselves again. I am so very glad to have helped to restore it to you! Old Boniface won’t come back; you can rest easy about that. He’ll never face the ocean again! So the Abbey is yours, Joan and Jen, without any ‘ancient spectre’ appearing suddenly at the chapter-house door or toddling out of the sacristy!
“My love to you all. I shall come back some day.
“Yours ever,
Jandy Mac.”
“A lovely letter!” Joan said happily.
“Nice to know the end of the story,” Joy agreed. “Our Babes in the Wood are safe.”
“It’s jolly to think of Vinny taking care of Molly and Bess! She’ll love them, and she’ll be terribly kind to them. Perhaps we shall see them here some day. We must tell Susie,” Jen said. “And the Abbey is really ours now! But I hope we’ll see Jandy Mac again!”
Joan smiled at her. “She’ll be Jandy Fraser next time we see her. But I’m sure our Jandy Mac will come back.”
Schoolgirl Jen at the Abbey Page 18