What the man in the shabby livery had felt, he felt also, and added to this was a sense of the practicalness of the questions she asked and the interest she showed and a way she had of seeming singularly to suggest by the look in her eyes and the tone of her voice that nothing was necessarily without remedy.
When her ladyship walked through the place and looked at things, a pale resignation expressed itself in the very droop of her figure.When this one walked through the tumbled-down grape-houses, potting-sheds and conservatories, she saw where glass was broken, where benches had fallen and where roofs sagged and leaked.She inquired about the heating apparatus and asked that she might see it.She asked about the village and its resources, about labourers and their wages.
"As if," commented Kedgers mentally, "she was what Sir Nigel is--leastways what he'd ought to be an' ain't."She led the way back to the fallen wall and stood and looked at it.
"It's a beautiful old wall," she said."It should be rebuilt with the old brick.New would spoil it.""Some of this is broken and crumbled away," said Kedgers, picking up a piece to show it to her.
"Perhaps old brick could be bought somewhere," replied the young lady speculatively."One ought to be able to buy old brick in England, if one is willing to pay for it."Kedgers scratched his head and gazed at her in respectful wonder which was almost trouble.Who was going to pay for things, and who was going to look for things which were not on the spot? Enterprise like this was not to be explained.
When she left him he stood and watched her upright figure disappear through the ivy-grown door of the kitchen gardens with a disturbed but elated expression on his countenance.He did not know why he felt elated, but he was conscious of elation.Something new had walked into the place.He stopped his work and grinned and scratched his head several times after he went back to his pottering among the cabbage plants.
"My word," he muttered."She's a fine, straight young woman.If she was her ladyship things 'ud be different.Sir Nigel 'ud be different, too--or there'd be some fine upsets."There was a huge stable yard, and Betty passed through that on her way back.The door of the carriage house was open and she saw two or three tumbled-down vehicles.One was a landau with a wheel off, one was a shabby, old-fashioned, low phaeton.She caught sight of a patently venerable cob in one of the stables.The stalls near him were empty.
"I suppose that is all they have to depend upon," she thought."And the stables are like the gardens."She found Lady Anstruthers and Ughtred waiting for her upon the terrace, each of them regarding her with an expression suggestive of repressed curiosity as she approached.Lady Anstruthers flushed a little and went to meet her with an eager kiss.
"You look like--I don't know quite what you look like, Betty!" she exclaimed.
The girl's dimple deepened and her eyes said smiling things.
"It is the morning--and your gardens," she answered."Ihave been round your gardens."
"They were beautiful once, I suppose," said Rosy deprecatingly.
"They are beautiful now.There is nothing like them in America at least.""I don't remember any gardens in America," Lady Anstruthers owned reluctantly, "but everything seemed so cheerful and well cared for and--and new.Don't laugh, Betty.Ihave begun to like new things.You would if you had watched old ones tumbling to pieces for twelve years.""They ought not to be allowed to tumble to pieces," said Betty.She added her next words with simple directness.She could only discover how any advancing steps would be taken by taking them."Why do you allow them to do it?"Lady Anstruthers looked away, but as she looked her eyes passed Ughtred's.
"I!" she said."There are so many other things to do.
It would cost so much--such an enormity to keep it all in order.""But it ought to be done--for Ughtred's sake.""I know that," faltered Rosy, "but I can't help it.""You can," answered Betty, and she put her arm round her as they turned to enter the house."When you have become more used to me and my driving American ways I will show you how."The lightness with which she said it had an odd effect on Lady Anstruthers.Such casual readiness was so full of the suggestion of unheard of possibilities that it was a kind of shock.
"I have been twelve years in getting un-used to you--I feel as if it would take twelve years more to get used again," she said.
"It won't take twelve weeks," said Betty.