“It’s not so much for myself as for Jordan,” declared Medora. “It’ll be good for him and open his eyes a bit to hear I’m going to Uncle and Aunt Dolbear on a visit. They forgave him and all that; but I don’t think he knows they are friendly enough to have me at Priory Farm, and it will be right that he should know it. There’s other reasons, too. If I can escape from going to his lecture, it will be a blessing. He’ll make a rare fuss; but if I once get to Priory Farm, I can fall ill, or something to avoid it.” Lydia went home in a melancholy mood after this interview, and her daughter’s unrest descended upon her. She could not understand the relations between Kellock and Medora. They appeared to be extraordinary, as far as Medora was concerned, and the more Mrs. Trivett considered the various reports, the less able was she to put a cheerful interpretation upon them. CHAPTER XXIV NED AND MEDORA When Lydia asked that Medora might come to stop at the farm, Mary and Tom spoke simultaneously, for each hastened to be the first to accord permission. They had suffered acute anxieties concerning Mrs. Trivett’s possible departure, and when she told them that she had determined to remain, nothing was good enough for her. In their joy and relief they grovelled before Lydia, heaped compliments upon her, and declared that never for a moment had they entertained the least doubt concerning her decision, even while, with every thankful word and exultant exclamation, they revealed the depth of their past anxiety and height of their vanished fear. She saw through it, and only left them uneasy in one particular. Mr. Knox, so Lydia explained, had taken his disappointment in a spirit of great self-restraint, and behaved with such magnanimity and understanding that when he desired the continued friendship of Mrs. Trivett, she could not deny it. “For that matter, I’m proud to have him for a friend,” she said. “He’s full of sense, and as he’s prepared to offer friendship to me and mine, I’m prepared to accept it, and you mustn’t mind if he comes to tea of a Sunday sometimes, and such like.” “He wouldn’t allude to the past, or anything like that, I hope?” asked Mr. Dolbear doubtfully. “Because, in his rage at his loss, he might be tempted to give me and my wife the blame; and if he did that, I should round on him, and there’d be a scene.” “Fear nothing of the sort,” replied his sister. “You may take it from me it won’t happen. In fact, I went into it, and I’ve got his undertaking never to say one word to you or Polly on the subject. And he’s a man you may say whose word is his bond.” “Then let him come,” decided Tom. “If he’s got that bee out of his bonnet, I don’t want to quarrel with him. I never doubted his sense, save in that fatal matter.” “He’s got a nice hand with the children, too,” said Mary. “I will say that for him; and where a child of mine takes, you may generally trust the party.”