"Well, dear," said the mother, the cheerful tone coming back to her voice, "the Lord is 'able to keep you from falling,' even in the most difficult places; and to make you 'fruitful to every good work,' in spite of all the fowls of the air that ever fluttered down. But remember, that on your part the word is: 'Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.'"
"I know." But then Magnus remembered something else, and was suddenly silent.
And now came a soft, imperative call to breakfast.
"Waffles!" cried Rose in the distance, and the talk ended. Only as the mother went out with her boy's arm round her waist, she looked up at him with her true eyes.
"Magnus, _never_ 'go through the motions,' as you call it, with the wrong woman. _Never_, as a sham. It dishonours the woman and degrades the man, and robs the other woman--the right one--of somewhat that belongs to her alone."
"Well, I never really have, mammy," said Magnus gravely; "so make your mind easy. And I never shall--unless the right one throws me over. I don't know what I'll do then."
And in spite of all previous warning Magnus looked round the breakfast room for Cherry, and not finding her, felt very much aggrieved.
There was no lack of talk and laughter, however; the joy of those four people in being together was extreme, and of course, the others did not miss Cherry, not having expected her, but Magnus did. The reserved, dainty girl had taken him by storm. They had always been inseparable as children, and as true boy and girl, though never with any freedom on her part, even then, that passed the prettiest bounds. Now she had stepped off a little, regarding him from a safer grown-up distance, and Magnus was wild to annihilate both time and space, and whatever else came in his way. She had bloomed out into something much rarer than he knew could be in the world, and Cadet Kindred surrendered at discretion, and without a summons. I believe he found that last fact the crowning charm. If Cherry had held forth her little finger to draw him on, or had in any way shortened that new indefinable distance between him and her, I think Magnus would have struck off a percentage from her perfections. It vexed and bewitched him equally.