Return to Jalna. Mazo de la Roche

      

       RETURN TO JALNA

      RETURN

       TO

       JALNA

      MAZO DE LA ROCHE

      DUNDURN PRESS

       TORONTO

      Copyright © The Estate of Mazo de la Roche and Dundurn Press Limited, 2010

      First published in Canada by Macmillan Company of Canada in 1946.

      This 2010 edition of Return to Jalna is published in a new trade paperback format.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

      Copy Editor: Matt Baker

       Design: Jesse Hooper

       Printer: Transcontinental

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      De la Roche, Mazo, 1879-1961

       Return to Jalna / by Mazo de la Roche.

      ISBN 978-1-55488-742-2

      I. Title.

      PS8507.E43R48 2010 C813’.52 C2009-907536-9

      1 2 3 4 5 14 13 12 11 10

      We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

      Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

      J. Kirk Howard, President

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       To Betty and Daniel Macmillan in friendship

      CONTENTS

I Young Maurice’s Return

II Finch’s Return

III The Sisters

IV Breaking the News

V Tug of War

VI A Chastisement and a Tea Party

VII The Waning of the Year

       VIII Piers’ Return

       IX Days of Spring

       X Gemmel and Mr. Clapperton

       XI Adeline and the Organ

       XII Roma in the Moonlight

       XIII Renny’s Return

       XIV The Wheelbarrow, the Organ, and the Model Village

       XV Almost a Proposal

       XVI Grandmother’s Room

       XVII The Theft

       XVIII Conclave

       XIX A Changed Life

       XX Othello

       XXI Piers and His Son

       XXII Renny and His Daughter

       XXIII The Proposal

       XXIV After Dark

       XXV The Finding

       XXVI Alayne Hears the Good News

       XXVII The Children

       XXVIII The Clear Air

       XXIX From Churchyard to Vaughanlands

       XXX A Morning Call

       XXXI Finch and His Son

       XXXII A Debt Repaid

       XXXIII Into the Year Nineteen Forty-Five

       XXXIV Settling Down

I YOUNG MAURIRICE’S RETURN

      IT WAS MORE than four years since Maurice Whiteoak had left his native land and now he was once more within its borders. Then he had sailed by passenger ship from Halifax to Côbh. He had returned in plane and warship by way of Portugal and New York. He smiled as he considered the change wrought in him by those four years in Ireland. He was a different being, he thought, from the child of thirteen who had gone to live with Cousin Dermot. How timid he had been then! The very marrow of him had shuddered as he had stood waiting with the maid in the hall while old Dermot Court had interviewed Wright, in whose charge Maurice had been. When Wright had come out of the room he had winked at Maurice as they passed and whispered, “I hope you’ll like the old boy better than I do.”

      Maurice had slowly but steadily entered the room where Dermot was waiting. Dermot had looked very old, sitting there in the high-backed chair, but his voice had been strong and his handclasp warm. Maurice clearly remembered the first words they had exchanged.

      “How do you do?” Dermot had said.

      “Quite well, thank you, sir,” he had answered. And the conversation had continued, “I hear you were seasick coming across.”

      “A little. After that it was fine.”

      Then Dermot had given him a penetrating look and asked, “Do you think you can bear to visit me for a while?”

      “Yes. I’m sure I can.” His own voice had sounded very small and wavering even to himself.

      “Remember,” — Dermot had continued — “if you don’t like me you may go home whenever you choose.”

      “Mummy told me that.”

      “But I’ll say this for myself — I’m not