.

'No, only a housemaid; but she was a particularly nice woman, superior
to her station. And she and her husband have got on very well. He was
under-bailiff to Lord Uxfort up in the north, and then an uncle died and
left him a small farm near--oh, where is it near? I forget,--but it's
not so very far from London. I've always promised to go to see her some
day.'

'That reminds me,' said mums. 'I haven't told you our present
difficulty.'

Till now Dorothea had been hearing about the whooping-cough, and asking
all about the diamond brooch losing. She had known about it, for father
had written to Mr. Chasserton to ask if Cousin Dorothea could possibly
throw any light upon it,--had she noticed it on their way home, or had
she only noticed it going there, or when?--but she hadn't been able to
remember anything at all.

She _was_ sorry about it; she's very sweet, very sweet indeed, and nice
to tell troubles to; she looks so sorry with her kind blue eyes, though
I don't think she's a very clever girl.

'I feel quite guilty about it all,' she said; 'for it was for my sake
you went to that unlucky Drawing-room, and that all these troubles came.
But what was the new one you were going to tell me about, dear Valeria?'

'Oh, that isn't exactly a trouble, only a difficulty,' said mums. And
she went on to explain about the change to the country and my idea of a
farmhouse.

Cousin Dorothea listened, and tried to look very wise.

'I'm afraid nowhere near my home would be any good,' she said.
'Devonshire's not bracing at all.'

Suddenly a thought jumped into my head.

'That nice woman,' I said, 'the one who gave you the cup, is it bracing
where she lives?'

Dorothea gave a little jump.

'Oh,' she said, 'she'd be the _very_ person to take care of the children
_if_ she had rooms, and _if_ her husband would let her take lodgers, and
_if_ the place is bracing, and _if_ I could remember where it is!'

We couldn't help laughing.

'Four "if's" indeed,' said mother.

But Dorothea didn't laugh; she was too busy cudgelling her brains.

'I've a feeling,' she said, 'that it _is_ a bracing place; that
Homer--isn't it a funny name for a woman, it was her surname, and the
boys used to call her all manner of nonsense because of it--"Iliad" and
"Odyssey" of course,--I've a feeling that Homer wrote something about
moors and fresh air. If I could but remember!'

'Would you know it if you heard it?' I said.

'Suppose we got a railwa