:

"If I ever write another book of verse, I shall call it
'_Risorgimento_.'"

For the next two years, winter and summer, Sophy remained at
Sweet-Waters. She felt herself a rich woman in these days, for Gerald
had insisted on continuing the allowance that he had made Cecil, to her
and Cecil's son. This allowance she found to be two thousand pounds a
year. Now that she had become a widow with a son to care for, she grew
thrifty. During these two years at Sweet-Waters, Judge Macon invested
for her every penny of her allowance, with the exception of four hundred
pounds a year. This sum, together with her own income of one thousand
dollars, enabled her to share the expenses of the household and provide
comfortably for herself and Bobby in all other respects. She remembered
that at any moment Gerald might marry, and the allowance cease. She
knew, of course, that in case Gerald died without issue, Bobby would
succeed to the title. About the property, whether it were all entailed
or only a part of it, she did not know. She had been quite happy to find
that under the English Guardianship of Infants Act, 1886, she, the
mother, was sole guardian of her son, as Cecil had appointed no other.
One of her greatest trials, after the first shock of her husband's
death, had been the dread that Lady Wychcote might have some control
over Bobby. It was with bitter reluctance that his grandmother parted
with him. She had exacted a promise from Sophy that she would not allow
too long a time to elapse before bringing him back to England. "Five
years ... I must have five years all to myself," Sophy had answered. It
seemed to her that, even in five years' time, she would not be able to
come to Dynehurst without horror.

"Do you propose to make an American of Cecil's son?" Lady Wychcote had
asked bitterly.

"No. I realise that Bobby must be educated in England. But he will only
be seven years old in five years from now. I am not so unreasonable as
you think me. If I am to live to take care of him I must go home for a
time," Sophy had answered.

The quiet magic of that first homecoming held through the years that
followed. If a rose could "shut and be a bud again" it would feel much
as Sophy felt during those tranquil years at Sweet-Waters.

Her nephews adored her. She had "a way" with boys. When she went to
ride, they usually scuttled along on their ponies, one at either rein.
Her "guard of honour" she called them. Joey, the eldest, went t