stepmother about
the house while he is at business all day; I shall have a thousand
things to do. They have only one servant; and my stepmother and sisters
do the greater part of the work. They would treat me like a queen when I
go over there, if I would let them; but I never do let them. I love
dusting, and cooking, and mending, and helping the little ones with
their lessons. Then as soon as my father is free I am going to carry
them off to a hotel I know between the mountains and the sea. It is a
big, old-fashioned house, and there is a lovely garden, full of roses
and lilies, and phlox and stocks and hollyhocks and mignonette and sweet
peas. I stayed there once with dear Lady Anne. We shall all have a
lovely time. There is a trout-stream at the end of the garden and the
trout sail by in it. There are hundreds of little streams running down
from the mountains. They make golden pools in the road and they hang
like gold and silver fringes from the crags that edge the road."

There had been a deliberation in what she told him about the little
house. But she was mistaken if she thought to surprise him. He was
picturing her there at her domestic duties and thinking that no small or
mean surroundings could dwarf her soul's stature. Hadn't the hideous
official room that held her been heaven to him?--the singing of the
naked gas-jets the music of the spheres?

"It will be a great change from London," he said.

"I am going back to the old days. I have refused to see any of my fine
new friends. The Ilberts will be staying over there with the Lord
Lieutenant at the same time. I have forbidden Mr. Ilbert to call."

Again his mood changed to one of unreasonable irritation. What had she
to do with the Ilberts, or they with her?

"If I find myself over there I shall certainly call," he said, with an
air of doggedness.

"Oh, very well, then, you shall," she said merrily. "_You_ won't
embarrass us, not even if we have to ask you to dinner."

An hour or two later the good news came, brought by Mrs. Rooke in
person. Captain Langrishe could hardly yet be considered out of danger,
but he lived; he had been sent down in a litter to the nearest station,
where there were appliances and comforts and white people all about him,
outside the sights and sounds of war, beyond the danger of recapture by
the enemy.

Nelly bore the better news well: she had been prepared for it, she said.
Seeing her so quiet, Mrs. Rooke brought out a scrap