No one knew how loth I was to leave, still less that it was to a much
older relative than those at The Vine that I owed my expulsion--to my
great-great-great-grandfather--Monsieur le Duc de Vandaleur.

Thomas, the cat, purred so loudly as I withdrew, that I think he was
glad to be rid of me.

Adolphe alone was against the verdict of the household, and I think
believed that I would have preferred to remain.

"I'm sure I thought you was quite sattled, miss," he said, as he saw me
off; and he blubbered like a baby. His transplanted perennials were
"sattled" by copious floods of water. Perhaps he hoped that tears would
settle me!

CHAPTER XI.

MATILDA'S NEWS--OUR GOVERNESS--MAJOR BULLER TURNED TUTOR--ELEANOR
ARKWRIGHT.

The grief I felt at leaving The Vine was greatly forgotten in the warm
welcome which awaited me on my return to Riflebury.

In a household where gossip is a principal amusement, the return of any
member from a visit is a matter for general congratulation till the new
budget is exhausted. Indeed, I plead guilty to a liking to be the first
to skim the news when Eleanor or one of the boys comes back from a
visit, at the present time.

Matilda withdrew me from Aunt Theresa as soon as she could.

"I am so glad to get you back, Margery dear," said she. "And now you
must tell me all your news, and I'll tell you all mine. And to begin
with--what do you think?--we've got a governess, and you and I are to
have the little room at the head of the stairs all to ourselves."

Matilda's news was lengthy enough and interesting enough to make us late
for tea, and mine kept us awake for a couple of hours after we were
fairly in our two little iron bedsteads in the room that was now our
very own. That is to say, I told what I had to tell after we came to
bed, but my news was so tame compared with Matilda's that we soon
returned to the discussion of hers. I tried to describe my
great-grandfather's sketches, but neither Aunt Theresa in the
drawing-room, nor Matilda when we retired for the night, seemed to feel
any interest in the subject; and when Mrs. Buller asked what sort of
people called at The Vine, I felt that my reply was, like the rest of my
news, but dull.

Matilda's, on the contrary, was very entertaining. She spoke
enthusiastically of Miss Perry, the governess.

"She is so good-natured, Margery, you can't think. When lessons are over
she takes me walks on the Esplanade, and she calls me her dear