and brought in Mr. Clare more than perhaps I should ever have
been able to do. So though I must regret having been away, it may have
been the best thing."

"And it was by your brother's earnest wish," said Ermine; "it was not as
if you had stayed away for your own pleasure."

"No! Poor Keith repeatedly said he could not die in peace till he had
secured our having the sole charge of his son. It was a strong instinct
that conquered inveterate prejudice! Did I tell you about the will?"

"You said I should hear particulars when you came."

"The personal guardianship is left to us first, then to Alick and
Rachel, with L300 a year for the expenses. Then we have Auchinvar. The
estate is charged with an equivalent settlement upon Mary, a better
plan, which I durst not propose, but with so long a minority the
estate will bear it. Alick has his sister's fortune back again, and
the Menteith children a few hundreds; but Menteith is rabid about the
guardianship, and would hardly speak to Alick."

"And you?"

"They always keep the peace with me. Isabel even made us a wedding
present--a pair of miniatures of my father and mother, that I am very
glad to rescue, though, as she politely told me, I was welcome to them,
for they were hideously dressed, and she wanted the frames for two sweet
photographs of Garibaldi and the Queen of Naples."

Then looking up as if to find a place for them--

"Why, Ermine, what have you done to the room? It is the old parsonage
drawing-room!"

"Did not you mean it, when you took the very proportions of the bay
window, and chose just such a carpet?"

"But what have you done to it?"

"Ailie and Rose, and Lady Temple and her boys, have done it. I have sat
looking on, and suggesting. Old things that we kept packed up have
seen the light, and your beautiful Indian curiosities have found their
corners."

"And the room has exactly the old geranium scent!"

"I think the Curtises must have brought half their greenhouse down. Do
you remember the old oak-leaf geranium that you used to gather a leaf of
whenever you passed our old conservatory?"

"I have been wondering where the fragrance came from that made the
likeness complete. I have smelt nothing like it since!"

"I said that I wished for one, and Grace got off without a word, and
searched everywhere at Avoncester till she found one in a corner of the
Dean's greenhouse. There, now you have a leaf in your fingers, I think
you do feel at home."