d lady, who
is always looking after the poor, to thank Mrs. Alexander Keith for the
help that had been sent for this poor woman, to be given as if from the
general fund. After that I could not help listening to him, and then I
found it was so impossible to know about character, or to be sure that
one was not doing more harm than--What is it, boys?" as three or four
Temples rushed up.

"Aunt Rachel, Mr. Clare is going to teach us a new game, and he says you
know it. Pray come."

"Come, Una. What, Keith, will you come too? I'll take care of him,
Ermine."

And with a child in each hand, Rachel followed the deputation, and had
scarcely disappeared before the light gracious figure of Rose glanced
through the thorn trees. "Aunt Ermine, you must come nearer; it is so
wonderful to see Mr. Clare teaching this game."

"Don't push my chair, my dear; it is much too heavy for you uphill."

"As if I could not drive you anywhere, and here is Conrade coming."

Conrade was in search of the deserter, but he applied himself heartily
to the propulsion of aunt Ermine, informing Rose that Mr. Clare was
no end of a man, much better than if he could see, and aunt Rachel was
grown quite jolly.

"I think she has left off her long words," said Rose.

"She is not a civilian now," said Conrade, quite unconscious of Ermine's
amusement at his confidences as he pushed behind her. "I did think it
a most benighted thing to marry her, but that's what it is. Military
discipline has made her conformable." Having placed the chair on a spot
which commanded the scene, the boy and girl rushed off to take their
part in the sport, leaving Ermine looking down a steep bank at the huge
ring of performers, with linked hands, advancing and receding to the
measure of a chanted verse round a figure in the centre, who made
gesticulations, pursued and caught different individuals in the ring,
and put them through a formula which provoked shouts of mirth. Ermine
much enjoyed the sight, it was pretty to watch the 'prononce' dresses
of the parish children, interspersed with the more graceful forms of the
little gentry, and here and there a taller lady. Then Ermine smiled to
recognise Alison as usual among her boys, and Lady Temple's soft greys
and whites, and gentle floating movements, as she advanced and receded
with Stephana in one hand, and a shy infant-school child in the other.
But Ermine's eye roamed anxiously, for though Rachel's animated,
characteristic ge