d to tear at her in frantic
efforts to express their delight. "Are you glad I've come back,
Donald?" she asked in a low voice as she knelt and put her arms round
his neck and nestled her face against his, and let him lick her with
his great, soft tongue. "Ah, if you are only half as glad as I am,
doggie, your heart must be half breaking with the joy of it. And if I'm
lean, you are disgracefully fat, Bess. Don't tell me you've missed me,
for I don't believe it."

It was some time before Jessie could drag her upstairs; and the sight
of her old room, as cheerful as the hall, with the huge fire, almost
unnerved her, and when she was alone she sank upon her knees beside the
bed in a thanksgiving which was none the less deep and fervent for its
muteness.

When she came down the dinner was ready and Mr. Wordley was standing in
front of the fire awaiting her. She was glad that Jason had not had
time to procure a new livery, was glad of the old shabbiness of the
room, that its aspect was not yet changed, and that it greeted her with
all its old familiarity, Mr. Wordley would not let her talk until she
had made, at any rate, a pretense of eating; but when they had gone
into the drawing-room, he drew a chair to the fire for her, and said;

"Now, my dear, I am afraid I shall have to talk business. I shall be
too busy to come over to-morrow." He laughed. "You see I have left all
my other clients' affairs, to come after my stray lamb: I expect I
shall find them in a pretty muddle. Now, my dear, before I go I should
like you to tell me exactly what you would like to do. As I have
explained to you, you are now the mistress of a very large fortune with
which you can do absolutely what you like. Would you like to live here,
or would you like to take a house in London, or go abroad?"

Ida looked up a little piteously.

"Oh, not go to London or abroad!" she said. "Can I not live here? If
you knew how I feel--how the sight of the place, the thought that I am
under the old roof again--"

She looked round the faded, stately room lovingly, wistfully, and Mr.
Wordley nodded sympathetically.

"Of course you can, my dear," he said. "But equally o' course, you will
now want to restore the old place. There is a great deal to be done,
and I thought that perhaps you would like to go away while the work was
being carried on."

Ida shook her head.

"No, I would like to stay, even if I have to live in the kitchen or one
of the garrets. It wi