ck our return for the debt by a poor tardy payment of tears. Then
forgotten tones of love recur to us, and kind glances shine out of the
past--oh, so bright and clear!--oh, so longed after!--because they are out of
reach; as holiday music from withinside a prison wall--or sunshine seen
through the bars; more prized because unattainable--more bright because of
the contrast of present darkness and solitude, whence there is no escape.

All the notice, then, which Lady Castlewood seemed to take of Harry
Esmond's melancholy, upon Tom Tusher's departure, was, by a gaiety unusual
to her, to attempt to dispel his gloom. She made his three scholars
(herself being the chief one) more cheerful than ever they had been
before, and more docile too, all of them learning and reading much more
than they had been accustomed to do. "For who knows," said the lady, "what
may happen, and whether we may be able to keep such a learned tutor long?"

Frank Esmond said he for his part did not want to learn any more, and
Cousin Harry might shut up his book whenever he liked, if he would come
out a-fishing; and little Beatrix declared she would send for Tom Tusher,
and _he_ would be glad enough to come to Castlewood, if Harry chose to go
away.

At last comes a messenger from Winchester one day, bearer of a letter with
a great black seal from the dean there, to say that his sister was dead,
and had left her fortune of 2,000_l._ among her six nieces, the dean's
daughters; and many a time since has Harry Esmond recalled the flushed
face and eager look wherewith, after this intelligence, his kind lady
regarded him. She did not pretend to any grief about the deceased
relative, from whom she and her family had been many years parted.

When my lord heard of the news, he also did not make any very long face.
"The money will come very handy to furnish the music-room and the cellar,
which is getting low, and buy your ladyship a coach and a couple of horses
that will do indifferent to ride or for the coach. And Beatrix, you shall
have a spinet: and Frank, you shall have a little horse from Hexton Fair;
and Harry, you shall have five pounds to buy some books," said my lord,
who was generous with his own, and indeed with other folks' money. "I wish
your aunt would die once a year, Rachel; we could spend your money, and
all your sisters', too."

"I have but one aunt--and--and I have another use for the money, my lord,"
says my lady, turning very red.

"Anot