, as she tried to explain who the ruffian
really was.

'And Louis is coming, and Mary! Oh! Isabel, he has her at last! Oh!
Jem! Jem! did we ever want dear granny so much! I always knew it would
come right at last! Jane, Jane, do you hear, Lord Fitzjocelyn is
married! Let me in; I must go and tell Uncle Oliver!'

James looked at Isabel, and read in her smile Clara's final acquittal
from all suspicions beneath the dignity of both. Uncle Oliver would
have damped her joy, had it been in his power. He gave up his affairs
as hopeless, as soon as he found that young Fitzjocelyn had only made
them an excuse for getting married, and he was so excessively angry
with her for being happy, that she found she must carry her joyous face
out of his sight.

It was not easy to be a dignified steady governess that morning, and
when the lessons were finished, she could have danced home all the way.
She had scarcely reached the Terrace gate, when the well-known sound of
the wheels was heard, and in another moment she was between the two
dear cousins; Fitzjocelyn's eyes dancing with gladsomeness, and Mary's
broad tranquil brow and frank kindly smile, free from the shadow of a
single cloud! Clara's heart leapt up with joy, joy full and unmixed,
the guerdon of the spirit untouched by vanity or selfishness, without
one taint that could have mortified into jealous, disappointed pain.
It was bliss to one of those whom she loved best, it was the winning of
a brother and sister, and perhaps Clara's life had never had a happier
moment.

Lord Ormersfield could have thanked her for that joyous, innocent
welcome. He had paid her attentions for his son's sake, of which he
had become rather ashamed; and as Louis and Mary hastened on to meet
James and Isabel, he detained her for a moment, to say some special
words of kindness. Clara, perhaps, had an intuitive perception of his
meaning, and reference to her past heiress state, for she laughed
gaily, and said, 'Yes, I never was more glad of anything! He was so
patient that I was sure he deserved it! I always trusted to such a
time as this, when he used to talk to me for want of dear grandmamma.'

Mary was led upstairs to be introduced to the five children, while the
gentlemen went over the accounts in Oliver's room. Enough had been
rescued from the ruin to secure, not wealth, but fair competence; the
mines were disposed of to a company which would pay the value by
instalments, and all the