't mean to think of
anything at present but the unexpected joy of seeing you all three again
so soon. I am writing to your aunt, to know if she can find a little
house at Thetford where we can be together. You will just have been one
year with her, and I do thank her for her care of you. It all seems to
have fitted in so well. When you see Lady Myrtle Goodacre, thank her
again from me for her kindness to you, and tell her what a pleasure it
has been to me to think of it. Tell her, too, how much I am looking
forward to meeting again my mother's dearest friend."'

'You will tell Lady Myrtle at once,' said Frances.

'Yes, of course,' said Jacinth, but she spoke half absently. Her eyes
were still fixed on her mother's letter.

'_I_ don't see why he shouldn't even "take it into consideration,"' she
repeated to herself. 'We can't be so desperately poor as all that. _I_
shall take it into consideration, any way, my dear mother;' and she
smiled a little. 'Yes, Frances,' she went on, looking up, and speaking
more decidedly; 'of course I'll tell Lady Myrtle. I think I'll go and
tell her now. I know she is alone in the boudoir. And, Francie, you may
tell Eugene.'

'May I?' exclaimed Frances, jumping up. 'Oh, thank you, Jass. I'm not
sure,' she went on, 'I'm not sure that Eugene can feel quite so--so
_wild_ with happiness as I do. Oh Jass, it is almost too much. It takes
my breath away.' She was running out of the room, when she looked back
for a moment.

'Jass,' she began with a little hesitation, 'does mamma say anything
more about Mrs Lyle, _their_ aunt, you know? I wonder if she has seen
her again?'

'She is sure to have seen her again. They are living close together,'
said Jacinth. 'But she doesn't say anything about her in this letter.
Why should she?' Jacinth's tone was growing a little acrid. 'May she not
for once be taken up with our own affairs? what can be more important
than all she has to tell us? I do wish, Frances, you wouldn't drag these
Harpers into everything; it is really bad taste.'

Frances was not very clear as to what 'bad taste' meant, but she was
very sorry to have vexed Jacinth.

'It was only,' she said, 'only that it seems as if all the happiness
were coming to us, and all the troubles to them. And I was so glad mamma
was sorry for them.'

'You speak as if they were our nearest relations,' said Jacinth,
'instead of being, as they are, actual strangers.'

But she was not sure if Frances heard