. More than
once she made preparations for her departure, and then changed her
mind at the last moment.

Late in June we heard of Mr. Egerton's return to Cumber; and a few
days after that he came to Thornleigh. Mrs. Darrell was in her own
room, Milly and I alone in the drawing-room, when he called. My poor
girl turned very pale, and the tears came into her eyes as she and
Angus Egerton met. He spoke of her loss with extreme delicacy, and
was full of tender sympathy. He had news to tell her of himself. A
distant relation of his mother's had died lately, leaving him six
thousand a year. He had come back to restore Cumber to its old
splendour, and to take his proper place in the county.

While they were talking together in low confidential tones, not at
all embarrassed by my presence, Mrs. Darrell came into the room. She
was paler than usual; but there was an animation in her face that
had not been there for a long time. She received Mr. Egerton very
graciously, and insisted upon his staying to dinner.

The evening passed very pleasantly. I had never seen Augusta Darrell
so agreeable, so fascinating, as she was that night. She touched the
piano for the first time since her husband's death, and sang and
played with all her old fire, keeping Angus Egerton a prisoner by
the side of the piano. Hers was not music to be heard with
indifference by the coldest ear.

He came again very soon, and came often. The restorations at Cumber
had begun, and he insisted on our driving over to see what he was
going to do. We went in compliance with this wish, and I could not
but observe how anxiously he questioned Milly as to her opinion of
the alterations, and how eagerly he sought for suggestions as to the
arrangement and decoration of the different rooms. We spent some
hours in this inspection, and stayed to luncheon, in the noble old
tapestried drawing-room.

It was not very long before Mr. Egerton had renewed his suit, and
had been accepted. Had Mr. Darrell lived, the altered circumstances
of the suitor would, in all probability, have made some alteration
in his ideas upon this subject. He could no longer have supposed
Angus Egerton influenced by mercenary feelings.

My darling seemed perfectly happy in her engagement, and I shared
her happiness. I was always to live with her, she said, at Cumber as
well as at Thornleigh. She had told Angus this, and he was pleased
that it should be so. I thought that she would have no need of me