I twitched the string just in time:  the coach stopt.  Mr. Orme, said I, how do you?  Well, I hope?—­How does Miss Orme?

I had my hand on the coach-door.  He snatched it.  It was not an unwilling hand.  He pressed it with his lips.  God be praised, said he, (with a countenance, O how altered for the better!) for permitting me once more to behold that face—­that angelic face, he said.

God bless you, Mr. Orme! said I:  I am glad to see you.  Adieu.

The coach drove on.  Poor Mr. Orme! said my aunt.

Mr. Orme, Lucy, said I, don’t look so ill as you wrote he was.

His joy to see you, said she—­But Mr. Orme is in a declining way.

Mr. Greville, on the coach stopping, rode back just as it was going on again—­And with a loud laugh—­How the d——­l came Orme to know of your coming, madam!—­Poor fellow!  It was very kind of you to stop your coach to speak to the statue.  And he laughed again.—­Nonsensical!  At what?

My grandmamma Shirley, dearest of parents! her youth, as she was pleased to say, renewed by the expectation of so soon seeing her darling child, came (as my aunt told us, you know) on Thursday night to Selby-house, to charge her and Lucy with her blessing to me; and resolving to stay there to receive me.  Our beloved Nancy was also to be there; so were two other cousins, Kitty and Patty Holles, good young creatures; who, in my absence, had attended my grandmamma at every convenient opportunity, and whom I also found here.

When we came within sight of this house, Now, Harriet, said Lucy, I see the same kind of emotions beginning to arise in your face and bosom, as Lady G——­ told us you shewed when you first saw your aunt at Dunstable.  My grandmamma! said I, I am in sight of the dear house that holds her:  I hope she is here.  But I will not surprise her with my joy to see her.  Lie still, throbbing impatient heart.

But when the coach set us down at the inner gate, there, in the outward-hall, sat my blessed grandmamma.  The moment I beheld her, my intended caution forsook me:  I sprang by my aunt, and, before the foot-step could be put down, flew, as it were, out of the coach, and threw myself at her feet, wrapping my arms about her:  Bless, bless, said I, your Harriet!  I could not, at the moment, say another word.

Great God! said the pious parent, her hands and eyes lifted up, Great God!  I thank thee!  Then folding her arms about my neck, she kissed my forehead, my cheek, my lips—­God bless my love!  Pride of my life! the most precious of a hundred daughters!  How does my child—­my Harriet—­O my love!—­After such dangers, such trials, such harassings—­Once more, God be praised that I clasp to my fond heart, my Harriet!

Separate them, separate them, said my facetious uncle, (yet he had tears in his eyes,) before they grow together!—­Madam, to my grandmamma, she is our Harriet, as well as yours:  let us welcome the saucy girl, on her re-entrance into these doors!—­Saucy, I suppose, I shall soon find her.