‘To think of a young creature being so clever!’ she said, folding her soft dimpled hands together.  ’My dear, the colonel will be so grateful to you:  he dotes on Flossie.  You must stay and have tea with me, and then he can thank you himself.  No, I shall take no refusal.  Tracy, tell Marvel to bring up the tea-tray at once.  My dear,’ turning to me, when Tracy had left the room, ’I am almost ashamed to look you in the face when I remember how long you have been in Heathfield and that I have never called on you; but Etta told me that you did not care to have visitors.’

‘Yes, I know, Mrs. Maberley; but that is quite a mistake,’ I returned, somewhat eagerly, for I had fallen in love with the pretty old lady, and her tall, aristocratic colonel with his white moustache and grand military carriage, and had watched them with much interest from my place in church.  She was such a dainty old lady, like a piece of Dresden china, with her pink cheeks and white curls and old-fashioned shoe-buckles; and she had such beautiful little hands, plump and soft as a baby’s, which she seemed to regard with innocent pride, for she was always settling the lace ruffles round her wrists and pinching them up with careful fingers.

‘Dear, dear!  I thought Etta told me,’ she began rather nervously.

‘Miss Darrell makes mistakes, like other people,’ I answered, smiling.  ’I shall be very pleased to know my neighbours; it is quite true that I am not often at home, and just now I am very busy, but all the same I do not mean to shut myself out from society.  One owes a duty to one’s neighbours.’

’My dear Miss Garston, I am quite pleased to hear you talk so sensibly.  I was afraid from what Etta said that you were a little eccentric and strong-minded, and I have such a dislike to that in young people; young ladies are so terribly independent at the present day, in my opinion, and I know the colonel thinks the same.  They are sadly deficient in good manners and reverence.  That is why I am so fond of the Hamilton girls:  they are perfect young gentlewomen; they never talk slang or slip-shod English, and they know how to respect gray hairs.  The colonel is devoted to Gladys:  I tell him he is as fond of her as though she were his own daughter.’

‘I think every one must be fond of Miss Hamilton.’

‘Yes, poor darling! and she is much to be pitied,’ returned Mrs. Maberley, with a sigh.  ’Oh, here comes Marvel with the tea.  Now, Miss Garston, my dear, take off that bonnet and jacket:  I like people to look as though they were at home.  Marvel, draw up that chair to the fire, and give Miss Garston a table to herself, and put the muffins where she can reach them; there, now I think we look comfortable:  young people always look nicer without their bonnets; it was a pity to hide your pretty smooth hair.  Now tell me a little about yourself.  I am sure Etta is wrong:  you do not look in the least strong-minded.  Tracy said it was wonderful how such slender little fingers could ever do hospital work.  She has fallen in love with you, my dear; and Tracy has plenty of penetration.  I never can understand why she does not take to Etta; and Etta is so good to her; but there, we all have our prejudices.’