‘Miss Gillespie is as nice as possible,’ she wrote.  ’I already feel quite fond of her; my lessons are as interesting now as they used to be dull with Fraeulein.  She knows a great deal, and is not ashamed to confess when she is ignorant of anything; she says right out that she cannot answer my questions, and proposes that we should study it together.  I quite enjoy our walks and talks, for she takes so much interest in all I tell her.  She is a little dull and sad sometimes, as though she were thinking of past troubles; but I like to feel that I can cheer her up and do her good.  Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully, and they say that she is such a gentlewoman.  When we come downstairs in the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.

’"It will all come right, Mrs. Garston,” I heard her say one day.  “It is far wiser not to notice it:  young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is keenly alive to her shortcomings.”  And mother actually nodded assent to this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I had been exceedingly well taught.

’By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my brother-in-law:  he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent Sara such a magnificent bouquet.’

Jill’s chatty letters were always amusing.  She had prepared me beforehand, so I was not surprised at receiving a voluminous letter from Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara’s engagement to Colonel Ferguson.

‘Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,’ she wrote.  ’Colonel Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.  Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected in the regiment.

’Mrs. Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one thinks him so handsome.  Sara, poor darling, is as happy as possible.  I believe that they are to be married soon after Easter, as he wants to get some salmon fishing in Norway:  so we shall come up to Hyde Park Gate early next week, and see about the trousseau, for there is no time to be lost.’

Sara added a few words in her pretty girlish handwriting.

’I wonder if you will be very much surprised by mamma’s letter, Ursula dear.  We all thought he liked Lesbia, but no, he says that was entirely a mistake on our part, he never really thought of her at all.

’Of course I am very happy.  I think there is no one like Donald in the world.  I cannot imagine why such a wise, clever man should fall in love with a silly little body like me.  I suppose I must please him in some way, for, really, he seems dreadfully in love.