The sergeant had stopped to that meal, for he saw, by the manner in which the squire asked him, that he should give pain if he refused; and there was a simple dignity about the old soldier, which would have prevented his appearing out of place at the table of the highest in the land.

“Now, pussy,” the squire said, when they had finished, “you must amuse yourself for a bit.  You can go in the garden again, or sit with Mrs. Morcombe in her room.  She will look you out some picture books from the library.  I am afraid there is nothing very suited to your reading, but we will soon put all that right.  Your grandfather and I want to have another quiet chat together.”

“Now I want your advice,” he said when they were both comfortably seated in the study.  “You see, you have been thinking and planning about the child for years, while it has all come new upon me, so I must rely upon you entirely.  Of course, the child must have a governess, that is the first thing; not so much for the sake of teaching her, though, of course, she must be taught, but as a companion for her.”

“Yes,” the sergeant assented, “she must have a governess.”

“It will be a troublesome matter to find one to suit,” the squire said thoughtfully.  “I don’t want a harsh sort of Gorgon, to repress her spirits and bother her life out with rules and regulations; and I won’t have a giddy young thing, because I should like to have the child with me at breakfast and lunch, and I don’t want a fly-away young woman who will expect all sorts of attention.  Now, what is your idea?  I have no doubt you have, pictured in your mind, the exact sort of woman you would like to have over her.”

“I have,” the sergeant answered quietly.  “I don’t know whether it would suit you, squire, or whether it could be managed; but it does seem, to me, that you have got the very woman close at hand.  Aggie has been for two years with Mrs. Walsham, who is a lady in every way.  She is very fond of the child, and the child is very fond of her.  Everyone says she is an excellent teacher.  She would be the very woman to take charge of her.”

“The very thing!” the squire exclaimed, with great satisfaction.  “But she has a school,” he went on, his face falling a little, “and there is a son.”

“I have thought of that,” the sergeant said.  “The school enables them to live, but it cannot do much more, so that I should think she would feel no reluctance at giving that up.”

“Money would be no object,” the squire said.  “I am a wealthy man, Mr. Wilks, and have been laying by the best part of my income for the last eight years.  I would pay any salary she chose, for the comfort of such an arrangement would be immense, to say nothing of the advantage and pleasure it would be to the child.  But how about the boy?”

“We both owe a good deal to the boy, squire,” the sergeant said gravely, “for if it had not been for him, the child would have been lost to us.”