Greatly pleased was she, also, to hear that Mrs. Walsham was to be asked to come up to be her governess.

“Oh, it will be nice!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands.  “Just like the fairy stories you used to tell me, grampa, when everyone was made happy at the end by the good fairy.  Grandpapa is the good fairy, and you and I are the prince and princess; and James—­and what is to be done with James?  Is he to come up, too?”

“No, my dear,” the squire said, smiling.  “James is to go to a good school, but you will see him when he comes home for his holidays.  But that part of it is not arranged yet, you know; but if you will put on your hat, you can walk down with us to the town, and introduce me to Mrs. Walsham.”

Mrs. Walsham had just dismissed her pupils, when the party arrived, and was thinking how quiet and dull the house was without Aggie, when the door opened, and the child rushed in and threw her arms round her neck.

“Oh, I have such good news to tell you!  Grandpapa is so good and kind, and grampa is going to live with us, and you are to come up, too, and James is to go to school.  Isn’t it all splendid?”

“What are you talking about, Aggie?” Mrs. Walsham asked, bewildered, as the child poured out her news.

“Aggie is too fast, madam,” the squire said, entering the room accompanied by the sergeant.  “She is taking it all for granted, while it has yet to be arranged.  I must apologize for coming in without knocking; but the child opened the door and rushed in, and the best thing to do was, we thought, to follow her.

“I have come, in the first place, to thank you for your great kindness to my little granddaughter, and to tell your son how deeply I feel indebted to him, for having saved her life two years ago.

“Now, Aggie, you run away and look for your friend, while I talk matters over with Mrs. Walsham.”

Aggie scampered away to find James, who was at work at his books, and to tell him the news, while the squire unfolded his plans to Mrs. Walsham.

His offers were so handsome that Mrs. Walsham accepted them, without an instant’s hesitation.  She was to have the entire charge of the child during the day, with the option of either returning home in the evening, when Aggie went in to dessert after dinner, or of living entirely at the Hall.  The squire explained his intention of sending James to a good school at Exeter, as an instalment of the debt he owed him for saving the child’s life, and he pointed out that, when he was at home for his holidays, Aggie could have her holidays, too, and Mrs. Walsham need only come up to the Hall when she felt inclined.

Mrs. Walsham was delighted with the offer, even more for James’s sake than her own, although the prospect for herself was most pleasant.  To have only Aggie to teach, and walk with, would be delightful after the monotony of drilling successive batches of girls, often inordinately tiresome and stupid.  She said, at once, that she should prefer returning home at night—­a decision which pleased the squire, for he had wondered what he should do with her in the evening.