“I durst not wish anything about you,” she said, looking up through a mist of tears.

“And you, what fixed you here?”

“An old servant of ours had married and settled here, and had written to us of her satisfaction in finding that the clergyman was from Hereford.  We thought he would recommend Ailie as daily governess to visitors, and that Sarah would be a comfortable landlady.  It has answered very well; Rose deserves her name far more than when we brought her here, and it is wonderful how much better I have been since doctors have become a mere luxury.”

“Do you, can you really mean that you are supporting yourselves?”

“All but twenty-five pounds a year, from a legacy to us, that Mr. Beauchamp would not let them touch.  But it has been most remarkable, Colin,” she said, with the dew in her eyes, “how we have never wanted our daily bread, and how happy we have been!  If it had not been for Edward, this would in many ways have been our happiest time.  Since the old days the little frets have told less, and Ailie has been infinitely happier and brighter since she has had to work instead of only to watch me.  Ah, Colin, must I not own to having been happy?  Indeed it was very much because peace had come when the suspense had sunk into belief that I might think of you as—­, where you would not be grieved by the sight of what I am now—­”

As she spoke, a knock, not at the house, but at the room door, made them both start, and impel their chairs to a more ordinary distance, just as Rachel Curtis made her entrance, extremely amazed to find, not Mr. Touchett, but a much greater foe and rival in that unexpected quarter.  Ermine, the least disconcerted, was the first to speak.  “You are surprised to find a visitor here,” she said, “and indeed only now, did we find out that ‘our military secretary,’ as your little cousins say, was our clear old squire’s nephew.”

There was a ring of gladness in the usually patient voice that struck even Rachel, though she was usually too eager to be observant, but she was still unready with talk for the occasion, and Ermine continued:  “We had heard so much of the Major before-hand, that we had a sort of Jupiter-like expectation of the coming man.  I am not sure that I shall not go on expecting a mythic major!”

Rachel, never understanding playfulness, thought this both audacious and unnecessary, and if it had come from any one else, would have administered a snub, but she felt the invalid sacred from her weapons.

“Have you ever seen the boys?” asked Colonel Keith.  “I am rather proud of Conrade, my pupil; he is so chivalrous towards his mother.”

“Alison has brought down a division or two to show me.  How much alike they are.”

“Exactly alike, and excessively unruly and unmanageable,” said Rachel.  “I pity your sister.”

“More unmanageable in appearance than in reality,” said the colonel:  “there’s always a little trial of strength against the hand over them, and they yield when they find it is really a hand.  They were wonderfully good and considerate when it was an object to keep the house quiet.”