Mary might well say that there was nothing more expedient than going to see Clara, and ‘much,’ said poor James, ‘he should gain by that,’ especially on the head that made him most uneasy, and on which he could only hint lightly—­namely, whether the girls were ’putting nonsense in her head.’

’If they had done her any harm, she would never have written such a letter,’ said Mary.

‘True,’ said Jem.  ’She is a mere child, and never got that notion into her head for a moment; but if they put it in, we are done for!  Or if the place were ever so bad, I can’t remove her now, when granny is thus occupied.  One reason why I made a point of her going to school was, that I thought doing everything that Fitzjocelyn did was no preparation for being a governess.’

’Oh!  I hope it will not come to that!  Mr. Oliver Dynevor talks of coming home in a very few years.’

’So few, that we shall be grey before he comes.  No; Clara and I are not going to be bound to him for the wealth heaped up while my grandmother was left in poverty.  We mean to be independent.’

Mary was glad to revert to Clara.

‘I must do the best I can for her for the present,’ said Jem,—­’try to harden her against the girls, and leave her to bear it.  Poor dear! it makes one’s heart ache!  And to have done it oneself, too!  Then, in the holidays, perhaps, you will help me to judge.  You will be her friend, Mary; there’s nothing she needs so much.  I thought she would have found one at school but they are not the right stamp of animal.  She has been too much thrown on Louis; and though he has made a noble thing of her, that must come to an end, and the sooner the better.’

Certainly, it was a perplexity for a young elder brother; but there could not but remain some simple wonder in Mary’s mind whether the obvious person, Mrs. Frost, had not better have been left to decide for her granddaughter.

The building operations gave full occupation to the powers of the two cousins, and in good time before breakfast, all was successfully completed,—­a hand-rail affixed, and the passage cleared out, till it looked so creditable, as well as solid, that there was no more to wish for but that Louis should be able to see their handiwork.

James went away in the better spirits for having been allowed to shake Louis by the hand and exchange a few words with him.  Mary augured that it would be the better for Clara and for the pupils.

All that further transpired from him was a cheerful letter to Mrs. Frost, speaking of Clara as perfectly well, and beginning to accommodate herself to her situation, and from this Mary gathered that he was better satisfied.

The days brought gradual improvement to the patient, under Mrs. Frost’s tender nursing, and his father’s constant assiduity; both of which, as he revived, seemed to afford him the greatest pleasure, and were requited with the utmost warmth and caressing sweetness towards his aunt, and towards his father with ever-fresh gratitude and delight.  Lord Ormersfield was like another man, in the sick-room, whence he never willingly absented himself for an hour.