Lord Ormersfield and Walter arrived in the evening, and James applied himself to finding occupation for his brother-in-law, whom he kept out of the way in the garden very satisfactorily.  The Earl was so softened and sorrowful, that Clara hardly knew him.  He deeply felt the loss of the kind, gentle aunt, whose sympathy had been more to him than he had known at the time; the last remnant of the previous generation, the last link with his youth, and he was even more grieved for the blank she left with Louis than for himself.  By Louis’s desire, he inquired into Oliver’s intentions.  ’Must stay here,’ was the answer.  ’Can’t leave that child alone with the property.  I can look to the Equatorial Company here—­must do without me out there.  No, no, I can’t leave the girl to her brother; he’d teach her his own nasty, spiteful temper, and waste the property on all those brats.  No, I’m fixed here; I must look after Henry’s child, fine girl, good-tempered girl; takes after Henry, don’t you think so?’

That Clara took after her father in anything but being tall and fair, would hardly have been granted by any one who knew her better than the Earl, but he readily allowed it, and Oliver proceeded:—­’As long as she does not marry, here I am; but I trust some one will soon take the care of her off my hands—­man who would look after the property well.  She’s a good girl too, and the finest figure in the whole county; lucky him who gets her.  I shall be sorry to part with the child, too, but I shall be working for her, and there’s nothing left that cares a rush for me now, so I might as well be out of the way of the young things.  I know the old place at Lima, and the place knows me; and what do I care for this now my mother is gone?  If I could only see Clara safe settled here, then I should care as little what became of me as I suppose she would.’

The Earl was touched by the dreary, desponding tone of the reply, and reported it to Louis and Clara with such terms, that Clara’s decision was made at once, namely, that it would be wrong and cruel to cast away her uncle, and be swayed by James’s prejudice; and Lord Ormersfield told her with grave approval that she was quite right, and that he hoped that James would recover from his unreasonable folly.

‘Make Jem forgive me,’ said Clara, faintly, as her announcement of her purpose, when she finally sought her room, obliged to be thought meanly of, rather than do ill, denying her fondest affections, cutting herself off from all she loved, and, with but this consolation, that she was doing as grandmamma would have bidden her.  Oh, how her heart yearned after home!

On the morrow, Clara sorrowed in her solitary chamber alone with faithful Jane, who, amid her bursts of tears, felt the one satisfaction, that her dear mistress had lived to be buried like the stock she came of, and who counted the carriages and numbered the scarfs, like so many additional tributes from the affection of her dear Master Oliver.