Isabel received this letter while she was at breakfast with Lord Ormersfield and Louis, and it was, of course, impossible to keep it to herself.  ‘Talking of uo wages!’ said the Earl.  ’Send her off at once.’

‘You will despise me,’ said Isabel, with tears in her eyes; ’but there is something very touching in it, in spite of the affectation.  I believe she really means it.’

‘Affectation is only matter of taste,’ said Louis.  ’Half the simplicity of our day is only fashion; and Charlotte’s letter, with a few stops, and signed Chloe, would have figured handsomely in Mrs. Radcliffe’s time.’

‘It does not depend on me,’ said Isabel; ’James could not bear her going before, and I am sure he will not now.’

‘I think he ought not,’ said Louis.  ’Poor girl!  I do believe the snares of wealthy families and fidelity in obscurity, really mean with her the pomps and vanities versus duty and affection.’

‘I am sure I would not drive her back to them,’ said Isabel; ’but I am only afraid the work will be too much for her strength.’

‘The willing heart goes all the way,’ said Louis; ’and maybe it will be more wholesome than London, and sitting up.’

Isabel coloured and sighed; but added, that it would be infinite relief on the children’s account to keep some one so gentle-handed, and so entirely to be trusted.

James’s decision was immediate.  He called the letter a farrago, but his laugh was mixed with tears at the faithful affection it displayed.  ‘It was mere folly,’ he said, ’to think of keeping her without wages; but, if she would accept such as could be afforded after taking a rough village girl for her food to do the hard work, the experiment should be made, in the hope that the present straits would only endure for a short time.

This little event seemed to have done him much good, and put him more at peace with the world.  He was grateful for Lord Ormersfield’s kindness and forbearance, and the enforced rest from work was refreshing him; while Isabel had never been so cheerful and lively in her life as now, when braced manfully for her work, full of energy, and feeling that she must show herself happy and courageous to support his depressed spirits.  She was making a beginning—­she was practising herself in her nursery duties, and, to her surprise, finding them quite charming; and little Kitty so delighted with all she did for her, that all the hitherto unsounded depths of the motherly heart were stirred up, and she could not think why she had never found out her true happiness.  She looked so bright and so beautiful, that even Lord Ormersfield remarked it, pitying her for trials which he thought she little realized; but Louis augured better, believing that it was not ignorance but resolution which gave animation and brilliancy to her dark eye and cheerfulness to her smile.

Fitzjocelyn took her to Dynevor Terrace in the afternoon to settle the matter with Charlotte; and, on the way, he took the opportunity of telling her that he had been reading Sir Hubert, and admired him very much, discussing him and Adeline with the same vivid interest as her own sisters showed in them as persons, not mere personages.  Isabel said they already seemed to her to belong to a world much farther back than the last fortnight.