“Not now, I hope,” said Fred; “but that was not what I meant to say.  No one could say, Uncle Geoffrey told me, that the illness was brought on either by anxiety or over-exertion.  The complaint was of long standing, and must have made progress some time or other; and he said that he was convinced that, as she said to Aunt Geoffrey, she had rather have been here than anywhere else.  She said she could only be sorry for grandpapa and grandmamma’s sake, but that for herself it was great happiness to have been to Knight Sutton Church once more; and she was most thankful that she had come to die in my father’s home, after seeing us well settled here, instead of leaving us to come to it as a strange place.”

“How little we guessed it was for that,” said Henrietta.  “O what were we doing?  But if it made her happy—­”

“Just imagine what to-day would have been if we were at Rocksand,” said Fred.  “I, obliged to go back to school directly, and you, taking leave of everything there which would seem to you so full of her; and Uncle Geoffrey, just bringing you here without any time to stay with you, and the place and people all strange.  I am sure that she who thought so much for you, must have rejoiced that you are at home here already.”

“Home!” said Henrietta, “how determinedly we used to call it so!  But O, that my wish should have turned out in such a manner!  If it has been all overruled so as to be happiness to her, as I am sure it has, I cannot complain; but I think I shall never wish again, or care for my own way.”

“The devices and desires of our own hearts!” said Fred.

“I don’t think I shall ever have spirit enough to be wilful for my own sake,” proceeded Henrietta.  “Nothing will ever be the same pleasure to me, as when she used to be my other self, and enjoy it all over again for me; so that it was all twofold!” Here she hid her face, and her tears streamed fast, but they were soft and calm; and when she saw that Fred also was much overcome, she recalled her energies in a minute.

“But, Fred, I may well be thankful that I have you, which is far more than I deserve; and as long as we do what she wished, we are still obeying her.  I think at last I may get something of the right sort of feeling; for I am sure I see much better now what she and grandpapa used to mean when they talked about dear papa.  And now do you like for me to read to you?”

Few words more require to be said of Frederick and Henrietta Langford.  Knight Sutton Hall was according to their mother’s wish, their home; and there Henrietta had the consolation, during the advancing spring and summer, of watching her brother’s recovery, which was very slow, but at the same time steady.  Mrs. Geoffrey Langford stayed with her as long as he required much nursing; and Henrietta learnt to look upon her, not as quite a mother, but at any rate as more than an aunt, far more than she had ever been to her before; and when at length she was obliged to return to Westminster, it was a great satisfaction to think how soon the vacation would bring them all back to Knight Sutton.