“And you?”
“They always keep the peace with me. Isabel
even made us a wedding present—a pair of
miniatures of my father and mother, that I am very
glad to rescue, though, as she politely told me, I
was welcome to them, for they were hideously dressed,
and she wanted the frames for two sweet photographs
of Garibaldi and the Queen of Naples.”
Then looking up as if to find a place for them—
“Why, Ermine, what have you done to the room?
It is the old parsonage drawing-room!”
“Did not you mean it, when you took the very
proportions of the bay window, and chose just such
a carpet?”
“But what have you done to it?”
“Ailie and Rose, and Lady Temple and her boys,
have done it. I have sat looking on, and suggesting.
Old things that we kept packed up have seen the light,
and your beautiful Indian curiosities have found their
corners.”
“And the room has exactly the old geranium scent!”
“I think the Curtises must have brought half
their greenhouse down. Do you remember the old
oak-leaf geranium that you used to gather a leaf of
whenever you passed our old conservatory?”
“I have been wondering where the fragrance came
from that made the likeness complete. I have
smelt nothing like it since!”
“I said that I wished for one, and Grace got
off without a word, and searched everywhere at Avoncester
till she found one in a corner of the Dean’s
greenhouse. There, now you have a leaf in your
fingers, I think you do feel at home.”
“Not quite, Ermine. It still has the dizziness
of a dream. I have so often conjured up all
this as a vision, that now there is nothing to take
me away from it, I can hardly feel it a reality.”
“Then I shall ring. Tibbie and the poor
little Lord upstairs are substantial witnesses to
the cares and troubles of real life.”
WHO IS THE CLEVER WOMAN?
“Half-grown as yet, a child and vain,
She cannot fight the fight of death.
What is she cut from love and faith?
Knowledge
and Wisdom, Tennyson.
It was long before the two Mrs. Keiths met again.
Mrs. Curtis and Grace were persuaded to spend the
spring and summer in Scotland, and Alick’s leave
of absence was felt to be due to Mr. Clare, and thus
it was that the first real family gathering took place
on occasion of the opening of the institution that
had grown out of the Burnaby Bargain. This work
had cost Colonel Keith and Mr. Mitchell an infinity
of labour and perseverance before even the preliminaries
could be arranged, but they contrived at length to
carry it out, and by the fourth spring after the downfall
of the F. U. E. E. a house had been erected for the
convalescents, whose wants were to be attended to
by a matron, assisted by a dozen young girls in training
for service.
