“Less often than before,” said Rachel—­("Never mind the butterfly, Una)—­I don’t think I have had more than one thorough fit of what he calls leaping into the gulf.  It was about the soldiers’ wives married without leave, who, poor things, are the most miserable creatures in the world; and when I first found out about them I was in the sort of mood I was in about the lace, and raved about the system, and was resolved to employ one poor woman, and Alick looked meeker and meeker, and assented to all I said, as if he was half asleep, and at last he quietly took up a sheet of paper, and said he must write and sell out, since I was bent on my gulf, and an officer’s wife must be bound by the regulations of the service.  I was nearly as bad as ever, I could have written an article on the injustice of the army regulations, indeed I did begin, but what do you think the end was?  I got a letter from a good lady, who is always looking after the poor, to thank Mrs. Alexander Keith for the help that had been sent for this poor woman, to be given as if from the general fund.  After that I could not help listening to him, and then I found it was so impossible to know about character, or to be sure that one was not doing more harm than—­What is it, boys?” as three or four Temples rushed up.

“Aunt Rachel, Mr. Clare is going to teach us a new game, and he says you know it.  Pray come.”

“Come, Una.  What, Keith, will you come too?  I’ll take care of him, Ermine.”

And with a child in each hand, Rachel followed the deputation, and had scarcely disappeared before the light gracious figure of Rose glanced through the thorn trees.  “Aunt Ermine, you must come nearer; it is so wonderful to see Mr. Clare teaching this game.”

“Don’t push my chair, my dear; it is much too heavy for you uphill.”

“As if I could not drive you anywhere, and here is Conrade coming.”

Conrade was in search of the deserter, but he applied himself heartily to the propulsion of aunt Ermine, informing Rose that Mr. Clare was no end of a man, much better than if he could see, and aunt Rachel was grown quite jolly.

“I think she has left off her long words,” said Rose.

“She is not a civilian now,” said Conrade, quite unconscious of Ermine’s amusement at his confidences as he pushed behind her.  “I did think it a most benighted thing to marry her, but that’s what it is.  Military discipline has made her conformable.”  Having placed the chair on a spot which commanded the scene, the boy and girl rushed off to take their part in the sport, leaving Ermine looking down a steep bank at the huge ring of performers, with linked hands, advancing and receding to the measure of a chanted verse round a figure in the centre, who made gesticulations, pursued and caught different individuals in the ring, and put them through a formula which provoked shouts of mirth.  Ermine much enjoyed the sight, it was pretty to watch the ‘prononce’ dresses