morning for hours; she rode; she practised all those graceful arts of the
toilet which belong to the social convention; she showed an unexpected
faculty for singing, and practised it faithfully; and she begged Mrs.
Armour and Marion to correct her at every point where correction seemed
necessary. When the child was two years old, they all went to London,
something against Lali's personal feelings, but quite in accord with what
she felt her duty.

Richard was left behind at Greyhope. For the first time in eighteen
months he was alone with his old quiet duties and recreations. During
that time he had not neglected his pensioners,--his poor, sick, halt, and
blind, but a deeper, larger interest had come into his life in the person
of Lali. During all that time she had seldom been out of his sight,
never out of his influence and tutelage. His days had been full, his
every hour had been given a keen, responsible interest. As if by tacit
consent, every incident or development of Lali's life was influenced by
his judgment and decision. He had been more to her than General Armour,
Mrs. Armour, or Marion. Schooled as he was in all the ways of the
world, he had at the same time a mind as sensitive as a woman's, an
indescribable gentleness, a persuasive temperament. Since, years before,
he had withdrawn from the social world and become a recluse, many of his
finer qualities had gone into an indulgent seclusion. He had once loved
the world and the gay life of London, but some untoward event, coupled
with a radical love of retirement, had sent him into years of isolation
at Greyhope.

His tutelar relations with Lali had reopened many an old spring
of sensation and experience. Her shy dependency, her innocent
inquisitiveness, had searched out his remotest sympathies. In teaching
her he had himself been re-taught. Before she came he had been satisfied