I should be very like her, though perhaps less comely.

Mrs. Golding was still comparing us with each other and speaking of our
parents, when I was aware of a tall man coming up to the garden gate;
and my aunt, turning as she heard the latch clink, cried,--

'Ah, here is Andrew! he will have come to have my orders for the night;
I think we may welcome him in, nieces.' So she stepped to him, and
taking him by the hand led him to us. 'This,' quoth she, 'is my
husband's nephew and mine, but he is something more--he is my steward
and my heir. I hold him for my son; I were but a lost woman without him.
He would not hear of my coming to Milthorpe with no company but that of
my serving-men, but must needs be my conductor himself; so precious a
jewel as I was sure to be lost in the hedges otherwise;' and she laughed
cordially. 'And, Andrew, these are two poor fatherless girls, Althea and
Lucia Dacre by name; fatherless, I say, but not motherless, for I am
their mother from this day forth, and so they are your sisters; see you
use them kindly.'

Andrew coloured up to his hair, and bowed to us, with some confused
words about the honour of being as a brother to such gentle ladies; then
he turned to her and they talked of our morrow's journey, and how our
mails should be conveyed; and Mrs. Golding, telling him she would sleep
at the Manor, bade him be early at the gate with horses for us; 'for we
have many a mile to go,' she said to us; 'and make what speed we may, we
shall be a day or two on the road.'

And Althea spoke very prettily to Mr. Golding, praying him to sup with
us; but he excused himself, still in a confused and disturbed way, and
went away.