have been telling me, and we can discuss it again tomorrow."



Chapter 4: The Squire's Granddaughter.


The following day another council was held, and Mrs. Walsham told the
sergeant that, on thinking it over, she had concluded that the best way
would be to take the old butler at the Hall, who had served the family
for forty-five years, into their confidence, and to ask him to arrange
how best Aggie might be introduced to the squire.

"I have been thinking over what you said, ma'am, and it may be that you
are right, and that I have partly misjudged the squire. I hope so, for
Aggie's sake, and yet I cannot help feeling sorry. I have always felt
almost sure he would have nothing to say to her, and I have clung to
the hope that I should not lose my little girl. I know, of course, how
much better it will be for her, and have done all I could to make her
so that she should be fit for it, if he took her. But it will be a
wrench, ma'am. I can't help feeling it will be a wrench;" and the old
soldier's voice quivered as he spoke.

"It cannot be otherwise, sergeant," Mrs. Walsham said kindly. "You have
been everything to each other, and though, for her good and happiness,
you are ready to give her up, it is a heavy sacrifice for you to make."

That afternoon, the sergeant went for a long walk alone with Aggie, and
when they returned Mrs. Walsham saw, by the flushed cheeks and the
swollen eyes of the child, that she had been crying. James noticed it