thank you, for your goodness and kindness to my little granddaughter;
our little granddaughter, I should say. You have the better right, a
thousand-fold, to her than I have; and, had I been in your place, I
could never have made such a sacrifice.

"We must be friends, sir, great friends. Our past has been saddened by
the same blow. All our hopes, in the future, are centred on the same
object."

The two men rose to their feet together, and their hands met in a firm
clasp, and tears stood in both their eyes.

Then the squire put his hand on the other's shoulder, and said, "We
will talk again, presently. Let us go into the next room. The little
one is longing to see you, and we must not keep her."

For the next hour, the two men devoted themselves to the child. Now
that she had her old friend with her, she felt no further misgivings,
and was able to enter into the full delight of her new home.

The house and its wonders were explored, and, much as she was delighted
with these, the gardens and park were an even greater excitement and
pleasure. Dancing, chattering, asking questions of one or the other,
she was half wild with pleasure, and the squire was no less delighted.
A new light and joy had come into his life, and with it the ten years,
which sorrow and regret had laid upon him, had fallen off; for,
although his habits of seclusion and quiet had caused him to be
regarded as quite an old man by his neighbours, he was still three
years short of sixty, while the sergeant was two years younger.