establishment for such a home as Thornleigh, with the friend I loved
as dearly as a sister, was more than delightful to me, to say
nothing of a salary which would enable me to buy my own clothes and
leave a margin for an annual remittance to my father. I talked the
subject over with him, and he wrote immediately to Miss Bagshot,
requesting her to waive the half-year's notice of the withdrawal of
my services, to which she was fairly entitled. This she consented
very kindly to do; and instead of going back to Albury Lodge, I went
to Thornleigh.

Mr. and Mrs. Darrell had started for Paris when I arrived, and the
house seemed very empty and quiet. My dear girl came into the hall
to receive me, and led me off to her pretty sitting-room, where
there was a bright fire, and where, she told me, she spent almost
the whole of her time now.

'And are you really pleased to come to me, Mary?' she asked, when
our first greetings were over.

'More than pleased, my darling. It seems almost too bright a life
for me. I can hardly believe in it yet.'

'But perhaps you will seen get as tired of Thornleigh as ever you
did of Albury Lodge. It will be rather a dull kind of life, you
know; only you and I and the old servants.'

'I shall never feel dull with you, Milly. But tell me how all this
came about. How was it you didn't go abroad with Mr. and Mrs.
Darrell?'