"And what became of him?"

"We do not know. As long as Lady Alison lived (his aunt) she let us
hear about him, and we knew he was recovering from his wound. Then
came her death, and then my father's, and all the rest, and we lost
sight of the Beauchamps. We saw the name in the Gazette as killed at
Lucknow, but not the right Christian name nor the same rank; but
then, though the regiment is come home, we have heard nothing of him,
and though she has never spoken of him to me, I am sure Ermine
believes he is dead, and thinks of him as part of the sunshine of the
old Beauchamp days--the sunshine whose reflection lasts one's life."

"He ought to be dead," said Grace.

"Yes, it would be better for her than to hear anything else of him!
He had nothing of his own, so there would have been a long waiting,
but his father and brother would not hear of it, and accused us of
entrapping him, and that angered my father. For our family is quite
good, and we were very well off then. My father had a good private
fortune besides the Rectory at Beauchamp; and Lady Alison, who had
been like a mother to us ever since our own died, quite thought that
the prospect was good enough, and I believe got into a great scrape
with her family for having promoted the affair."

"Your squire's wife?"

"Yes, and Julia and Ermine had come every day to learn lessons with
her daughters. I was too young; but as long as she lived we were all
like one family. How kind she was! How she helped us through those
frightful weeks!"