So Dame Newman, the moment she saw the pale countenance and graceful
shape of Lady Vargrave at the threshold, uttered an exclamation of
delight. Now she could let out all that she did not like to trouble the
young lady with; now she could complain of east winds, and rheumatiz, and
the parish officers, and the bad tea they sold poor people at Mr. Hart's
shop, and the ungrateful grandson who was so well to do and who forgot he
had a grandmother alive!



CHAPTER IV.

TOWARDS the end of the week we received a card from the town
ladies. _Vicar of Wakefield_.

THE curate was gone, and the lessons suspended; otherwise--as like each
to each as sunshine or cloud permitted--day followed day in the calm
retreat of Brook-Green,--when, one morning, Mrs. Leslie, with a letter in
her hand, sought Lady Vargrave, who was busied in tending the flowers of
a small conservatory which she had added to the cottage, when, from
various motives, and one in especial powerful and mysterious, she
exchanged for so sequestered a home the luxurious villa bequeathed to her
by her husband.

To flowers--those charming children of Nature, in which our age can take
the same tranquil pleasure as our youth--Lady Vargrave devoted much of
her monotonous and unchequered time. She seemed to love them almost as
living things; and her memory associated them with hours as bright and as
fleeting as themselves.