"Before Christmas, won't you?"
"I think so; it will all depend on circumstances."
"Oh, do be back by Christmas," Rachel pleaded, with an almost tragic eagerness. "It would be dreadful if Christmas came and you were so far away!"
"Am I so necessary to the festivities of the season?" laughed Mrs. Reade, much touched and flattered. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Suppose I try and bring Lucilla and the children back, and make a regular family gathering of it?"
"Oh, if you could!" sighed Rachel.
All the terrors of her time of trial would be gone, she thought, if she could have these two faithful cousins beside her.
So Mrs. Reade went off by the morning train, tolerably easy in her mind. She took her big husband with her, "to keep him," as she said, "out of mischief;" and she stayed away much longer than she had intended to do. She was delighted with Adelonga, and with her sister's companionship.
Ned, also, while being kept in order, enjoyed himself excessively; and as long as he was "good" in the matter of his besetting sin, his lady and mistress liked him to enjoy himself. There were plenty of bush gaieties in the shape of sporting meetings and balls, and the time slipped away rapidly, as time at Adelonga usually did.
A dance at the Digbys' gave Mrs. Reade the desired opportunity for making the acquaintance of Mr. Dalrymple's people, and she learned a few facts with respect to that gentleman which, while considerably aggravating her alarm, tended to modify and dignify the impressions of him that her mother had given her.
Lucilla showed her a fine photograph of his powerful, melancholy, highbred face, and she was quite overcome by it.