"They were so one, it never could be said
Which of them ruled and which of them obeyed.
He ruled because she would obey; and she,
By her obeying, ruled as well as he.
There ne'er was known between them a dispute
Save which the other's will should execute."
The Herons returned to London shortly after Elizabeth's marriage, and with them Kitty returned, too. But it was a very different Kitty from the one who had frolicked at Strathleckie, or pined at Netherglen. The widowed Mrs. Hugo Luttrell was a gentler, perhaps a sadder, woman than Kitty Heron had promised to be: but she was a sweeter woman, and one who formed the chief support and comfort to her father's large and irregular household, as it passed from its home in Scotland to a more permanent abode in Kensington. For the house in Gower-street, dear as it was to Kitty's heart, was not the one which Mr. and Mrs. Heron preferred to any other.
Little Jack, now slowly recovering from his affection of the spine, found in Kitty the motherliness which he had sorely missed when Elizabeth first went away. His affection was very sweet to Kitty. She had never hitherto been more than a playmate to her step-brothers: she was destined henceforward to be their chief counsellor and friend. And the little baby-sister was almost as a child of her own to Kitty's heart.
It was not until more than a year of quiet life in her father's home had passed away that she saw much of Rupert Vivian. She was very shy and silent with him when he began to seek her out again. He thought her a little cold, and fancied that a blind man could find no favour in her eyes. It was Angela—that universal peacemaker—who at last set matters straight between the two.
"Kitty," she said, one day when Kitty was calling upon her, "why are you so distant and unfriendly to my brother?"
"I did not mean to be," said Kitty, with rising colour.
"But, indeed, you are. And he thinks—he thinks—that he has offended you."
"Oh, no! How could he!" ejaculated Kitty. Whereat Angela smiled. "You must tell him not to think any such thing, Angela, please."
"You must tell him yourself. He might not believe me," said Angela.
Kitty was very simple in some things still. She took Angela's advice literally.