"Ah! A hint for me!" Giles lugged out a big volume of natural history, seated himself, and opened at random. "Wouldn't it be more effective to be found reading aloud?—Surprised in the act of improving our minds?"
In a monotonous sing-song, Giles started off—"'The Chlamyphores, which have ten teeth on each side of both jaws, five toes on each foot, the anterior claws very large, crooked, compressed, and furnishing, as in the Cabassous, a very powerful cutting instrument adapted for digging. The back is covered—' Hallo!"
Mrs. Trevelyan never could resist Giles' manner, and she was in a paroxysm of laughter when the door opened to admit, not the expected "little girl," but a tall damsel, with pale oval face, and combination of shyness and reserve crystallised into a resolute stillness.
Giles did not start up quickly, yet he was standing, before Jean could actually enter; and his twinkling eyes took her in at a glance, twinkling more than usual at his aunt's mistake. The subdued "Hallo!" meant some measure of surprise on his own part. "So—ho!" thought he. "That is what Jem is after! Little girl, indeed!"
Mrs. Trevelyan's greeting was no less warm than if the supposititious "infant" had really appeared. She took Jean into her arms with repeated kisses, while Jean, unused to be hugged by one virtual stranger before another and absolute stranger, was conscious of an inward glow of response, but outwardly shrank rather more into herself.
Giles Cuthbert came forward, as a member of the household, to offer his meed of welcome, and thereby recalled Mrs. Trevelyan to her duty.
"How stupid of me! I'm forgetting to introduce—my nephew, Mr. Cuthbert, Jean—Miss Trevelyan, Giles. Of course you have heard of Giles, dear, hundreds of times. He belongs to us, you know, in a way. Now do sit down by the fire, and warm yourself. You must be cold after travelling all day. Dulveriford always seems so far north—almost out of the world."
Jean was amused, for Dulveriford seemed to her the world's centre.
"Come and sit down! The tea—O, that girl is gone."
"Too late, aunt!" Giles' hand was on the bell, unbidden, and a sharp tinkle sounded.