"I am afraid you will find it very dull after town life, but I do think you've done the right thing. I confess that I have not been over to see your uncle as often as I might. It is a long way, and I don't seem to get the time for these long expeditions, though I love them."
"Well," said Louise, settling back into her chair with a very contented look upon her face, "it's simply delicious to be here with you! I have longed to see you. You will be glad to know that, through absence, I have learned to love these lovely Fells of ours. As I drove along the Ramdale, I was having little happy thrills in my heart. The air, the birds, the mossy banks were all so sweet, and the lake! Ah! The ponds on Hampstead Heath and the water in the London parks have given me such a home sickness for the lakes! I never, never thought I could come back to it with such happiness."
"How long are you staying?"
"As long as uncle needs me. Do you know, the farms and the cottages have given me quite a welcome! And I'm going to set a few things going. I shall have a little gathering for the women—a Mothers' Union meeting—they want one badly. They seem out of everything out there, and I want them to be happy."
"Louise, you have soul happiness yourself!"
Anstice spoke eagerly. Louise smiled at her.
"Yes, thanks to you, and to Miss Montmorency, the principal of our school, and to our Vicar there. You three have made me long for, and seek, and find, the one thing needful. And I know that whether I am buried away in Ramdale, or in the bustle of town life, I can work and serve, and do a little to bring happiness to others. But I won't pretend I am coming back here wholly because I think it is my duty. The Fells call me back. I never knew how I loved them till I lost them. We may have bits of water in London to remind me of our lakes, but we have no lovely green sloping Fells, no mountains; and it is these I find I love. The scent and the smell of their moss and bracken, and moist pools in between the crags. Oh, there's nothing like them in the world!"
Anstice laughed at the enthusiastic girl, and marvelled at the change in her.
"And what does your uncle say at your giving up your work?"
"He looks at me with a smile and light in his eyes that I have never seen before. He tells me, he used to watch me out of his study window, and loved to see me flitting about the garden; but his silence had encrusted him so, that it was hard to break through it. He is on the couch now, but very weak and thin. Still, the doctor says he believes he will recover. Do you know Dr. Ogilvy? He has only come lately, and lives at a farm with an invalid sister. He seems very clever, and has got the liking of all our people."