Charity beamed.
"Thank you very much," she said, trying to speak quietly.
"And what does this little maid like?"
He put his hand on Hope's shoulder as he spoke; and she gave her golden hair a shake, as she looked up into his kind eyes.
"Oh," she said, with determined lips, "I shall be a doctor for animals, 'specially horses. I shall keep one to ride myself, and I shall go riding over the country and make all the sick animals well. I bandaged Dinah's paw the other day when she got her claw hurt, and Aunt Alice said I did it better than she did. And I would have loved to bind up Sandy's leg, but I wasn't asked."
"You're going to be a couple of useful women one day," said Sir George; "and they say in the next generation you're going to rule us all. Whilst your sister is reading my books, you can be visiting my stables. They're rather empty these days, but horses are easier to keep than oil, and I believe we have a rough pony who isn't required now to mow the lawn, and who might be ridden upon by a small girl."
Hope's eyes sparkled.
"Why, you've come along just like a fairy," she said, "only you're a man and not a woman."
"And can't a poor man be a fairy?"
"Yes," said Charity hastily, "of course you can, but I think men are generally magicians."