Leila sighed heavily. “A most noble animal; yes, he was noble, every body loved Dash.” Then taking her papa’s hand, she looked anxiously up in his face, and said, “Dash could swim so well; do you think, papa, there is any——” She stopped.
“Any hope, you would say, my love; I fear, Leila, we must not trust to it, but the same idea struck me, and before I left town I wrote an advertisement, fully describing Dash, and giving our address; and this I sent to the ‘Times’ newspaper office.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you, dear papa,” and she hastily walked to the window and looked out. She was determined not again to give way.
Leila’s naturally buoyant spirits did not long remain much depressed; still the sudden shock, after all her bright anticipations, had been so great, that it left evident traces in her appearance, and when any accidental circumstance recalled the late events, a pang of such acute sorrow shot through her frame as it greatly pained Mr. Howard to witness, and he was not sorry that neither Mr. and Mrs. Herbert nor the Selbys had accepted his invitation for Christmas; the Selbys had a family party that day, and the Herberts were on a tour of visits; both parties, however, promised to be at Woodlands soon after Christmas, and Mr. Herbert added, that if Mr. Howard would allow him, he would be glad to introduce to him his son, who would be at home for the holidays. Christmas-day, therefore, would be spent in a manner more congenial to the tone of their present feelings; and Mr. Howard arranged that they should not remove to Woodlands till a few days before, when Leila could have the comfort of having her uncle and aunt and her cousins with her.
The meeting with her pets again had been very trying to Leila, and still more so was her first visit to Peggy Dobie’s cottage; Susan, Bill’s wife, had been employed to take charge of her pets for the present, till some one could be found to fill the situation, and the cottage had continued locked up. Matilda had in vain tried to dissuade Leila from making this visit, but she said she felt sure she would feel better when it was over, and she thought of it so much; and Selina seemed to be of the same opinion. It appeared as yesterday when she had been there before, but with what different feelings! there stood the glass with the withered flowers, on the little table, and the wood-ashes lay cold upon the hearth. Leila gazed earnestly on every object which before had given her such delight; the tears ran silently down her cheeks, there was no violent emotion. She turned Peggy’s own chair from the hearth, and placed it against the wall, then left the cottage followed by Selina and Matilda. She was certainly better after all this was over, yet there were feelings which did not soon leave her; she could not help remembering, with self-accusation, that her papa had only yielded to Peggy’s removal to England in consequence of her entreaties; he had at first represented to her that at Peggy’s time of life it were wiser to leave her in her own country, and probably more for her happiness to do so; but Leila had been carried away too much by her own wishes in this instance to practise the lesson of self-sacrifice which her papa so often inculcated; she now felt this deeply, and it was a lesson not lost upon her.
CHAPTER VI.
THE day had now arrived when Mrs. Roberts was expected; the young people were all assembled in the school-room busy with their different tasks; Selina and Leila were seated silently at their writing-desks, translating English into French; Alfred quietly in a corner, drawing birds and animals on a slate, his favourite employment. Matilda alone was restless and unquiet; she kept constantly running from the table to the window, holding a book of French dialogues in her hand, and looking out on the approach, while she rhymed the same phrase over and over again: “Il faudra faire comme nous pourrons, il faudra faire comme nous pourrons, il faudra faire comme nous pourrons; now surely this is knocked into my brains.”
Selina shook her head.
“Well, Selina,” she continued, “you need not shake your head; il faudra faire comme nous pourrons, and I am sure I am doing the best I can.”
“Are you?” Selina quickly said, and went on with her writing.