“You will go back and tell this to father,” she said, kissing my hands and folding them to her bosom; “tell him only to have patience for a little time; cheer him up, Zana, he loves you so much, almost as much, you know, as he did poor me. Tell him I am quite comfortable here among the hills; that I read some, and think of him more than is good for me. Will you say all this, Zana?”
“Don’t ask me now, darling—take time, I shall stay here by the lake a week yet; we will consult and think what is best to be done. Stop crying, dear, it will do no good”——
She interrupted me, with a faint smile.
“I know it—if tears would help one, I should be very happy, for I do think no human being ever shed so many. It is lonesome here sometimes, Zana.”
“But you are not alone,” I said, with a gleam of hope; “he cannot find much amusement here to take him away from you.”
“Oh, he is scarcely ever here. They keep him so constantly occupied.”
“Who?” I inquired, surprised.
“Oh, the countess and the young lady they call Estelle. Do you think her handsome, that Estelle? some people do, but”——
I interrupted her, sharply.
“Lady Clare—is she in the highlands, then?”