'Then he will be here,' said Mrs. Brimble, confidently; and scarcely had she said so when he entered. Most heartily was he greeted.
'Where's Char?' said the squire, looking round; 'she was here just now. I want her to see the plan of the new windows in Sir Mark's Tower. Eu has brought them to-night.'
'She will, I think,' said Mrs. Brimble, 'spend the evening with poor Marjory, whom we cannot prevail on to leave her room.'
'She seems to me to be always chosen,' said the squire, in a tone of displeasure, as he glanced at Flora.
'Yes, papa dear, she is,' said Flora; 'that's just it. Marjory likes me very well for five minutes, but at the end of that time I'm quite sure she neither sees nor hears me, though she is looking straight at me, and I am talking as fast as I can. I'm sure I can't think how Charity manages it—she can amuse her a whole evening.'
'It is not fair,' said the squire, 'that we should always lose Char in this way. Couldn't you brush up a few subjects, Flo?'
'Why, papa, there are so many interdicted, and they happen to be the very ones that come most naturally—the improvements at the Dew, and the way you tease mamma about cousin "Jobson." Of course one must not say anything about these, for fear of hurting her feelings, and reminding her; and music makes her melancholy. I'll go now with pleasure,' she said, rising, 'and send Char down; but—but—she'll go to sleep, and so shall I.'
Mrs. Brimble interposed. 'Charity had earnestly begged to spend the evening with her; and indeed,' she said, 'strange as it may seem, though Charity is so serious, she has a wonderful way of making everybody lively.'
'That is the reason we want her here,' said the squire.
While Flora Brimble was apparently never so happy as in the society of her cousin, whom, like her father, she found a great addition to their family party, Charity was restrained in her manner towards him, and seemed tacitly to avoid even speaking of him, availing herself of the plea of Marjory's preference for her company to quit the family circle when he was there.