"Oh, very nicely, thank you, dear auntie! And I have had a very good journey. It is so sweet to be at dear Fairleigh again."
"You must be tired," answered her aunt, "and so our dear Hope will take you upstairs. Hope is quite like a grandchild here, and is a great comfort to us."
"How lovely everything smells!" exclaimed Nellie, as she entered the fresh country bedroom, with its snowy curtains, pretty chintzes, and dainty little ornaments.
Hope looked surprised. "Does it? I thought every place smelt alike."
"Oh no," said Nellie. "Fairleigh smells like no other place in the world. It is the freshness, and the flowers, and the absence of smoke and dust, I suppose, so different from London."
"Ah! I have never been to London."
"It is nothing to be regretted," said the little London lady, who was as tired of it as she could be.
Hope smiled. "You must tell me all about it, Miss Arundel."
"Please call me Nellie; I feel you a sort of cousin, you know; and we shall have to get used to each other," she added, looking up shyly.
"Very well," said Hope; "and now I shall leave you to get ready for tea, which I am sure you must be wanting; it is such a tedious journey. You know your way down?"