"Oh yes; I shall not be very long."
When Hope closed the door, and Nellie was alone, she sat down by the dressing-table, and looked round her. What a gulf lay between the beginning of this day and the end. Her sympathies and thoughts this morning were all centered in her busy home. Now everything was strange, and her grandmamma, Aunt Ruth, Fairleigh, and Hope Elliot, filled her mind.
She got up again and went to the window. It looked over a piece of the kitchen garden, kept in beautiful order, then beyond was the field where her grandmamma's cows were feeding, and beyond that, the greenest of hedges, some fine old elms, and a piece of fiat, well-wooded country, which Nellie loved inexpressibly.
The other window looked over a part of the flower garden, divided from the orchard by a splendid yew hedge. As she looked at the orchard, Nellie held her breath, and a strange feeling came over her. It was one mass of blossom; snowy cherry-trees, green and white pear, and rosy apple-trees mingled their branches together in such wonderful luxuriance that Nellie stood entranced.
With a deep-drawn sigh, she turned at last to take off her things, and feared Hope would think she had been a long time.
When she descended to the drawing room, her grandmamma rose, and taking her arm, to which she gave a loving pressure, led the way into the dining-room, while Hope followed.
"You still pour out tea, grandmamma?" said Nellie, as they seated themselves.
"Yes, my dear," answered Mrs. Arundel, emphatically; "and you will find it is very nice tea, and our old-fashioned bread and butter just the same as ever."
When tea was over, Mrs. Arundel asked Hope to ring the bell for prayers; after which they all went into the drawing room, and Mrs. Arundel took up a book of travels she was reading, while the two girls brought their work and listened to her pleasant voice.
When she retired, which she did rather early, Hope and Nellie were left together to make the best of each other.