“Where 's Colonel Sewell?” asked she, hurriedly.

“He's gone off to the country, ma'am; leastways, he went away early this morning, and George thinks it was to Killaloe.”

“Is Dr. Beattie here?”

“Yes, ma'am; they all breakfasted with the children at nine o'clock.”

“Whom do you mean by all?”

“Mr. Lendrick, ma'am, and Miss Lucy. I hear as how they are coming back to live here. They were up all the morning in his Lordship's room, and there was much laughing, as if it was a wedding.”

“Whose wedding? What were you saying about a wedding?”

“Nothing, ma'am; only that they were as merry,—that's all.”

“Sir William must be better, then?”

“Yes, ma'am,—quite out of danger; and he 's to have a partridge for dinner, and the doctor says he 'll be downstairs and all right before this day week; and I 'm sure it will be a real pleasure to see him lookin' like himself again, for he told Mr. Cheetor to take them wigs away, and all the pomatum-pots, and that he 'd have the shower-bath that he always took long ago. It's a fine day for Mr. Cheetor, for he has given him I don't know how many colored scarfs, and at least a dozen new waistcoats, all good as the day they were made; and he says he won't wear anything but black, like long ago; and, indeed, some say that old Rives, the butler as was, will be taken back, and the house be the way it used to be formerly. I wonder, ma'am, if the Colonel will let it be,—they say below stairs that he won't.”