'I gathered that; I am very sorry for you. Is there no one fit to be a guide?'
'I don't know,' said Nuttie. 'I didn't think—I must, somehow, before Lent.'
'There is Advent close at hand,' he said gravely. 'If you could only be at our mission services, we hope to get Father Smith!'
'Oh, if only I could! But mother never likes to talk about those kind of things. She says our duty is to my father.'
'Not the foremost.'
'No, she would not say that. But oh, Gerard! if he should be making her worldly!'
'It must be your work to hinder it,' he said, looking at her affectionately.
'Oh, Gerard! but I'm afraid I'm getting so myself. I have thought a great deal about lawn-tennis, and dress, and this ball,' said Nuttie. 'Somehow it has never quite felt real, but as if I were out on a visit.'
'You are in it, but not of it,' said Gerard admiringly.
'No, I'm not so good as that! I like it all—almost all. I thought I liked it better till you came and brought a real true breath of Micklethwayte. Oh! if I could only see Monsieur's dear curly head and bright eyes!'