“So that is Edward’s little girl! Why, she is the sweetest little clear-headed thing I have seen a long time. She was the saving of us.”
“It was well thought of by Colin.”
“Colin is a lawyer spoilt—that’s a fact. A first-rate get-up of a case!”
“And you think it safe now?”
“Nothing safer, so Edward turns up. How he can keep away from such a child as that, I can’t imagine. Where is she? Oh, here—” as they came into the porch in fuller light, where the Colonel and Rose waited for them. “Ha, my little Ailie, I must make better friends with you.”
“My name is Rose, not Ailie,” replied the little girl.
“Oh, aye! Well, it ought to have been, what d’ye call her—that was a Daniel come to judgment?”
“Portia,” returned Rose; “but I don’t think that is pretty at all.”
“And where is Lady Temple?” anxiously asked Alison. “She must be grieved to be detained so long.”
“Oh! Lady Temple is well provided for,” said the Colonel, “all the magistrates and half the bar are at her feet. They say the grace and simplicity of her manner of giving her evidence were the greatest contrast to poor Rachel’s.”