Rachel was too much wrapped up in her own view to hear the trembling of the voice, and answered, “Colonel Keith! why, the Major! You have not been here so long without hearing of the Major?”
“Yes, but I did not know. Who is he?” And a more observant person would have seen the governess’s gasping effort to veil her eagerness under her wonted self-control.
“Don’t you know who the Major is?” shouted Leoline. “He is our military secretary.”
“That’s the sum total of my knowledge,” said Rachel, “I don’t understand his influence, nor know where he was picked up.”
“Nor his regiment?”
“He is not a regimental officer; he is on our staff,” said Leoline, whose imagination could not attain to an earlier condition than “on our staff.”
“I shall go home, then,” said Rachel, “and see if there is any explanation there.”
“I shall ask the Major not to let Aunt Rachel come here,” observed Hubert, as she departed; it was well it was not before.
“Leoline,” anxiously asked Alison, “can you tell me the Major’s name?”
“Colonel Keith—Lieutenant-Colonel Keith,” was all the answer.