"Oh, I love Uncle John already!" Mavis broke in. "He has promised to take me for some drives, and Rose says he's certain to, for he always keeps his word. What is that noise I hear, mother?"
"The mill wheel. You will soon grow accustomed to the sound. Do you know that this used to be your father's bedroom? Yes, so your uncle said. Think how often your father must have looked across those meadows to Oxford! Ah, I shall picture this view when I am far away, and be glad that I was able to leave you in your father's home."
Mavis had finished dressing by this time, and was standing by her mother's side, her mother's arm around her shoulder.
"You will be a good girl during my absence, I know," Mrs. Grey remarked by-and-by. "Do your best at school, and always obey your aunt, will you not?"
"Of course, mother," Mavis replied. "I hope you will not be gone very long, though. Perhaps Miss Dawson will got well quickly."
"I trust she will."
"I wish I had something to give her in return for the locket and chain she gave me, mother, or that there was something I could do to show her how grateful I am."
"You can pray for her, my dear, as she asked you. If you and I, who are well and strong, dread separation, what must she, who is weak and ill, feel about leaving her father? She knows it is not unlikely that she will never see him again in this world. It is very sad for her."
"She will have you, mother," Mavis said, with a little sob.
"Yes; but I am merely a stranger to her. You will miss me dreadfully, I know, darling, but your sense of loneliness will not equal Miss Dawson's."