"Oh yes! We are so pleased to have him here! And he is getting better and stronger every day! The poor child was very low-spirited when he first arrived; he missed his parents, especially his mother, to whom he is devoted, but he feels quite at home with us now, and is as happy as the day is long. He has been writing to his mother, as you see."
Mrs. Compton glanced at the table where Dick's writing materials were scattered about; her eyes softened as they fell on the sheet of notepaper, covered with writing in a laboured, childish hand, which had been hastily flung aside in the excitement attending her arrival.
"How his mother must miss him!" she exclaimed involuntarily. "I know what I should feel if my children were parted from me! Oh, Miss Warren, I am glad Dick is with you instead of at the Manor House! My father regrets he did not have him there, but I am sure he is better with you!"
Miss Warren flushed with pleasure, and presently, encouraged by her visitor's evident wish to be friendly, she grew chatty and communicative. Mrs. Compton listened with interest to all the details she could learn about her brother and sister-in-law, and expressed the hope that they would return to England the following year.
"It is so sad that my brother and I should know so little of one another now-a-days," she sighed; "it has been a real trouble to me; but you know what Sir Richard is—how hard and unforgiving! However, he seems to have taken a great fancy to Dick, and I hope that in time he will forgive my brother!"
"It must make him very miserable to be so unforgiving," Miss Warren said thoughtfully; "I hope God will show him how wrong it is, before it is too late for him to set things right. It has been a great grief to my niece that she has been the cause of trouble between her husband and his father, and I hope Dick will never learn the truth. He is so deeply attached to his mother; he thinks there is no one equal to her!"
"You brought her up from babyhood, did you not?"
"Yes. Her parents died when she was only a few months old, and she had no one in the world to care for her but Theophilus and me. In my opinion, your brother could have found no better wife, although she brought him no money, and was only a country surgeon's adopted child! There! I've spoken out, and told you what I think, and now my mind will feel more at ease!"
There was a bright gleam in Miss Warren's dark eyes; she held her head high, and her smooth cheeks were flushed rosy red. A brief silence followed her little outburst, during which Mrs. Compton sat with her gaze fastened on the ground; presently she glanced at her companion, and said with a ring of sincerity in her voice,—
"I wish I had known you before, Miss Warren! I like you all the better for speaking out!"