"I doubt it, my dear, for I am afraid you are very far from knowing the secret of contentment, which is trust in God, and the belief that He knows what is best for you. Riches would not make you happy."
Celia looked incredulous. She thought if she was rich she would be perfectly happy. She longed to wear fine clothes, and have plenty of pocket-money; and she could not understand why her mother hesitated to accept Sir Jasper Amery's invitation.
That night the two young girls, who occupied the same bedroom, remained awake talking for a long while. Joy was nearly as excited as Celia at the prospect of visiting the unknown uncle at the Moat House, and acknowledged she would be not a little disappointed if their mother did not accede to Sir Jasper's request; but at the same time she felt regretful at the thought of leaving her present home, and her school friends. In the next room Mrs. Wallis lay awake till dawn, thinking how best to act for the ultimate welfare of her family, and praying for guidance from above.
[CHAPTER II.]
GOOD-BYE TO THE OLD HOME.
MRS. Wallis had told Mr. Tillotson she must have a week in which to consider her uncle's invitation, and during that time she wrote to several of her husband's relations asking their advice, and expressing her doubts as to the wisdom of leaving her own home for the Moat House. Knowing Sir Jasper Amery to be a wealthy man, they urged her to grant his request, and pointed out to her that by not doing so, she would probably be standing in her children's light.
"You have an income barely sufficient to meet your needs," wrote her brother-in-law, a solicitor in London, "and your children must be getting expensive. Eric, you tell me, is costing you more than you are really justified in spending on him, and you have to scrape and save at home to meet his school bills. Accept Sir Jasper's offer, by all means. He is rich and childless, and unworldly though I know you are, you must see that it is not right to neglect such an opportunity of providing for your children's future as this may prove to be. Your uncle would not invite you to pay him such a long visit without he had some ulterior motive; and if, at the end of the year, you are not asked to prolong your visit, why, it will be no worse off than you were before. Anyway, the change will do you and your little girls good, and you can get a capable governess, as Sir Jasper suggests."
Mrs. Wallis sighed as she put down her brother-in-law's letter, but it had decided for her the course to take. She wrote immediately to her uncle, thanking him for his invitation, and informing him that she and her little daughters would be at the Moat House as soon as Eric had returned to school after the Easter holidays. Easter fell about the middle of April that year; and Eric was at home for three weeks, during which time he and his sisters discussed little else but the projected visit to the Moat House.
"I wish I was going there with you now;" he said on one occasion, "but the summer term will soon pass, and won't we have a jolly time next holiday! I say, girls, I wonder if mother will be able to allow me a little extra pocket-money soon?"
"I'm sure I don't know," Celia replied. "You have more than your fair share as it is," she added, a trifle begrudgingly.