There was a ring of reproach in Celia's voice. Joy went up to her, and putting her arms around her neck gave her an affectionate hug, and a kiss which was warmly returned. Thus did the sisters make their peace.
Mrs. Wallis and her daughters had now been at the Moat House several weeks, and already the absence of small worries was having a beneficial effect on the former's health, whilst the Devonshire air was bringing faint roses to Joy's pale cheeks, and Celia's fair face was more blooming than ever.
Mrs. Wallis was perfectly satisfied with her children's governess; and Miss Mary Pring considered herself a most fortune young woman to have obtained such a comfortable situation. She had been told that her engagement at the Moat House might be only for a year's duration; but she was of a naturally hopeful disposition, and trusted it would prove otherwise.
"Sir Jasper is growing so attached to the children," she remarked to her aunt one evening when, the work of the day over, they sat dawdling over the tea-table at Home Vale. "Of Celia he is especially fond; nor is it any wonder, for she is always ready to drop whatever she is doing to wait upon him, and her manner to him is particularly nice. She is a wonderfully thoughtful child for her age, and so kind-hearted!"
"Is she?" Miss Pring asked, a trifle dubiously, or so her niece thought.
"Indeed she is! I don't believe she would willingly hurt anyone's feelings for the world. She always tries to please."
"That is not a sure proof of a kind heart, my dear Mary. It may mean only a desire to stand well in other people's sight. However, you have good opportunities for forming a correct estimate of her character, no doubt you have judged her rightly."
"She works most conscientiously and attends to all my instructions. She is evidently desirous of learning all she can. I never had a better pupil."
"And what about the other sister?" Pring inquired.
"She is not so attentive as Celia in the general way, but she has a real talent for music. Sir Jasper gets her to play to him occasionally, and she has learnt a favorite piece of his—'The Last Rose of Summer.' I often wonder, Aunt Esther, what he means to do for those children in the future."