"Oh! I daresay you'd have got on with her all right. You and she could have talked about books and things, don't you know?"
Paul smiled. "But there are other things to be talked about besides books, Lady Esdaile."
"Yes; but some people find books awfully interesting. I should myself if they didn't always send me to sleep before I had properly got into them."
And Paul smiled again.
So Isabel Carnaby did not come to Esdaile Court just then, and Paul went on with his teaching of Dick; and made wonderful progress, considering the raw material out of which he was expected to manufacture a scholar. He also tried his hand at literature, and earned an additional hundred a year by his contributions to magazines; whereby life at the cottage at Chayford was made considerably easier than it would otherwise have been.
At Chayford things went on much the same as usual. Edgar continued to woo Alice in silence, and consequently in vain; but he comforted himself by the idea that, as she grew older and found how false and fickle the world is, she would learn the value of one faithful heart that would never fail her, however unworthy she might prove herself to be. As for her, her mind was still full of thoughts of Paul. He was not on the spot, it is true, as Edgar was, but he came home every holidays; and it takes an exceptionally clever woman to forget a man in three months—even when she has another man to help her.
CHAPTER VII.
Isabel Carnaby.
The little blind god, as he softly trod,
Did a dart for his bow prepare;
And he sharpened it with a woman's wit,
And he feathered it with her hair.
When Paul had been four years at Esdaile Court, and Dick was considered nearly ready for Eton, the Farleys' term of Indian governorship came to an end, and they returned to England bringing their niece with them. As Lady Esdaile had predicted, Isabel had failed to make a brilliant marriage out in India; but whether that were her fault or her misfortune, Isabel alone (with the exception of two or three young officers who were still too sore to refer to the subject) could say.