It is not necessary to go into this correspondence in detail, but only to glance at it.
Tim Toomie’s letter—“the last shall be first”—was the only one with which he had ever honored Miss Fronde. He wrote to implore her to go over to Toomie’s Farm and see his people and tell him all about them.
“For,” he wrote, “they are not used to letter writing, and their letters are not satisfactory. They give me only the baldest outlines of news, as ‘All are well here,’ or ‘Your granny has got a cold in her head,’ or ‘The red cow has got a calf,’ or something like that, and I am hungry and thirsty for news from home, my dear Miss Fronde.”
“I will take a day and go over to see the Toomies, and write the little fellow a long letter, with a full account of them,” Roma said to herself.
Mrs. Gray’s and Abbot Elde’s letters still rang the changes on the delights of their foreign home and their desire to have Roma with them.
“Come over,” wrote Mrs. Gray, “with Dr. Shaw. He has promised to make us a visit in August and September. Persuade him to anticipate the time and to escort you over in May.”
“Why not?” said Roma to herself, as she folded up her aunt’s letter. “Why not, indeed? I have nothing to keep me here now. The court has annulled the fraudulent marriage; Will Harcourt has been found, only to be more completely lost to me than ever; my poor little adopted child has been wrested from me by her own father, from whom I cannot recover her, except at a price for which I would not purchase my own soul, if it were about to be lost. Why not go to Scotland? But not before I settle up some business here. I will consult Dr. Shaw. I cannot ask him to come to me again so soon, but I shall see him at church on Sunday and make an appointment with him for next week. Yes, that is the best I can do,” concluded Roma, as she arose and resumed her walk up and down the floor. She walked until she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of Ceres, who wanted to know if Miss Fronde would have a fire lighted in her bedroom, as the night was so cold and wet.
Roma declined the fire, but said that as it was late she would retire, which she immediately did.
The rain ceased to fall during the night, and the next morning the weather was fair and mild.
Immediately after breakfast Roma ordered her carriage, and drove over to Toomie’s Farm to see the family there. She found them all well, and doing well. She did not tell them of their Tim’s complaining letter to herself, lest it should give them pain, but she found out that she had no occasion to do so, as they had had a letter from him by the same mail which brought hers.