After the obsequies, life went on very calmly at Wolfscliff.
Stuart and Palma wrote every week to their friends in England, and quite as often got letters from them.
Again Ran and Judy urged Stuart and Palma to come and visit them, as there was nothing now to keep the latter at Wolfscliff. They wrote that they had given up their plan of leaving Haymore Hall to study in London. That the attractions of the country and the home were so great that they could not tear themselves away from it. That they had formed attachments not only to the place, but to the people. That they should remain there, and that the Rev. James Campbell had undertaken to direct their studies, and they expected to derive quite as much—if not more—benefit from his instructions as they could from professional teachers.
The correspondence resulted in a promise from the Stuarts to run over to England after the wheat harvest should be gathered.
It was while Stuart was thinking of setting a certain day for their embarkation and purchasing their tickets that a strange visitor arrived at Wolfscliff.
It was a glorious day in the latter part of June.
Stuart was afield, looking after the wheat.
Palma was seated on the front piazza, with her babies placed face to face in their cradle on her right hand, and her workbasket, overflowing with work, on her left.
She was singing to herself in a low key when she heard the sound of wheels on the gravel walk.
Looking up, she saw the hack from the Wolfshead tavern, at Wolfswalk, approaching. It drew up before the porch.