“I am glad of it. Let us go to the upper light. Look at Elva!” said Odalite, in an anxious tone.
Le turned the light of the taper on the little girl, and saw her leaning, pale and faint and dumb, on the bosom of her sister.
“My poor, little frightened dove. Why, Elva, darling, what is the matter?” tenderly inquired the midshipman.
The kind sympathy broke down the last remnant of the child’s self-possession, and she broke into a gush of sobs and tears.
Le handed his taper to Wynnette and took Elva up in his arms, laid her head over his shoulder, and carried her upstairs, followed by Odalite, Wynnette and Rosemary.
In the sun and air Elva recovered herself, and the little party left the ruins to return to the new castle.
“I wonder my Uncle Enderby does not have that dreadful old thing pulled down,” piped Elva, in a pleading tone.
“Pulled down!” exclaimed Wynnette. “Why, that ancient castle is the pride of his life. The modern one is nothing to be compared with it in value. The oldest part of the ruin is said to be eight hundred years old, while the modern castle is only a poor hundred and fifty. Why, he would just as soon destroy his own pedigree and have it wiped out of the royal and noble stud-book—I mean, omitted from ‘Burke’s Peerage’—as pull down that ancient fortress. Why, child, you do not dream of its value. You have not seen a quarter part of its historical attractions. If you hadn’t flunked—I mean fainted, you poor, little soul—we should have gone up the broad staircase leading from the hall to the staterooms above—many of them in good preservation—and seen the chamber where King Edward the First and Queen Eleanor slept, when resting on their journey to Scotland. Also the other chamber where William Wallace was confined under a strong guard when he was brought a prisoner to England. Well, I don’t believe a word of it myself. I suppose all these old battle-ax heroes that ever crossed the border are reported to have slept in every border castle, from Solway Firth to the North Sea. Still, the old ruin is very interesting indeed. And if the makers of the guidebooks like to tell these stories, why, I like to look at the historical rooms.”
Wynnette’s last words brought them to the new castle, which they entered just in time for luncheon, in the morning room.