“I should think there was in my instance, if I could take you back with me, my boy.”
“Oh, sir, Dr. Hardcastle, you can if you will,” exclaimed Hugh, in a tone of anxious, eager solicitude.
“I assuredly will, if I can. And no obstacle exists with me. But your little sister, my boy?”
“Oh, sir, my little sister is better provided for than I could hope to provide for her for many years to come. She is the ward of General Garnet, and he has just this morning taken her home to live with him, and to be educated.”
“How? What? Is it possible? The little, fond, wild, beautiful creature I saw at Mount Calm to-night?”
“Yes, sir, that was she—Garnet Seabright.”
“What kin is she to you, boy—not your sister?”
“No kin at all, sir; but dear to me as if she were my twin sister.”
“A beautiful child! A sweet, wild, haunting thing!”
“Oh, yes, sir; and so true and good—so trusting!”