Salome sighed, gathered up her sheets, put them in the drawer, and went to her little brothers.
CHAPTER X.
A PROPOSED FLIGHT FROM THE NEST.
LADY MONROE was right when she said the Athertons would prove true friends; and it soon became one of Salome's greatest pleasures to get a quiet talk with Mrs. Atherton. She possessed the power, rare but beautiful, of influencing others by herself, not by her words. She had remarkably quick insight into character; and she had not known the Wiltons long before she had, as it were, mastered the situation, and could enter into the difficulties and trials of each one. She saw that Salome had the hardest task of all, and she felt for her, with her dreamy, imaginative temperament, forced, as it were, to take up with the practical side of daily life, and set herself to help her.
Lady Monroe had postponed the departure to Cannes longer than Dr. Wilton thought right, till the sudden change from a prolonged St. Luke's summer to an early and sunless spell of winter brought on Eva's little short cough, and made her hasten the arrangements for leaving England.
Eva was a spoiled child—or, rather, would have been spoiled, had so sweet and gentle a nature been capable of "spoiling," in the common acceptation of the word. Her mother clung to her with the intense love which springs from the thought that all love and care for our heart's dearest ones may not be needed long. Eva had taken a sudden and real liking for Ada Wilton. Her beauty and serenity had a charm for her. She liked to hear her play and watch her white hands on the piano. She liked to talk with her and to hear her voice. And so it had come to pass that Ada was continually sent for to Lady Monroe's house; and when the time for leaving Roxburgh was definitely arranged, Eva said that nothing would please her so much or help to pass the winter cheerfully as to have Ada with her.
Lady Monroe herself had her misgivings. "Ada is so young, and ought to be going on with education and lessons," she said.
"But she can have lessons, mamma; and think how she will learn to speak French. And there are drawing-masters and music-masters at Cannes. Oh, do let us take her; she is so fond of me, mamma, and she is so lovely and so ladylike."