"And you have kept her more or less surrounded by elderly people all these years," cried Patricia reproachfully. "No wonder she is sad, as I said before. I am glad I am coming to cheer her up. Has she been to school?"
"No. She has always been delicate, and I did not think it wise that she should leave home. Until last year she had a governess."
"Also elderly?"
"Yes. Miss Tibbets was nearly fifty," replied Colpster, with a smile.
"Oh, poor Mara! But does not your nephew try to brighten her life?"
The Squire's face grew dark, and his heavy grey eyebrows drew down over his keen eyes. "She does not like Theodore," he said at length, and he seemed to weigh his words. "Yet he wishes to marry her."
"He loves her?"
"So far as a cold-hearted being such as Theodore is can love, I believe he does love Mara. But he is much taken up with literary work, and studies for hours all alone in his own room. Basil is quite different, being gay and light-hearted."
"Does Mara love Mr. Basil?"
"In a sisterly way she does. The two boys and Mara have been brought up together, although Theodore and Basil are much older. I don't think Mara is earthly enough to love anyone. She always seems to live in a land of dreams, and looks more like a shadow than a flesh-and-blood girl."