“If you please, Mr. Grant, I think I could be questioned upon it now.”
Less than a minute sufficed to show Donal that she thoroughly understood what she had been learning, and he set her then a little more. By the time their work was over he had not a doubt left that suchlike intellectual occupation would greatly subserve all phases of her health. With entireness she gave herself to the thing she had to do; and Donal thought how strong must be her nature, to work so calmly, and think so clearly, after what she had gone through that morning.
School over, and Davie gone to his rabbits.
“Mistress Brookes invites us to supper with her,” said lady Arctura. “I asked her to ask us. I don’t want to go to bed till I am quite sleepy. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I am very glad, my lady,” responded Donal.
“Don’t you think we had better tell her all about it?”
“As you think fit. The secret is in no sense mine; it is only yours; and the sooner it ceases to be a secret the better for all of us!”
“I have but one reason for keeping it,” she returned.
“Your uncle?”
“Yes; I know he will be annoyed. But there may be other reasons why I should reveal the thing.”