“Yes, Gertie, I know it is Sunday, and that I should have waited until to-morrow, inasmuch as there was nothing more pressing than homesickness, for to tell the truth I was homesick in the city, and after church this morning,—there came over me such a longing for the country and a familiar face that I resolved to take the first train to Hampstead. That is why I am here on Sunday, little Puritan,” and he smiled good-humoredly at Gertie, thinking what a wonderful face she had, and how like she was to the sister sleeping under the English skies, and then he glanced at the well-kept grave and at the monument and the name upon it, “James A. Lyle,” and said aloud, in an absent kind of way:
“Born in Alnwick.”
“He saved Godfrey’s life, you know, and lost his own,” Gertie said, while Mr. Macpherson bowed and answered:
“Yes, I know,” but gave no sign that when on reaching the brow of the hill on his way from the station he saw the white headstone gleaming in the distance, he came that way to see for himself this very grave of Abelard Lyle, who was born in Alnwick.
“Shall we go to the house? Godfrey will be glad to know you are here,” Edith said, and as she spoke something in the expression of her face made Robert glance quickly from her to Gertie, who was tying on her bonnet.
“They certainly are alike,” he thought. “They would do splendidly in a picture as ‘Les Sœurs,’” and then, as Edith was ready, he walked by her side with Gertie in attendance, until they reached the place where their paths diverged, and Gertie said “good-by,” while Edith and Robert went leisurely toward the house.
CHAPTER XXX.
COMPANY AT SCHUYLER HILL.
In the course of two or three weeks nearly everybody of any social standing in Hampstead called upon the bride. Mrs. Barton and her daughter Rosamond from the Ridge drove over at a very early day, much to the discomfiture of Miss Rossiter, who had told her nieces in confidence that “Mrs. Barton had no intention of calling upon a governess,” that “Mrs. Schuyler need not expect much attention from the beau monde.” Great, then, was her surprise when she went down to meet them; and greeted them a little coldly even while affecting to appropriate their call to herself. But neither Mrs. Barton nor Rosamond seemed to notice her perturbation, and both were delighted with Mrs. Schuyler, who looked and appeared as if all her life had been passed amid just such surroundings as these at Schuyler Hill.
Miss Rossiter saw this, and thought best to change her tactics altogether; and when, as she accompanied her friend to the door, the latter said to her, “I find your sister-in-law very charming,” she replied: