“I have just come from a visit of eight days to Mount Vernon; your brother and sister are fairly well, although Laurence will never be of a robust constitution. But the little girl, I see, is not to be spared us long. She is now nearly three years old—older than any of Laurence’s other children have lived to be—but there is a blight upon this dear little innocent, and I doubt whether she will not be a flower in God’s garden by Christmas-time—greatly to her profit, but to the everlasting grief of her sorrowing parents.”
This letter made George feel as if he would like that very moment to have his horse saddled and to start for Mount Vernon. But he felt that with the great interests with which he had been trusted by Lord Fairfax it would not be right to go without giving an account of his work. He was sitting sadly enough at the library table, reading his mother’s letter, when Lord Fairfax entered.
“You have bad news, George,” said he, after one glance at the boy’s troubled face.
“Very bad, sir,” replied George, sadly. “My brother’s only living child, a dear little girl, is very ill, I am afraid. My mother writes me she is fading fast. My poor brother and sister love her so much—she is the only child that has been spared them. Three others have all died before they were a year old.”
“Then you want to go to Mount Vernon as soon as possible,” said the earl, reading the unspoken wish in George’s heart.
“Oh, sir, I do want to go; but I think I ought to stay here for some days, to show you what I have done.”
“One night will be enough, if you will leave your surveys and papers with me; and perhaps I may myself go down to Mount Vernon later on, when the little one is either better on earth or eternally well in heaven.”
George looked at him with eloquent eyes.
“If you will be so kind as to let me go, I will come back just as soon—” George stopped; he could say no more.
Although just come from a long journey, so vigorous and robust was George that he began at once exhibiting his surveys and papers. They were astonishingly clear, both in statement and in execution; and Lord Fairfax saw that he had no common surveyor, but a truly great and comprehensive mind in his young protégé. George asked that William Fairfax might be sent for; and, when he came, told Lord Fairfax how helpful William had been to him.