"Mamma, did you like Glenalvan Hall?" inquired Ruby.
"Oh, very much, though it is little better than a ruin. It must have been quite a grand place once. It is beautiful still in its decay. The owners were ruined by the late war."
Oh, how anxiously beautiful Golden longed to hear one word from her old grandfather and her black mammy. She listened with a beating heart to the lady's words, but she never named the two that little Golden loved so dearly, and after awhile she rose and said that Celine was waiting for her, and she must go.
Little Ruby clung to her dress.
"Mayn't I go?" she pleaded, and Mrs. Desmond yielding a smiling assent, they went away together, and left Golden alone in the room.
Alone, with her young heart full of strange, troubled joy. Bertram Chesleigh was here, under the same roof with her.
She should see him, she should hear him once again. There was a bitter, troubled pleasure in the thought.
She could not bear the tumult of oppressive thoughts that rushed over her mind. To escape them she went in quest of Mrs. Markham, and paid her the money she had borrowed from her a few days before.
Then she went back to the room to wait for little Ruby, but the child was so preoccupied with her friends that she did not return to her room during the day.
At twilight she came flitting in joyously as a little fairy.