"It's quite natural you should feel it," said Susan in a not unkindly tone. "But still it is a very good thing it has happened just now. For you know, aunt, we have quite decided that you must live with us——"
"You are very good, I know," said Mrs. Lacy, who was really very dependent on her niece's care.
"And yet I could not have asked Mr. Rexford to have taken the children, who, after all, are no relations, you know."
"No," said Mrs. Lacy.
"And then to give them up to their own father is quite different from sending them away to strangers."
"Yes, of course," said the old lady, more briskly this time.
"On the whole," Miss Susan proceeded to sum up, "it could not have happened better, and the sooner the good-byings and all the bustle of the going are over, the better for you and for me, and for all concerned, indeed. And this leads me to what I wanted to tell you. Things happen so strangely sometimes. This very morning I have heard of such a capital escort for them."
Mrs. Lacy looked up with startled eyes.
"An escort," she repeated. "But not yet, Susan. They are not going yet. Wilfred speaks of 'some weeks hence' in his letter."
"Yes; but his letter was written three weeks ago, and, of course, I am not proposing to send them away to-day or to-morrow. The opportunity I have heard of will be about a fortnight hence. Plenty of time to telegraph, even to write, to Captain Bertram to ensure there being no mistake. But anyway we need not decide just yet. He says he will write again by the next mail, so we shall have another letter by Saturday."