"Yes, Miss Irvine, I hope so. I have asked Him to forgive me, and I think He has."
"Yes," she said, "if you have asked Him, I am sure He has. He is always ready to forgive us, if we will only go to Him. If we only realised how much He loves us, May, and how much it grieves Him when we are cold and heartless to Him, I think we should be more careful never to leave Him."
As I look back upon that part of my life which was spent in Alliston Hall, I cannot be too thankful that God gave me the friendship of Miss Lilla Irvine. I found in her a true friend, one in whom I could confide all my troubles and anxieties, and one who was ever ready to sympathise with me and to advise me. Her visits, to my great joy, were very long ones. At the time of which I am now writing, she spent several months at her cousin's house, so that I had many opportunities of seeing her, and of learning to love her more and more.
As Christmas time drew near, the good sisters at Branston Manor House wrote to ask me to spend Christmas with them, and Sir William most kindly gave me a fortnight's holiday.
Evelyn was very loth to part with me, and told me she would be dreadfully dull whilst I was away. But Sir William would not hear of my refusing the invitation, and promised to do his best to make up for my absence.
"Oh dear, oh dear, it will be a long fortnight!" Evelyn said, the night before I left. "You shouldn't be so nice, May; if you were only a little more disagreeable, just the smallest degree more like the brown alpaca, I should not miss you half so much!"
"Very well," I said, laughing, "I will come back provided with spectacles, and a brown alpaca dress, and be as prim and precise as you please, and then I suppose I shall get plenty of holidays! Not that I want holidays," I said, in a different tone, as I noticed the troubled expression on her face, "I was only joking, dear Evelyn; my whole life here is a holiday—I am very, very happy, you are all so good to me."
"Just as if we could help being good to you, May," she said; "I told you that I loved you at first sight, and always should love you, and I am sure I do. And I do hope you will enjoy being with your little sister, only you must be sure to come back as soon as they can spare you."
It was six months since I had seen Maggie, and my heart beat very fast as the train drew up at Branston Station, and my little sister came forward to meet me. She had grown very much since I had seen her last, but she was the same dear, simple-minded child as when I had left her, and was just as loving and true.
Old John was waiting for us with the two luxurious horses, and we drove to the Manor House at the usual measured pace.