"I don't know what then, dear Ellen," said Alice, sighing; "he may for a little; but Papa wishes very much that before he is settled anywhere, he should visit England and Scotland, and see our friends there; though I hardly think John will do it, unless he sees some further reason for going. If he do not, he will probably soon he called somewhere; Mr. Marshman wants him to come to Randolph. I don't know how it will be."
"Well!" said Ellen, with a kind of acquiescing sigh, "at any rate now we must wait until next Christmas."
The winter passed with little to mark it except the usual visits to Ventnor; which, however, by common consent, Alice and Ellen had agreed should not be when John was at home. At all other times they were much prized and enjoyed. Every two or three months Mr. Marshman was sure to come for them, or Mr. Howard, or perhaps the carriage only with a letter; and it was bargained for, that Mr. Humphreys should follow to see them home. It was not always that Ellen could go, but the disappointments were seldom; she, too, had become quite domesticated at Ventnor, and was sincerely loved by the whole family. Many as were the times she had been there, it had oddly happened that she had never met her old friend of the boat again; but she was very much attached to old Mr. and Mrs. Marshman, and Mrs. Chauncey and her daughter; the latter of whom reckoned all the rest of her young friends as nothing compared with Ellen Montgomery. Ellen, in her opinion, did everything better than any one else of her age.
"She has good teachers," said Mrs. Chauncey.
"Yes, indeed! I should think she had. Alice I should think anybody would learn well with her; and Mr. John I suppose he's as good, though I don't know so much about him; but he must be a great deal better teacher than Mr. Sandford, Mamma, for Ellen draws ten times as well as I do!"
"Perhaps that is your fault, and not Mr. Sandford's," said her mother; "though I rather think you overrate the difference."
"I am sure I take pains enough, if that's all," said the little girl; "what more can I do, Mamma? But Ellen is so pleasant about it always; she never seems to think she does better than I; and she is always ready to help me, and take ever so much time to show me how to do things; she is so pleasant, isn't she, Mamma? I know I have heard you say she is very polite."
"She is certainly that," said Mrs. Gillespie; "and there is a grace in her politeness that can only proceed from great natural delicacy and refinement of character. How she can have such manners, living and working in the way you say she does, I confess is beyond my comprehension."
"One would not readily forget the notion of good-breeding in the society of Alice and John Humphreys," said Miss Sophia.
"And Mr. Humphreys," said Mrs. Chauncey.