The little maid coloured up at being detected dreaming in the moonlight, and jumped lightly into bed; whilst I approached to her sister’s side. ‘No, Tessie dear, I have not been to sleep; but I am all right again now, and I thought I would like to come and tell you so.’ ‘Oh, I am very glad, Hilda! Ange and I have been very unhappy about you.’ ‘I know you were; but it has all passed away. Mr. Charteris’s presence recalled my dear mother, and the days when she was with us, so powerfully to my mind, that I felt quite paralysed at seeing him; but that kind of thing cannot last, you know. I have taken the woman’s universal remedy—‘a good cry,’ and my brain and heart are cleared by it. I hope Mr. Charteris did not notice my manner; but he will find it quite different to-morrow morning.’ ‘I don’t think he did,’ replied Tessie; ‘we talked a good deal of you when papa and he came back again—until the Baron arrived, in fact. Mr. Charteris does not seem to remember much about the time when he knew you before; but he thought it quite natural that the sight of him should bring the remembrance of your mother back to you.’ ‘Did he get his horse?’ I asked cheerfully. ‘He has hired one for to-morrow, and Jacques Despard is going to get a lot of colts up from the valley for him to see and choose from. And only fancy, Hilda, when Arthur Thrale heard of the boar-hunt to-morrow, he would insist upon accompanying them! and the Baron says he cannot ride a bit, and is sure to be thrown. Don’t you think they ought to prevent his going?’ ‘How can they prevent it?’ exclaimed Ange, ‘the Piron is open to everybody. And Mr. Charteris said it would do Arthur Thrale good to be thrown, and take some of his “_sheek_” out of him. What is “_sheek_,” Hilda?’ ‘Has Arthur Thrale been here again?’ I said, too vexed to laugh at the little maid’s pronunciation; for since Mrs. Carolus had told me of his mother’s letter, I had had reason to suspect that some, at least, of the lad’s money was lost at our house. ‘Yes, he came in as usual. They have all been as happy as possible, playing cards together,’ replied Ange, with an air of complete innocence. ‘I could hardly take my eyes off dear papa’s face this evening. He did look so perfectly contented, sitting there with his friends! I think there must be very few people in this world who can “come down” as gracefully as he has—dear good old father! He, who has been used to a Court, and the society of the highest nobles and the greatest geniuses in the land, to be able to amuse himself in that way with one or two chance acquaintances! But it is all his goodness. He hardly ever complains. He is more like an angel than a man!’ This was the little maid’s favourite assertion, and usually she expected no answer to it. But on this occasion the silence of Tessie and myself seemed to strike her unpleasantly, and she reiterated her words in the form of a question: ‘Isn’t he more like an angel than a man, Tessie?’