It was not more than a month later in the year when Janetta Colwyn, walking in the plantation near the Red House, came face to face with a man who was leaning against the trunk of a fir-tree, and had been waiting for her to approach. She looked astonished; but he was calm, though he smiled with pleasure, and held out his hands. "Well, Janetta!" "Wyvis! You have come home at last!" "At last." "You have not been up to the house yet?" "No, I was standing here wishing that I could see you first of all; and, just as I wished it, you came in sight. I take it as a good omen." "I am glad you are back," said Janetta earnestly. "Are you? Really? And why?" "Oh, for many reasons. The estate wants you, for one thing," said Janetta, coloring a little, "and Julian wants you----" "Don't you want me at all, Janetta?" "Everybody wants you, so I do, too." "Tell me more about everybody and everybody's wants. How is Julian?" "Very well, indeed, and longing to see you before he goes to school." "Ah yes, poor little man. How does he like the idea of school?" "Pretty well." "And how do you like the idea of his going?" Janetta's face fell. "I am sure it is good for him," she said rather wistfully. "But not so good for you. What are you going to do? Shall you live with Mrs. Burroughs, Janet?" "No, indeed; I think I shall take lodgings in London, and give lessons. I have saved money during the last few months," said Janetta with something between a tear in the eye and a smile on the lip, "so that I shall be able to live even if I get no pupils at first." "And shall you like that?" She looked at him for a moment without replying, and then said cheerfully: "I shall not like it if I get no pupils." "And how are Cuthbert and Nora?" "Absorbed in baby-worship," said Janetta. "You will be expected to fall down and worship also. And your little niece is really very pretty." Wyvis shook his head. "Babies are all exactly alike to me, so you had better instruct me beforehand in what I ought to say. And what about our neighbors, Janet? Are the Adairs at home?" "Yes," said Janetta, with some reserve of tone. "And the Ashleys?" "Old Lady Ashley. Sir Philip has married and gone to the Antipodes." "Married Margaret? I always thought that would be the end of it." "You are quite wrong. He married a Miss Smithies, a very rich girl, I believe. And Margaret is engaged to a certain Lord Southbourne--who is also very rich, I believe." "Little Southbourne!" exclaimed Wyvis, with a sudden burst of laughter. "You don't say so! I used to know him at Monaco. Oh, there's no harm in little South; only he isn't very bright." "I am sorry for Margaret," said Janetta. "Oh she will be perfectly happy. She will always move in her own circle of society, and that is paradise for Margaret." "You are very hard on her, Wyvis," Janetta said, reprovingly. "She is capable of higher things than you believe."