"I am sorry to close Grandison Place in the summer season," said Mrs. Linwood; "it looks so inhospitable. Besides, I have many friends who anticipate passing the sultry season here." "Let them travel with you, if they wish," said the doctor bluntly. "That is no reason why you should stay at home." "Poor Madge!" cried Edith, who was delighted with the arrangement the doctor had suggested. "She will be so disappointed." "Let her come," said Dr. Harlowe. "I will take charge of the wild-cat, and if I find her too mighty for me, I will get Mr. Regulus to assist me in keeping her in order. Let her come, by all means." "Supposing we write and ask her to accompany us," said Mrs. Linwood. "Her exuberant spirits will be subdued by the exercise of travelling, and she may prove a most exhilarating companion." "What, four ladies to one gentleman!" exclaimed Edith. "Poor Ernest! when he will have thoughts and eyes but for one!" "I would sooner travel with the Falls of Niagara, or the boiling springs of Geyser," cried Ernest, with an instinctive shudder. "We should have to take a carpenter, a glazier, an upholsterer, and a seamstress, to repair the ruins she would strew in our path." "If Richard Clyde were about to return a little earlier in the season," said the doctor, looking at Edith, "he would be a delightful acquisition to your party. He would divide with your brother the heavy responsibility of being the guardian of so many household treasures." "Let us start as early as possible," exclaimed Ernest. The name of Richard Clyde was to his impatient, jealous spirit, as is the rowel to the fiery steed. "And what will become of all our beautiful flowers, and our rich, ripening fruit?" I asked. "Must they waste their sweetness and value on the unappreciating air?" "I think we must make Dr. Harlowe and Mr. Regulus the guardians and participators of both," said Mrs. Linwood. "Give him the flowers, and leave the fruit to me," cried Dr. Harlowe, emphatically. "That the sick, the poor, and the afflicted may be benefited by the act," replied Mrs. Linwood. "Let it be so, Doctor,--and may many a blessing which has once been mine, reward your just and generous distribution of the abounding riches of Grandison Place." I left one sacred charge with the preceptor of my childhood. "Let not the flowers and shrubbery around my mother's grave, and the grave of Peggy, wilt and die for want of care." "They shall not. They shall be tenderly and carefully nurtured." "And if Margaret comes during our absence, be kind and attentive to her, for my sake, Mr. Regulus." "I will! I will! and for her own too. The wild girl has a heart, I believe she has; a good and honest heart." "You discovered it during your homeward journey from New York. I thought you would," said I, pleased to see a flush light up the student's olive cheek. I thought of the sensible Benedict and the wild Beatrice, and the drama of other lives passed before the eye of imagination.