But Leila was disappointed; Charles was not such as she had expected to have seen, and looking up in his face she said hastily, “You are too tall to be my brother.” The bright, sparkling look of pleasure with which he had approached to meet her, faded before this reception; he too was disappointed, but he only said with much gentleness, “That is a fault I cannot change; I can only try to make you forget it.” And he did manage to do so in a wonderfully short space of time, for he had a good deal to overcome. Leila had expected to have seen a little boy such as Alfred, and had been thinking a great deal of her little brother, and how she would watch over him, and keep him out of scrapes; she was quite bewildered when she saw before her a youth apparently about sixteen, and it was not in the first moments of disappointment, that his slight graceful figure, his beaming countenance, and deep blue eyes, so full of sweetness and animation, had any charm for her; but before the day was over she had told Mina in strict confidence, that she did not think Charles nearly so tall as she had done at first, and that she did not know why it was, but she was not half so frightened for him as she expected she would have been; and the pleasant surprise of next morning still further promoted intimacy between them. Leila was called to the window by Selina to admire a beautiful small Arabian pony, which Charles was leading up the approach towards the house; the side-saddle and embroidered saddle-cloth seemed to say it was intended for a lady’s use; and what was Leila’s astonishment and delight, when she found it was a present from Mr. and Mrs. Herbert to herself; the beautiful saddle-cloth the work of Mrs. Herbert and Mina. Leila had no words to express what she felt; for to learn to ride, to have a pony of her own, to accompany her papa in his rides, had long been the earnest wish of her heart. Charles was immediately constituted riding-master to the whole of the young party; a busy time he had, and with strict impartiality did he fulfil his appointed duty; one point of difference only did he insist on, he particularly requested that Leila alone was to speak to the pony and caress it, and it was only to be from her hand it was to receive a piece of bread on the commencement of its daily labours, and also at their close. Selina had communicated to Charles the sad story of Peggy Dobie and the faithful Dash; of all Leila had suffered, and was still suffering, from their loss; and he felt that could she become attached to a new object, it might in some degree interest her mind: but though Leila soon became fond of her pretty Selim, no new favourite could fill Dash’s place to her; _he_ could never be forgotten.