"Yes; only eighteen months ago. I should not be back so soon, but I've had an attack of fever, and am taking a few months off, to pull myself together. I'm glad our home-goings have taken place at the same time. What do you want to know? My people were much as usual when I saw them last; but the mater has not been at all well for some months back. She has had to leave the house in charge of her sister, Mrs Everett, and go off to some baths in Germany for a course of treatment, and I believe she will not return to England until the autumn. Rosalind--" "Yes--Rosalind?" The major's handsome face softened into a smile, which showed that the subject of his young sister was pleasant to his mind. "Rosalind," he said slowly, "is a circumstance--decidedly a circumstance to be taken into account! We look to her to redeem the fortunes of the family, and the mater considers nobody under a royal duke worthy of her acceptance. She is certainly a lovely girl, and a more agreeable one into the bargain than I expected her to turn out. She was a spoiled, affected child, but she took a turn for the better after her accident. My parents, I believe,"--Major Darcy looked at his companion with a brightening glance,--"my parents ascribe a great part of the change to your beneficial influence." Peggy's cheeks flushed with pleasure, for she had by no means outgrown her childish love of a compliment; but she shrugged her shoulders, and replied in a tone of would-be indifference: "Plus the wholesome discipline of having her hair cut short. Poor Rosalind! Never shall I forget her confiding to me that she was `wesigned to becoming a hideous fwight,' while all the time she was admiring her profile in the mirror and arranging her curls to hide the scar. We had been on very distant terms before that accident; but when we were both convalescent we took courage, and spoke faithfully to one another on the subject of our several failings. I told Rosalind, in effect, that she was a conceited doll, and she replied that I was a consequential minx. It cleared the air so much that we exchanged vows of undying friendship, which have been kept to the extent of some half- a-dozen letters a year. I know much more about Rosalind than I do about Rob. Please tell me all you can about Rob!"