“And then,” said Jack readily enough, “some one wanted desperately to go along with the letters, and for some time could not find a way. At last, some one wrote and asked if he might come if he could find ways and means, and all unbeknown to every one but themselves, letter-writer and recipient arranged a little plan, if they could only manage to bring it off. While still in doubt as to ways and means, distant relative most obligingly dies, and then it is hey presto! and catch the next boat.” Paddy crossed the fireside circle in a flash, and flung herself upon Eileen. “Oh, Eily, Eily,” she cried, “you are engaged?—are you really engaged to Jack?” “Yes, Paddy,” and her voice and eyes spoke all she could not say. “Oh, I’m so glad, I’m so glad, I feel as if I must just hug you both! and the aunties too, and every one. What a lovely Christmas present, a new brother.” “But that isn’t really all,” cried Jack. “We’re going to live at The Ghan House. Only think of it! and you and your mother are to have the west wing all to yourselves, and live there with us just as long as ever you will.” After that every one joined in, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in discussing numerous projects, interesting to all alike. Paddy joined in likewise with seeming eagerness, but deep down in her heart, minute by minute, a certain dragging weight made itself more and more apparent. She would not for worlds have said so yet, for fear she might damp their happiness, but she knew quite well she would not go and live at The Ghan House with Jack and Eileen. An indefinable something, she hardly knew what, made her shrink instinctively and very certainly from such an arrangement. No, she would prefer to go back to her dispensing, and be independent, even if it was London, and she had to go alone. There were tears on Paddy’s eyelashes that night when she fell asleep. It seemed to her as if a sudden, most unlooked-for weight of loneliness were crushing her, and her whole soul longed and longed for the father sleeping quietly in the churchyard close beside her. She did not for one moment grudge Jack and Eileen their happiness—only just at first, just until she had got used to the new order and readjusted her own feelings a little—it was not easy to rejoice without one single qualm of painful remembrance.