"Oh, Cathy, do you think so? do you really think so?" and Queenie almost gasped with surprise and joy. To take Emmie into the country again, to see the little pinched face grow round and blooming in the fine moorland air, to watch her gathering wild-flowers, or scrambling through woods, could it ever come true? For the first moment Queenie forgot everything but her little sister; the next her cheek flushed crimson--she would see Cathy's home and Garth. "Do you really, really think it will come true?" "True! of course it will. Garth and Langley never refused me anything, and when I tell them about you and Emmie they will be wild to know you. What walks we will have! I must show you Hepshaw Abbey, and I must bribe Garth to drive us to Karlsmere; it is such a lovely lake. And then we can go and see the King of Karldale." "See whom?" inquired Queenie, in some perplexity. "Oh, a friend of ours, who is called by that name; he is a gentleman farmer, and lives near the head of the lake. His real name is Harry Chester, but he is always called the King of Karldale. I am very fond of Harry." "Indeed," with a slight stress. "He is such a dear good fellow. I wish I could like his wife half as well." "Oh, he is married," with a shade of disappointment in her voice. "Married! very much so, poor fellow, and I don't think he quite likes it. She does not exactly henpeck him, but she is a fine lady, and worries him into doing things he does not like, such as taking her to Paris, and giving her expensive dresses. I am afraid she spends a great deal too much money, and that troubles Harry." "He should keep her in order then." "I think he tries; but Gertrude has a will of her own. She frets if he refuse to humour her, and as she is very delicate, and the doctors look very gravely at her sometimes, he is afraid not to give her her way. He sometimes talks to Langley, and she always takes Gertrude's part; why I don't know, for no one else likes her." "How nice to know people, and to get interested in their lives," sighed the poor recluse. "You have made me quite long to know all the people in your neighbourhood, especially Mr. Logan and his sister." "Dear Miss Cosie, how she will pet you; and you will be great friends with Mr. Logan. Do you know," in a puzzled voice, "I don't seem to get on with Mr. Logan as well as I did; he gave me lectures last holidays, and I became a little shy of him." "And yet you are not one to mind any amount of scolding." "Of course not, when I don't care about the people who give the scolding; but that is just it. Mr. Logan looks at one so benevolently, and yet his eyes seem to read you through and through; and then he goes on in that mild voice of his, till Miss Catherine, as he calls her, either makes a fool of herself or runs out of the room." "But he has no right to lecture you," indignantly.