With that question Susan was brought back to her home, and separated as if by magic in a moment from all her individual involuntary girlish happinesses; she shrank a little into herself and felt chilled and contracted, without knowing how. She could not even be so frank as she would have been a little while ago--Uncle Edward's love had opened the eyes of the neglected girl, and developed all at once in her heart the natural instincts of "the only woman in the family." She could not bear to convey an unfavourable impression of Horace to her uncle; but, unskilled in her new craft, she betrayed herself even by her reticences and reserves. "I know he wants to go away," she said, faltering a little; "and I am sure you would not be surprised, if you lived with us only for a day;--for," added Susan, blushing and correcting herself, "it is very dull at Marchmain, and boys cannot put up with that as we can. Horace has always felt it a great deal more than I have." "I am not surprised," said Colonel Sutherland; "if Marchmain was the happiest home in the world, still the young man must go away--it is in his nature. He must make his own way in the world." "Must he, uncle?" said Susan, looking up with a little surprise into his face. "I was only sixteen, my love, when I first went to India," said the Colonel; "the boys, as you call them, must not stay at home all their lives--they must do something. My Ned will be on his way to India, if all is well, in a year or two. The sooner a young man gets into his work the better--and now Horace would set about it too." "But he cannot do anything, uncle," said Susan, seriously; "what is he going to do?" "Has he never told you?" asked Uncle Edward. The question seemed to imply blame, and Susan was troubled. "Horace is not like you, uncle," she said, recovering a little boldness; "he does not tell me things; he knows a great deal more than I do--he has almost learned German--and he thinks a great deal more. I am afraid I do not always understand him when he does speak to me. It is my fault; so he thinks over everything all the more, and I am afraid sometimes gets angry in his heart, because no one can understand him at Marchmain!" Colonel Sutherland shook his head, but did not say anything. He began to tell Susan what he did when he was a lad.