Aaron made no reply, and they sat a little while in silence. Then Ella spoke--in a softer tone. "Did Uncle Gilbert often talk about me, Aaron? Did I seem to be much in his thoughts?" "I don't think a day ever passed but what he mentioned you, Miss Ella," warmly replied the old man. "When he used to sit in his easy-chair, staring hard into the fire, I've said to myself many a time, 'He's thinking of one that is far away.'" "Oh! that he had but sent for me!--How was it, Aaron, that he did not let me come home in time for his birthday? Could not _you_ have suggested to him that I ought to be here?" The old man coughed uneasily. "I did speak to him about it, Miss Ella. I told him that you would be fretting your heart out at being so long away. But there! you know the kind of man he was--taking his own will and listening to nobody." "It has seemed to me at times as though--as though you were all in a conspiracy to keep me away," returned Ella, dreamily. "I have said so to Mrs. Carlyon." "All who?" asked Aaron. "You--and Dr. Jago--and your nephew," replied Ella, fearlessly. "I was sent away by my uncle for the winter--for the dark days. They have long been over, yet still I was not allowed to return. Aaron, I cannot understand it." "Maybe he wanted to grow still better before you saw him," cried the old man, shuffling in his chair. "He was always headstrong; you know that, Miss Ella; he wouldn't be driven by living creature. If one tried to make him turn one way, he'd turn the other. No chance, Miss Ella, if he didn't want you to come home, that we could make him send for you." "Was he conscious when he died?--who talked with him last?" "I did," answered the old man promptly. "He had been as cheerful as could be all day; less mopy than usual. At six o'clock he said he'd go to bed, feeling tired; and did go. At nine o'clock I took in his beef-tea, and stood by while he drank it; after that, I made up the fire. Then he talked with me for ten minutes or so about one thing and another. He hoped we were going to have a fine hot summer: hot weather always suited him best. Then he said that his lassie--meaning you, Miss Ella--would be on her way home by this time, and how glad he should be to see your bonnie face again. Next, he said that he had been thinking of having the garden done up, and should get some pretty furniture from London put in your rooms, and that he would have more company at the Hall, and try to make the old place a bit more cheerful for you." "As if I was not always the happiest when he and I were by ourselves!" said Ella, hardly able to speak for her tears.