‘We must do our best, for I do think really the poor child is improving.’ ‘Lessons will begin again! That’s one comfort,’ said Gillian, rather quaintly, thinking of the length of time that Dolores would thus be off her hands. ‘And now call Mysie. I must speak to her.’ As for Mysie, she was in a state of rapture. She knew her bliss before her mother had communicated it, for Lord Rotherwood could not refrain from telling his daughter that consent was gained, and Fly darted headlong to embrace Mysie, dance round her and rejoice. The boys declared that Mysie at once sprang into the air like a chamois, and that her head touched the ceiling, but this is believed to be a figment of Jasper’s. It was only on the summons to her mother’s room that Mysie discovered that Gillian was not going with her. It dimmed the lustre of her delight for a little while, ‘Oh, Gill, aren’t you very sorry? You ought to have had the first turn.’ ‘Never mind, Mysie, you are Fly’s friend,’--and the two sisters’ looks at one another at that moment were a real pleasure to their mother. Mysie was of a less shy nature than Gillian, as well as at a less awkward age, so that the visiting without her mother was less formidable, and she rushed about wild with delight; but Dolores was very disconsolate. ‘Every one I care for goes away and changes,’ she said in her melancholy little sentiment. ‘But it’s only for a fortnight, Dolly, I don’t think I could change so fast.’ ‘Oh yes, you will, among all those swells. You like Fly ever so much better than me.’ Mysie looked grieved and puzzled, but then exclaimed, in the tone of a discovery, ‘There are different sorts of likings, Dolly, don’t you see. I do love Fly very much, but you know you are like a sort of almost twin sister to me. I like her best, but I care about you most!’ With which curious distinction Dolores had to put up. CHAPTER XIX. -- A SADDER AND A WISER AUTHORESS. Colonel Mohun took Wilfred to his school, which began its term earlier than did Jasper’s, and Silver-ton was wonderfully quiet. The elder Mrs. Merrifield was not to come for nearly a week, so that it would have been possible for her daughter-in-law to go to the Rotherwood festivities without interfering with her visit, but this no one except Gillian and Mysie knew, and they kept the secret well. The departure of the boys was a great relief to Dolores. Her aunt did not rank her with Valetta and Fergus, but let her consort with herself and Gillian, and this suited her much better. Even Gillian allowed that she was ever so much nicer when there was no one to tease her. It was true that Jasper certainly, and perhaps Wilfred, would not have molested her if she had not offended the latter, and offered herself as fair game; but Gillian, who had to forestall and prevent their pranks, could not feel their absence quite the privation her sisterly spirit usually did!