untenance, the steady,
clear, greenish-brown eyes, the kind, sensible mouth, the firm chin,
broad though rather short forehead, and healthy though not
highly-coloured cheek; and the voice--full, soft, and cheerful--well
agreed with the expression, and always brought gladness and promise of
sympathy.

'See, mamma, what we have found for you.'

'Violets! The very purple ones that used to grow on the orchard bank!'

'So they did. Mary knew exactly where to look for them,' said Mrs.
Frost, who had followed her up the steps.

'And there is Gervas,' continued Mary; 'so charmed to hear of you, that
we had almost brought him to see you.'

Mrs. Ponsonby declared herself so much invigorated by Ormersfield air,
that she would go to see her old friend the gardener. Mary hurried to
fetch her bonnet, and returned while a panegyric was going on upon her
abilities as maid-of-all-work, in her mother's difficulties with male
housemaids--black and brown--and washerwomen who rode on horseback in
white satin shoes. She looked as if it were hardly natural that any
one but herself should support her mother, when Mrs. Frost tenderly
drew Mrs. Ponsonby's arm into her own; and it was indeed strange to see
the younger lady so frail and broken, and the elder so strong,
vigorous, and active; as they moved along in the sunshine, pausing to
note each spring blossom that bordered the gravel, and entered the
walled kitchen-garden, where espaliers ran parallel with the walks,
dividing the vegetables from the narrow flower-beds, illuminated by
crocuses opening the depths of their golden hearts to the sunbeams and
the revelling bees. Old Gervas, in a patriarchal red waistcoat,
welcomed Mrs. Ponsonby with more warmth than flattery. Bless me,
ma'am, I'm right glad to see you; but how old you be!'

'I must come home to learn how to grow young, Gervas,' said she,
smiling; 'I hear Betty is as youthful as my aunt here.'

'Ay, ma'am, Betty do fight it out tolerablish,' was the reply to this
compliment.

'Why, Gervas, what's all that wilderness? Surely those used to be
strawberry beds.'

'Yes, ma'am, the earliest hautboys; don't ye mind? My young Lord came
and begged it of me, and, bless the lad, I can't refuse him nothing.'

'He seems to be no gardener!'

'He said he wanted to make a Botany Bay sort of garden,' said the old
man; 'and sure enough 'tis a garden of weeds he's made of it, and mine
into the bargain! He has a great big thistle