e a curtsey to Mr. Dempster, Fanny, and remember,
child, to be grateful to all who have been friendly to our benefactors.
Will it please you to take any refreshment before you ride, Colonel
Washington?"

Mr. Washington had had a sufficient ride already, and counted as
certainly upon the hospitality of Castlewood, as he would upon the
shelter of his own house.

"The time to feed my horse, and a glass of water for myself, and I will
trouble Castlewood hospitality no further," Mr. Washington said.

"Sure, George, you have your room here, and my mother is above-stairs
getting it ready!" cries Harry. "That poor horse of yours stumbled with
you, and can't go farther this evening."

"Hush! Your mother won't see him, child," whispered Mrs. Mountain.

"Not see George? Why, he is like a son of the house," cries Harry.

"She had best not see him. I don't meddle any more in family matters,
child: but when the Colonel's servant rode in, and said you were coming,
Madam Esmond left this room, my dear, where she was sitting reading
Drelincourt, and said she felt she could not see Mr. Washington. Will
you go to her?" Harry took his friend's arm, and excusing himself to the
Colonel, to whom he said he would return in a few minutes, he left the
parlour in which they had assembled, and went to the upper rooms, where
Madam Esmond was.

He was hastening across the corridor, and, with an averted head, passing
by one especial door, which he did not like to look at, for it was that
of his brother's room; but as he came to it, Madam Esmond issued from
it, and folded him to her heart, and led him in. A settee was by the
bed, and a book of psalms lay on the coverlet. All the rest of the room
was exactly as George had left it.

"My poor child! How thin thou art grown--how haggard you look! Never
mind. A mother's care will make thee well again. 'Twas nobly done to go
and brave sickness and danger in search of your brother. Had others been
as faithful, he might be here now. Never mind, my Harry; our hero will
come back to us,--I know he is not dead. One so good, and so brave,
and so gentle, and so clever as he was, I know is not lost to us
altogether." (Perhaps Harry thought within himself that his mother had
not always been accustomed so to speak of her eldest son.) "Dry up thy
tears, my dear! He will come back to us, I know he will come." And when
Harry pressed her to give a reason for her belief, she said she had seen
her father two night