, to Alison, whom she always
treated as though in dread of not being sufficiently considerate. "I do
hope the children have been good; I knew you would not mind; I could not
wait to see you, or I should have been too late to meet the train, and
then he would have come by the coach; and it is such a raw east wind. He
must be careful in this climate."

"How warm and sunshiny it has been all day," said Rachel, by way of
opposition to some distant echo of this whisper.

"Sunshiny, but treacherous," answered Colonel Keith; "there are cold
gusts round corners. This must be a very sheltered nook of the coast."

"Quite a different zone from Avoncester," said the youth.

"Yes, delightful. I told you it was just what would suit you," added
Fanny, to the colonel.

"Some winds are very cold here," interposed Rachel. "I always pity
people who are imposed upon to think it a Mentone near home. They are
choking our churchyard."

"Very inconsiderate of them," muttered the young man.

"But what made you come home so late, Fanny?" said Rachel.

Alison suspected a slight look of wonder on the part of both the
officers at hearing their general's wife thus called to account; but
Fanny, taking it as a matter of course, answered, "We found that the-th
was at Avoncester. I had no idea of it, and they did not know I was
here; so I went to call upon Mrs. Hammond, and Colonel Keith went to
look for Alick, and we have brought him home to dine."

Fanny took it for granted that Rachel must know who Alick was, but she
was far from doing so, though she remembered that the --th had been her
uncle's regiment, and had been under Sir Stephen Temple's command in
India at the time of the mutiny. The thought of Fanny's lapsing into
military society was shocking to her. The boys were vociferating about
boats, ponies, and all that had been deferred till the Major's arrival,
and he was answering them kindly, but hushing the extra outcry less by
word than sign, and his own lowered voice and polished manner--a manner
that excessively chafed her as a sort of insult to the blunt, rapid ways
that she considered as sincere and unaffected, a silkiness that no doubt
had worked on the honest, simple general, as it was now working on
the weak young widow. Anything was better than leaving her to such
influence, and in pursuance of the intention that Rachel had already
announced at home, she invited herself to stay to dinner; and Fanny
eagerly thanked her, for mak